Fiction: Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal. Published by New York Review of Books.
Poetry: Aleš Šteger’s The Book of Things, translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry. Published by BOA Editions.
Surprised? Nonplussed? Satisfied? I think I lost a dollar to myself–was convinced that Susan Bernofsky would win for her translation of Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck–but I can’t say that I’m surprised by the Tove Jansson win. Cheers to all involved in bringing these works to English-speaking audiences.
Confession: I haven’t read a single title on the 2011 Best Translated Book Award shortlist. Sure, I’ve attempted to read Agaat but had to set it down because it wasn’t for me. And yes, on my bookshelf sits Jenny Erpenbeck’s The Visitation, which was translated by Susan Bernofsky (who blogs at Translationista and is now, with Edith Grossman and Jonathan Cohen, writing a series on how to review of a translation, which I appreciate greatly). As I review this list, I know which books I want in my hands, like, now. I’m talking to you The Jokers, On Elegance While Sleeping and you, too, The True Deceiver. While I don’t think I’ll be picking up Agaat again, I can say that while I’ve tried and discarded it, I like knowing that others will–and have–connected with it in a way that I couldn’t. For the uninitiated:
The Best Translated Book Awards launched in 2007 as a way of bringing attention to great works of international literature. Original translations (no reprints or retranslations) published between December 2009 and November 2010 are eligible for this year’s award. Quality of the original book and the artistry of the English translation are the criteria used in determining the winning titles.
For more information about the BTBA and those who made it happen, click here.
The 2011 BTBA Fiction Finalists (in alphabetical order by author):
The Literary Conference by César Aira, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (New Directions)
The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive)
A Life on Paper by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin (Small Beer)
The Jokers by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis (New York Review Books)
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)
Hocus Bogus by Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar), translated from the French by David Bellos (Yale University Press)
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal (New York Review Books)
On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui, translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey (Dalkey Archive)
Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk, translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns (Tin House)
Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg (Archipelago)
The 2011 BTBA Poetry Finalists (in alphabetical order by author):
Geometries by Eugene Guillevic, translated from the French by Richard Sieburth (Ugly Ducking)
Flash Cards by Yu Jian, translated from the Chinese by Wang Ping and Ron Padgett (Zephyr Press)
Time of Sky & Castles in the Air by Ayane Kawata, translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu (Litmus Press)
Child of Nature by Luljeta Lleshanaku, translated from the Albanian by Henry Israeli and Shpresa Qatipi (New Directions)
The Book of Things by Aleš Šteger, translated from the Slovenian by Brian Henry (BOA Editions)
The American Library Association Youth Media Awards were announced this morning in San Diego at ALA Midwinter. From Yahoo News:
Mildred L. Batchelder Award for an outstanding children’s book translated from a language other than English and subsequently published in the United States
“A Time of Miracles” is the 2011 Batchelder Award winner. Originally published in French in 2009 as “Le Temps des Miracles,” the book was written by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated by Y. Maudet, and published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Two Batchelder Honor Books also were selected: “Departure Time,” published by Namelos, written by Truus Matti and translated by Nancy Forest-Flier; and “Nothing,” published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, written by Janne Teller and translated by Martin Aitken.
Both A Time of Miracles and Departure Time look like promising books for readers interested in middle grade and young adult fiction. A Time of Miracles follows Blaise and Gloria on a five year journey from the Republic of Georgia toward France after the Soviet Union collapses. This is the first I’ve heard of Anne-Laure Bondoux, whose The Killer Tears received the Prix Sorcières in France and a Mildred L. Batchelder Honor. (Indiebound)
Departure Time is “an amazing journey of a girl in two stories. There is the girl in the hotel with the fox and the rat. And there is the girl with a father who travels a lot and who suggests to write a story together. A story about talking animals. But she doesn’t want to. She is angry with him, because he can’t make her birthday in time. Again. The two stories slowly start to intertwine and come together in a surprising ending.” (Indiebound)
I tried but failed to complete (and enjoy) Nothing, which is so existential it hurts, but would be interested in hearing your opinion of it. (Indiebound)
Congratulations and appreciation to all who were involved in the creation and translation of these books!
