Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

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The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper

Entries (fiction or short stories) were published in English translation in the UK in the year preceding the award by a living author. The prize acknowledged both the winning novelist and translator, each being awarded £5,000 and a

Champagne Taittinger

.

Winners, shortlists and longlists

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2012)

Blue Ribbon () = winner

1990

• Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle (Turkish, Victoria Holbrook)

1991

• Milan Kundera, Immortality (Czech, Peter Kussi)

1992

Shortlist^[2]

• Patricia Clancy
  )
• Slavenka Drakulic
  , Holograms Of Fear (Croat, Ellen Elias-Barsaic)
• Pawel Huelle
  , Who Was David Weiser? (Polish, Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
• Yashar Kemal, To Crush The Serpent (Turkish, Thilda Kemal)
• Ivan Klima, Judge On Trial (Czech, A G Brain)
• Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess (Italian, Dick Kitto and Elspeth Spottiswood)
• Carlo Mazzantini, In Search Of A Glorious Death (Italian, Simonetta Wenkert)
• Erik Orsenna, Love And Empire (French, Jeremy Leggatt)
• Giorgio Pressburger, The Law Of White Spaces (Italian, Piers Spence)
• Jean Rouaud, Fields Of Glory (French, Ralph Manheim)
• Leonardio Sciascia, The Knight And Death (Italian, Joseph Farrell and Marie Evans)
• Antonio Tabucchi, Vanishing Point (Italian, Tim Parks)

1993

Shortlist^[3]

• José Saramago, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (Portuguese, Giovanni Pontiero)
• Juan Goytisolo, Makbara (Spanish, Helen Lane)
• Gunter Grass, The Call Of The Toad (German, Ralph Manheim)
• Ismail Kadare, The Palace of Dreams (Albanian, Barbara Bray—from author's French translation)
• Ivan Klima, My Golden Trades (Czech, Paul Wilson)
• A B Yehoshua, Mr Mani (Hebrew, Hillel Halkin)

1994

Shortlist ^[4][5][6][7]

• Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War (Vietnamese, Frank Palmos and Phanh Thanh Hao
  )
• Shusaku Endo, Deep River (Japanese, Van C Gessel)
• Margriet de Moor, First Grey, Then White, Then Blue (Dutch, Paul Vincent)
• Isabel Allende, The Infinite Plan (Spanish, Margaret Sayers Peden)
• Amos Oz, Fima, (Hebrew, Nicholas de Lange)
• Italo Calvino, The Road To San Giovanni (Italian, Tim Parks)

1995

• Gert Hofmann, The Film Explainer (German, Michael Hofmann)

1996 to 2000

Prize in abeyance.

2001

Shortlist

• Emma Rose
  )
• Marc Dugain, The Officers' Ward (French, Howard Curtis)
• Michel Houellebecq, Atomised (also published as "The Elementary Particles") (French, Frank Wynne)
• Antonio Tabucchi, The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro (Italian, Patrick Creagh)
• May Telmissany, Dunyazard (French, Roger Allen)
• Carol Brown Janeaway
  )

2002

Shortlist

• W.G. Sebald (posthumously), Austerlitz (German, Anthea Bell
  )
• Agnès Desarthe, Five Photos of My Wife (French, Adriana Hunter)
• Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (French, Ina Rilke)
• Andrey Kurkov, Death and the Penguin (Russian, George Bird)
• Hanan al-Shaykh, Only in London (Arabic, Catherine Cobham)
• H.M. van den Brink, On the Water (Dutch, Paul Vincent
  )

2003

Shortlist

• Per Olov Enquist, The Visit of the Royal Physician (Swedish, Tiina Nunnally)
• Frédéric Beigbeder, £9.99 (French, Adriana Hunter)
• Peter Stephan Jungk, The Snowflake Constant (German, Michael Hofmann)
• Mario Vargas Llosa, The Feast of the Goat (Spanish, Edith Grossman)
• José Saramago, The Cave (Portuguese, Margaret Jull Costa)
• José Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders (Spanish, Sonia Soto)

Also longlisted^[8]

• Umberto Eco, Baudolino (Italian, William Weaver)
• Jens Christian Grøndahl, Lucca (Danish, Anne Born)
• Norbert Gstrein, The English Years (German, Anthea Bell)
• Milton Hatoum, The Brothers (Portuguese, John Gledson)
• Michel Houellebecq, Platform (French, Frank Wynne)
• Milan Kundera, Ignorance (French, Linda Asher)
• Amin Maalouf, Balthasar's Odyssey (French, Barbara Bray)
• Patricia Melo, Inferno (Portuguese, Clifford E Landers)
• Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Nautical Chart (Spanish, Margaret Sayers Peden)
• Atiq Rahimi, Earth And Ashes (Dari/Afghanistan, Erdağ Göknar)

