It’s that time of year when the shadow panel for the man booker international winner for 2017 comes to announce our winner a quicker remind of our choice of shortlist for this year .
Fever dream by Samantha Schweblin
Compass by Mathias Enard
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen
Judas by Amos Oz
Fish have no feet by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer
For me this is the most lit shortlist we ever have chosen in the six years we have been shadowing the prize also show the recent rise of small presses for translation , in a way that was a small nudge to the winner . We had after much chopping and adding of scores we tied to books even on count back they tied we asked everyone for another count but decide in the end for Tony and myself to knock it out for the winner as we neither fancied a joint winner and I said as this book in the first round of scoring had the better score by the width of a hair it should be the winner.It was also my top choice , So our winner is –
Compass by Mathias Enard
For me the long-term future of Enard as a writer of great books his books so far show an adventurous writer that is willing to try different style of writer , stream of consciousness and in this book using a reflective dream as a way of connecting how the west has connect with the east as a love affair unfolds and we see what has been lost in Syria this book serves as a testament for a lost place and time . Also this makes up for Zone not getting anywhere on the man booker !!
Now for the close second it was the wonderful descriptive
The unseen by Roy Jacobsen
I love its new cover in paperback it so captures the book.
Thanks for doing this again Stu. I’ve reserved Compass from my local library – looking forward to it.
I’m surprised, I thought you were going to choose Fever Dream!
Thank you, Stu, for conceiving of this idea of a Shadow Jury, and allowing me to participate these last four years. It is such an enriching experience to read and discuss these books with all of you. I am glad that you and Tony decided against a joint winner; I am happy with the choice of Compass as it is such a magnificently written book to be sure.
I thought several members of the jury would go with that, too, but in the end I don’t think it could hold up to the others. Imaginative, yes. Powerful imagery and connection to mothers, yes. But, for me it ended up being more vague than powerful.
Lisa, my reply to your comment came under my first reply to Stu. Go figure!
I have not read these novels yet. Compass does seem intriguing and so does Dream Fever. The only one I have read is Judas by Oz which I found to be a dense and profound novel. I loved how Oz mixed Judaism and Christianity with the political scenario.