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

Flights
Prize winner

Translated by Jennifer Croft

The White Book

Translated by Deborah Smith

The longlist

The 2018 judges