2004

Shortlist^[9]

• Soldiers of Salamis (Spanish, Anne McLean
  )
• Juan Marsé, Lizard Tails (Spanish, Nick Caistor)
• Elke Schmitter, Mrs Sartoris (German, Carol Brown Janeway)
• Ricardo Piglia, Money to Burn (Spanish, Amanda Hopkinson)
• Luther Blissett, Q (Italian, Shaun Whiteside
  )
• Mahi Binebine, Welcome to Paradise (French, Lulu Norman)

Also longlisted^[10]

• Lars Saabye Christensen, The Half Brother (translated by Kenneth Stevens)
• Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali (translated by Patricia Claxton)
• Turki Al-Hamad, Adama (translated by Robin Bray)
• Javier Marias, Dark Back Of Time (translated by Esther Allen)
• Sten Nadolny, The Discovery Of Slowness (translated by Ralph Freedman)
• Per Petterson, In The Wake (translated by Anne Born)
• Shan Sa, The Girl Who Played Go (translated by Adriana Hunter)
• Fred Vargas, Have Mercy On Us All (translated by David Bellos)
• Ye Zhaoyan, Nanjing 1937 (translated by Michael Berry)
• Akira Yoshimura, One Man's Justice (translated by Mark Ealey)

2005

Shortlist

• Frédéric Beigbeder, Windows on the World (French, trans. by Frank Wynne)
• Chico Buarque, Budapest, (Portuguese, trans. by Alison Entrekin)
• Irina Denezhkina, Give Me (Songs for Lovers), (Russian, trans. by Andrew Bromfield)
• Xiaolu Guo, Village of Stone, (Chinese, trans. by Cindy Carter)
• Orhan Pamuk, Snow, (Turkish, trans. by Maureen Freely)
• Elif Şafak, The Flea Palace, (Turkish, trans. by Muge Gocek
  )

Also longlisted[11]

• David Albahari, Götz and Meyer (Serbian, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac)
• Merete Morken Andersen, Oceans of Time (Norwegian, Barbara J Haveland)
• Mia Couto, The Last Flight of the Flamingo (Portuguese, David Brookshaw)
• Edgardo Cozarinsky, The Bride from Odessa (Spanish, Nick Caistor)
• Victor Erofeyev, Life with an Idiot (Russian, Andrew Reynolds)
• Turki al-Hamad, Shumaisi (Arabic, Paul Starkey)
• Torgny Lindgren, Hash (Swedish, Tom Geddes)
• Enrico Remmert, The Ballad of the Low Lifes (Italian, Aubrey Botsford)
• José Saramago, The Double (Portuguese, Margaret Jull Costa)
• Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  , The Shadow of the Wind (Spanish, Lucia Graves)

2006

The 2006 prize was announced in May. The jury for the 2006 Prize was composed of: Boyd Tonkin (Literary Editor, The Independent), the writers Paul Bailey, Margaret Busby and Maureen Freely, and Kate Griffin (Arts Council England).

Shortlist^[12][13]

• Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Norwegian; Anne Born; Harvill Secker)
• Pawel Huelle
  , Mercedes-Benz (Polish; Antonia Lloyd-Jones; Serpent's Tail)
• Tahar Ben Jelloun, This Blinding Absence of Light (French; Linda Coverdale; Penguin)
• Imre Kertész, Fatelessness (Hungarian; Tim Wilkinson; Harvill Secker)
• Magda Szabó, The Door (Hungarian; Len Rix; Harvill Secker)
• Dubravka Ugrešić, The Ministry of Pain (Croatian; Michael Henry Heim; Saqi)

Also longlisted

• Tonino Benacquista, Someone Else (translated from the French by Adriana Hunter; Bitter Lemon)
• Stefan Chwin, Death in Danzig (Polish; Philip Boehm; Secker & Warburg)
• Philippe Claudel, Grey Souls (French; Adriana Hunter; Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Marie Darrieussecq, White (French; Ian Monk; Faber)
• Karen Duve, This is Not a Love Song (German; Anthea Bell; Bloomsbury)
• David Grossman, Lovers and Strangers (Hebrew; Jessica Cohen; Bloomsbury)
• Judith Hermann, Nothing but Ghosts (German; Margot Bettauer Dembo; Fourth Estate)
• Ellen Mattson, Snow (Swedish; Sarah Death; Jonathan Cape)
• Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (Japanese; Philip Gabriel; Vintage)
• Mr Muo's Travelling Couch (French; Ina Rilke
  ; Chatto & Windus)

