Translated titles in JCB Prize shortlist

The shortlist for the Rs 25-lakh prize include Imaan by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha; Song of the Soil by Chuden Kabimo, translated from the Nepali by Ajit Baral; The Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu by Baran Farooqi; Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell and Valli by Sheela Tomy, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil.

Perhaps the exclusive translated titles on the shortlist is not really a surprise, as translated books won the prize in succession in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, S Hareesh’s Moustache, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil, was the winner, and in 2021, it was M Mukundan’s Delhi: A Soliloquy, translated from the Malayalam by Fathima EV and Nandakumar K.

The prize, since its inception, has consistently showcased translated titles from Indian languages, thus signalling the fact that translated fiction from India is now no longer the second cousin to the fiction originally written in English but occupy the same space. 

In the first year, the 10-book longlist comprised two translations – of Perumal Murugan’s Poonachi by N Kalyan Raman (from the Tamil) and of Benyamin’s Jasmine Days (from the Malayalam) by Shahnaz Habib. And the inaugural award was given to a translation title, Jasmine Days.

The 2019 winner, Madhuri Vijay’s The Far Field is the only English-language novel to have won the prize. In the second year of the prize, translations were not yet as prominent. The jury clubbed Perumal Murugan’s two sequels to One Part Woman – A Lonely Harvest and Trial By Silence, both translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan into a single entry, while the other one was Manoranjan Byapari’s There’s Gunpowder in the Air, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha.

The 2020 longlist still had only two translated books, the second one besides Moustache being Ashok Mukhopadhyay’s A Ballad of Remittent Fever, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha. And the shortlist had just the one translation, Moustache.

The 2021 longlist saw the number of translated books climbing to three, with Delhi: A Novel being joined by Anti-Clock, by VJ James – translated from Malayalam by Ministhy S – and The Man who Learnt to Fly but could not Land, by Thachom Poyil Rajeevan – translated from Malayalam by PJ Mathew. Anti-Clock went into the shortlist as well, along with Delhi: A Novel.

Interestingly, all three translated books to have won the prize so far are Malayalam novels—an indicator of the strength of contemporary Malayalam fiction. 

The prize will be announced on 19 November.