A novel following an Iranian family’s journey from the 1979 revolution to life in exile, a tale set in a harsh penal colony, and the story of a woman in the Albanian mountains who lives as a man are among the six titles shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, the prominent award for fiction translated into English.
Announcing the shortlist on Tuesday, Natasha Brown, an author and the chair of this year’s judging panel, said that the selected books contained “hope, insight and burning humanity”. She added, “While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising”.
Perhaps the most timely, given the current war in Iran, is “The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran”, by Shida Bazyar and translated from the original German by Ruth Martin. Bazyar’s novel traces a family’s life from communist activism during the revolution to the anguish of watching the Tehran, Iran, street protests of recent decades from abroad.
Although few American or British newspapers have reviewed the novel, Rhoda Kwan, in The Saturday Paper, an Australian publication, called it a “testament to how hope and the revolutionary spirt endure in the face of crushing tyranny”.
Of the other titles, the highest-profile is “The Director”, written by Daniel Kehlmann and translated from German by Ross Benjamin. One of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2025, the novel is about real-life filmmaker GW Pabst, whose career included a spell in Hollywood as well as making movies in Nazi-controlled Austria.
Several of the other titles have also received critical acclaim, including “On Earth As It Is Beneath”, by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan, about a penal colony where the ruthless warden hunts and kills prisoners; and “Taiwan Travelogue”, by Yang Shuang-zi and translated from Mandarin by Lin King, about a Japanese novelist touring 1930s Taiwan with a translator.
One of this spring’s most anticipated novels — “The Witch”, by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump — also made the shortlist. The novel, originally published in France about 30 years ago and scheduled for an April 7 release in the United States, centres on a mediocre sorceress who tries to teach her daughters the art of witchcraft.
Emily Eakin, reviewing the novel in the Times, said that NDiaye’s book was “taut, spellbinding and strange”, noting that it “unfolds with the disturbed logic of a fever dream”.
NDiaye, one of France’s major novelists, was previously shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2013, at a time when the award was bestowed for an author’s entire body of work. Since 2016, the prize has gone to a single book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland during the previous 12 months.
The prize comes with about $66,000 that the author and translator share equally.
This year’s winner will be revealed at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on May 19, with the title joining a list of past winners including David Grossman’s “A Horse Walks into a Bar”, Olga Tokarczuk’s “Flights” and Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian”.
The six nominees:
— “The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran”, by Shida Bazyar; translated from German by Ruth Martin
— “She Who Remains”, by Rene Karabash; translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel
— “The Director” by Daniel Kehlmann; translated from German by Ross Benjamin
— “On Earth As It Is Beneath”, by Ana Paula Maia; translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan
— “The Witch”, by Marie NDiaye; translated from French by Jordan Stump
— “Taiwan Travelogue”, by Yang Shuang-zi; translated from Mandarin by Lin King. — The New York Times
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
