We chose The Shape of the Ruins as our shadow winner, but the official judges of the Man Booker International Prize went down a different path. The official MBI winner for 2019 is:

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi, translated from the Arabic by Marilyn Booth (Sandstone Press)

You can read my review of Celestial Bodies here: it’s a good book, so I’m pleased. Congratulations to the winners, thanks to my fellow shadow panellists for making the whole process such fun… Looking forward to next year!

Read my other posts on the 2019 Man Booker International Prize here.