It’s not always easy to see whether the creaky descriptions of women – Geumbok’s “exceptionally wide rump”, Chunhui being “fat and unattractive, so unlike her mother” – are a satire of sexist attitudes or an enactment of them (Cheong cites Updike and Bukowski as key influences). There’s so much going on that almost every subsection of each chapter could be a novella in itself, filled with old crones, physical grotesques and cartoonish violence. Central to his story is Geumbok, an ambitious young woman who dreams of building a cinema, and her daughter, Chunhui, a tall, muscular brick-maker. It’s an anarchic, often gruesome book – death by anvil, fire in a crowded theatre, a gangster who woos his beloved by sending her severed fingers – that succeeds through sheer charm. Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Europa Editions, £14.99), is the South Korean author’s debut novel, first published in 2004. This year’s winner will be announced on 23 May and the judging panel have produced a strong shortlist with a distinctive flavour: four brightly coloured, zestful novels and two, more restrained stories on the theme of motherhood.
The prize money of £50,000 is divided equally between author and translator. T he International Booker prize is the UK’s most prestigious award for translated fiction, with previous winners including Han Kang and Olga Tokarczuk.
0 kommentar(er)
