Many have joked about a certain blue-covered publisher making frequent appearances on the International Booker longlist, which inspired me to take a deeper look at publisher’s track records. Countrary to popular belief, there are actually 3 publishers likely to make an appearance on each year’s longlist.
Fitzcarraldo Editions
Their blue covers appear on the longlist on all years, except in 2016. You can basically count on there being 1 book from them, or more likely 2.
Eligible books for this year’s longlist are:
- Mild vertigo by Mieko Kanai, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton.
- The annual banquet of the gravedigger’s guild by Mathias Enard, translated from French by Frank Wynne. Mathias Enard was longlisted in 2017. The translator is more frequent on the International Booker scene with 3 past longlistings.
- A shining by Jon Fosse, translated from Norwegian by Damion Searls. At 56 or 48 pages depending on edition it might be too short to meet the criteria of “long-form fiction”. But, I did my homework and A cup of rage by Raduan Nassar with its 64 pages was longlisted in 2016. Jon Fosse has been longlisted twice, both times with Damion Searls as translator, and won the Nobel prize in 2023.
- The singularity by Balsam Karam, translated from Swedish by Saskia Vogel.
- The book of all lovers by Agustín Fernández Mallo, translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead.
From this list I would be happy to see Mild Vertigo, and The singularity, on the longlist. I would say The annual banquet of the gravedigger’s guild and The book of all lovers have that fuzzy type of synopsis that International Booker loves, but that makes my focus wander.
Hachette
Through its imprints MacLehose Press and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Hachette is another publisher with a solid record that has an average of over 1 book per longlist. It started out strong with 2 books on the longlist the first couple of years but then fell into a slump, missing the longlist or getting 1 book in there. Hachette is however back in force after last year’s 3 books (Time shelter, Standing heavy, and Jimi Hendrix live in Lviv). Out of the two imprints MacLehose Press is the most frequent, with Weidenfeld & Nicolson making its first appearance last year.
Rudely I’m excluding all genre fiction which means crime fiction (Oliver Bottini, Åsa Larsson, and Karin Smirnoff), and fantasy (Jin Yong). Although these are some of my favourite genres so I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong. Eligible books:
- Hunter in Huskvarna by Sara Stridsberg, translated from Swedish by Deborah Bragan-Turner. Both author and translator have been longlisted together in the past for The faculty of dreams.
- Nothing belongs to you by Natacha Appanah, translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman.
- The movieteller by Hernan Rivera Letelier, translated from Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. The fact that it isn’t on the list of eligible books on Goodreads makes me wonder if I’m missing something. Maybe it is considered too “commercial”? The translator has one previous longlisting.
- Vengeance is mine by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump. This would be the second longlisting for the pair, they were previously longlisted for Ladivine.
- Canoes by Maylis de Kerangal, translated from French by Jessica Moore. The duo has been longlisted once before for Mend the living in 2016.
- The silver bone by Andrey Kurkov, translated from Russian by Boris Dralyuk. Kurkov was longlisted last year for Jimi Hendrix live in Lviv.
- Your absence is darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton. The duo were longlisted in 2017 for Fish have no feet.
- Before the queen falls asleep by Huzama Habayeb, translated from Arabic by Kay Heikkinen.
- And the stones cry out by Clara Dupont-Monod, translated from French by Ben Faccini
- The physics of sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel. Last year’s winning author and translator with Time shelter.
Out of this very long list I would want to see Before the queen falls asleep, Vengeance is mine, and The stones cry out make it.
Penguin
The first couple of years this was the prize’s Fitzcarraldo, having a record of 5 longlisted books in 2017. Their track record includes 5 imprints.
Penguin definitely wins the prize this year for having websites so annoying I couldn’t find a single eligible book.
Disclaimer
This is based on my skills when using an online Excelish sheet and the limited information available about some imprints. If you use this post to make your predictions and they are off, causing you to lose standing in the bookish community, I can not be held responsible.
Emilie's Bookish Thoughts 