International Booker Prize

Dante

Dante

Wild Reader
I was happy to see two Italian books that I thoroughly enjoyed, on the longlist: now I've actually got someone to root for!

Especially Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, since I do appreciate his writing and that book is widely considered his masterpiece. It also won the Premio Strega in 2001, the most prestigious Italian literary award.
 
Dante

Dante

Wild Reader
Verkhovensky said:
I now wonder which race or nationality is he supposed to be. Indigenous? He is from your city, isn't he? Salvador.

Re: Domenico Starnone I'm interested in him as an author since he is one of the names proposed as the person behind Elena Ferrante pseudonym. Both him and his wife are amongst top three candidates. Interestingly this book from Booker's list is from like 2000. It took them a lot to translate it into English. Jhumpa Lahiri usually translated him, but not this book.
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I actually believe that Starnone is one of the two halves of Elena Ferrante... and the other one might be Anita Raja, his wife!
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Dante said:
I was happy to see two Italian books that I thoroughly enjoyed, on the longlist: now I've actually got someone to root for!

Especially Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone, since I do appreciate his writing and that book is widely considered his masterpiece. It also won the Premio Strega in 2001, the most prestigious Italian literary award.
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Funny I cannot find a Spanish translation for this novel, especially since it's from 2000 and we usually get translations from Italian in a fair amount.
There are a few of his books translated, most of them published in recent years: Confidenzi, Lacci, Scherzetto.
Good to see you around Dante.
 
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Dante

Dante

Wild Reader
Daniel del Real said:
Funny I cannot find a Spanish translation for this novel, especially since it's from 2000 and we usually get translations from Italian in a fair amount.
There are a few of his books translated, most of them published in recent years: Confidenzi, Lacci, Scherzetto.
Good to see you around Dante.
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Via Gemito likely hasn't been translated into Spanish yet due to its considerable length, as it is one of Starnone's voluminous works.
For publishers, it's typically more advantageous to initially introduce a recognized literary author into a new market with her/his smaller novels, since translating shorter works entails significantly lower costs. This is particularly true if the authors do not write in English.

Always a pleasure to see you too, Daniel.
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
Dante said:
Via Gemito likely hasn't been translated into Spanish yet due to its considerable length, as it is one of Starnone's voluminous works.
For publishers, it's typically more advantageous to initially introduce a recognized literary author into a new market with her/his smaller novels, since translating shorter works entails significantly lower costs. This is particularly true if the authors do not write in English.

Always a pleasure to see you too, Daniel.
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You're right, all Starnone's novels I found were 200pp or less.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
Dante said:
Via Gemito likely hasn't been translated into Spanish yet due to its considerable length, as it is one of Starnone's voluminous works.
For publishers, it's typically more advantageous to initially introduce a recognized literary author into a new market with her/his smaller novels, since translating shorter works entails significantly lower costs. This is particularly true if the authors do not write in English.

Always a pleasure to see you too, Daniel.
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Maybe they are also waiting if it wins the award.
 
Bartleby

Bartleby

Moderator
Now, the 2024 shortlist:
  • Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
  • Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
  • The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson
  • Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
  • What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
  • Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz
The winner is going to be revealed on 21 May.
 
Benny Profane

Benny Profane

Well-known member
I'm truly rooting for Itamar.
Despite I don'k like his books, I will be happy if he win.
He very much deserves the Prize. ;)
 
J

Johnny

Well-known member
Bartleby said:
it would certainly cause a stir were his book to win!

From this shortlist, I'm sad that two books I was most eager to read were left out: Via Gemito, and White Nights.
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Agreed, still Via Gemito remains high on the TBR. Maybe I’m being cynical but 6 different books in 6 different languages from 6 different countries from 3 continents looks like literary merit may not have been the only consideration.
 
hayden

hayden

Well-known member
Not to wish misfortune, but I'm glad Undiscovered didn't make the cut. Found it a very difficult work to care about. Felt like one of those episode of family-tree-story-telling sponsored by ancestory.com. And not necessarily an interesting one. Not even sure something like that would be pass publication standards in my neck of the woods.

What I am glad to see is Crooked Plow, which I just finished 'part 1' of on the weekend :)— Itamar has great storytelling skills. Vibe's a little messed up, but realistically. Can't speak for the whole novel as of yet, but I'm enjoying it so far.

I have Not A River on my to-read list, so glad to see that make the cut too I suppose.

Usually Mater 2-10 is something I'd dive right into, but the premise isn't grabbing me (especially at nearly 500 pages). Sounds... dull? Always glad to see Hwang Sok-yong get a bit of love though. I'll... erm... read it if he wins :p

Leseratte said:
The problem is that last years winner was the Brazilian author Stênio Gardel with The Words that Remain. Would they award two Brazilian authors in sequence?
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And this took me for a loop— was about to say I don't remember that in the slightest—
(Last year's winner was Time Shelter by Bulgaria's Georgi Gospodinov) —

I think Crooked Plow has an excellent chance of winning. I hope it's the frontrunner. Not only has Brazil never won, South America hasn't either.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
hayden said:
And this took me for a loop— was about to say I don't remember that in the slightest—
(Last year's winner was Time Shelter by Bulgaria's Georgi Gospodinov) —

I think Crooked Plow has an excellent chance of winning. I hope it's the frontrunner. Not only has Brazil never won, South America hasn't either.
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Maybe I confused two different awards, have to check.
 
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