Olga Tokarczuk’s unique novel interweaves reflections on travel with an exploration of human anatomy - examining life and death, motion and migration. Translated by Jennifer Croft.
Translated by Jennifer Croft
The Man Booker International Prize 2018
Olga Tokarczuk and translator Jennifer Croft
Fully 11 years after it was published in Poland, Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights, a tale of time, space and the psychology of travelling, translated by Jennifer Crofts, won the prize.
Tokarczuk, a feminist atheist with progressive politics, has been attacked by culturally conservative elements in Poland as being unpatriotic – a charge forcefully rebutted. Her early training as a clinical psychologist informs her fiction, adding to the challenge faced by her American translator Jennifer Croft – an author in her own right. It was, said Croft, Tokarczuk’s ‘ability to distil the essence of a person’ that first made her want to translate her work. Endorsing the Man Booker International Prize judges’ opinion, Tokarczuk was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- By
- Olga Tokarczuk
- Translated by
- Jennifer Croft
- Published by
- Fitzcarraldo Editions
Olga Tokarczuk’s unique novel interweaves reflections on travel with an exploration of human anatomy - examining life and death, motion and migration. Translated by Jennifer Croft.
The shortlist
In this dark satire, Ahmed Saadawi creates a monster that needs human flesh to survive - first from the guilty, then from anyone in its path. Translated by Jonathan Wright.
Translated by Jonathan Wright
A stylish blend of fiction, memoir and biography that intertwines assassin James Earl Ray’s last days on the run with author Muñoz Molina’s own past. Translated by Camilo A. Ramirez.
Translated by Camilo A. Ramirez
Hang Kan investigates the fragility, beauty and strangeness of life in a contemplation of memory, loss and the lives that leave this world before us. Translated by Deborah Smith.
By Han Kang
Translated by Deborah Smith
László Krasznahorkai’s collection of 21 stories, each about ‘speeding our body toward annihilation, and immersing ourselves in a current of thought’. Translated by Ottilie Muzlet, George Szirtes and John Batki.
Translated by Ottilie Mulzet George Szirtes John Batki
An audacious and compelling social satire from Virginie Despentes, which casts a penetrating light on the dark underbelly of modern urban life.
Translated by Frank Wynne
