The €20,000 EBRD Literature Prize winner was announced for the first time on 10 April 2018. The Prize had been created to provide a unique opportunity to reflect the culture and creativity of almost 40 countries where the EBRD invests, from Morocco to Mongolia, from Estonia to Egypt.

The inaugural prize is awarded to the best work of literary fiction translated from the original language into English and published by a UK publisher in the 18 months up to 15 November 2017. The  prize is divided equally between author and translator, and champions the art of translation as well as the extraordinary richness, depth and variety of arts and history in the countries in the Bank’s region.

The evening was a unique opportunity to see all three finalist writers and their translators talk about their books before the announcement of the winners.

The finalist titles were:

• All the World’s a Stage by Boris Akunin (translated by Andrew Bromfield) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) Language: Russian 

• Belladonna by Daša Drndic (translated by Celia Hawkesworth) (Maclehose/ Quercus) Language: Croatian

• Istanbul Istanbul by Burhan Sönmez (translated by Ümit Hussein) (Telegram Books) Language: Turkish