Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper The Independent to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched in 1990 and ran for five years before falling into abeyance. It was revived in 2001 with the financial support of Arts Council England. Beginning in 2011 the administration of the prize was taken over by BookTrust, but retaining the "Independent" in the name. In 2015, the award was disbanded in a "reconfiguration" in which it was merged with the Man Booker International Prize.
Entries were published in English translation in the UK in the year preceding the award by a living author. The prize acknowledged both the winning novelist and translator, each being awarded £5,000 and a magnum of champagne from drinks sponsor Champagne Taittinger.

Winners, shortlists and longlists

Blue Ribbon = winner

1990

Orhan Pamuk, ''The White Castle''

1991

Milan Kundera, ''Immortality''

1992

Shortlist

Simon Leys, The Death Of Napoleon
Slavenka Drakulic, Holograms Of Fear
Pawel Huelle, Who Was David Weiser?
Yashar Kemal, To Crush The Serpent
Ivan Klima, Judge On Trial
Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess
Carlo Mazzantini, In Search Of A Glorious Death
Erik Orsenna, Love And Empire
Giorgio Pressburger, The Law Of White Spaces
Jean Rouaud, Fields Of Glory
Leonardio Sciascia, The Knight And Death
Antonio Tabucchi,'' Vanishing Point''

1993

Shortlist

José Saramago, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
Juan Goytisolo, Makbara
Gunter Grass, The Call Of The Toad
Ismail Kadare, The Palace of Dreams
Ivan Klima, My Golden Trades
A B Yehoshua, ''Mr Mani''

1994

Shortlist

Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War
Shusaku Endo, Deep River
Margriet de Moor, First Grey, Then White, Then Blue
Isabel Allende, The Infinite Plan
Amos Oz, Fima,
Italo Calvino, ''The Road To San Giovanni''

1995

Gert Hofmann, ''The Film Explainer''

1996 to 2000

Prize in abeyance.

2001

Shortlist

Marta Morazzoni, The Alphonse Courrier Affair
Marc Dugain, The Officers' Ward
Michel Houellebecq, Atomised
Antonio Tabucchi, The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro
May Telmissany, Dunyazard
Hans-Ulrich Treichel, ''Lost''

2002

Shortlist

W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz
Agnès Desarthe, Five Photos of My Wife
Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Andrey Kurkov, Death and the Penguin
Hanan al-Shaykh, Only in London
H.M. van den Brink, ''On the Water''

2003

Shortlist

Per Olov Enquist, The Visit of the Royal Physician
Frédéric Beigbeder, £9.99
Peter Stephan Jungk, The Snowflake Constant
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Feast of the Goat
José Saramago, The Cave
José Carlos Somoza, The Athenian Murders

Also longlisted

Umberto Eco, Baudolino
Jens Christian Grøndahl, Lucca
Norbert Gstrein, The English Years
Milton Hatoum, The Brothers
Michel Houellebecq, Platform
Milan Kundera, Ignorance
Amin Maalouf, Balthasar's Odyssey
Patricia Melo, Inferno
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Nautical Chart
Atiq Rahimi, ''Earth And Ashes''

2004

Shortlist

Javier Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis
Juan Marsé, Lizard Tails
Elke Schmitter, Mrs Sartoris
Ricardo Piglia, Money to Burn
Luther Blissett, Q
Mahi Binebine, Welcome to Paradise

Also longlisted

Lars Saabye Christensen, The Half Brother
Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday At The Pool In Kigali
Turki Al-Hamad, Adama
Javier Marias, Dark Back Of Time
Sten Nadolny, The Discovery Of Slowness
Per Petterson, In The Wake
Shan Sa, The Girl Who Played Go
Fred Vargas, Have Mercy On Us All
Ye Zhaoyan, Nanjing 1937
Akira Yoshimura, ''One Man's Justice''

2005

Shortlist

Frédéric Beigbeder, Windows on the World
Chico Buarque, Budapest,
Irina Denezhkina, Give Me ,
Xiaolu Guo, Village of Stone,
Orhan Pamuk, Snow,
Elif Şafak, The Flea Palace,

Also longlisted

David Albahari, Götz and Meyer
Merete Morken Andersen, Oceans of Time
Mia Couto, The Last Flight of the Flamingo
Edgardo Cozarinsky, The Bride from Odessa
Victor Erofeyev, Life with an Idiot
Turki al-Hamad, Shumaisi
Torgny Lindgren, Hash
Enrico Remmert, The Ballad of the Low Lifes
José Saramago, The Double
Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind''

