The Booker prize is one of the most prestigious in the English language, both for novels in English and for translations, and Boulder, by Eva Baltasar, is from today one of the six novels. the finalists, as announced in an event at the London Book Fair.
It was already a surprise when a month ago he was part of the so-called longlist, with twelve selected, and now he is taking another step. The winner will be announced at an event at the Sky Garden in London on May 23.
The International Booker awards novels translated into English in the previous year, with an endowment of 50,000 pounds which is divided equally between author and translator. The finalists (shortlist, they call it) also receive 5,000 pounds.
Last August, the publishing house And Other Stories published Boulder in translation by Julia Sanches, and now a year ago a party was held during the London Book Fair to celebrate the presence of the author. It has also been published in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Danish, Greek, Dutch, Slovenian and Galician. In Catalan, it has sold more than 20,000 copies since it was published in Club Editor, in March 2020, a few days before the covid lockdown began. It was published in Spanish by Random House with a translation by Nicole d’Amonville AlegrÃa. The book won the Ã’mnium award for Best Novel of 2020, and the French translation was a finalist for the 2022 Les Inrockuptibles award.
The other finalists are Whale, by Cheon Myeong-kwan (translated by Chi-Young Kim); The Gospel according to the New World, by Maryse Condé (trans. Richard Philcox, in Spanish El evangelio del Nuevo Mundo, published by Impedimenta); Standing heavy, by GauZ’ (trans. Frank Wynne, in Spanish, Cobrar por estar de pie, a Baile del Sol); Time shelter, by Georgi Gospodinov (trans. Angela Rodel), and Still born, by Guadalupe Nettel (trans. Rosalind Harvey, in Spanish, La hija única, in Anagrama).