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Scotsman
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Booker Prize: The international-shortlisted literary translator who 'sneaks in' Scottish words
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... An International Booker Prize-shortlisted literary translator has told how she 'sneaks in' Scottish words to all of her books. Scottish translator Barbara J Haveland, who is nominated for the major award for her translation of On the Calculation of Volume I by Danish author Solvej Balle, said she liked to use words including 'outwith' and 'forenoon', as well as 'swither' at least once in each of her translations. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad On the Calculation of Volume, translated from Danish by a Scottish translator, is among six books shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. | Booker Prize The novel, the first of a seven-part series by Ms Balle, is one of six books in the running for the title. It made the cut from the longlist to the shortlist last month, scooping a prize of £2,500-£5,000 for the author and £2,500 for the translator. The overall winning International Booker Prize book will be revealed at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on Tuesday. Ms Haveland said: 'I have this thing - and I have had for all of these 33 years [that I've worked as a translator]. In every book I will try try my absolute best to get into sneaking in at least an 'outwith' or a 'forenoon'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's a little thing with me that I try to get in at least once, and all of these editors come along and say 'what is this word?' And I always argue the case for it. It's a little point of pride with me.' The book, which was originally self-published in Denmark by Ms Balle and became a word-of-mouth phenomenon, is part of a septology that sees the protagonist stuck in the same day. The first three volumes were snapped up in a six-way auction by Faber in the UK and the original Danish version won the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Ms Haveland said she had been about to retire when Ms Balle, whom she had worked with almost 30 years earlier, contacted her. She has now agreed to translate the second volume of the series, but insists she will pass on the mantel to another translator for Volume III onwards. 'I've been lucky over the 30 years I've been translating literary fiction to have some great books come across my desk,' she said. 'There are ones I've been very enthusiastic about, but this is something else. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Honestly, I thought 'oh, God, if there's one book I have to do as my last book, it just has to be this, because it's just amazing'.' Danish author Solvej Balle wrote On the Calculation of Volume. | Sarah Hartvigsen Juncker Ayrshire-born Ms Haveland, who is based in Copenhagen, translates fiction, poetry and drama from Danish and Norwegian to English. If the book were to win, she would scoop a £25,000 prize. Ms Balle would take home the same amount. Former bookseller Ms Haveland, who cites her greatest literary inspiration as her former high school English teacher, author William McIlvanney, has translated works by Danish and Norwegian writers, both classic and contemporary, including Henrik Ibsen, Peter Høeg, Linn Ullmann and Carl Frode Tiller. Ms Haveland and Ms Balle both believe there has been a surge of interest in translated fiction, partly due to an increase in popularity of subtitled film and TV on streaming platforms such as Netflix. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Balle said: 'I felt in the 1990s, there was a huge gap between at least a lot of European literature and the British American literature. But I just think we've got closer to each other literature wise more recently.' Barbara J Haveland is the Scotland-born translator of the book. | Faber
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
A Danish Groundhog Day or tales of millennial angst… What should win next week's International Booker?
