A novel about a director making movies under Nazi rule. A tale of a war veteran with amnesia who is unsure whether his wife is who she says she is. And a book about a unexceptional witch.
These titles are among the 13 books nominated for this year’s International Booker Prize, the prestigious award for fiction translated into English.
Natasha Brown, a British author who is chairing this year’s judging panel, said in a news release on Tuesday that many of the 128 books considered for this year’s prize had examined the consequences of war. Although that topic is the focus of some of the 13 titles that made the cut, Brown said they also featured “petty squabbles between neighbors, mysterious mountain villages, Big Pharma conspiracies, witchy women, ill-fated lovers, a haunted prison and obscure film references.”
The selected books were originally written in 11 languages, including Bulgarian, Danish, Mandarin and Swedish. Some are new titles, although one nominee, Shahrnush Parsipur’s “Women Without Men,” was originally published in Persian in 1989, and Penguin is publishing an English translation this year.
Perhaps the highest-profile nominee is Daniel Kehlmann’s “The Director,” translated from the original German by Ross Benjamin, about the largely forgotten 20th-century Austrian filmmaker G.W. Pabst, who finds himself compromising his artistic principles while stuck in his Nazi-controlled homeland.
“The Director” was one of The New York Times’s 10 best books of 2025, and J. Hoberman, reviewing it for The Times, called the novel “a marvelous performance — not only supple, horrifying and mordantly droll, but fluidly translated and absolutely convincing.”
The nominees also include two past winners of the National Book Award for translated literature: “We Are Green and Trembling,” by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers and inspired by the life of a female 17th-century explorer who lived as a man; and “Taiwan Travelogue,” by Yang Shuang-zi, translated from Mandarin by Lin King, about a Japanese author traveling in 1930s occupied Taiwan.
Also nominated is Olga Ravn’s “The Wax Child,” translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, about an ancient witch trial, a novel that British critics have raved about; and Marie NDiaye’s highly anticipated “The Witch,” translated from French by Jordan Stump, about a witch trapped in a bad marriage.
Established in 2005, the International Booker Prize was originally awarded to an author for an entire body of work. But since 2016 it has gone to a single book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland during the previous 12 months. The award comes with 50,000 pounds, about $67,500, which the author and translator share equally.
Last year’s prize went to Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp,” translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi — the first story collection to win the honor. Other past winners have included Jenny Erpenbeck’s “Kairos,” Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” and Lucas Rijneveld’s “The Discomfort of Evening.”
This year’s judging panel will now cut the nominees down to a six book shortlist, which is scheduled to be announced on March 31. The judges then reread all of the shortlisted titles before deciding on a winner, which ill be announced at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on May 19.
The 13 nominees:
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“The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran,” by Shida Bazyar; translated from German by Ruth Martin
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“We Are Green and Trembling,” by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara; translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
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“The Remembered Soldier,” by Anjet Daanje; translated from Dutch by David McKay
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“The Deserters,” by Mathias Énard; translated from French by Charlotte Mandell
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“Small Comfort,” by Ia Genberg; translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson
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“She Who Remains,” by Rene Karabash; translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel
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“The Director” by Daniel Kehlmann; translated from German by Ross Benjamin
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“On Earth As It Is Beneath,” by Ana Paula Maia; translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan
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“The Duke,” by Matteo Melchiorre; translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri
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“The Witch,” by Marie NDiaye; translated from French by Jordan Stump
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“Women Without Men,” by Shahrnush Parsipur; translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh
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“The Wax Child,” by Olga Ravn; translated from Danish by Martin Aitken
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“Taiwan Travelogue,” by Yang Shuang-zi; translated from Mandarin by Lin King
Alex Marshall is a Times reporter covering European culture. He is based in London.
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