Shin Kyung-sook’s “Please Look After Mother” Makes MAN Asian Literary Prize Short list
Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mother makes the short list and Murakami does not!
Shin becomes the first Korean to make the list!
Razia Iqba, the announcing judge, called the decision “pleasurable and daunting.” The books were so good they broke with tradition and upped the list to 7 books from 6. Four of the shortlisted novels were originally written in English; the novels from South Korea, China and Japan are all judged in translation (out of 90 books submitted), according the the judge, were translations. This is likely a result of the fact that many of the original nominees were written in India, and thus in English.
They mention Shin as a writer who will/does inspire more translations. They also note that they only hear of three or four books a year being translated into English from Korean. Translator gets $5k and the author gets $30K. The speaker notes that translation is a very important issue.
Here is the short list:
JAMIL AHMAD (Pakistan) – The Wandering Falcon
JAHNAVI BARUA (India) – Rebirth
RAHUL BHATTACHARYA (India) – The Sly Company of People Who Care
KYUNG-SOOK SHIN (South Korea) – Please Look After Mom
YAN LIANKE (China) – Dream of Ding Village
BANANA YOSHIMOTO (Japan) – The Lake
AMITAV GHOSH (India) – River of Smoke
The judges were: Pulitzer-prize finalist and author of The Surrendered, Chang-rae Lee, Vikas Swarup, author of Q&A which was filmed as the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, and Razia Iqbal a Special Correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The Long List was:
JAMIL AHMAD (Pakistan) – The Wandering Falcon
TAHMIMA ANAM (Bangladesh) – The Good Muslim
JAHNAVI BARUA (India) – Rebirth
RAHUL BHATTACHARYA (India) – The Sly Company of People Who Care
MAHMOUD DOWLATABADI (Iran) – The Colonel
AMITAV GHOSH (India) – River of Smoke
HARUKI MURAKAMI (Japan) – 1Q84
ANURADHA ROY (India) – The Folded Earth
KYUNG-SOOK SHIN (South Korea) – Please Look After Mom
TARUN J TEJPAL (India) – The Valley of Masks
YAN LIANKE (China) – Dream of Ding Village
BANANA YOSHIMOTO (Japan) – The Lake
Final LOL.. they streamed this as video and only 42 people watched it.^^
KTLIT on Twitter 
A book on Korea
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/08/144797377/orphan-a-new-novel-imagines-life-in-north-korea
that shows that an audience exists for works depicting Korea.
It is still puzzling that no ROK authors want to write books that could gain readers, poised as they are next to one of the world’s most forbidding nations.
With all the DPRK refugees in ROK, the opportunities for material to inform books that would garner readers are all around.
Another favorable review of the book:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/06/the-orphan-master-s-son-by-adam-johnson-review.html
A puzzle that ROK authors do not see the enormous potential of living near a place in which extreme drama — life and death — are actually played out regularly.