'Cursed Bunny' shortlisted for 2022 International Booker Prize

Books

Published: 08 Apr. 2022, 13:24

'Cursed Bunny' shortlisted for 2022 International Booker Prize

Cover of "Cursed Bunny" [THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE]

"Cursed Bunny," a collection of short stories by Bora Chung translated by Anton Hur, made the 2022 International Booker Prize shortlist along with five other books on Thursday.

The others in the running are: "The Books of Jacob" by Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and translated by Jennifer Croft; "The Tomb of Sand" by Indian author Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell; "Elena Knows" by Argentinian author Claudia Piñeiro and translated by Frances Riddle; "Heaven" by Japanese author Mieko Kawakami and translated by Samuel Bett and David Boyd; and "A New Name: Septology VI-VII" by Norwegian author Jon Fosse and translated by Damion Searls.

The shortlist was released by Frank Wynne, chair of the 2022 International Booker Prize Jury, at The London Book Fair in London.

Described by the Booker Prize as "a genre-defying collection," "Cursed Bunny" includes short stories of horror, sci-fi and fantasy and addresses modern societal issues of patriarchy and capitalism.

It was published in Korea by Arzak in 2017 and translated by Anton Hur in 2021. The English-language translation was published under Honford Star, an independent publishing house in Britain.

Seoul-born Chung, 46, has published three novels and three short stories. She has an MA in Russian and East European area studies from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Slavic literature from Indiana University. She translates Russian and Polish literature and teaches the Russian language and Russian literature and science-fiction at Yonsei University.

Author of "Cursed Bunny" Bora Chung, left, and the book's translator Anton Hur [THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE]

Stockholm-born Hur, 41, has translated several books, including "The Court Dancer" by Shin Kyung-sook, "The Prisoner" by Hwang Sok-yong and "Love in the Big City" by Park Sang-young. "Love in the Big City" made the longlist for this year's Booker Prize.

Hur is the only person to have been nominated twice for this year's prize and won a PEN/Heim grant for his translation of the "Cursed Bunny." Hur has an MA in English from Seoul National University.

Authors and translators on the International Booker Prize shortlist receive 2,500 euros.

The winner of the prize will be named on May 26 in London, and the 50,000 euros prize will be divided equally between the author and translator.

Korean books previously been nominated for the International Booker Prize are "The Vegetarian" (2007) and "The White Book" (2016) by Han Kang and translated by Deborah Smith and "At Dusk" (2015) by Hwang Sok-yong and translated by Sora Kim-Russell.

"The Vegetarian" won the prize in 2016. It is the first and only Korean work to have won the award.

Complementing the Booker Prize, which is awarded to English-language works, the International Booker Prize is an annual award given to a single book that has been translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]