2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize to Jonathan Wright

iffp_2014_logoThe 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced last week in London, and the winning book is The Iraqi Christ, by Hassan Blasim, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Comma Press). Very pleased for Jonathan, especially after the rough time he had last year around the contract for another book he was to translate; I’m glad to see his work vindicated in this way. And congratulations to all the other shortlisted authors and translators as well, and particularly to Jamie Bulloch, the translator of The Mussel Feast by German writer Birgit Vanderbeke, which received an honorable mention. There are at least two firsts involved in this year’s award: It is the first time the prize has gone to a book originally written in Arabic, and the first time a collection of stories has won. All in all, a good year for this prize.

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