Two Icelandic authors—Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and Jón Kalman Stefánsson—have been nominated for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, awarded by British literacy foundation Booktrust, reports The Independent. Auður Ava was nominated for Butterflies in November (translated by Brian FitzGibbon), described by The Independent as a “quirkily comic road-movie of a tale,” while Jón Kalman’s “snow-blasted highland odyssey,” The Sorrow of Angels (translated by Philip Roughton) earned him the nod.
These two authors are among 15 international notables on the prize’s longlist, including Hassan Blasim for The Iraqi Christ, Karl Ove Knausgård for A Man in Love, and Javier Marías for The Infatuations. According to Booktrust’s press release, the panel received “a record number of entries and languages – 126 titles from 30 source languages.”
The short list of six titles will be announced at the London Book Fair on April 8. The winning author and translator will be announced (and awarded their £10,000 prize) at a special ceremony in London on May 22.
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