Translator Ross Benjamin interviewed

Ross Benjamin said in a May 15 interview with The Hindu that translating Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director required him to recreate not just the German author’s sentences but the experience of reading the novel in English. The book, published in English in 2025, is on the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist with Benjamin named alongside Kehlmann. The novel fictionalizes the life of filmmaker G.W. Pabst, the Austrian director whose career became entangled with Nazi Germany. (thehindu.com) The Hindu interview appeared four days before the International Booker winner is due to be announced in London on May 19. (lithub.com) ### What did Ross Benjamin say about translating *The Director*? Ross Benjamin told The Hindu that translation determines how English-language readers encounter Kehlmann’s work because the translator is responsible for the version they actually read. The interview described Benjamin as returning to the International Booker shortlist after his earlier nomination for translating Kehlmann’s Tyll in 2020. The Hindu said Benjamin focused on rendering Kehlmann’s prose with what it called “equal cinematic force,” a description tied to the novel’s subject, Pabst, and to the author’s scene-building style. (thehindu.com) Benjamin discussed the challenge of carrying over tonal and stylistic choices from German into English without flattening the effect of the original. ### Why is *The Director* on the International Booker shortlist? The Booker Prize organization said on March 31 that The Director was one of six books shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize. (thehindu.com) The prize recognizes fiction translated into English, with the award shared equally between author and translator. The shortlist names Daniel Kehlmann as author and Ross Benjamin as translator. The Booker organization’s reading guide says Kehlmann’s novel is his 14th and notes that Pabst is the central figure in a story based on the real-life Austrian filmmaker. (thehindu.com) ### Who is G.W. Pabst in the novel Benjamin translated? G.W. Pabst is the historical filmmaker at the center of The Director, which The Hindu said fictionalizes his life. The interview said Pabst was a pioneering German filmmaker associated with advances in film editing and with the careers of actors including Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks. (thebookerprizes.com) Simon & Schuster’s description of the English-language edition says the novel follows Pabst from Hollywood back to Austria after he learns his mother is ill, placing him and his family inside the Nazi system he believed he could navigate. (thebookerprizes.com) The Booker reading guide says the novel traces his “hopeless entanglement” after he takes what it describes as the first steps toward accommodation with the regime. ### What does Benjamin’s shortlisting add to Kehlmann’s Booker history? Ross Benjamin was previously shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2020 for translating Kehlmann’s Tyll, according to both The Hindu and the Booker reading guide. (thehindu.com) The 2026 nomination therefore returns the same author-translator pairing to the prize’s final list. The Booker shortlist announcement said the 2026 list marks the prize’s 10th year in its current form. Literary Hub, citing the prize announcement, said the winning author and translator will share £50,000, while each shortlisted title receives £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator. (simonandschuster.com) ### When will the prize result be known? May 19 is the scheduled date for the 2026 International Booker Prize announcement, according to Literary Hub and other reports on the shortlist. The Director will compete against five other shortlisted translated works when the winner is named in London. (thehindu.com) The Booker organization’s shortlist announcement remains the official list of contenders, and The Hindu interview places Benjamin’s comments in the final days before that decision. Ross Benjamin and Daniel Kehlmann are the named participants attached to The Director when the prize is decided on May 19. (thebookerprizes.com) (thehindu.com) (lithub.com)