Itamar Vieira Junior’s novel Crooked Plow is on the shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2024 announced on Tuesday, April 9, 2024.
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually for the finest single work of fiction from around the world translated into English and published in the UK and Ireland. David Diop won the award in 2021, worth £50,000 split between author and translator, while Maryse Conde and GauZ made the shortlist in 2023.
The 2024 jury is chaired by writer and broadcaster Eleanor Wachtel and includes award-winning poet Natalie Diaz; Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Romesh Gunesekera; ground-breaking visual artist William Kentridge; and acclaimed writer, editor and translator Aaron Robertson.
The jury revealed its longlist on Monday, March 11 before announcing the shortlist on Tuesday. The shortlist includes Brazilian Itamar Vieira Junior’s novel Crooked Plow a fascinating and gripping story about the lives of subsistence farmers in Brazil’s poorest region translated from Portuguese to English by Johnny Lorenz.
The jury said of his novel, “Crooked Plow is an evocative journey into the heart of Brazil’s quilombos, portraying the resilience and interconnectedness of a family and their community in the face of enduring challenges. The novel’s deep dive into the quilombo communities of Brazil offers a unique window into a world where the legacy of resistance and the fight for land rights weave through the personal and collective narratives of its characters, a perspective rarely captured with such intimacy and authenticity.”
Vieira Junior said on social media, “Viva! 🎉 CROOKED PLOW, the English version of TORTO ARADO, by Itamar Vieira Junior (@itamarvieirajr), translated by Johnny Lorenz (@johnnyandersonlorenz), is among the finalists for the International Booker Prize! NOT A RIVER, by Selva Almada (@selva.almada), translated into English by Annie McDermott (and into Portuguese by Samuel Titan Jr) also makes up the shortlist for this one of the most important literature awards . We are cheering!”
Vieira Junior holds a doctorate in Ethnic and African Studies. Before Crooked Plow, he published a collection of short stories entitled The Executioner’s Prayer, which was nominated for Brazil’s biggest literary award, the Jabuti. Crooked Plow won the LeYa Award 2018 in Portugal.
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