PIO in Booker race

translator of Portuguese book

Padma Viswanathan, a Canadian-American writer of Indian-origin, has made it to the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist as the English translator of a Portuguese language novella. ‘On Earth As It Is Beneath’ by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, described by judges as a “brutal, haunting and hypnotic novella set in a remote Brazilian penal colony, where the boundaries between justice and cruelty collapse”, is among the six worldwide contenders for the coveted literary honour.

The annual prize worth £50,000, divided equally between the author and translator, was won last year by Kannada writer-activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for the short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’. Each shortlisted title guarantees a prize of £5,000 — also split 50-50 between the book’s author and English translator.

“What struck us most is how spare, unflinching, unco­mpromising and relentless it is. Maia builds an entire moral universe out of very little: a remote prison, a handful of men, and the rituals of punishment that govern their lives. “The novel reads almost like a dark fable about power, where brutality is ordinary and civilisation feels frighteningly thin,” the judging panel, which also include award-winning Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S Roy, said of the work translated by US-based Viswanathan.

The 58-year-old professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayett­eville is an accomplished playwright and author, whose novels have been published in eight countries.