2007

Shortlist[14]

• José Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons, (Portuguese, trans. Daniel Hahn)
• Per Olov Enquist, The Story of Blanche and Marie, (Swedish, trans. Tiina Nunnally)
• Vangelis Hatziyannidis, Four Walls (Greek, trans. Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife)
• Javier Marías, Your Face Tomorrow, 2: Dance and Dream (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
• Eva Menasse, Vienna (German, trans. Anthea Bell)
• Dag Solstad, Shyness and Dignity (Norwegian, trans. Sverre Lyngstad)

Also longlisted^[15]

• Kader Abdolah, My Father's Notebook (translated by Susan Massotty from Dutch; Canongate)
• Niccolò Ammaniti, Steal You Away (Jonathan Hunt; Italian; Canongate)
• Javier Cercas, The Speed of Light (Anne McLean; Spanish; Bloomsbury)
• Edgardo Cozarinsky, The Moldavian Pimp (Nick Caistor; Spanish; Harvill Secker)
• Jenny Erpenbeck, The Old Child (Susan Bernofsky; German; Portobello)
• Faïza Guène, Just Like Tomorrow (Sarah Adams; French; Chatto & Windus)
• The Successor (David Bellos
  ; French; Canongate)
• Ma Jian, Stick out your Tongue (Flora Drew; Chinese; Chatto & Windus)
• Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow (the author; Gikuyu; Harvill Secker)
• Leonardo Padura, Havana Black (Peter Bush
  ; Spanish; Bitter Lemon)
• Atiq Rahimi, A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear (Sarah Maguire & Yama Yari; Dari; Chatto & Windus)
• José Saramago, Seeing (Margaret Jull Costa; Portuguese; Harvill Secker)
• Elif Shafak, The Gaze (Brendan Freely; Turkish; Marion Boyars)
• Linn Ullmann, Grace (Barbara Haveland; Norwegian; Picador)

2008

Shortlist

• Paul Verhaeghen, Omega Minor (translated by the author from the Dutch)
• Pawel Huelle
  , Castorp (translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones from the Polish)
• Daniel Kehlmann, Measuring the World (translated by Carol Brown Janeway from the German)
• Bengt Ohlsson, Gregorius (translated by Silvester Mazzarella from the Swedish)
• Lars Saabye Christensen, The Model (translated by Don Barlett from the Norwegian)
• Marlene van Niekerk, The Way of the Women (translated by Michiel Heyns from the Afrikaans)

Also longlisted^[16]

• Humphrey Davies
  from the Arabic)
• Jenny Erpenbeck, The Book of Words (translated by Susan Bernofsky from the German)
• Bi Feiyu, The Moon Opera (translated by Howard Goldblatt from the Chinese)
• Ismail Kadare, Agamemnon's Daughter (translated by David Bellos from the French)
• Sayed Kashua, Let It Be Morning (translated by Miraim Shlesinger from the Hebrew)
• Erwin Mortier, Shutterspeed (translated by Ina Rilke from the Dutch)
• Alan Pauls, The Past (translated by Nick Caistor from the Spanish)
• Peter Pišťanek, Rivers of Babylon (translated by Peter Petro from the Slovak)
• Laura Restrepo, Delirium (translated by Natasha Wimmer from the Spanish)
• Yasmina Traboulsi, Bahia Blues (translated by Polly McLean from the French)
• Jonathan Dunne
  from the Spanish)

2009

Shortlist

• Evelio Rosero, The Armies (translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish)
• Celine Curiol, Voice Over (translated by Sam Richard
  from the French)
• Ma Jian, Beijing Coma (translated by Flora Drew from the Chinese)
• The Siege (translated by David Bellos
  from the Albanian via French)
• Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Informers (translated by Anne McLean
  from the Spanish)
• AB Yehoshua, Friendly Fire (translated by Stuart Schoffman
  from the Hebrew)

Also longlisted

• Sjón, The Blue Fox (translated by Victoria Cribb from the Icelandic)
• Jose Eduardo Agualusa, My Father's Wives (translated by Daniel Hahn
  from the Portuguese)
• Dag Solstad, Novel 11, Book 18 (translated by Sverre Lyngstad from the Norwegian)
• Yōko Ogawa, The Diving Pool (translated by Stephen Snyder from the Japanese)
• Eshkol Nevo, Homesick (translated by Sondra Silverston from the Hebrew)
• Linn Ullmann, A Blessed Child (translated by Sarah Death from the Norwegian)
• Thomas Glavinic, Night Work (translated by John Brownjohn from the German)
• Gyorgy Dragoman, The White King (translated by Paul Olchvary
  from the Hungarian)
• Alexander Ahndoril, The Director (translated by Sarah Death from the Swedish)
• Saša Stanišić, How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone (translated by Anthea Bell from the German)

