After Geetanjali Shree in 2022, Tamil writer Perumal Murugan’s Pyre makes it to the International Booker longlist

Talking about the nomination to the prize, Murugan said, “This is the first time a Tamil novel has made it to the long list. It is very important for the language. It is significant not because it is my novel but because the selection is an acknowledgement of the literature in Tamil, in India,”

Speaking about the importance of the selection of a Tamil novel, the author adds, “English and Hindi are spoken as Indian languages whereas the others are classified as regional tongues. That is wrong. That sort of perception will change when books from our languages — southern languages as well as non-Hindi languages from the North — make it to international award lists.”

We are delighted to announce the #InternationalBooker2023 longlist. Congratulations to all the authors and translators.

Find out more about each of the books here: https://t.co/U4KH7EkhZj pic.twitter.com/OTgnrZKYk9

— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) March 14, 2023

The nomination follows close on the heels of Indian author Geetanjali Shree’s win at the 2022 International Booker Prize for her 2018 Hindi-language novel Tomb of Samadhi (Ret Samadhi), which was translated into English by US translator Daisy Rockwell. Shree was the first Indian to win the prize.

Talking about Murugan’s book, the judges of the prize said, “An inter-caste couple elopes, setting in motion a story of terrifying foreboding. Perumal Murugan is a great anatomist of power and, in particular, of the deep, deforming rot of caste hatred and violence. With flashes of fable, his novel tells a story specific and universal: how flammable are fear and the distrust of others.”

Other books on the longlist include Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov’s Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv; Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julie Sanches from Catalan into English; Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim; Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel; Norwegian writer Vigdis Hjorth’s Is Mother Dead, translated by Charlotte Barslund and Maryse Condé’s The Gospel According to the New World, translated into English by her husband Richard Philcox. At 86, Condé is the oldest writer to be long-listed. She and Philcox are also the first author-translator couple to be long listed for the award.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on April 18 and the winner on May 23.

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