Five women nominated for Booker International Prize

Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk, who scooped last year's Booker International Prize for fiction, was named on Tuesday among five female nominees for this year's prestigious literary award.

Tokarczuk, who won the 2018 award with the translation of "Flights", is nominated this year for "Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead".

She is nominated alongside Jokha Alharthi from Oman – the first shortlisted writer from the Gulf – France's Annie Ernaux, Marion Poschmann of Germany, Juan Gabriel Vasquez from Colombia and Chile's Alia Trabucco Zeran.

The winner is to be announced in London on May 21.

The £50,000 ($65,000, 58,000 euro) prize is divided equally between the winning book's author and translator.

"Unexpected and unpredictable narratives compelled us to choose this vigorous shortlist. Subversive and intellectually ambitious with welcome flashes of wit, each book nourishes creative conversation.

"We were struck by the lucidity and supple strength of all the translations."

The International Prize, which has been running since 2005, is the counterpart to the booker Prize, which is awarded for books originally written in English.

The shortlist:

Jokha Alharthi (Oman): "Celestial Bodies"

Annie Ernaux (France): "The Years"

Marion Poschmann (Germany): "The Pine Islands"

Olga Tokarczuk (Poland): "Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead"

Juan Gabriel Vasquez (Colombia): "The Shape Of The Ruins"

Agence France-Presse