2010

Shortlist

• Philippe Claudel, Brodeck's Report (translated by John Cullen; French) MacLehose Press
• Julia Franck, The Blindness of the Heart (translated by Anthea Bell; German) Harvill Secker
• Pietro Grossi, Fists (translated by Howard Curtis; Italian) Pushkin Press
• Alain Mabanckou, Broken Glass (translated by Helen Stevenson; French) Serpent's Tail
• Sankar, Chowringhee
  (translated by Arunava Sinha; Bengali) Atlantic
• Rafik Schami, The Dark Side of Love (translated by Anthea Bell; German) Arabia Books

Also longlisted^[17]

• Boris Akunin, The Coronation (translated by Andrew Bromfield from the Russian) Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Ketil Bjørnstad, To Music (translated by Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik; Norwegian) Maia Press
• Hassan Blasim, The Madman of Freedom Square (translated by Jonathan Wright; Arabic) Comma Press
• Humphrey Davies
  ; Arabic) MacLehose Press
• Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones (translated by Charlotte Mandell; French) Chatto & Windus
• Javier Marías, Your Face Tomorrow, Volume 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (translated by Margaret Jull Costa; Spanish) Chatto & Windus
• Yōko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor (translated by Stephen Snyder; Japanese) Harvill Secker
• Claudia Piñeiro, Thursday Night Widows (translated by Miranda France; Spanish) Bitter Lemon Press
• Humphrey Davies
  ; Arabic) Sceptre

2011

Shortlist^[18]

• Santiago Roncagliolo, Red April translated by Edith Grossman (Atlantic Books), Spanish
• Marcelo Figueras, Kamchatka translated by Frank Wynne (Atlantic Books), Spanish
• Alberto Berrera Tyszka, The Sickness translated by Margaret Jull Costa
  (Maclehose Press), Spanish
• Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation translated by Susan Bernofsky (Portobello Books), German
• Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence translated by Maureen Freely (Faber), Turkish
• Per Petterson, I Curse the River of Time translated by Charlotte Barslund with Per Petterson (Harvill Secker), Norwegian

Also longlisted

• Veronique Olmi, Beside the Sea; translated by Adriana Hunter
  (Peirene Press), French
• David Grossman, To the End of the Land; translated by Jessica Cohen (Jonathan Cape), Hebrew
• Daniel Kehlmann, Fame translated by Carol Brown Janeway (Quercus), German
• Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Secret History of Costaguana translated by Anne McLean
  (Bloomsbury), Spanish
• Michal Witkowski
  , Lovetown translated by W Martin (Portobello Books), Polish
• Jachym Topol
  , Gargling with Tar translated by David Short (Portobello Books), Czech
• Juli Zeh, Dark Matter translated by Christine Lo (Harvill Secker), German
• Shuichi Yoshida, Villain translated by Philip Gabriel (Harvill Secker), Japanese
• Per Wästberg, The Journey of Anders Sparrman translated by Tom Geddes (Granta), Swedish

2012

Shortlist^[19]

• Aharon Appelfeld, Blooms of Darkness translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green (Alma Books)
• Alice translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo
  (The Clerkenwell Press)
• Yan Lianke, Dream of Ding Village translated from the Chinese by Cindy Carter (Corsair)
• Sjón, From the Mouth of the Whale translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Telegram Books)
• Diego Marani, New Finnish Grammar translated from the Italian by Judith Landry (Dedalus)
• Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon (Harvill Secker)

Also longlisted^[20]

• Haruki Murakami, 1Q84: Books 1 and 2, translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin (Harvill Secker)
• Steve Sem-Sandberg, The Emperor of Lies translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death (Faber)
• Tristan Garcia, Hate: A Romance translated from the French by Marion Duvert and Lorin Stein (Faber)
• Matthias Politycki, Next World Novella translated from the German by Anthea Bell (Peirene Press)
• Péter Nádas, Parallel Stories translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein (Jonathan Cape)
• Please Look After Mother translated from the Korean by Shin Chi-Young Kim
  (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Dag Solstad, Professor Andersen's Night translated from the Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland (Harvill Secker)
• Amos Oz, Scenes From Village Life translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas De Lange (Chatto & Windus)
• Bernardo Atxaga, Seven Houses in France translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Harvill Secker)

