The 2024 JCB Prize for Literature has released its list of ten titles. Five of the 10 novels were written in English from the start, and the other five were translated from Bengali, Marathi, and Malayalam. On October 23, the shortlist of five books will be revealed, and on November 23, the winner will be declared.

The prize winner will receive a cheque for Rs 25 lakh. An extra Rs 10 lakh will be awarded to the translator if a translated work wins the prize. Additionally, each of the five authors who made the short list will receive Rs 1 lakh, plus an additional Rs 50,000 for the translator’s labour, if any.

Author, translator, and poet Jerry Pinto, academician and translator Tridip Suhrud, curator and art historian Deepthi Sasidharan, writer and filmmaker Shaunak Sen, and artist Aqui Thami were among the jurors.

The enormous volume of submissions, which included the greatest works translated from seven different languages and writers from sixteen states, produced these chosen longlist entries. With “Moustache” featuring in the 2020 winner and “Valli” on the shortlist for 2022, Jayasree Kalathil has been included for the third time. Meanwhile, V Ramaswamy has been listed for the second time with the shortlisting of “The Nemesis” in 2023. Four debut novels are included in the list as well; two of them are translations.

According to Prize director Mita Kapur, “The 2024 Longlist features ten books that offer an evocative portrayal of the varied and complex nature of life in India. It presents a diverse array of Indian fiction.” The themes and events covered by this year’s Longlist encompass both the minute elements of everyday life and the deeper, more remarkable moments.

The longlist of ten novels with a brief description of each is given below:

• Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari (Context/Westland)
• Hurda by Atharva Pandit (Bloomsbury India)
• Of Mothers and Other Perishables by Radhika Oberoi (Simon and Schuster India)
• Lorenzo Searches for the Meaning of Life by Upamanyu Chatterjee (Speaking Tiger Books)
• The Distaste of the Earth by Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih (Penguin India)
• Talashnama: The Quest by Ismail Darbesh, translated from Bengali by V Ramaswamy (HarperCollins India)
• Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Ramesh, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil (HarperCollins India)
• Sanatan by Sharankumar Limbale, translated from Marathi by Paromita Sengupta (Penguin India)
• Leaf, Water and Flow by Avadhoot Dongare, translated from Marathi by Nadeem Khan (Ratna Books)
• The One Legged by Sakyajit Bhattacharya, translated from Bengali by Rituparna Mukherjee (Antonym Collections)