2010 Best Translated Book Award: Fiction Longlist
After months and months (twelve to be exact) and books upon books, our nine fiction panelists finally came up with the 25-title fiction longlist for this year’s Best Translated Book Award.
It was a rather difficult decision—it always is, and for me, there’s always a moment where it seems like 30 books would be a better number than 25 . . . —but I’m personally really happy with the list that we came up with. There are some classic authors (Robert Walser, Robert Bolano), some relative unknowns (Wolf Haas, Ferenc Barnas, Cao Naiqian), and a nice geographical mix (including books from Egypt and Djibouti).
Over the next few days, we’ll be highlighting some anthologies, retranslations/reprints, and honorable mentions that didn’t make the longlist. Then, starting next Monday and running for 25-consecutive business days, I’ll highlight a title a day building up to Tuesday, February 16th when we’ll announce both the fiction and poetry finalists for the 2010 Best Translated Book Awards.
One interesting thing about this year’s fiction longlist—it’s incredibly diverse. We have authors from 24 different countries, writing in 17 different languages, and published by 15 different publishers . . .
Without further ado, here are the 25 fiction finalists. Click on the title to purchase the book from Idlewild Books—our featured indie store of the month—or click on the publisher’s name to go to the dedicated page on the publisher’s website.
2010 Best Translated Book Award: Fiction Longlist
by César Aira.
Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews. (Argentina)
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by Ferenc Barnás.
Translated from the Hungarian by Paul Olchváry. (Hungary)
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by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão.
Translated from the Portuguese by Nelson Vieira. (Brazil)
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by Gerbrand Bakker.
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer. (Netherlands)
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by Roberto Bolaño.
Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews. (Chile)
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by Cao Naiqian.
Translated from the Chinese by John Balcom. (China)
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by Hugo Claus.
Translated from the Dutch by Michael Henry Heim. (Belgium)
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by Hans Fallada.
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann. (Germany)
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by Juan Filloy.
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. (Argentina)
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by Ričardas Gavelis.
Translated from the Lithuanian by Elizabeth Novickas. (Lithuania)
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by Gamal al-Ghitani.
Translated from the Arabic by Farouk Abdel Wahab. (Egypt)
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The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas.
Translated from the German by Stephanie Gilardi and Thomas S. Hansen. (Austria)
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by Gail Hareven.
Translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu. (Israel)
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by Jan Kjærstad.
Translated from the Norwegian by Barbara Haveland. (Norway)
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by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky.
Translated from the Russian by Joanne Turnbull. (Russia)
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by J. M. G. Le Clézio.
Translated from the French by C. Dickson. (France)
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by Orhan Pamuk.
Translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely. (Turkey)
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by Fernando del Paso.
Translated from the Spanish by Alfonso González and Stella T. Clark. (Mexico)
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by Jerzy Pilch.
Translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston. (Poland)
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by José Manuel Prieto.
Translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen. (Cuba)
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by Mercè Rodoreda.
Translated from the Catalan by Martha Tennent. (Spain)
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by Ersi Sotiropoulos.
Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich. (Greece)
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by Mati Unt.
Translated from the Estonian by Eric Dickens. (Estonia)
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by Abdourahman Waberi.
Translated from the French by David and Nicole Ball. (Djibouti)
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by Robert Walser.
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky. (Switzerland)
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