{"id":299696,"date":"2014-10-17T10:33:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T10:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2014\/10\/17\/btba-2015-things-that-have-caught-my-eye-by-scott-esposito\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:39:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:39:24","slug":"btba-2015-things-that-have-caught-my-eye-by-scott-esposito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2014\/10\/17\/btba-2015-things-that-have-caught-my-eye-by-scott-esposito\/","title":{"rendered":"BTBA 2015: Things That Have Caught My Eye by Scott Esposito"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is courtesy of BTBA<\/span><\/a> judge, Scott Esposito. Scott Esposito blogs at Conversational Reading<\/a> and you can find his tweets<\/a> here.<\/i><\/p>\n

As we work our way through the 500-some new translations released in 2014, I\u2019m going to repost on a few books that have stood out for me so far. This list is not exhaustive at all, and it is incredibly subjective, so, disclaimers. But for what it\u2019s worth, here it is.<\/p>\n

Paris<\/i><\/a> by Marcos Giralt Torrente (translated by Margaret Jull Costa)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like Giralt had a direct line into the skull of Javier Mar\u00edas\u2014and, yes, this first novel from one of Spain\u2019s biggest authors can stand up to that kind of comparison (plus, look who translated it). But Giralt is no Mar\u00edas clone. Though his style is clearly indebted in this book, the concerns and narration are wholly Giralt\u2019s. Very few authors could write a debut novel this good.<\/p>\n

La Grande<\/i><\/a> by Juan Jose Saer (translated by Steve Dolph)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From debut to swan song: La Grande<\/em> was what one of Argentina\u2019s greatest postwar authors was working on when he died in 2005. He got close enough to finishing it that I think we can consider it a complete work. It\u2019s huge, ambitious, and very successful.<\/p>\n

Ready to Burst<\/i><\/a> by Frank\u00e9tienne (translated by Kaiama L. Glover)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As publisher Jill Schoolman put it, Frank\u00e9tienne is a force of nature. A poet and author with dozens of works to his name, he is also an artist, musician, and activist. In this slim book he (among other things) articulates his aesthetic of spirialism. It looks to be an amazing read.<\/p>\n

Bombay Stories<\/i><\/a> by Saadat Hasan Manto (translated by Matt Reeck)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Manto gets name-checked a lot as the greatest Urdu short story writer of the 20th century. After having read a few of the stories in this book, I can believe that.<\/p>\n

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay<\/i><\/a> by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Just as Knausgaard\u2019s moment seems to be fading, Elena Ferrante is heating up in the U.S. media. And with good reason.<\/p>\n

Melancholy II<\/i><\/a> by Jon Fosse (translated by Eric Dickens)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jon Fosse\u2019s original Melancholy<\/em> was a damn good read. So, of course, I\u2019m hoping that Dalkey manages to live up to its Nov. 11 release date so that we can consider this for the award.<\/p>\n

Suspended Sentences: Three Novellas<\/i><\/a> by Patrick Modiano (translated by Mark Polizzotti)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have to hand it to the Nobel committee\u2014they usually end up picking writers that I find pretty interesting. I\u2019ve never read Modiano and am eager to give this one a look. Plus, Yale has been doing astonishing work with its Margellos series, so the fact that they were on to this before the Prize is a good indication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is courtesy of BTBA judge, Scott Esposito. Scott Esposito blogs at Conversational Reading and you can find his tweets here. As we work our way through the 500-some new translations released in 2014, I\u2019m going to repost on a few books that have stood out for me so far. This list is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67476],"tags":[58346,58316,58256,12416,58296,13476,58306,52366,58276,13566,58336,58266,58286,58326,416,13486,57526],"class_list":["post-299696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-ann-g","tag-bombay-stories","tag-btba2015","tag-elena-ferrante","tag-franketienne","tag-juan-jose-saer","tag-kaiama-l-glover","tag-la-grande","tag-marcos-giralt-torrente","tag-margaret-jull-costa","tag-matt-reeck","tag-paris","tag-ready-to-burst","tag-saadat-hasan-manto","tag-scott-esposito","tag-steve-dolph","tag-those-who-leave-and-those-who-stay"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299696","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\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333736,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299696\/revisions\/333736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}