This year, the Best Translated Book Award winner is Seiobo There Below, by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet!

I still haven’t read this one, savoring it for some reason after loving Satantango, last year’s Best Translated Book Award winner.

That’s right, Krasznahorkai won last year too!

Click here for the release on Three Percent, and I’d like to note excerpt quoted from the judges’ statement:

Out of a shortlist of ten contenders that did not lack for ambition, Seiobo There Below truly overwhelmed us with its range — this is a book that discusses in minute detail locations from all around the globe, including Japan, Spain, Italy, and Greece, as well as delving into the consciousnesses and practices of individuals from across 2,000 years of human history.

Click here for the jury’s full statement.

I think this year marks the first time that the jury has named runners-up. They are The African Shore, by Rodrigo Rey Rosa and translated from the Spanish by Jeffrey Gray (which I’ll be reviewing this week), and A True Novel, by Minae Mizumura and translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter (which I’ll be reviewing in the near future).

On a random side note, this is the third time in its short seven year history that a Hungarian novel has won. Sure, it helps that Krasznahorkai has won twice, but it’s also because Hungarian literature is incredibly rich and worth getting to know.

This years poetry winner is The Guest in the Wood, by Elisa Biagini, translated from the Italian by Diana Thow, Sarah Stickney, and Eugene Ostashevsky.

Click here for the fiction shortlist.

Click here for the fiction longlist.

Click here for past winners.

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