Best Translated Book of 2008

[Stewart]

Three Percent (http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=1482) have announced the 25-title fiction longlist for the “Best Translated Book of 2008:” Here are the titles:



The Book of Chameleons (http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=619204) by Jos? Eduardo Agualusa, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn (Simon & Schuster)



What Can I Do When Everything’s On Fire? (http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/spring08/032948.htm) by Ant?nio Lobo Antunes, translated from the Portuguese by Gregory Rabassa (W. W. Norton)



The Elegance of the Hedgehog (http://www.europaeditions.com/book.php?Id=60) by Muriel Barbery, translated from the French by Alison Anderson (Europa Editions)



Tranquility (http://archipelagobooks.org/bk.php?id=47) by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein (Archipelago)



2666 (http://us.macmillan.com/2666) by Roberto Bola?o, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)



Nazi Literature in the Americas (http://www.ndpublishing.com/books/bolanonaziliterature.html) by Roberto Bola?o, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)



Voice Over (http://www.sevenstories.com/Book/?GCOI=58322100297780) by C?line Curiol, translated from the French by Sam Richard (Seven Stories)



The Waitress Was New (http://archipelagobooks.org/bk.php?id=41) by Dominique Fabre, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (Archipelago)



The Taker and Other Stories (http://catalog.openletterbooks.org/authors/6) by Rubem Fonseca, translated from the Portuguese by Clifford Landers (Open Letter)



The Darkroom of Damocles (http://www.overlookpress.com/book-detail.php?book_isbn=1-59020-062-4&last_url=search.php?search=damocles) by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke (Overlook)



Homage to Czerny: Studies in Virtuoso Technique (http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/catalog/show/549) by Gert Jonke, translated from the German by Jean Snook (Dalkey Archive)



Metropole (http://www.telegrambooks.com/archives/metropole/#000259) by Ferenc Karinthy, translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes (Telegram)



Detective Story (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307266446) by Imre Kertesz, translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson (Knopf)



Yalo (http://archipelagobooks.org/bk.php?id=6) by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux (Archipelago)



The Great Weaver from Kashmir (http://archipelagobooks.org/bk.php?id=45) by Halld?r Laxness, translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton (Archipelago)



I’d Like (http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/catalog/show/410) by Amanda Michalopoulou, translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich (Dalkey Archive)



The Enormity of the Tragedy (http://www.peterowen.com/pages/fiction/enormity.html) by Quim Monzo, translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush (Peter Owen)



Senselessness (http://www.ndpublishing.com/books/moyasenselessness.html) by Horacio Castellanos Moya, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (New Directions)



The Lemoine Affair (http://www.mhpbooks.com/book.php?id=119) by Marcel Proust, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Melville House)



Death with Interruptions by Jos? Saramago, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)



Unforgiving Years (http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?product_id=7159) by Victor Serge, translated from the French by Richard Greeman (New York Review Books)



Camera (http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/catalog/show/562) by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, translated from the French by Matthew Smith (Dalkey Archive)



Khirbet Khizeh (http://www.ibiseditions.com/home/forthcoming4.html) by S. Yizhar, translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange (Ibis Editions)



Bonsai (http://www.mhpbooks.com/book.php?id=48) by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Carolina De Robertis (Melville House)



The Post-Office Girl (http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?usca_p=t&product_id=7732) by Stefan Zweig, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg (New York Review Books)



We will be announcing the 10 finalists on January 27th, with the winning titles announced on February 19th at a party at the Melville House offices. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be highlighting each of these titles one-by-one leading up to the announcement of the finalists.


In terms of criteria, we only considered original titles published (or released) in the U.S. in 2008. No retranslations, no reprints, no paperbacks of previously published hardcovers were eligible. And what we’re looking for is the best translated book, not just the best translation. Speaking for all the judges, we believe that a great translated book is a combination of a great original and a great translation, and as such, we’d like to honor the book as a book, as a collaborative effort between author, translator, editor, and publisher.



This year’s panelists included Monica Carter, bookseller at Skylight Books (http://www.skylightbooks.com/) and editor of Salonica (http://www.salonicaworldlit.com/) ; Steve Dolph, editor of CALQUE (http://calquezine.blogspot.com/) ; Scott Esposito, editor of Conversational Reading (http://www.conversationalreading.com/) and The Quarterly Conversation (http://www.quarterlyconversation.com/) ; Brandon Kennedy, bookseller at Spoonbill & Sugartown (http://www.spoonbillbooks.com/) ; Michael Orthofer, editor of the Literary Saloon (http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/index.htm) and Complete Review (http://complete-review.com/) ; Chad W. Post, director of Open Letter Books (http://www.openletterbooks.org/) and this blog (http://www.rochester.edu/threepercent) ; E.J. Van Lanen, senior editor of Open Letter Books and Three Percent; and Jeff Waxman, bookseller at the Seminary Co-op Bookstores (http://www.semcoop.com/) and editor of The Front Table (http://blog.semcoop.com/). I've no idea if there's actually a prize at the end of it, other than just been named as Best Translated Book of 2008, but it's good to get a range of some of the more championed titles this year. So, 2666 to win then?


