A quarter of the books longlisted for this year’s International Booker prize for translated fiction were by South American authors. This proportion was reflected in the shortlist, announced earlier this week, too, with books by Argentinian poet Selva Almada and Brazilian writer Itamar Vieira Junior making the six-strong list.
Announcing its longlist last month, the prize declared a second “Latin American boom”. The first boom refers to the 1960s and 70s, when authors such as Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa were widely translated, igniting an international love affair with the innovative literature emerging from the region.
