The shortlist has been announced for a fiction award that aims to recognize both novelists and translators.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is open to contemporary literary works that have been translated into English from any other language and published in the UK within the past year.
The winning writer and translator will each receive £5,000 (about $7,600 US) and a magnum of champagne from Champagne Taittinger, which sponsors the prize.
French, German and Bengali are among the languages on the shortlist in 2010. Berlin, Calcutta and the Congo are a few of the stories' settings.
Contenders include Chowringhee, by Sankar, translated by Arunava Sinha and published by Atlantic Books, and Fists, by Pietro Grossi, translated by Howard Curtis and published by Pushkin Press.
Literary Editor of the Independent newspaper Boyd Tomkin praised the shortlisted books for "their authors' imagination – and the commanding skill of their translators."
Antonia Byatt of the Arts Council of England added that it was "fantastic to see so many languages and countries represented – France, Italy, Germany, Syria, India and the Congo – proving that great writing is thriving across the world."
The competition first ran from 1990 to 1995, and ended because of lack of funding. In 2001, however, it returned with the help of the Arts Council of England.
Spanish author Evelio Rosero's The Army won last year's contest, in a translation by Anne MacLean.
The 2010 winner will be announced at a ceremony at London's Royal Institute of British Architects on Thursday May 13th.
18 April 2010
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