There's a thread for six of these books on World Literature Forum. These are:


The Elegance Of The Hedgehog, Muriel Barberry (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4174-muriel-barberry-elegance-hedgehog.html)
2666, Roberto Bola?o (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/1054-roberto-bolano-2666-a.html)
The Waitress Was New, Dominique Fabre (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/1224-dominique-fabre-waitress-new.html)
Metropole, Karinthy Ferenc (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/846-karinthy-ferenc-metropole.html)
The Darkroom Of Damocles, W.F. Hermans (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/62-w-f-hermans-darkroom-damocles.html)
The Enormity Of The Tragedy, Quim Monz? (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/31-quim-monzo-enormity-tragedy.html)

[Eric]

That's fine. Now, why can't the Brits get it together to do something like that? You know how I hate lists, but this sort of list does draw the attention of Americans to many books they may otherwise have ignored.

And the list is restrictive in a sensible way:


No retranslations, no reprints, no paperbacks of previously published hardcovers were eligible. And what we?re looking for is the best translated book, not just the best translation.

I approve of all of that. There are too many retranslations, at the expense of entirely new ones. And the book must be good, not just the translation, with the translator's claque oozing on about "mellifluous", "smooth" and "brilliant". One day, translations will be treated by Brits and Yanks as ordinary books, rather than fetishes in the same way that some stroke the gold leaf on the bindings.

[LizzySiddal]

There's a thread for a fifth of these books on World Literature Forum. These are:


The Elegance Of The Hedgehog, Muriel Barberry (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4174-muriel-barberry-elegance-hedgehog.html)
2666, Roberto Bola?o (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/1054-roberto-bolano-2666-a.html)
The Waitress Was New, Dominique Fabre (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/1054-roberto-bolano-2666-a.html)
Metropole, Karinthy Ferenc (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/846-karinthy-ferenc-metropole.html)
The Enormity Of The Tragedy, Quim Monz? (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/31-quim-monzo-enormity-tragedy.html)



I'd vote for The Darkroom of Damocles - WLF thread here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/62-w-f-hermans-darkroom-damocles.html).

I read The Book of Chameleons earlier this year but wasn't enthused enough to write about it.

[Eric]

'Fraid I never finished reading the Quim Monz? book; other things got in the way. But what I read was lively enough, though the permanent priapism struck me as a little silly. And I haven't read any of the others, except for the little bit of "The Darkroom of Damocles" which we did in a workshop with the translator a couple of years ago.

So most of the entries here are quite unknown to me. But one question that strikes me is: do collections of stories stand a chance in such a competition (e.g. the Michalopoulou)?

[Stewart]

I'd vote for The Darkroom of Damocles - WLF thread here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/62-w-f-hermans-darkroom-damocles.html).
Ah, I forgot that. Have edited it in.


I read The Book of Chameleons earlier this year but wasn't enthused enough to write about it.
Likewise me, regarding Alejandro Zambra's Bonsai. I even read it twice, since it's so slight, but didn't get the ending, so effectively had little to say about it as a whole.

I've got Voice Over, The Taker and Other Stories, 2666, I'd Like, Camera, and The Post-Office Girl all sitting on my shelves. I'll hope to get through some of them before the shortlist is announced.

[Mirabell]

The Fabre link leads me to the 2666 review. ?

[Stewart]

Fixed.

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/1224-dominique-fabre-waitress-new.html

[nnyhav]

Of these, I've read both the Bola?os, the Castellanos Moya and the Kertesz (recommended in that order). Karinthy is the most enticing among the rest, and I've been tempted by Khoury (and also by longlistleader Archipelago (http://www.archipelagobooks.org/index.php), Small Lives by Pierre Michon, which I expected to see on the list, and Ponge's Mute Objects of Expression; I have procured H?lderlin's Hyperion, but haven't cracked it yet), but not so much by the Nobelaureates, not expecting the recent translations to be Saramago's and Laxness' best work (as with the Kertesz).

But I've put 2666 at the head of my 2008 list translated or no.

[Stewart]

...the Nobelaureates, not expecting the recent translations to be Saramago's and Laxness' best work (as with the Kertesz).
Yeah, I was thinking that about the Laxness. I think it was his third novel. I don't really know about Saramago, having never had the pleasure.