Best reads of 2021

[Stevie B]

Not only familiar with it, but have it! As to Birds, it is not in my library, though I've got nine other books by Kemal. So, since the Australian copy is so cheap, I'll order a couple and forward one to you.

Make mine a signed copy. ?
I've read three of his novels, the other being Seagull (which I recall enjoying), but I haven't read Kemal in years. Do you have a title you'd recommend? By the way, he is one of the authors I wrote to when I was in Japan. I received a letter back from his wife Thilda who has translated some of his books into English. By the way, one of my favorite films is "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," by Turkish film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. I appreciated being able to see the landscape that was the setting for so many Kemal books. I'm careful not to recommend that film as the last time I did so, my friend scolded me for having "wasted" three hours of his life watching it. The film was a little too slow for him.

 

[hayden]

I'm careful not to recommend that film as the last time I did so, my friend scolded me for having "wasted" three hours of his life watching it. The film was a little too slow for him.

Wait until he watches Ceylan's other films. Anatolia is basically his blockbuster.
(Also, just if you missed it, I did mention Serpent briefly, and it gets my rec).

 

[Ben Jackson]

Definitely interested in reading this one. From a quick search it was writter in yoruba, am I right Dave?




Glad to see this one on your list as well. I bought A Bleeding Stone so I can keep reading him this year.

Sorry if I'm responding this late, but Soyinka translated Fagunwa's work in the 60s, so I believe that's the version Tiga read. I don't know if there's a newer publication apart from the one done in the 60s.

 

[tiganeasca]

Sorry if I'm responding this late, but Soyinka translated Fagunwa's work in the 60s, so I believe that's the version Tiga read. I don't know if there's a newer publication apart from the one done in the 60s.

Yes, Soyinka's translation is what I read. Worldcat shows that there is also a French edition (published in Dakar; there may be a second French translation published in Lagos) and an Italian translation (published in Milan).

I also found the following:
1. An annotated translation by Gabriel Ajiboye Ajadi, which was his thesis, published by Agbo Areo Pub., Ibadan.
2. "Expedition to the Mount of Thought : the third saga" by Dapo Adeniyi, published by Obafemi Awolowo University Press, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 1994.
3. "The forest of the almighty..." by Pamela J. Smith, a 1986 thesis for the University of Washington.
and very intriguingly - 4. "The mysteries of God" which lists both Olu Obafemi and D. O. Fagunwa as authors. Maybe Obafemi is the translator?
Published by Nelson Publishers, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2012.

Although Fagunwa published other works, nothing else seems ever to have been translated (depending on what #4 actually is). What a pity!

 

[Ben Jackson]

Yes, Soyinka's translation is what I read. Worldcat shows that there is also a French edition (published in Dakar; there may be a second French translation published in Lagos) and an Italian translation (published in Milan).

I also found the following:
1. An annotated translation by Gabriel Ajiboye Ajadi, which was his thesis, published by Agbo Areo Pub., Ibadan.
2. "Expedition to the Mount of Thought : the third saga" by Dapo Adeniyi, published by Obafemi Awolowo University Press, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 1994.
3. "The forest of the almighty..." by Pamela J. Smith, a 1986 thesis for the University of Washington.
and very intriguingly - 4. "The mysteries of God" which lists both Olu Obafemi and D. O. Fagunwa as authors. Maybe Obafemi is the translator?
Published by Nelson Publishers, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2012.

Although Fagunwa published other works, nothing else seems ever to have been translated (depending on what #4 actually is). What a pity!

Soyinka, in the late 1950s, planned to translate many books of Fagunwa. But he complained of linguistic density of Fagunwa's Yoruba langague that after competing translation of Forest of Thousand Demons, he bothered not to translate Fagunwa.

Olu Obafemi's a Professor of Literature and Literary critic, so I think what you posted is an essay or review of Fagunwa's notable work.