Via Shelf Awareness, January 28:
Finalists for the 2008 Best Translated Book of the Year award in fiction and poetry were named this week. Ten works in each category made the shortlist, which was posted on Three Percent, a website devoted to drawing attention to translated works of literature published in the U.S. Winners and runners-up will be announced February 19.
Fiction:
• Tranquility by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
• Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews
• Voice Over by Céline Curiol, translated from the French by Sam Richard
• The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke
• Yalo by Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux
• Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver
• Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge, translated from the French by Richard Greeman
• Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Carolina De Robertis
• The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg
Poetry:
• Essential Poems and Writings by Robert Desnos, translated from the French by Mary Ann Caws, Terry Hale, Bill Zavatsky, Martin Sorrell, Jonathan Eburne, Katherine Connelly, Patricia Terry, and Paul Auster
• You Are the Business by Caroline Dubois, translated from the French by Cole Swensen
• As It Turned Out by Dmitry Golynko, translated from the Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky, Rebecca Bella, and Simona Schneider
• For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut by Takashi Hiraide, translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu
• Poems of A.O. Barnabooth by Valery Larbaud, translated from the French by Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky
• Night Wraps the Sky by Vladimir Mayakovsky, translated from the Russian by Katya Apekina, Val Vinokur, and Matvei Yankelevich, and edited by Michael Almereyda
• A Different Practice by Fredrik Nyberg, translated from the Swedish by Jennifer Hayashida
• EyeSeas by Raymond Queneau, translated from the French by Daniela Hurezanu and Stephen Kessler
• Peregrinary by Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki, translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston
• Eternal Enemies by Adam Zagajewski, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh
What have you read from the list?
As we’ve been without power, my reading has ebbed and flowed. I read quite a bit on Tuesday; Wednesday I read very little as we trekked from place to place; today, so far, is matching Wednesday.
