Canadian translator Darryl Sterk makes Man Booker International Prize longlist
The Stolen Bicycle by Taiwanese author Wu Ming-Yi and translated by Canadian Darryl Sterk is one of 13 books longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.
The £50,000 ($89,765.00 Cdn) prize, which is divided equally between the author and translator, honours the best work of fiction translated into English from around the world.
The Stolen Bicycle follows a writer's winding journey to find his father's stolen bicycle, which involves discovering stories of the world's oldest elephant, soldiers of the Second World War and butterfly handicraft makers in Taiwan.
Sterk, born in Edmonton, previously translated Ming-Yi's novel The Man With the Compound Eyes.
The judges considered 108 books in all. The other books on the longlist are:
- The 7th Function of Language by France's Laurent Binet, translated by Sam Taylor
- The Imposter by Spain's Javier Cercas, translated by Frank Wynne
- Vernon Subutex 1 by French author Virginie Despentes, translated by Frank Wynne
- Go, Went, Gone by Germany's Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky
- The White Book by South Korea's Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
- Die, My Love by Argentina's Ariana Harwicz, translated by Sarah Moses & Carolina Orloff
- The World Goes On by Hungary's László Krasznahorkai, translated by John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet & George Szirtes
- Like a Fading Shadow by Spain's Antonio Muñoz Molina, translated by Camilo A. Ramirez
- The Flying Mountain by Austria's Christoph Ransmayr, translated by Simon Pare
- Frankenstein in Baghdad by Iraq's Ahmed Saadawi, translated by Jonathan Wright
- Flights by Poland's Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft
- The Dinner Guest by Spain's Gabriela Ybarra, translated by Natasha Wimmer
The shortlist of six will be announced on April 12, followed by the winner on May 22.
This year's jury panel includes authors Lisa Appignanesi, Michael Hofmann, Hari Kunzru and Helen Oyeyemi.
"Judging this Man Booker International Prize has been an exhilarating adventure," said the jury in a press release.
"We have travelled across countries, cultures, imaginations, somehow to arrive at what could have been an even longer longlist. It's one which introduces a wealth of talent, a variety of forms and some writers little known in English before. It has great writing and translating energy and we hope readers take as much pleasure in discovering the work as we did."