Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, 28, is shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. The evening is inconvenience is one of the last six contenders, making it the first Dutch book ever to make it this far.
The International Booker Prize, which comes with a cash prize of £ 50,000 (57,000 euros), goes annually to a translated novel published in the UK and Ireland. Rijneveld’s book has been sold to fifteen countries and is published in English under the title Discomfort is Everything. The author was nominated together with translator Michelle Hutchison.
The evening is inconvenience, published in the Netherlands in January 2018, is about a reformed peasant family that loses their son after an accident. The story is told through the eyes of 10-year-old Jas, who sees her family paralyzed by grief. The book was previously long-listed for the 2019 Libris Literature Prize.
Tommy Wieringa made the long list of the International Booker Prize in 2019, with Murat Idrissi’s death. In 2007 Harry Mulisch was nominated for his entire oeuvre. The evening is inconvenience the first Dutch work to end up on the shortlist. Rijneveld thus leaves the French veteran Michel Houellebecq behind.
The other titles on the shortlist are The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree from Iran, The Adventures of China Iron from Argentina, Tyll from Germany, Hurricane Season from Mexico and the Japanese The Memory Police. The winner will be announced on May 19.
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