Writers from 4 continents up for $86K International Booker Prize for fiction

Chinese writer Can Xue and Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o, both long-favoured contenders for the Nobel Prize for literature, are among the nominees for the International Booker Prize for fiction.

The International Booker Prize, worth 50,000 ($86,633.25Cdn), is awarded annually to a book that is translated into English and published in the U.K.,or Ireland.It is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction.

Can Xue's I Live in the Slumsand Ngugi's The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbiare among 13 books on the longlistthis year.

The list announced Tuesday(March 30, 2021)features works from four continents, including The War of the Poorby France's Eric Vuillard, In Memory of Memoryby Russian writer Maria Stepanova, The Dangers of Smoking in Bedby Argentina's Mariana Enriquez and Minor Detail by Palestinian author Adania Shibli.

125 books were submitted for consideration this year.

British writer and historianLucy Hughes-Hallett, who heads the judging panel, said a theme of many of the books was "migration the pain of it, but also the fruitful interconnectedness of the modern world."

"Authors cross borders, and so do books, refusing to stay put in rigidly separated categories. We've read books that were like biographies, like myths, like essays, like meditations, like works of history each one transformed into a work of fiction by the creative energy of the author's imagination."

The rest of the jury is comprised of Ethiopian Canadian writer and journalist Aida Edemariam, British professor and historianOlivette Otele, Indian British writer Neel Mukherjeeand Hungarian British poet and translator George Szirtes.

The six finalists are set to be revealed on April 22and the winner on June 2.

The complete longlist is:

• I Live in the SlumsbyCan Xue, translated from Chinese byKaren Gernant andChen Zeping
• At Night All Blood is BlackbyDavid Diop, translated from French byAnna Mocschovakis
• The Pear FieldbyNana Ekvtimishvili, translated from Georgian byElizabeth Heighway
• The Dangers of Smoking in BedbyMariana Enrquez, translated from Spanish byMegan McDowell
• When We Cease to Understand the WorldbyBenjamn Labatut,translated from Spanish byAdrian Nathan West
• The Perfect Nine: The Epic Gikuyu and MumbibyNgg wa Thiong'o, translated from Gikuyu by the author
• The EmployeesbyOlga Ravn, translated from Danish byMartin Aitken
• Summer BrotherbyJaap Robben, translated from Dutch byDavid Doherty
• An Inventory of LossesbyJudith Schalansky, translated from German byJackie Smith
• Minor DetailbyAdania Shibli, translated from Arabic byElisabeth Jaquette
• In Memory of MemorybyMaria Stepanova, translated from Russian bySasha Dugdale
• WretchednessbyAndrzej Tich, translated from Swedish byNichola Smalley
• The War of the Poorbyric Vuillard, translated from French byMarkPolizzotti

With files from CBC Books.