Here is the International Booker Prize longlist 2023! Lot of exciting and surprising titles to choose from - 13 books of fiction translated from 11 different languages. A new video is up on my YouTube channel discussing these books and the list as a whole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keaPFG8xFXY

I love how this award helps me to travel around the world through fiction to experience so many different points of view and cultures I might never encounter in real life. Last year's winner “Tomb of Sand” was such a wild, epic journey. I've read several books translated into English in the past year that I was expecting to see listed but I didn't guess any correctly. Looking at other people's predictions I've only seen a few of the books that have been nominated here. Unusually, I've not yet read any of these newly longlisted titles so I'm enthusiastic about taking the plunge and following this year's award closely.

There are stories about the dilemma of being a parent, communities that come together and fall apart, forbidden love, working class undocumented immigrants, a possible new messiah, the personal price of artistic integrity, a clinic for the past, triplets that lead very different lives, a survivor of the Cultural Revolution, the challenges of growing up in a newly unified country and a character who communicates with elephants. They vary from the thrilling to the fantastic to multigenerational sagas. Some of these tales give an epic wider view of a society undergoing change and others concentrate on the life of a single unique individual.

It's really interesting how books nominated for this award tend to be more daring with narrative form. Many are published by smaller, independent publishers who tend to take a chance on fiction others aren't willing to take on. However, this means they discover some overlooked gems and I enjoy how the International Booker highlights so many great titles I'd probably not have encountered otherwise. Now it's time to start reading and I feel spoiled for choice. I'll probably begin with “Boulder” or “The Gospel According to the New World”. I've been meaning to read Maryse Condé for ages.