{"id":275796,"date":"2009-12-24T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2009\/12\/24\/winter-reading-list\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T16:41:08","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T16:41:08","slug":"winter-reading-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2009\/12\/24\/winter-reading-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Reading List"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best unexpected results of putting together the translation databases<\/a> is being able to put together an awesome reading list of forthcoming translations. (Or, to put it in a slightly more negative light: to know about way more interesting books than I’ll ever have time to read.) <\/p>\n

The spring is a perfect example. As the reading for the 2010 Best Translated Book Award<\/a> is winding down, I’m getting jacked about 2011 . . . Just look at this list of titles coming out in January – March 2010. (Don’t even<\/em> get me started on April – June . . . my “to read” bookshelf is already overflowing.) Links below go to the Idlewild Books catalog, since Idlewild is our Indie Store of the Month. (And by “month” I mean the rest of December and all of January.) <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

January<\/b><\/p>\n

Georg Letham, Physician and Murderer<\/em> by Ernst Weiss<\/b><\/a> (excerpt<\/a>)
\ntranslated from the German by Joel Rotenberg
\npublished by Archipelago Books<\/p>\n

Archipelago books tend to deliver, and this sounds really intriguing. Thomas Mann gave this a killer blurb: “easily one of the most interesting books I have come across in years.” It’s the story of a scientist-hero who has killed his wife and is deported to a remote island where he “seeks redemption in science.” It was written around the same time as The Man without Qualities<\/em> and The Sleepwalkers<\/em> and has that same sort of middle-European, ambitious vibe. <\/p>\n

My Little War<\/em> by Louis Paul Boon<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent
\npublished by Dalkey Archive Press<\/p>\n

I’m a huge Boon fan, especially of Chapel Road<\/em><\/a> and Summer in Termuren<\/em>,<\/a> and it’s great to see more of his work making it into English. This was a first novel, an account of World War II told through “overheard conversations, newspaper articles, manifestos, and other sights and noises of daily life.” Boon had an amazing gift for language, for capturing the dirty reality and comic charms of daily life and creating something bigger and more meaningful. It’ll be very interesting to see what he created out of these materials.<\/p>\n

Monsieur Pain<\/em> by Roberto Bolano<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews
\npublished by New Directions<\/p>\n

This next year promises to be yet another big year for Roberto Bolano with three books of his coming out from New Directions: Monseiur Pain<\/em>,<\/a> Antwerp<\/em><\/a> and The Return<\/em>.<\/a> This novel—which we’ll be reviewing in the very near future—is about Peruvian poet Cesar Vallejo, a mesmerist, two mysterious gentlemen, a bribe, and guilt. With Bolano you can rest assured that it’s at least worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

February<\/b><\/p>\n

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg<\/em> by Dubravka Ugresic<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac, Celia Hawkesworth, and Mark Thompson
\npublished by Grove<\/p>\n

Dubravka’s one of my all-time favorite writers (which is one of the reasons why her collection of essays, Nobody’s Home<\/em>,<\/a> was the first book published by Open Letter) and this looks like an awesome follow-up to her last work of fiction, The Ministry of Pain.<\/em><\/a> This novel is part of the “Myths” series, retelling the story of Baba Yaga who, according to Russian myth, “is a witch who lives in a house built on chicken legs and kidnaps small children.” We posted about this book<\/a> a while back and included a bit of the opening chapter. This may well be the book that I’m most excited about for 2010 . . .<\/p>\n

Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico<\/em> by Javier Marias<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the Spanish by Esther Allen
\npublished by New Directions<\/p>\n

I know next to nothing about this book aside from the fact that a) it’s published by New Directions (definite plus), b) it’s by Javier Marias (another plus), and c) it’s translated by Esther Allen (three pluses and I’m sold?). That and this description, which is the very definition of “selling copy”: “In this classic Marias story, Elvis and his entourage abandon their translator in a seedy cantina full of enraged criminals.” <\/p>\n

The Museum of Eterna’s Novel (The First Good Novel)<\/em> by Macedonio Fernandez<\/b><\/a> (excerpt<\/a>)
\ntranslated from the Spanish by Margaret Schwartz
\npublished by Open Letter<\/p>\n

Yeah, OK, I’m including one of our own books on this list—but seriously, I waiting almost five years to be able to read this and truly believe it’s one of the great books of the twentieth century. It opens with over fifty prologues! It’s in the meta-vein of At Swim-Two-Birds<\/em>! It’s written by Borges’s mentor! It’s subtitled “The First Good Novel”! (And was a companion to Macedonio’s Adriana Buenos Aires (The Last Bad Novel)<\/em>!) What more do you need to know?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

March<\/b><\/p>\n

Obabakoak<\/em> by Bernardo Atxaga<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the Basque by Margaret Jull Costa
\npublished by Graywolf Press<\/p>\n

Atxaga’s The Accordionist’s Son<\/em><\/a> came out from Graywolf earlier this year and got some good attention. Obabakoak<\/em><\/a> is a collection of stories centered around the village of Obaba, and sounds really intriguing: “A tinge of darkness mingles with moments of wry humor in this dazzling collage of fables, town gossip, diary excerpts, and literary theory, all held together by Bernardo Atxaga\u2019s distinctive and tenderly ironic voice.” Here’s a link to an audio file<\/a> from PEN<\/span> America of Atxaga reading Three Pieces about the Basque Language.<\/a><\/p>\n

Changeling<\/em> by Kenzaburo Oe<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the Japanese by Deborah Boliver Boehm
\npublished by Grove<\/p>\n

Kudos to Grove for having such a great winter\/spring line-up—and for publishing two of the books I’m most looking forward to in 2010. We already have a review of this novel on hand, but with the pub date so far in the future, we’re going to hold onto it for at least a few weeks before posting. The review is very positive, and this story of a man traveling from Japan to Berlin to try to understand what drove his brother-in-law to commit suicide sounds incredibly intriguing.<\/p>\n

Wolf among Wolves<\/em> by Hans Fallada<\/b><\/a>
\ntranslated from the German by Philip Owens
\npublished by Melville House<\/p>\n

This comes on the heels of Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone<\/em>,<\/a> which did very well<\/em> for Melville House. Another massive book (736 pages!), it sounds great: “a sprawling saga of the collapse of a culture—its economy and government—and the common man’s struggle to survive it all. Set in Weimar Germany soon after Germany’s catastrophic loss of World War I, the story follows a young gambler who loses all in Berlin, then flees the chaotic city, where worthless money and shortages are causing pandemonium. Once in the countryside, however, he finds a defeated German army that has deamped there to foment insurrection. Somehow, amidst it all, he finds romance—it’s The Year of Living Dangerously<\/em> in a European setting.”<\/p>\n

That’s it for now . . . More recommendations to come in a few months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the best unexpected results of putting together the translation databases is being able to put together an awesome reading list of forthcoming translations. (Or, to put it in a slightly more negative light: to know about way more interesting books than I’ll ever have time to read.) The spring is a perfect example. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[2176,25476,766,17496,2186,29786,29736,29726,12246,29756,29776,29746,56,29766,1646,756],"class_list":["post-275796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-archipelago-books","tag-baba-yaga-laid-an-egg","tag-chris-andrews","tag-dalkey-archive-press","tag-dubravka-ugresic","tag-ellen-elias-b","tag-ernst-weiss","tag-georg-letham-physician-and-murderer","tag-joel-rotenberg","tag-louis-paul-boon","tag-monsieur-pain","tag-my-little-war","tag-new-directions","tag-paul-vincent","tag-review","tag-roberto-bolano"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322766,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275796\/revisions\/322766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}