The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for the finest single work of fiction from around the world which has been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland

The prize celebrates the vital work of translators, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the author and the translator. In addition, the shortlisted authors and translators each receive £2,500.

The International Booker Prize 2024 shortlist was announced on 9 April 2024. The six shortlisted books were chosen by this year’s judging panel, chaired by esteemed writer and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel. She is joined by award-winning poet Natalie Diaz; Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Romesh Gunesekera;  ground-breaking visual artist William Kentridge; and writer, editor and translator Aaron Robertson.

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann, won the International Booker Prize 2024 on May 21 at a ceremony in London. Read more about it here

The 2024 shortlist

Green book cover of Not a River by Selva Almada showing an abstract line drawing.

Translated by Annie McDermott

Yellow book cover of Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck with a black and white photo of a woman.
Prize winner

Translated by Michael Hofmann

Book cover of The Details by Ia Genberg with torn black and white photos of peoples faces.

Translated by Kira Josefsson

Test your knowledge of translated fiction

This is not just about me, the individual. I represent a language and culture and this recognition brings into larger purview the entire world of Hindi literature in particular and Indian literature as a whole.

The history of the International Booker Prize

The Booker Prizes exist to reward the finest in fiction. The symmetrical relationship between the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize ensures that the Booker honours fiction on a global basis: world-class fiction is highlighted by the prizes for English-speaking readers, whether that work was originally written in English (the Booker Prize) or translated into English (the International Booker Prize).

The International Booker Prize began life in 2005 as the Man Booker International Prize. It was initially a biennial prize for a body of work, and there was no stipulation that the work should be written in a language other than English. Early winners of the Man Booker International Prize therefore include Alice Munro, Lydia Davis and Philip Roth, as well as Ismail Kadare and Laszlo Krasznahorkai. 

In 2015, after the rules of the original Booker Prize expanded to allow writers of any nationality to enter - as long as their books were written in English and published in the UK - the International Prize evolved to become the mirror image of the English-language prize. Since then it has been awarded annually for a single book, written in another language and translated into English.

The Man Group continued to sponsor both prizes until 2019, when Crankstart became the funder, and the prize names reverted to the familiar ‘Booker’ name alone.

This prize aims to encourage more reading of quality fiction from all over the world, and has already had an impact on those statistics in the UK. Novels and collections of short stories are both eligible.

 Ismail Kadare