Dutch author Anjet Daanje longlisted for the International Booker Prize

Dutch author Anjet Daanje’s book The Remembered Soldier has been named to the longlist for the International Booker Prize, the prestigious award for fiction translated into English, organizers announced on Tuesday.

The Remembered Soldier, the English translation of De herinnerde soldaat, is among the 13 books longlisted for the prize. The six-book shortlist will be announced on March 31, and the winner on May 19. Each shortlisted book earns 5,000 pounds (around 5,700 euros), while the winner takes 50,000 pounds (over 57,000 euros), with the prize money shared between author and translator.

Published in 2019, De herinnerde soldaat follows a soldier found just behind the Belgian front line during World War I. Unharmed but suffering from amnesia, he lives in an institution until, in 1922, a woman who recognizes him as her husband comes to visit. She takes him home, yet he cannot recall their life together. The jury described it as “an extraordinary love story about the power of memory and imagination.”

David McKay, an American living in The Hague since 1997, translated the book. He previously translated War and Turpentine by Flemish writer Stefan Hertmans, which made the International Booker Prize longlist in 2017. McKay has also rendered Multatuli’s Max Havelaar into English.

Last year, The Remembered Soldier was nominated for the American National Book Award, and The New York Times named it one of the 100 most important books of the year. Daanje received the F. Bordewijk Prize in 2020 for the original Dutch edition.

Daanje is also recognized for her acclaimed Lied van ooievaar en dromedaris, which earned her both the Boekenbon Literature Prize and the Libris Literature Prize. In 2023, the Groningen-born author was awarded the Constantijn Huygens Prize for her entire oeuvre.

In 2020, Lucas Rijneveld won the International Booker Prize for The Discomfort of Evening, the English translation of De avond is ongemak. Jente Posthuma made the 2024 shortlist with What I’d Rather Not Think About (Waar ik liever niet aan denk), while last year Surinamese-Dutch author Astrid Roemer’s On a Woman’s Madness (Over de gekte van een vrouw) appeared on the longlist.