Fancy something a bit different?...

 

The Man Booker International Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. Since 2016, the award has been given annually to a single book in English translation, rewarding one author's ‘continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage’. 

This year’s winner, ‘A Horse Walks into a Bar’ by David Grossman, was announced last month but you can find out more about the full shortlist below.  Why not try one this Summer?

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman (Israel) –The setting is a comedy club in a small Israeli town. An audience that has come expecting an evening of amusement instead sees a comedian falling apart on stage; a man crumbling before their eyes as a matter of choice. They could get up and leave, or boo and whistle and drive him from the stage, if they were not so drawn to glimpse his personal hell.

Compass by Mathias Enard (France)–As night falls over Vienna, Franz Ritter, an insomniac musicologist, takes to his sickbed with an unspecified illness and spends a restless night drifting between dreams and memories, revisiting the important chapters of his life.

Compass is a journey and a declaration of admiration, a quest for the otherness inside us all and a hand reaching out – like a bridge between West and East, yesterday and tomorrow. 

The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen (Norway)– Ingrid Barrøy is born on an island that bears her name – a holdfast for a single family, their livestock, their crops, their hopes and dreams.  Her father dreams of building a jetty that will connect them to the mainland, but closer ties to the wider world come at a price. Her mother has her own dreams – more children, a smaller island, a different life – and there is one question Ingrid must never ask her.

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors (Denmark)– Sonja is an intelligent single woman in her 40s whose life lacks focus. The situation must change – but where to start? By learning to drive, perhaps. After all, how hard can it be? Very, as it turns out.

Six months in, Sonja is still baffled by the basics and her instructor is eccentric. With an acute case of vertigo, a sister who won’t talk to her, and a masseuse who wants to solve her spiritual problems, shifting gears is not proving easy.

Judas by Amos Oz (Israel)– Set in the still-divided Jerusalem of 1959-60, Judas is a tragi-comic coming-of-age tale and a radical rethinking of the concept of treason. Shmuel, a young, idealistic student, is drawn to a strange house and its mysterious occupants within. As he starts to uncover the house’s tangled history, he reaches an understanding that harks back not only to the beginning of the Jewish-Arab conflict, but also to the beginning of Jerusalem itself.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (Argentina)– A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She's not his mother. He's not her child.

The two seem anxious and, at David's ever more insistent prompting, Amanda recounts a series of events from the apparently recent past. As David pushes her to recall whatever trauma has landed her in her terminal state, he unwittingly opens a chest of horrors, and suddenly the terrifying nature of their reality is brought into shocking focus.

Gwobr lenyddol ryngwladol yn y Deyrnas Unedig yw Gwobr Ryngwladol Man Booker. Ers 2016, rhoddwyd y wobr yn flynyddol i lyfr unigol a gyfieithwyd i’r Saesneg, gan wobrwyo ‘creadigrwydd parhaol, datblygiad a chyfraniad un awdur i ffuglen ar y llwyfan rhyngwladol’.

Cyhoeddwyd enillydd eleni, ‘A Horse Walks into a Bar’ gan David Grossman, mis diwethaf ond gallwch ddysgu mwy am y rhestr fer isod. Pam na ddarllenwch chi un dros yr haf?

A Horse Walks into a Bar gan David Grossman (Israel) – Clwb Comedi mewn tref fach yn yr Israel yw’r lleoliad.  Mae cynulleidfa sydd wedi dod am noson o adloniant yn gweld dyn yn cwympo’n ddarnau ar y llwyfan yn lle; dyn yn chwalu o’u blaenau fel mater o ddewis. Fe allen nhw godi a gadael, neu weiddi a chwibanu a’i yrru o’r llwyfan, pe na baen nhw wedi eu denu gymaint i’w uffern bersonol.

Compass gan Mathias Enard (Ffrainc) - Wrth i’r nos ddisgyn dros Fienna, mae Franz Ritter, cerddolegwr anhunog, yn mynd i’w wely gydag afiechyd ac yn treulio noson ddigwsg yn ymlwybro rhwng breuddwydion ac atgofion, gan ail-ymweld â phenodau pwysicaf ei fywyd.

Mae Compass yn siwrnai ac yn ddatganiad o edmygedd, ymgais am yr arall sydd y tu mewn i ni i gyd ac yn law sy’n estyn – fel pont rhwng Gorllewin a Dwyrain, ddoe a heddiw. 

The Unseen gan Roy Jacobsen (Norwy) – Cafodd Ingrid Barrøy ei geni ar ynys o’r un enw, gafaelfach ar gyfer un teulu, eu hanifeiliaid, eu cnydau, eu gobeithion a’u breuddwydion.  Mae ei thad yn breuddwydio am adeiladu glanfa a fydd yn eu cysylltu â’r tir mawr, ond mae pris i’w dalu am gysylltiadau gyda’r byd mawr.  Mae gan ei mam ei breuddwydion eu hun – mwy o blant, ynys llai, bywyd gwahanol – ac mae un cwestiwn nad yw Ingrid byth i ofyn iddi.

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal gan Dorthe Nors (Denmarc) - Mae Sonja’n fenyw sengl, ddeallus yn ei 40au ond mae ei bywyd yn brin o ffocws. Rhaid i’r sefyllfa newid - ond ble mae dechrau? Dysgu gyrru, efallai. Wedi’r cyfan, pa mor anodd gall hyn fod? Yn anodd iawn, fel mae’n digwydd.

Ar ôl chwe mis, mae Sonja dal wedi ei drysu gan yr hanfodion ac mae ei hyfforddwr yn dra echreiddig. Yn dioddef o benysgafnder, gyda chwaer sydd ddim yn fodlon siarad â hi, a thylinwraig sydd am ddatrys ei phroblemau ysbrydol, dyw newid gêr ddim yn hawdd.

Judas gan Amos Oz (Israel)–  Wedi ei leoli yn Jerwsalem rhanedig 1959-60, stori chwerw-felys am dyfu yw Judas ac ailfeddwl radical am y syniad o deyrnfradwriaeth. Caiff Shmuel, myfyriwr ifanc, llawn delfryd, ei dynnu i dŷ dieithr a’i ddeiliaid rhyfedd. Wrth iddo ddatgelu hanes cymhleth y tŷ, mae’n dod i ddeall rhywbeth sy’n mynd yn ôl, nid yn unig at ddechrau’r gwrthdaro rhwng yr Iddewon a’r Arabiaid, ond hefyd i ddechrau Jerwsalem ei hun.

Fever Dream gan Samanta Schweblin (Yr Ariannin)– Mae menyw ifanc o’r enw Amanda yn marw mewn ysbyty gwledig. Mae bachgen o’r enw David yn eistedd wrth ei hymyl. Dyw hi ddim yn fam iddo. Nid ei phlentyn hi yw e.

Mae’r ddau i weld yn bryderus ac, ar anogaeth David, mae Amanda’n adrodd cyfres o ddigwyddiadau o’r gorffennol diweddar. Wrth i David bwyso arni i gofio ba bynnag drawma sydd wedi dod â hi i’r cyflwr hwn, mae e’n datgelu erchyllterau, ac yn sydyn mae natur brawychus eu sefyllfa real yn dod i’r amlwg.