What unites the books on the shortlist for this year's International Booker prize? Brevity, for one thing: five of the six are under 200 pages, and half barely pass 100. They are works of precision and idiosyncrasy that don't need space to make a big impression. Themes are both timely – AI, the migration crisis – and evergreen: middle-class ennui; the place of women in society. And for the second consecutive year, every book comes from an independent publisher, with four from tiny micropresses. Ahead of the winner announcement on 20 May, here's our verdict on the shortlist. Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume, Book I (Faber, £12.99; translated by Barbara J Haveland) is easiest to introduce through the film Groundhog Day: its heroine, Danish antiquarian book dealer Tara Selter, is stuck in time. 'It is the 18th of November,' she writes. 'I have got used to that thought.' Each time she wakes up, it's the same day again, same weather, same people passing the window. This book, the first of a projected seven volumes, mostly explores Tara's set-up. Despite the cool tone, there's a sense of excitement for the reader as Tara works out the possibilities in real time. Can she travel overnight? If she takes something out of a cupboard, will it return the next day? And are we all somehow like Tara, living the same day over and over? The high concept, and the sense of a major work under way, make it a strong contender. Even if future volumes don't live up to this one, for now the reader is happy to be trapped alongside Tara. An even more ambitious headspinner is Japanese novelist Hiromi Kawakami's Under the Eye of the Big Bird (Granta, £14.99; translated by Asa Yoneda). If Kawakami has a sweet mode (Strange Weather in Tokyo) and a weird mode (Record of a Night Too Brief), this one is in the latter category. It's a sort of do-it-yourself work: what seems to be a collection of stories turns out to be a novel, but the reader must piece it together. We're hundreds of years in the future; countries have disappeared and humans are grouped into self-contained communities. Some people are clones, others exist in a world with hardly any men, and there are unexplained categories of people: 'watchers', 'scanners', 'the mothers'. Characters recur across chapters and regions, but they're too thinly drawn to easily tell apart. But that's OK: this book is about its ideas, including how societies break down, how we doom ourselves with our failure to get along, and how AI threatens us. Given that human intelligence is so riven with conflict, the book suggests, we might be ripe for replacement by machines. ('Let's wrap this up,' says one character of humanity.) Its mysteries mean that by the end, when we finally know what's going on, the book demands rereading – a durability that makes it a plausible Booker winner. If Kawakami isn't much interested in character, the opposite is true of French novelist Anne Serre's A Leopard-Skin Hat (Lolli, £11.99; translated by Mark Hutchinson). Right from the start, Fanny is alarming young children and 'had a way of standing […] like a question'. Her full-colour character is matched by the book's askew narrative style, which jumps around a lot. Alongside Fanny is the Narrator, who is not the narrator of the book but her lifelong friend. 'It was in slapstick mode they got along best.' We learn early on that Fanny died at the age of 43 ('her small, fair head ascends into the skies'), which gives the rest of the book – an account of her lifelong mental turmoil – added poignancy. The story teems with charm, a tribute to the unconventional and a warning of 'the violence done to the tender-hearted' in our conformist society. Fanny's friend seems to speak for Serre – who wrote the book following the death of her younger sister – when he says: 'I love realistic novels, yet the moment I try to write one I yawn with boredom.' There's no time for boredom in this delightful, sad, idiosyncratic story, though its unusual – even eccentric – style might limit its chances of Booker success. The other shortlisted French writer has a more grounded approach. Vincent Delecroix's Small Boat (HopeRoad, £12.99; translated by Helen Stevenson) is inspired by a real-life tragedy in November 2021, when 27 people died on an inflatable dinghy trying to cross the English channel from France. Most of the book is from the viewpoint of a French emergency call handler who fielded pleas for help from migrants on the boat, and who falsely told them no rescue vessels were available. Under investigation by police, our narrator is sometimes unrepentant ('these people … their obsession with flinging themselves into the water'), sometimes filled with shame. Why, she asks, is she blamed, rather than the geopolitical 'gigantic storm that sweeps behind them'? Her somewhat repetitive monologue is broken by a vivid account from the migrants' viewpoint, out on the 'insipid, bulging, surly sea', and the story ends with fitting grimness. Small Boat is undoubtedly timely, which may be why it's the bookies' favourite; but as a novel it lacks the depth of other shortlisted titles, and seems a long shot for the prize. The flexibility of the International Booker prize – it's not just for novels – is exemplified in Banu Mushtaq's collection of stories, Heart Lamp (And Other Stories, £14.99; translated by Deepa Bhasthi). The selection here is drawn from Mushtaq's 35-year career. She writes in the Indian tradition of 'Bandaya Sahitya' – protest literature against the domination of male-led, upper-caste writing – and her subject is the lives of women. In one story, a new mother whose husband is unfaithful and rude – 'One day he had said, 'You are like my mother', and with those words had pushed her alive into hell' – is told to be grateful he doesn't beat her. 'Thank God you are in a good situation.' In another, a man becomes obsessed with making his wife wear his sister-in-law's high-heeled shoes; elsewhere, a woman struggling with school holidays – Mushtaq's concerns are universal as well as culture-specific – takes her boys to the barber to be circumcised. The tone varies from quiet to comic, but the vision is consistent, as exemplified by the final story, where a woman questions why God requires her to be a 'helpless prisoner of life' in subjugation to her husband. Its title? Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord! This wonderful collection would be a worthy winner, though history is against it: stories have never taken the prize before. The most talked-about book on the shortlist is Italian writer Vincent Latronico's Perfection (Fitzcarraldo, £12.99; translated by Sophie Hughes). You can see why, from its relatability – it's the story of a modern millennial couple, Anna and Tom – to its literary connections: the book is a 'tribute', in Latronico's words, to French writer Georges Perec's 1965 novel Things. In both books, young professional lives have the constructed texture of an advert or social media stream, and are simultaneously given meaning and constrained by the need for possessions and cultural signifiers. Where Perec's couple had Paul Klee prints and Borges paperbacks, Latronico's have Monocle magazine and Radiohead vinyl. Written as a detached overview ('They lived a double life.' 'They tried travelling'), Perfection exerts a hypnotic hold as Anna and Tom face anew the same problem as every generation before them: how to live? They tie themselves in knots, 'worried they were content merely being contented', and slowly find themselves no longer the focal generation of their era, as the world changes around them. 'The cultural centre where old Greeks used to play cards was now the flagship store of a Japanese trainer brand.' Perfection packs a huge amount into a small space: its irony, modernity and irresistible style would make it a popular winner. The winner of the International Booker prize will be announced on 20 May.
