The Stolen Bicycle (單車失竊記), a novel written by Taiwanese author Wu Ming-yi (吳明益) and translated into English by Darryl Sterk, has been selected to contend for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize.
The novel is about a writer who embarks on a quest in search of his missing father’s stolen bicycle.
It was included on a list of 13 novels revealed on Monday by the UK-based Booker Prize Foundation, the organizer of the prize, which rewards the finest work in translated fiction from around the world that is published in the UK and available in English.
Photo from Grayhawk Agency’s Facebook page
This is the first time a work by a Taiwanese writer has been included on the list.
“I’m honored to be listed among them, and the nationality [was listed] as ‘Taiwan,’” Wu said in a Facebook post, expressing his appreciation to the book’s translator, publisher and readers.
The judges considered 108 books this year, the foundation said.
Also included on the list are The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet (France), The Impostor by Javier Cercas (Spain), Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes (France), Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany), The White Book by Han Kang (South Korea), and Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz (Argentina).
The other six are The World Goes On by Laszlo Krasznahorkai (Hungary), Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Munoz Molina (Spain), The Flying Mountain by Christoph Ransmayr (Austria), Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (Iraq), Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) and The Dinner Guest by Gabriela Ybarra (Spain).
A shortlist of six books is to be announced on April 12 and the winner of the prize is to be announced on May 22, the foundation said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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