ビンゴー・キッドの洋書日記

英米を中心に現代から古典まで、海外の作品を英語で読み、論評をくわえるブログです

2019年ブッカー国際賞発表

 日本時間5月22日13時。7時間前、今年のブッカー国際賞の受賞作が発表され、オマーンの女流作家、Jokha Alharthi の "Celestial Bodies"(未読)が栄冠に輝いたとのこと。オマーンの作家はもちろん、アラビア語で書かれた作品が受賞したのも史上初めてらしい。(追記:後日読んだときのレビューはつぎのとおり)。

  同書は、あちらの下馬評によれば泡沫候補扱いで、驚きの声を上げている現地ファンが多いようだ。ぼくも下馬評どおり、Juan Gabriel Vásquez の "The Shape of the Ruins"(☆☆☆☆)の受賞を信じていただけにガックリ。やっぱり「予想はよそう」ということでしょうね。 

 ともあれ、以下、ブッカー賞財団のHPに載っている記事を転載しておきます。

Celestial Bodies, written by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth from Arabic and published by Sandstone Press, is today, Tuesday 21 May, announced as the winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2019. The £50,000 prize, which celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world, has been divided equally between its author and translator. Each shortlisted author and translator also received a further £1,000 for being shortlisted. The winner was announced by Bettany Hughes at a ceremony at the Roundhouse in London.

Jokha Alharthi, the first female Omani novelist to be translated into English, is the first author from the Arabian Gulf to win the prize. The author of two other novels, two collections of short fiction and a children’s book, her work has been published in English, German, Italian, Korean, and Serbian.  An award-winning author, she has been shortlisted for the Sahikh Zayed Award for Young Writers and won the 2010 Best Omani Novel Award for Celestial Bodies.

Marilyn Booth is an American academic and translator who has translated many works of fiction from Arabic. A fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford, she holds the Khalid bin Abdallah Al Saud Chair for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at the Oriental Institute.

Celestial Bodies tells of family connections and history in the coming-of-age account of three Omani sisters. It is set against the backdrop of an evolving Oman, which is slowly redefining itself after the colonial era, at the crossroads of its complex present.  

The Guardian commented that its ‘glimpses into a culture relatively little known in the west are fascinating’ and The National said ‘it mark[s] the arrival of a major literary talent… a densely woven, deeply imagined tour de force.’

Celestial Bodies was selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by Bettany Hughes, award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, and made up of writer, translator and chair of English PEN Maureen Freely; philosopher Professor Angie Hobbs; novelist and satirist Elnathan John and essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra.