Including 6 Finalists for the International Section
Final Announcement on May 21 in London
Hwang Sok-yong's novel Three Generations of Railroad Workers has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize International, the UK's most prestigious literary award.
Hwang Sok-yong's novel On the 9th (local time), the Booker Prize committee announced the six finalists, including the English version of Three Generations of Railroad Workers, titled Mater 2-10.
Accordingly, Hwang Sok-yong (81) was named a finalist for the Booker Prize International along with translators Sora Kim Russell (Kim Sora) and Youngjae Josephine Bae (Bae Youngjae), who translated Three Generations of Railroad Workers into English.
This novel depicts the lives of workers from the Japanese colonial period to the present through an extensive narrative centered on a family of railroad workers.
The other five finalists are: ▲ Selva Almada (Argentina) with Not a River, ▲ Jente Posthuma (Netherlands) with What I'd Rather Not Think About, ▲ Ia Genberg (Sweden) with The Details, ▲ Itamar Vieira Junior (Brazil) with Crooked Plow, and ▲ Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany) with Kairos.
Three Generations of Railroad Workers is the only Asian work among this year’s Booker Prize International finalists. Previously, Hwang Sok-yong was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize International with the English translation of his novel At Dusk.
The Booker Prize International, established in 2005, honors both authors and translators equally for works translated into English from non-English languages.
In 2016, novelist Han Kang became the first Korean author to win this award with her novel The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith. Recently, novelists Jeong Bora and Cheon Myeong-kwan were finalists in 2022 and last year, respectively, with The Curse Rabbit and Whale.
The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony held in London on May 21.
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