Georgi Gospodinov is the first Bulgarian writer nominated for the Booker Prize

Georgi Gospodinov's novel "Time Shelter" is on the long list of nominations for the most prestigious international award given for a specific work, the International Booker Prize.

The book is translated by Angela Rodel, who also becomes part of the international Booker nomination.

This year's jury is chaired by Goncourt winner Leila Slimani. The winner will be announced on 23 May, at a special dinner in London.

"The prize-winning work must be a work that not only speaks to our times, but one that will stand the test of time and become part of the pantheon of great literature," the award's organisers write.

The Booker Prize is the most important event in the literary and publishing world.

It has been awarded since 1969, and its winners include Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Julian Barnes.

In 2005, the International Booker Prize began to be awarded only for books in translation. The first winner was Ismail Kadare. Olga Tokarchuk won the prize the year she received the Nobel. With this nomination, Georgi Gospodinov ranks alongside other authors nominated over the years, such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Milan Kundera, Orhan Pamuk, Amos Oz, Ani Erno and others.

The prize is £50,000 and is split between the author and the translator of the winning book.

The international Booker nomination is yet another recognition for Georgi Gospodinov and the novel "Time Shelter ". "The New Yorker, the Guardian and the Financial Times have named it one of the Books of 2022. Reviews appeared in the Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal. The novel also brought the first Premio Strega Europeo Award, received by an Eastern European writer.