International Booker Prize 2020 shortlist announced; includes titles like The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree, Tylle among others

The shortlist of six authors and their translators for this year's International Booker Prize has been announced by The Booker Prize Foundation.

Both author and translator are recognised equally, and the prize of £50,000 is split between them. Each shortlisted author and translator also receives £1,000, bringing the prize total to £62,000.

Covers for The Memory Police; The Discomfort of Evening

Chaired by writer and critic Ted Hodgkinson, the five-member jury also includes Villa Gillet director Lucie Campos, 2018 Man Booker International Prize winner Jennifer Croft, author Valeria Luiselli, and writer and poet Jeet Thayil.

"Each of our shortlisted books restlessly reinvents received narratives, from foundational myths to family folklore, plunging us into discomforting and elating encounters with selves in a state of transition," says Hodgkinson.

"Whether capturing a deftly imagined dystopia or incandescent flows of language, these are tremendous feats of translation, which in these isolating times represent the pinnacle of an art-form rooted in dialogue," he adds.

The longlist consisted of 13 books, chosen from an original 124 entries.

Shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2020:

1. The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated anonymously — Europa Editions

2. The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh — Charco Press

3. Tylle by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin — Quercus

4. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes — Fitzcarraldo Editions

5. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder — Harvill Secker

6. The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, translated by Michele Hutchinson — Faber & Faber

Given the unique circumstances of social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation earlier announced that the prizes would continue to be announced digitally, adding: "With any luck, as we find new ways to communicate during this shared crisis, we’ll forge connections that will endure past its peak, and introduce more characters – real and imagined – to populate our altered lives."

The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for a novel or short-story collection translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, and aims at encouraging the reading of quality fiction from all over the world and promoting the work of translators.

The 2019 prize was won by Jokha Alharthi's Celestial Bodies, translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth. This year's winner will be announced on 19 May.