Euronews
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
'What it means to be a human': Short-but-punchy books dominate International Booker Prize shortlist
ADVERTISEMENT The International Booker Prize has announced the six books shortlisted for its annual celebration of the best new fiction works that have been translated into English. Five novels and one short story collection are now in contention for the £50,000 (€58,000) prize. All six finalists will receive £5,000 (€5,800). All prizes are to be split equally between authors and their translators. The International Booker Prize recognises translators alongside the original authors as equal recipients. As with the longlist announcement in February, all the shortlisted authors are first-time nominees with two of the translators having previous nominations. Of this year's 12 nominated authors and translators, nine are women. Related Euronews Culture Book Club: Four picks for April These are the 10 most Instagrammable bookstores in the world, according to a new study It's the first time in the Prize's history that books from a Danish, Italian or Japanese author has been shortlisted as Solvej Balle, Vincenzo Latronico , and Hiromi Kawakami are named for the top gong. Also marking a first is Banu Mushtaq, the Indian author whose book "Heart Lamp" is the first work written in the South Indian Kannada language to be nominated. This year's shortlist is unique in that it's made up entirely of books from independent publishers. They're also on the shorter side, with four books coming in at under 200 pages. Two of the books, "Perfection" and "Small Boat" are barely over 100 pages and the longest book "Under the Eye of the Big Bird" is a mere 278 pages long. Max Porter, chair of the 2025 judges, said the shortlist was made up of 'mind-expanding books' that are a 'vehicle for pressing and surprising conversations about humanity'. All six nominated shortlisted books Yuki Sugiura 'Reading 154 books in six months made us feel like high-speed Question Machines hurtling through space,' Porter continued. 'Our selected six awakened an appetite in us to question the world around us: How am I seeing or being seen? How are we translating each other, all the time? How are we trapped in our bodies, in our circumstances, in time, and what are our options for freedom? Who has a voice? In discussing these books we have been considering again and again what it means to be a human being now.' The announcement of the winner will take place on Tuesday 20 May at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Here are the six shortlisted books: "On the Calculation of Volume I" by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland The first book in a planned septology by Solvej Balle, one of Denmark's most acclaimed contemporary authors. Tara Selter is stuck in a time loop of the 18th November and as she reaches a year of being in this state, she starts to wonder if there is any way out of her relentless purgatory. The judges said: 'A life is contained inside the melancholy of an endlessly repeating wintry day. Reading this book is an act of meditation and contemplation.' "Small Boat" by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson French author Delecroix wrote "Small Boat" in three weeks based on recordings from a real event in which 27 people died when their boat sank in the Channel in 2021. He creates a damning fictional portrait of the woman who refused to take action when their calls for aid were received. The judges said: 'An unflinching use of literature to ask the most uncomfortable but urgent question of our time: to what extent are we all complicit?' ADVERTISEMENT "Under the Eye of the Big Bird" by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda Inspired by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in 2011, Kawakami created this speculative fiction about the future of humanity. Told over the course of eons, we see humanity on the edge of extinction setting into small tribes and interbreeding with aliens. The judges said: 'A beguiling, radical, mind- and heart-expanding journey into humanity's future. The visionary strangeness is utterly enchanting.' "Perfection" by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes One of the most damning indictments of the millennial dream yet. Latronico's taught sociological novel about a couple who are living their ideal life in Berlin underlines the vapidity and bland approach to aspiration and consumerism millennials have as they strive for the same appliances and aesthetics. The judges said: 'A pitch-perfect, profound and agonisingly well-observed account of the existential malaise of millennial life.' ADVERTISEMENT "Heart Lamp" by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi The only short story collection of the shortlisted books. "Heart Lamp" was published in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023 and brings Banu Mushtaq's career experiences as a journalist and lawyer to a broad variety of stories about community and family. The judges said: 'Stories about encroaching modernity, as told through the lives of Muslim women in southern India. An invigorating reading experience.' "A Leopard-Skin Hat" by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson Written following author Anne Serre's sister's suicide, "A Leopard-Skin Hat" is a memorial to her. Through just a few short scenes, Serre paints a beautiful portrait of strong-willed young woman and the demons she's faced. The judges said: 'A masterful lesson in how we remember the lives of those bound up with our own. It holds the fragility of life in its hands with the utmost care.' ADVERTISEMENT
