Sons, Daughters wins the EBRD Literature Prize 2025

Sons, Daughters, a novel by Ivana Bodrožić, translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursać and published by Seven Stories Press UK, has won the EBRD Literature Prize 2025.

The powerful and timely novel—published in English for the first time last year—was selected from a shortlist of outstanding works translated into English from the Bank’s regions. The winning title was chosen by an independent panel of judges:

• Writer, critic and cultural journalist Maya Jaggi (chair)
• Translator and UCL academic Uilleam Blacker
• Writer and editor Selma Dabbagh
• BBC News foreign correspondent Fergal Keane

This year’s other finalists were:

• Ukrainian author Tanja Maljartschuk and translator Zenia Tompkins for Forgottenness, published by Bullaun Press (Ireland) and Liveright Books (US)
• Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk and translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones for The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions

The EBRD Literature Prize celebrates the best in translated fiction from the regions where the Bank works—recognising both the authors and the translators who bring these stories to new audiences.