LONDON -- Two decades after its original publication, award-winning South Korean writer Cheon Myeong-kwan's debut novel "Whale" was shortlisted for this year's International Booker Prize, given annually for a work of fiction translated into English and published in the U.K. and Ireland.
"It's a bit late," Cheon said jokingly of the translation in an interview in London. "But [it is] still very much welcomed, and having the opportunity to reach more readers is always a good thing." "Whale" was originally published in Korean in 2004, winning the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea's most prestigious literary prize, in that year.
