International Booker Prize 2026 thread.At 10.05pm BST of today they'll announce the winning book.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxCXqnpOsRYHave you read any? What are your thoughts on them? Which one do you think will win?
>>25288284Booker Prize is woke shit. Did not read.
I bet the biggest, blackest, barely literate feminist wins.
Personally, I've only read The Witch.Judging by how hard it filtered the normalfags, I don't think it will win.I did enjoy it quite enough. It felt like reading one of those occultism books, Ndiaye kept trying to depict motherhood in a very metaphorical way, but at the same time (I guess this is why not a lot of people seemed to appreciate the book) she didn't use a poetic register.The last 2/3rd of the book also was kinda unnecessary, she was trying to go for a more abstract, figurative depiction of motherhood, but it kept steering constantly toward a critique of capitalism. Really not up to what was the first part.I haven't checked if the translation is accurate, so I can't say anything about it.The prose was way too formal imho, considering the plot and the characters, but I don't know if it's how the author intended it, or it's because of the translator.
>>25288304Its rating on goodreads.
>>25288298From what I've heard, She Who Remains is very hostile to its female characters, same with The Witch, which I can attest.The cultural shift toward a more (self-) criticizing position of women has already begun almost half a year ago.My bet is on either the Bazyar novel (a nudge to the Iranians) or The Director, since its the longest book on the list, by a man, so it should really be good.
>>25288298the iranian diasporoid novel is gonna win, she's gonna remember the 80 gorillion iranians killed by the radical mullahs in january and urge merz, the rest of the eu and the us to finish the job and free iran
>>25288306Anything starting with 2 on goodreads has to be the rotten asshole of a roadkill skunk. Their entire catalog goes from 3-4.5 points.
>>25288335>He trusts the judgement of Goodreads usersHow progressive of you, anon.
There’s been an occasional appreciation for Kehlmann on /lit/ (e.g. Tyll).
Hardly anything worth reading
>>25288335The average good reads user gives 5 stars to female coded romance slop, to the point where a lower rating on good reads probably means it’s actually better writing
>>25288306>couldn’t care about the charactersThis is what every negative review by foids consists of. They’re incapable of introspection and abstraction. They just want glorified gossip regarding the likability of the characters. I might have to read it now since the last 10 reviews I read all complained about not liking the housewife
This needs to be just British/Commonwealth again. If Americans won't let us into their prizes why are they in the running for ours?
>>25288469>>25288469>They just want glorified gossip regarding the likability of the characters.She wanted something less elusive, not more likable.>They’re incapable of introspection and abstraction.Who do you think wrote the book, anon? (Spoiler because that's one ugly woman).>I might have to read it now since the last 10 reviews I read all complained about not liking the housewifeYeah, the protagonist is the worst character of them all. Basically a punching bag devoid of personality.>>25288487Aren't you thinking of the Booker Prize? This one is the International one, it's only translations.>>25288322Those fuckers should have kept Parsipur's novel from the longlist instead of the expat. I guess they don't wanna have issues with the demand that'll come from it winning the prize, if the situation in Iran gets even worse.
>>25288525Are you ESL? The “elusiveness” is regarding the “opaque, fable-like story with dreamlike sequences, meditating on family dynamics and motherhood and feminism and privilege” not the characters. Hence because she didn’t like the characters, which you would have read if you could read, she couldn’t be fucked to use an iota of abstraction to engage with the “dreamlike” [trite reddit word], “opaque” [embarrassing word choice], “fable-like” [is she retarded?] story.
>>25288536>The “elusiveness” is regarding the “opaque, fable-like story with dreamlike sequences, meditating on family dynamics and motherhood and feminism and privilege” not the characters.Yes, this elusiveness made her disinterested in the characters (and the themes), not the unlikability of the characters. >because she didn’t like the charactersYou pulled this shit out of your ass, anon. She gave you the reason why she doesn't care about the characters, and it's the aforementioned elusiveness, not the fact that she doesn't like them.>she couldn’t be fucked to use an iota of abstraction to engage with the “dreamlike” [trite redditCome on, stop projecting. Learn to think without brainrot categorizations.She did give a sufficient analysis of the premise of the book, with the due level of abstraction.>NDiaye works with the opposition of the normal, the average, with the supernatural.
>>25288335The actual way to judge books using goodreads is by amount ratings. Sub 30k ratings and 3.8-4 stars = Good.
>>25288597>sufficient analysis of the premise of the bookHer analysis is quite literally the blurb on penguin’s website. The only originality in her post is whinging about the un-likability of the mom, even the daughters are more interesting than the mom.
>>25288304>>25288306Publishing an Editions Minuit author in English is doomed to fail from the start. It's the mainstream avant-garde publishing house in France.
>>25288318>The cultural shift toward a more (self-) criticizing position of women has already begun almost half a year ago.Bruh, you realize a lot of translations are made contemporaneously...The Witch was written in 1996...you're acting like a cultural shift is happening in literature in the 2020s by citing a book published in 1996...
>>25288637*aren't made
>>25288608>Her analysis is quite literally the blurb on penguin’s website.No, that's another thing you pulled out of your ass. The blurb doesn't talk about the dicothomy of natural and supernatural.>The only originality in her post is whinging about the un-likability of the momShe never said she disliked her. If anything, the opposite. she seems to find her central to an interesting premise.>even the daughters are more interesting than the momAgain, that's your opinion, not hers.
>>25288525>Spoiler becauseShe’s kinda hot, in a dopey way.
>>25288632>It's the mainstream avant-garde publishing house in France.Thanks for the trivia. I like that blend of upmarket fiction and highbrow stuff, but it's always tough to find publishers who focus on it.>>25288637I'm just saying that you wouldn't have seen a book like that translated 5-10 years ago, anon.Nowadays the book market is way more interested in woman hating fiction, since it's way darker. Not yet on the levels of what was happening around 2005, but it does remind me of the late 1990s.
One hour to start.https://www.youtube.com/live/MxCXqnpOsRY
update?
The winner is:Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-ziAt least they ass blasted the fan favourite, She Who Remains. Alas, those fuckers couldn't stop making yet another lit prize a whining fest for a political dissident.
"when russia invaded ukraine".Can't wait for "jews are mauling palestinian kids" and "the orange man is bombing I ran".This fucking cunt can't force herself talking about taiwan, besides "it's difficult".
(Probably) last bump.https://youtube.com/shorts/gVQT9QTFqW8At least they made Ishiguro answer the age old question.
Yawn
