Really good news, as it may open the door for other prizes to think about Korean translations as prizeworthy.
KTLIT has talked about the failure of Korean lit to get into these contests here, here, and here. But the epic commercial success of Shin Kyung-sook’s Please Look After Mom was apparently too massive to ignore.
Awesome!
Here is the entire long list:
2011 Longlist
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
LOL.. gotta love the name “Banan Yoshimoto!”