Cape Town
Acclaimed Afrikaans writer Marlene van Niekerk is one of the 10 finalists for the Man Booker International Prize, a prize that has been described as “where they go, the Nobel follows”.
Van Niekerk, who made the list based on her two novels Triomf and Agaat, both translated into English, is one of four Africans on the list.
The Man Booker International prize differs from the annual Man Booker Prize in that it is awarded every two years, and is based on a writer’s body of work rather than a single novel. It carries a prize of £60 000 (about R1.1 million).
It was introduced in 2004 and winners include Philip Roth (US), Alice Munro (Canada) and Chinua Achebe (Nigeria).
Triomf tells the bleak story of a poor-white Afrikaner family living in Triomf, the suburb that replaced Sofiatown, while Agaat is about two women, one white and one coloured, on a farm in the Karoo, and the hold they have over each other.
A review of Agaat which appeared in the New York Times in 2010 said: “Books like Agaat… are the reason people read novels, and the reason authors write them.
“It’s a monument to what the narrator calls ‘the compulsion to tell’, expressing truths that are too heartfelt, revelatory and damaging for proud people to speak aloud – or even to admit to themselves in private.”
The other finalists are César Aira (Argentina); Hoda Barakat (Lebanon); Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe); Mia Couto (Mozambique); Amitav Ghosh (India); Fanny Howe (US); Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya); László Krasznahorkai (Hungary) and Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo).
For the first time the list of finalists was announced in Africa – at a ceremony at UCT on Tuesday.
Dean of Humanities Professor Sakhelo Buhlungu said he was thrilled by the opportunity.
He pointed out UCT had three Nobel laureates among its alumni, including novelist JM Coetzee, now an emeritus professor of UCT who has twice won the regular Man Booker Prize. He also paid tribute to novelist and former UCT professor André Brink, who died suddenly earlier this year and who was twice shortlisted for the annual Man Booker.
Dame Marina Warner, CBE, chairwoman of the 2015 judging panel, said the panel had met regularly over the past two years to discuss the books they wanted considered for the prize – just short of 100 titles. There had been many lively and vigorous debates, few of them actually quarrelsome, and earlier this week they had whittled a list of 40 authors down to the 10 finalists announced on Tuesday.
Their works represented many tones and modes, many of them bleak, but also with some laughter.
Warner said the value of fiction was that it ranged far and wide, and stretched understanding and sympathy. “The novel today is in fine form, it probes the psyche, stimulates thought, is a laboratory of language and a well of pleasure. When you read these writers you are that bit closer to the tree of knowledge.”
In terms of the rules of the Man Booker International Prize, it must go to a living author whose fiction is either published in English or whose work is generally available in translation in English.
Eight of the authors wrote in foreign languages, including Van Niekerk whose books first appeared in Afrikaans and were translated by Leon de Kock (Triomf) and the novelist Michiel Heyns (Agaat).
Van Niekerk’s books were praised by judge Elleke Boehmer, professor of world literature in English at Oxford, who read them in Afrikaans and referred to the richness of Van Niekerk’s use of language.
Warner said while the representation of Van Niekerk’s vision was dark and troubling, the effect was to extend knowledge and understanding.
The overall winner will be announced in London on May 19.