The Guardian
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Mind-expanding books': International Booker prize shortlist announced
Hiromi Kawakami and Solvej Balle have made this year's International Booker prize shortlist, which for the first time is comprised entirely of books published by independent presses. British translator Sophie Hughes has been shortlisted for her translation of Perfection, originally written in Italian by Vincenzo Latronico. This marks the fifth time Hughes has been shortlisted for the prize, making her the award's record holder for the most times shortlisted and longlisted. On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland (Faber) Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson (Small Axes) Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda (Granta) Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes (Fitzcarraldo) Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi (And Other Stories) A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson (Lolli) Six author-translator teams are now in contention for the £50,000 prize, the winner of which will be announced on 20 May, with the prize money divided equally between author and translator. Japanese writer Kawakami, best known for her novel Strange Weather in Tokyo, has been shortlisted for her novel-in-stories Under the Eye of the Big Bird, translated by Asa Yoneda. Danish writer Balle and Scottish translator Barbara J Haveland have been chosen for On the Calculation of Volume I, the first of a planned septology in which the protagonist Tara is stuck in a time loop. 'These mind-expanding books ask what might be in store for us, or how we might mourn, worship or survive', said author and judging chair Max Porter. 'They offer knotty, sometimes pessimistic, sometimes radically hopeful answers to these questions. Taken together they build a miraculous lens through which to view human experience, both the truly disturbing and the achingly beautiful.' The shortlisted titles are slim, with four coming in at under 200 pages, including Latronico's Perfection. The novel, about a millennial expat couple living in Berlin, 'transcends its satire of 2010s hipsterdom through the depth of Latronico's sociological observations', writes Thomas McMullan in the Guardian. 'This chronicle of contemporary Berlin is strongest in its articulation of how a certain kind of globalisation dislocates us from our surroundings.' Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson, was also selected. The book was written in three weeks, and is based on recordings from a real event in November 2021, when a dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsized in the Channel, causing the death of 27 people on board. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion A book translated from Kannada – a language spoken by tens of millions of people, primarily in the state of Karnataka in southwest India – features on the shortlist for the first time in the prize's history this year: Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi. It contains 12 stories originally published between 1990 and 2023, which capture the daily lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Completing the shortlist is A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson. Serre wrote the book, about a woman with severe psychological disorders, in six months after the suicide of her sister. 'I wanted to create a memorial to her', said Serre. The other titles longlisted for this year's prize were The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated by Sinan Antoon; There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert; Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter; Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary; Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton; Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated by Daniel Bowles; and On a Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated by Lucy Scott. Alongside Porter on this year's judging panel are the poet Caleb Femi, writer and Guardian critic Sana Goyal, author and translator Anton Hur, and musician Beth Orton. Authors who have previously won the award include Han Kang, Olga Tokarczuk and Lucas Rijneveld. Last year, Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann won the prize for Kairos. To explore all of the books on the shortlist for the International Booker prize 2025 visit Delivery charges may apply.