2006

The 2006 prize was announced in May. The jury for the 2006 Prize was composed of: Boyd Tonkin, the writers Paul Bailey, Margaret Busby and Maureen Freely, and Kate Griffin.
Shortlist

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses
Pawel Huelle, Mercedes-Benz
Tahar Ben Jelloun, This Blinding Absence of Light
Imre Kertész, Fatelessness
Magda Szabó, The Door
Dubravka Ugrešić, The Ministry of Pain

Also longlisted

Tonino Benacquista, Someone Else
Stefan Chwin, Death in Danzig
Philippe Claudel, Grey Souls
Marie Darrieussecq, White
Karen Duve, This is Not a Love Song
David Grossman, Lovers and Strangers
Judith Hermann, Nothing but Ghosts
Ellen Mattson, Snow
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Dai Sijie, ''Mr Muo's Travelling Couch''

2007

Shortlist

José Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons,
Per Olov Enquist, The Story of Blanche and Marie,
Vangelis Hatziyannidis, Four Walls
Javier Marías, Your Face Tomorrow, 2: Dance and Dream
Eva Menasse, Vienna
Dag Solstad, Shyness and Dignity

Also longlisted

Kader Abdolah, My Father's Notebook
Niccolò Ammaniti, Steal You Away
Javier Cercas, The Speed of Light
Edgardo Cozarinsky, The Moldavian Pimp
Jenny Erpenbeck, The Old Child
Faïza Guène, Just Like Tomorrow
Ismail Kadare, The Successor
Ma Jian, Stick out your Tongue
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow
Leonardo Padura, Havana Black
Atiq Rahimi, A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear
José Saramago, Seeing
Elif Shafak, The Gaze
Linn Ullmann, ''Grace''

2008

Shortlist

Paul Verhaeghen, Omega Minor
Pawel Huelle, Castorp
Daniel Kehlmann, Measuring the World
Bengt Ohlsson, Gregorius
Lars Saabye Christensen, The Model
Marlene van Niekerk, The Way of the Women

Also longlisted

Alaa al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building
Jenny Erpenbeck, The Book of Words
Bi Feiyu, The Moon Opera
Ismail Kadare, Agamemnon's Daughter
Sayed Kashua, Let It Be Morning
Erwin Mortier, Shutterspeed
Alan Pauls, The Past
Peter Pišťanek, Rivers of Babylon
Laura Restrepo, Delirium
Yasmina Traboulsi, Bahia Blues
Enrique Vila-Matas, ''Montano''

2009

Shortlist

Evelio Rosero, The Armies
Celine Curiol, Voice Over
Ma Jian, Beijing Coma
Ismail Kadare, The Siege
Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Informers
AB Yehoshua, Friendly Fire

Also longlisted

Sjón, The Blue Fox
Jose Eduardo Agualusa, My Father's Wives
Dag Solstad, Novel 11, Book 18
Yōko Ogawa, The Diving Pool
Eshkol Nevo, Homesick
Linn Ullmann, A Blessed Child
Thomas Glavinic, Night Work
Gyorgy Dragoman, The White King
Alexander Ahndoril, The Director
Saša Stanišić, ''How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone''

2010

Shortlist

Philippe Claudel, Brodeck's Report MacLehose Press
Julia Franck, The Blindness of the Heart Harvill Secker
Pietro Grossi, Fists Pushkin Press
Alain Mabanckou, Broken Glass Serpent's Tail
Sankar, Chowringhee Atlantic
Rafik Schami, The Dark Side of Love Arabia Books

Also longlisted

Boris Akunin, The Coronation Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Ketil Bjørnstad, To Music Maia Press
Hassan Blasim, The Madman of Freedom Square Comma Press
Elias Khoury, Yalo MacLehose Press
Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones Chatto & Windus
Javier Marías, Your Face Tomorrow, Volume 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell Chatto & Windus
Yōko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor Harvill Secker
Claudia Piñeiro, Thursday Night Widows Bitter Lemon Press
Bahaa Taher, Sunset Oasis Sceptre

