The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Shortlist 2015

The official shortlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced this week:

• The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
• In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne
• F by Daniel Kehlmann translated from the German by Carol Brown Janeway
• By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel translated from the Spanish by Jethro Soutar
• While the Gods Were Sleeping by Erwin Mortier translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel

We can also reveal our shadow jury shortlist:

• The Ravens by Tomas Bannerhed translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
• The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
• Bloodlines by Marcello Fois translated from the Italian by Silvester Mazzarella
• The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
• Zone by Mathias Énard translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell

My favourite titles from those I’ve read so far have been spread across both shortlists. I’m pleased to see ‘The Dead Lake’ and ‘Bloodlines’ on our shortlist and ‘In the Beginning Was the Sea’ on the official shortlist. Only ‘Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage’ and ‘The End of Days’ appear on both lists. Interestingly, the least popular titles among the shadow panel  – ‘The Last Lover‘, ‘Tiger Milk’, ‘The Investigation‘, ‘Look Who’s Back‘ and ‘Boyhood Island‘ – didn’t make the official shortlist either, so it’s unlikely that the overall winner will be a wildly controversial choice (unanimously, at least).

‘Zone’ by Mathias Énard has been called in as a sixteenth title by other members of the shadow jury who feel that it has been criminally overlooked by the official judging panel. Having undertaken some pretty intensive reading in the past month, I will be taking a break from the IFFP for a while but will hopefully be reading ‘Zone’ and catching up with my reviews before the winner is announced on Wednesday 27th May.

What do you think of the shortlist(s)? Which book do you think will win or would like to win?