Sang-Young Park and Jeong Bora Both Nominated for the Booker International Prize

'The Art of Loving in a Metropolis' and 'Cursed Rabbit' by Anton Heo Recognized for Literary Merit After Translation
Competing with Olga Tokarczuk's 'The Books of Jacob'... Finalists Announced on Next Month 7th

Novelists Park Sang-young and Jeong Bora have been nominated for the Booker Prize International, the most prestigious literary award in the UK. On the 10th (local time), the Booker Foundation announced thirteen longlisted works for the Booker Prize International category, including Park Sang-young's Love in the Big City and Jeong Bora's Cursed Bunny. This is the first time that novels published in Korea and translated simultaneously have been nominated in this category. All were translated into English by Anton Hur, who was born in Sweden.

The Booker Prize is considered one of the world's top three literary awards alongside the Nobel Prize in Literature and the French Prix Goncourt. The International category targets works translated into English by non-English-speaking authors. The novel The Vegetarian, written by Han Kang and translated by Deborah Smith, became widely known in Korea after winning in 2016. Even older works qualify if they are newly published in English.

The Booker Foundation first announces thirteen longlisted works and then selects six finalists for the shortlist. Love in the Big City and Cursed Bunny compete against eleven other distinguished works. These include The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018; A New Name by Jon Fosse (Norway); Paradais by Fernanda Melchor (Mexico); Heaven by Kawakami Mieko (Japan); and The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman (France). The shortlist will be announced on the 7th of next month, and the winner will be revealed on May 26.

Love in the Big City is a linked novel comprising four short and medium-length stories, including the 2019 Young Writers Award grand prize-winning work A Taste of the Universe in a Single Rockfish. It depicts the journey of youth, love, and parting experienced by Young, a gay man, who lives with his college classmate Jae-hee, a woman threatened by a stalker. The novel deals with various incidents such as abortion and intricately and extensively portrays the self-portrait of a person in their twenties. It attracted attention by signing a contract with the UK publisher Tilted Axis Press before publication.

Cursed Bunny is a thriller novel that tells the story of a grandfather who says, "The more a cursed object is used, the prettier it must be made." When a friend who made and sold good traditional liquor falls into ruin due to slander from a competing company and ends his life early, the protagonist beautifully crafts a 'Cursed Bunny' and embarks on a personal revenge mission. Though it resembles a fable comforting those who struggle, it leaves a sense of emptiness that the world remains lonely and humans are isolated even after the task is completed. This book, bundled with nine other short stories, had its rights sold to the UK publisher Honford Star.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.