2011

Shortlist

Santiago Roncagliolo, Red April translated by Edith Grossman, Spanish
Marcelo Figueras, Kamchatka translated by Frank Wynne, Spanish
Alberto Berrera Tyszka, The Sickness translated by Margaret Jull Costa, Spanish
Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation translated by Susan Bernofsky, German
Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence translated by Maureen Freely, Turkish
Per Petterson, I Curse the River of Time translated by Charlotte Barslund with Per Petterson, Norwegian

Also longlisted

Veronique Olmi, Beside the Sea; translated by Adriana Hunter, French
David Grossman, To the End of the Land; translated by Jessica Cohen, Hebrew
Daniel Kehlmann, Fame translated by Carol Brown Janeway, German
Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Secret History of Costaguana translated by Anne McLean, Spanish
Michal Witkowski, Lovetown translated by W Martin, Polish
Jachym Topol, Gargling with Tar translated by David Short, Czech
Juli Zeh, Dark Matter translated by Christine Lo, German
Shuichi Yoshida, Villain translated by Philip Gabriel, Japanese
Per Wästberg, The Journey of Anders Sparrman translated by Tom Geddes, Swedish

2012

Shortlist

Aharon Appelfeld, Blooms of Darkness translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green
Judith Hermann, Alice translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo
Yan Lianke, Dream of Ding Village translated from the Chinese by Cindy Carter
Sjón, From the Mouth of the Whale translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
Diego Marani, New Finnish Grammar translated from the Italian by Judith Landry
Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon

Also longlisted

Haruki Murakami, 1Q84: Books 1 and 2, translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin
Steve Sem-Sandberg, The Emperor of Lies translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
Tristan Garcia, Hate: A Romance translated from the French by Marion Duvert and Lorin Stein
Matthias Politycki, Next World Novella translated from the German by Anthea Bell
Péter Nádas, Parallel Stories translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein
Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mother translated from the Korean by Shin Chi-Young Kim
Dag Solstad, Professor Andersen's Night translated from the Norwegian by Agnes Scott Langeland
Amos Oz, Scenes From Village Life translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas De Lange
Bernardo Atxaga, Seven Houses in France translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

2013

;Shortlist

Gerbrand Bakker, The Detour, Harvill Secker
Chris Barnard, Bundu, Alma Books
Daša Drndić, Trieste, MacLehose Press
Ismail Kadare, The Fall of the Stone City, Canongate
Andrés Neuman, Traveller of the Century, Pushkin Press
Enrique Vila-Matas, Dublinesque, Harvill Secker

;Also longlisted

Laurent Binet, HHhH, Harvill Secker
Pawel Huelle, Cold Sea Stories, Comma Press
Pia Juul, The Murder of Halland, Peirene Press
Khaled Khalifa, In Praise of Hatred, Doubleday
Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, Harvill Secker
László Krasznahorkai, Satantango, Tuskar Rock
Alain Mabanckou, Black Bazaar, Serpent's Tail
Diego Marani, The Last of the Vostyachs, Dedalus
Orhan Pamuk, Silent House, Faber
Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The Sound of Things Falling, Bloomsbury

2014

;Shortlist

Hassan Blasim, The Iraqi Christ
Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Man in Love
Hiromi Kawakami, Strange Weather in Tokyo
Hubert Mingarelli, A Meal in Winter
Yōko Ogawa, Revenge
Birgit Vanderbeke, The Mussel Feast - special mention by the jury.

;Also longlisted

Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Washer
Julia Franck, Back to Back
Sayed Kashua, Exposure
Andrej Longo, Ten
Ma Jian, The Dark Road
Andreï Makine, Brief Loves that Live Forever
Javier Marías, The Infatuations
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, Butterflies in November
Jón Kalman Stefánsson, ''The Sorrow of Angels''

2015

;Shortlist

Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel, By Night the Mountain Burns
Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Daniel Kehlmann, F
Tomás González, In the Beginning Was the Sea
Erwin Mortier, While the Gods Were Sleeping

;Also longlisted

Tomas Bannerhed, The Ravens
Marcello Fois, Bloodlines
Hamid Ismailov, The Dead Lake
Karl Ove Knausgaard, Boyhood Island
Jung-Myung Lee, The Investigation
Judith Schalansky, The Giraffe's Neck
Stefanie de Velasco, Tiger Milk
Timur Vermes, Look Who's Back
Can Xue, ''The Last Lover''

Summary of Prize Recipients

No prize awarded from 1996 through 2000.
Merged with the International Booker Prize after the award of the 2015 prize.