Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk’s “Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” is one of three books shortlisted for the Literature Prize of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The book was translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
The other finalists are Soviet Milk by the Latvian author Margita Gaelitis and The Devil’s Dance by Hamid Ismailov from Uzbekistan.
First published in 2009, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is described by the author as a “moral thriller”.
Its film adaptation, entitled Spoor, directed by Agnieszka Holland, won the Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlin Festival in 2017.
Last year Tokarczuk was awarded the International Man Booker prize for her novel Flights.
The EBRD Literature Prize acknowledges a translated work of literary fiction written originally in any language from the bank’s country of operations and published by a UK publisher.
The first prize of EUR 20,000 is equally divided between the winning author and translator. Two runners-up and their translators will receive a prize of EUR 1,000 each.
An award ceremony is to be held at EBRD headquarters on March 7.