This image from the homepage of the Booker Prize shows the cover of Cheon Myeong-kwan’s novel “Whale,” which is longlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize.
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean novelist Cheon Myeong-kwan’s “Whale” has been shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize, the British literary awards said Tuesday.
First published in South Korea in 2004, Cheon’s English-language debut, “Whale,” was among the six nominees announced by the Booker Prize Foundation on its website.
Its translator, Kim Chi-young, who translated over a dozen Korean novels by renowned writers, including Kim Ae-ran, Jeong You-jeong and Kim Young-ha, was also on the list.
It is the fourth time a South Korean author has advanced to the final stage of the prize.
Han Kang’s “The Vegetarian” and “The White Book” were shortlisted for the prize in 2016 and 2018, respectively, and Han was the winner in 2016. Last year, Chung Bora’s “Cursed Bunny” made it to the shortlist.
“Whale” is a multi-generational saga composed of three parts that follow the lives of linked characters in a remote village in South Korea.
“An adventure-satire of epic proportions, which sheds new light on the changes Korea experienced in its rapid transition from pre-modern to post-modern society,” judges wrote earlier.
“A fiction that brims with surprises and wicked humour, from one of the most original voices in South Korea.”
The final winner will receive the award at a ceremony in London on May 23. The top prize of 50,000 pounds (US$65,000) will be shared equally by the author and the translator.
The Booker Prize is considered one of the three largest literary awards in the world. The International Booker Prize was established in 2005 to honor distinguished international works of fiction translated into English.
In an earlier interview with Yonhap News Agency, Cheon, who worked as a screenwriter in the 1990s and 2000s, described “Whale” as an essential work of his life as it opened the door for him to live as a full-time novelist.
It was one of the best-selling books in the domestic fiction category in 2014 and received the Munhakdongne New Writer Award, a major literary award in South Korea.
(Yonhap)
