The cover of Hwang Sok-yong’s “Mater 2-10″ is shown in this image captured from the website of the International Booker Prize. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Apr. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong’s “Mater 2-10″ has been shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize, the British literary awards said Tuesday.
Hwang’s novel, translated into English by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae, was announced as one of the six nominees by the Booker Prize Foundation on its website.
The Booker Prize described “Mater 2-10″ as “an epic, multi-generational tale that threads together a century of national history, written by one of South Korea’s most important authors.”
The novel “vividly depicts the lives of ordinary working Koreans, starting from the Japanese colonial era, continuing through Liberation, and right up to the twenty-first century,” it said.
The book was serialized on Channel Yes from 2019 to 2020 and was later published as a standalone book by Changbi in 2020.
“A large and comprehensive book about a Korea we rarely see in the West, blending the sweeping historical narrative of a nation with an individual’s quest for justice,” the International Booker Prize judges said.
“Hwang highlights the political struggles of the working class with the story of a complicated national history of occupation and freedom, all seen through the lens of Jino, on his perch on top of a factory chimney, where he is staging a protest against being unfairly laid-off.”
The final winner will receive the award at a ceremony in London on May 21. The top prize of 50,000 pounds (US$64,000) will be split equally between the author and the translator.
The Booker Prize is regarded as one of the three major literary awards globally. Established in 2005, the International Booker Prize recognizes outstanding international fiction translated into English.
(Yonhap)
