“In the book, a ‘clinic for the past’ offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s patients: each floor reproduces a decade in detail, transporting patients back in time. But soon the past begins to intrude into the present,” reads the synopsis.
The president of the jury, Leila Slimani, said in a text published on the prize’s website: “Our winner is a brilliant novel, full of irony and melancholy. It is a profound work that addresses a very contemporary question: what happens to us when our memories fade? Georgi Gospodinov is very successful in dealing with individual and collective destinies and the is this complex balance between the intimate and the universal that has convinced and moved us”.
The jury also consisted of translator Uilleam Blacker, writer Tan Twan Eng, critic Parul Sehgal and journalist Frederick Studemann.
Next to Gospodinov’s book were the novels nominated for this year’s edition boulderby the Catalan Eva Baltsar, translated by Julia Sanches, whalefrom South Korean Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim, Standing heavyby the Ivorian Armand Gbaka-Brédé (signed as GauZ’), translated by Frank Wynne, The Gospel According to the New Worldby the French Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox, and Still bornby the Mexican Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey.
None of the works mentioned have been published in Portugal, although some authors have published books in Portuguese territory, such as Condé (Me, Tituba, Witch… Negra de Salemby Maldoror, in 2022, and Wait for the water to riseby Quetzal, this month), Guadalupe Nettel (The body I was born inby Teodolito, in 2013) and Eva Baltasar (permafrostby Kalandraka, in 2021).
The Booker International Prize annually awards the best foreign fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The monetary value of the prize is £50,000 (57,600 euros), divided equally between author and translator.
Source: DN
