An Irish publisher has been longlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize for only the fourth title it has published.
Bullaun Press, based in Co Sligo, was founded by Bridget Farrell on Inishmore in 2021 with a focus on literature in translation. Its first title in April 2022 was I Am Lewy, Mícheál Ó hAodha’s rendition of Eoghan Ó Tuairisc’s An Lomnochtán (1977).
There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert, was published by Bullaun last October and is now in the running for the £50,000 prize, half of which goes to the author, the other half divided equally between the two translators.
Set in the 1980s in the author’s native La Réunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean suffering from high unemployment, low expectations and the legacy of colonialism, it is the picaresque tale of a girl’s bid to escape her sadistic parents’ reign of terror.
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“Bélem is forensic in her demolition of the sentimental cliches surrounding her island home and unstinting in her detailing of the toxic afterlife of enslavement and abandonment,” wrote Michael Cronin in his Irish Times review.
“Bélem’s writing is inhabited by a fierce wit which produces moments of high comedy in her tale of frustrated longings and human desolation, as in her acid portraits of tie-wearing evangelicals and unscrupulous island quacks. When she writes about the colonial legacy of slavery – ‘the suicides, the psychotic disorders, the infanticides, the pennyroyal abortions’ – there is a sense in which island histories in the imperial world order commingle and resonate across time and space.
“It seems appropriate that an Irish publishing house, Bullaun, specialising in translation, should bring this novel to the attention of the English-speaking world.”
It has also been longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. Bullaun’s next publication, due out in May, is The Rarest Fruit, another novel by Bélem, translated by Fleetwood and Saint-Loubert.
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The name Bullaun comes from the Irish word for a stone with a man-made hollow that holds water at its centre. Many bullauns are traditionally associated with magical, healing or holy properties.
The longlist also features Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter, winner of last year’s €100,000 Dublin International Literary Prize and at 627 pages, by far the longest book on the list.
The six-strong shortlist will be announced on April 8th and the winner on May 20th.
The International Booker Prize 2025 longlist: what the judges said
The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon
‘Speculative and haunting, this is an exceptional exercise in memory-making and psycho-geography. The premise – the overnight disappearance of all Palestinians – is audacious and shocking.’
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J Haveland
‘It takes a familiar narrative trope – a protagonist inexplicably stuck in the same day – and transforms it into a profound meditation on love, connectedness and what it means to exist.’
There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
‘In prose that throbs with verve, humour and pain, this story set on the island of Réunion brings to life a narrator beset with the history of her family and her people.’
Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter
‘A mind-boggling and ceaselessly entertaining book that seems to be about everything. It transports us from communist Romania to the far sci-fi reaches of the imagination.’
Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches
‘A blisteringly urgent collection of interconnected stories about contemporary Mexican women. Extremely funny but deadly serious, it absolutely bangs from the first page to the last.’
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson
‘After 27 people die when their dinghy capsizes in the Channel, the book’s French narrator attempts to clear her conscience. A gut-punch of a novel that asks: could we all do better?’
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton
‘Featuring a protagonist who lives in a care home near Tokyo, this unashamed, unflinching and subversive novel defiantly dismantles assumptions about disability and desire.’
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda
‘With crystalline clarity, it tells the story of humanity’s evolution on an epic scale, travelling as far into the future as our imagination could possibly allow.’
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated from German by Daniel Bowles
‘The bitterly funny account of a writer driving his crotchety, senile mother through the landscape outside Zurich. One of the most entertaining and moving stories we read.’
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes
‘An astute, cringe-making and often laugh-out-loud funny portrait of everyday privilege and modern aspirations, following an expat couple in Berlin. Startlingly refreshing.’
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi
‘Exploring the lives of those often on the periphery of society – girls and women in Muslim communities in southern India – these vivid stories hold immense emotional and moral weight.’
On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott
‘A modern classic set in Suriname, and a testament to the resilience of queer lives everywhere. A story of love, survival and freedom, woven with an artistically accomplished touch.’
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson
‘A deeply romantic yet platonic love story between the narrator and his complicated childhood friend, a story so beautifully realised that the pair become part of the life of the reader.’
The judges’ selection features 13 authors making their International Booker Prize debut, including three with their first books and eight with their first English-language publications; three previously longlisted translators, including Sophie Hughes, who is nominated for a record-breaking fifth time; books translated from 10 original languages, including, for the first time, Kannada, which is spoken by approximately 38 million people as a first language, and Romanian; and authors and translators representing 15 nationalities across five continents, with Romanian and Surinamese-Dutch writers and an Iraqi translator featuring for the first time.
A classic of queer literature, first published in Dutch 43 years ago, marks the longest gap between an original-language publication and International Booker Prize longlisting. Big themes in compact form are also a trend, with 11 out of the 13 books under 250 pages, and seven under 200. All but one of the titles are from independent publishers, the highest number ever.
The longlist of 13 books – 11 novels and two collections of short stories – has been chosen by a panel, chaired by bestselling author Max Porter, featuring prize-winning poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and publishing director of Wasafiri Sana Goyal; author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur; and award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton.
Porter said: “Translated fiction is not an elite or rarefied cultural space requiring expert knowledge; it is the exact opposite. It is stories of every conceivable kind from everywhere, for everyone. It is a miraculous way in which we might meet one another in all our strangeness and sameness, and defy the borders erected between us.
“As we searched for our longlist among the 154 books submitted, we marvelled at what the world was thinking. How are people making sense of these times using the novel as a vehicle for thought and feeling? And how are translators taking these books and – in English – making them sing or scream? The books on our unconventional longlist provide a wildly energising and surprising range of answers. We hope they will exhilarate and engage a worldwide community of readers.
“In these books people are sharing strategies for survival; they are cheating, lying, joking and innovating. Some people are no longer of this earth, or they are sending visions from the future or from parallel universes. These books bring us into the agony of family, workplace or nation-state politics, the near-spiritual secrecy of friendship, the inner architecture of erotic feeling, the banality of capitalism and the agitations of faith.”
