International Booker pick
Rene Karbash’s She Who Remains — first published in Bulgarian in 2018 and translated by Izidora Angel — is being spotlighted on the International Booker shortlist for its themes of freedom and survival (scroll.in). The coverage highlights the book’s focus on the “cost of living as a free woman” and places translator Izidora Angel squarely in the awards conversation (scroll.in).
Rene Karabash’s *She Who Remains*, translated by Izidora Angel, is one of six books on the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist. (thebookerprizes.com) The shortlist was announced on March 31, 2026. The winner will be named on May 19 at Tate Modern in London, and the £50,000 prize is split equally between author and translator. (thebookerprizes.com) *She Who Remains* was first published in Bulgarian and appeared in English from Peirene Press on February 10, 2026. The English edition credits Karabash as author and Angel as translator. (thebookerprizes.com) The novel follows Bekija, a girl in an Albanian mountain village governed by the Kanun, a traditional code of law. To escape an arranged marriage, she becomes a “sworn virgin,” takes the name Matija, and lives socially as a man. (thebookerprizes.com) The judges said the book captures “the cost” of that freedom inside a family and village shaped by rigid rules. Scroll’s coverage centers the same tension, describing the novel as a story about “the cost of living as a free woman.” (thebookerprizes.com) (scroll.in) Angel is part of the prize story, not a footnote to it. Under International Booker rules, the award recognizes translated fiction published in the United Kingdom or Ireland and gives the author and translator equal credit and equal prize money. (publishersweekly.com) This is the 10th year of the prize in its current single-book format. The 2026 shortlist was chosen from 128 submissions and narrowed from a longlist of 13 books. (publishersweekly.com) (booksandpublishing.com.au) The six shortlisted books range across settings including the Albanian Alps, Tehran after the 1979 revolution, Nazi-era Austria, colonial Taiwan, suburban France and a Brazilian prison colony. Critics and trade coverage have described the list as unusually focused on identity, history and survival. (nytimes.com) (npr.org) For Karabash and Angel, the shortlist puts a Bulgarian novel about gender, love and social constraint into one of English-language publishing’s biggest translated-fiction contests. The next marker is May 19, when the judges turn a six-book shortlist into one winner. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2)
