The Best Translated Book Award & The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Hello Gentle Reader

With the announcement of The Best Translated Book Award & The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, there’s a look into translated works, that may have slipped under ones radar. There are only so many results that can be produced from, browsing publisher pages, reading blogs and stalking forums. This is where awards, have their purposes. It allows for one to see some of the books that may have just passed unnoticed, and have been taken into consideration by others.

After reviewing the Longlist for the Best Translated Book Award, I can see that I only got two guesses right for those that would make it on the Longlist. Those two being last year’s winner László Krasznahorka, from Hungary and Romanian author, Mircea Cărtărescu. In all it’s a good longlist. My only disappointment is seeing Mo Yan on the list. But That’s a long complicated story, and one in which I have no time or appreciation for the author; and have abstained from ever reading any of the authors books, on some high horse principle.

Here are the Longlisted authors and their works for the Best Translated Book Award, in no particular order.

“Her Not All Her,” Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
“My Struggle: Book Tow,” Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norway)
“Sleet,” Stig Dagerman (Sweden)
“Blinding,” Mircea Cărtărescu (Romania)
“Horses of God,” Mahi Binebine (Morocco)
“Autobiography of a Corpse,” Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (Ukrainian/Russian)
“The Infatuations,” Javiar Marías (Spain)
“The Whispering Muse,” Sjon (Iceland)
“The Forbidden Kingdom,” Jan Jacob Slauerhoff (Netherlands)
“The Devils Worship,” Jáchym Topol (Czech Republic)
“Red Grass,” Boris Vian (French)
“City of Angels, or, The Overcoat of Dr. Freud,” Christa Wolf (German)
“The African Shore,” Rodrigo Rey Rosa
“Through the Night,” Stig Sæterbakken (Norway)
“Leg over Leg Vol 1,” Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (Lebanon)
“Commentary,” Marcelle Sauvageot (France)
“A True Novel,” Minae Mizumura (Japan)
“In the Night of Time,” Antonio Muñoz Molina (Spain)
“The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra,” Pedro Mairal (Argentina)
“Seiobo There Below,” László Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
“The Story of a New Name,” Elena Ferrante (Italy)
“Tirza,” Arnon Grunberg (Netherlands)
“Textile,” Orly Castel-Bloom (Israel)
“The End of Love,” Marcos Giralt Torrente (Spain)
“Sandalwood Death,” by Mo Yan (China)

The following is the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for this year:

“The Iraqi Christ,” Hassan Blasim (Iraq)
“Revenge,” Yoko Ogawa (Japan)
“Ten,” Andrej Longo (Italy)
“My Struggle: Book Tow,” Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norway)
• Listed as: “A Man in Love,”
“Brief Loves that Live Forever,” Andreï Makine (France)
“The Mussel Feast,” Birgit Vanderbeke (Germany)
“Butterflies in November,” Audur Ava Ólafsdóttir (Iceland)
“The Sorrows of Angels,” Jón Kalman Stefánsson (Iceland)
“The Infatuations,” Javiar Marías (Spain)
“The Corpse Washer,” Sinan Antoon (Iraq)
“Exposure,” Sayed Kashua (Israel)
“A Meal in Winter,” Hubert Mingarelli (France)
“Back to Back,” Julia Franck (Germany)
“Strange Weather in Tokyo,” Hiromi Kawakami (Japan)
“The Dark Road,” Ma Jian

Both prizes appear to have picked out a good number of books. With some expectations. After reviewing the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the one book that struck me as a bit airy and willy nilly, was “Strange Weather in Tokyo,” in its Murakami-esque in its off put romance. In all though both lists are compiled interestingly enough; and there is not a lot of overlap, so it allows for different talents and authors to showcase their own works, and their talents.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*

M. Mary