21st Century Literature discussion

Note: We're playing catch up on group reads nominations so you'll be seeing three back to back invitations. March is second of the three and after April's nominations we will return to a once a month schedule :D


March's group read theme is the International Booker Prize. We invite you to nominate any IBP books from 2016 to 2025 whether they were longlisted, shortlisted or won. Nominations are open until the end of Saturday, Feb 7th. View the eligible books here:
IBP site: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booke...
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...


And any of you who might enjoy speculating on the upcoming 2026 IBP longlist or reading any of the 2026 nominees (tba Feb 24), do join our friends at the very fine group, The Mookse and the Gripes:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


NOMINATIONS:

The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken

At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell

The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean

While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated by Katy Derbyshire

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin

The Years by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel

What a great category - I like the focus. I have three I really want to read. I think I will nominate The Employees.

Rose wrote: "What a great category - I like the focus. I have three I really want to read. I think I will nominate The Employees."

Thanks! I've added it to our list of nominations in comment #1

And I'd be up for a re-read of The Employees, I don't think I gave it a fair shake on my first read.

I’d like to nominate At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong

I would like to nominate a chunkster: The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

Great idea! I'd like to nominate 'When We Were Dreaming' by Clemens Meyer.

I'd like to nominate Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann. I have never read anything of him that disappointed me yet!

Henk wrote: "I'd like to nominate Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann. I have never read anything of him that disappointed me yet!"

I loved that one Henk!

I'll nominate The Years by Annie Ernaux.

And I'll propose Working-class May for International Workers Day, in case you're soliciting ideas for themes1

I’ll nominate Time Shelter
Written by Georgi Gospodinov

@ Everyone - That was fast, we already have seven nominations, woohoo. I'll hold off nominating because there are already a number I'm eyeing.

@Emmeline - 'Working-class May' sounds like a great monthly theme or question of the week. I'm adding it to our shortlist of contenders, thank you!

That's a lot of wonderful nominations already! I'll hold off nominating until next time too.

I wonder if it might be helpful to do some kind of seconding scheme at some point if we start getting too large a number of nominations. Might hard with the poll if there are too huge a number of contenders? Anyway, just a thought.

I'm happy to see so much interest! And I'm also thrilled to see so many good titles to pick from. I applaud the new moderators on this Booker Prize theme - that sure worked out well!

Greg wrote: "I wonder if it might be helpful to do some kind of seconding scheme at some point if we start getting too large a number of nominations..."

Oh yes, good idea, I've seen that work really well elsewhere. Definitely worth trying if our other themes garner a similar number of nominations on the first day.