2013

Shortlist^[21]

• Gerbrand Bakker, The Detour (translated by David Colmer from the Dutch), Harvill Secker^[22]
• Chris Barnard, Bundu (Michiel Heyns; Afrikaans), Alma Books
• Daša Drndić, Trieste (Ellen Elias-Bursać; Croatian), MacLehose Press
• Ismail Kadare, The Fall of the Stone City (John Hodgson; Albanian), Canongate
• Andrés Neuman, Traveller of the Century (Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garcia; Spanish), Pushkin Press
• Enrique Vila-Matas, Dublinesque (Rosalind Harvey & Anne McLean; Spanish), Harvill Secker

Also longlisted^[23]

• Laurent Binet, HHhH (Sam Taylor; French), Harvill Secker
• Pawel Huelle
  , Cold Sea Stories (Antonia Lloyd-Jones; Polish), Comma Press
• Pia Juul, The Murder of Halland (Martin Aitken; Danish), Peirene Press
• Khaled Khalifa, In Praise of Hatred (Leri Price; Arabic), Doubleday
• Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family (book 1 of My Struggle
  ) (Don Bartlett; Norwegian), Harvill Secker
• László Krasznahorkai, Satantango (George Szirtes; Hungarian), Tuskar Rock
• Alain Mabanckou, Black Bazaar (Sarah Ardizzone; French), Serpent's Tail
• The Last of the Vostyachs
  (Judith Landry; Italian), Dedalus
• Orhan Pamuk, Silent House (Robert Finn; Turkish), Faber
• Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The Sound of Things Falling (Anne McLean; Spanish), Bloomsbury

2014

Shortlist^[24]

• Hassan Blasim, The Iraqi Christ (Arabic; trans. Jonathan Wright)^[25]
• Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Man in Love (book 2 of My Struggle
  ) (Norwegian; trans. Don Bartlett)
• Hiromi Kawakami, Strange Weather in Tokyo (Japanese; trans. Allison Markin Powell)
• Hubert Mingarelli, A Meal in Winter (French; trans. Sam Taylor)
• Yōko Ogawa, Revenge (Japanese; trans. Stephen Snyder)
• Birgit Vanderbeke, The Mussel Feast (German; trans. Jamie Bulloch) - special mention by the jury.^[25]

Also longlisted^[26]

• Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Washer (Arabic; translated by the author)
• Julia Franck, Back to Back (German; trans. Anthea Bell)
• Sayed Kashua, Exposure (Hebrew; trans. Mitch Ginsberg)
• Andrej Longo, Ten (Italian; trans. Howard Curtis)
• Ma Jian, The Dark Road (Chinese; trans. Flora Drew)
• Andreï Makine, Brief Loves that Live Forever (French; trans. Geoffrey Strachan)
• Javier Marías, The Infatuations (Spanish; trans. Margaret Jull Costa)
• Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Butterflies in November (Icelandic; trans. Brian FitzGibbon)
• Jón Kalman Stefánsson, The Sorrow of Angels (Icelandic; trans. Philip Roughton)

2015

Shortlist^[27]

• Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days (German; trans. Susan Bernofsky)^[28]
• Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, By Night the Mountain Burns (Spanish; trans. Jethro Soutar)
• Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Japanese; trans. Philip Gabriel)
• Daniel Kehlmann, F (German; trans. Carol Brown Janeway)
• Tomás González, In the Beginning Was the Sea (Spanish; trans. Frank Wynne)
• Erwin Mortier, While the Gods Were Sleeping (Dutch; trans. Paul Vincent)

Also longlisted^[29]

• Tomas Bannerhed, The Ravens (Swedish; trans. Sarah Death)
• Marcello Fois, Bloodlines (Italian; trans. Silvester Mazzarella)
• Hamid Ismailov, The Dead Lake (Russian; trans. Andrew Bromfield)
• Karl Ove Knausgaard, Boyhood Island (book 3 of My Struggle) (Norwegian; trans. Don Bartlett (translator)
  )
• Chi-Young Kim
  )
• Judith Schalansky, The Giraffe's Neck (German; trans. Shaun Whiteside)
• Stefanie de Velasco, Tiger Milk (German; trans. Tim Mohr)
• Timur Vermes, Look Who's Back (German; trans. Jamie Bulloch)
• Can Xue, The Last Lover (Chinese; trans. Annelise Finegan Wasmoen)

References