The Best Translated Book Award Finalists 2016

Hello Gentle Reader

The Literary awards of this spring, are quickly maturing, and releasing their finalists, for their awards. First it was the Man Booker International Prize with its longlist, and soon to follow shortlist; now the Best Translated Book Award has released its finalists for this year’s honour of being referred to as the Best Translated Book Award in Fiction and Poetry.

Here is the Fiction Shortlist, which is listed in no particular order:

José Eduardo Agualusa – Angola – “A General Theory of Oblivion,”

Elena Ferrante – Italy – “The Story of the Lost Child,”

Clarice Lispector – Brazil – “The Complete Stories,”

Samuel Archibald – Canada (Quebec) – “Arvida,”

Gabrielle Wittkop – France – “Murder Most Seren

Valeria Luiselli – Mexico – “The Story of My Teeth,”

Yuri Herrera – Mexico – “Signs Preceding the end of the World,”

Mercè Rodoreda – Spain (Catalan) – “War, So Much War,”

Georgi Gospodinov – Bulgaria – “The Physics of Sorrow,”

Yoel Hoffmann – Israel – “Moods,”

Here is the Poetry Shortlist, which aagain is listed in no particular order:

Liu Xia – China – “Empty Chairs: Selected Poems,”

Angélica Freitas – Brazil – “Rilke Shake,”

Silvina Ocampo – Argentina – “Silvina Ocampo,”

Yi Lu – China – “Sea Summit,”

Various writers/Edited by: Farzana Marie – Afghanistan – “Load Poems Like Guns: Women’s Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan,”

Abdourahmaa A. Waberi – Djibouti – “The Nomads, My Brothers, Go Out to Drink from the Big Dipper,”

There it is, Gentle Reader; the Shortlist(s) for this years Best Translated Book Award, in both Fiction and Poetry. In poetry there are two writers from China. The first being: Yi Lu. Yi Lu, is one of the most read poets in contemporary China, but also works a scenographer in the theatre. However, she is more well known for her highly distilled poems, which have been honoured with numerous awards in China. Liu Xia, is probably more well-known first and foremost as the wife of the imprisoned activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo. However Lu Xia is an accomplished poet, photographer and painter. Contrary to the political swarm of files, which buzz around Xia, she is not a public political dissident in the same sense as her husband; though she is a political enemy of the state, and has been placed under house arrest. Nonetheless, Liu Xia is a quiet intellectual, but is considered her husband’s greatest bridge to the outside world.

The Fiction shortlist, see’s two overlaps with the Man Booker International Prize. Both, Elena Ferrante and José Eduardo Agualusa have been shortlisted for this year’s award, for their respective novels: “The Story of the Lost Child,” and “A General Theory of Oblivion.” The Spanish language and the southern hemisphere also received, attention and acknowledgement from this year’s shortlist.

Good Luck as always to all the writers and poets, who have made on to the shortlists!

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary

IMPAC Literary Dublin Award Shortlist 2016

Hello Gentle Reader

The IMPAC Literary Dublin Award has announced its shortlist. It is the most lucrative award, for a single work of fiction, with a paycheque of $100, 000. This year’s list ranges from established writers, to new writers, and up and coming writers. There are books from the US, to Ireland, Jamaica, and Rwanda. The following is the shortlisted writers and their work:

Scholastique Mukasonga – Rwanda – “Our Lady of the Nile,”

Marlon James – Jamaica – “A Brief History of Seven Killings,”

Michel Laub – Brazil – “Diary of the Fall,”

Jenny Erpenbeck – Germany – “The End of Days,”

Javier Cercas – Spain – “Outlaws,”

Mary Costello – Ireland – “Academy Street,”

Marilynne Robinson – United States – “Lilia,”

Akhil Sharma – United States – “Family Life,”

Jenny Offill – United States – “Dept of Speculation,”

Dave Eggers – United States – “Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?”

Two writes on the shortlist are listed with their debuts: Scholastique Mukasonga with her debut novel “Our Lady of the Nile,” and Mary Costello with her novel “Academy Street.” Mary Costello is also the only Irish writer to have been shortlisted, while the rest are from Spain, Brazil, Rwanda, Germany and the United States. It’s not a varied list, by means in comparison with other literary awards, but it will be interesting to see who will walk away with the literary award, and its coveted paycheque.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary

The Man Booker International Prize Shortlist 2016

Hello Gentle Reader

From a longlist of thirteen writers and novels, the Man Booker International Prize has now reduced its list, to its five shortlisted writers and their respective novels. On the longlist, there were two Nobel Laureates, only one remains on the shortlist. The shortlist is diverse in both subject matter, and where authors originate from. The shortlist tackles writers who deal with personal and tragic matters; to the political observations of the twentieth century, to quiet private rebellions, to the observation of a country in flux.

Below is the shortlist Gentle Reader in no particular order:

José Eduardo Agualusa – Angola – “A General Theory of Oblivion,”

Han Kang – South Korea – “The Vegetarian,”

Elena Ferrante – Italy – “The Story of the Lost Child,”

Orhan Pamuk – Turkey – “A Strangeness in my Mind,”

Robert Seethaler – Austria – “A Whole Life,”

Yan Lianke – China – “The Four Books,”

The mysterious literary and translation block buster: Elena Ferrante, once again finds herself shortlisted for a literary award in English. Her scathing and torched prose, once again finds its readership in English. Despite becoming a Nobel Laureate in Literature (roughly ten years ago), Orhan Pamuk, remains very relative and engaging to new readers, and on the world literary stage.  José Eduardo Agualusa is one of those great literary gems to come from post-colonial Africa, much like fellow writers Mia Couto, Ben Orki, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o; for his ability to discuss the political and historical, within the constraints of the literary. There is no denying that Yan Lianke is a dissident Chinese writer, and his novel “The Four Books,” is a politically charged account of the famine of the 1950’s Communist China. The book itself took twenty years to plan and write, and was rejected immediately by publishers for its political content, and banned in mainland China. South Korea is starting to make a greater move onto the literary world map. Though what we are finding with South Korea is women are now taking more precedence or more interest over their male counterparts. For years Ko Un was considered South Korea’s greatest (and often hinted only) Nobel Laureate candidate, but in recent years, South Korea has begun to show its greatest literary treasures, and some of these treasures are women, who write about the constraints and confinement of South Koreas patriarchal society.  Han Kang’s novel “The Vegetarian,” is a uniquely strange novel about suffering, pain and the body, whilst it’s speaks universal truths in a unique cultural context. Robert Seethaler and his novel “A Whole Life,” is perhaps the dark horse of the shortlist, and the underdog. If one is not paying particular attention, Robert Seether’s novel will quickly be overlooked and missed but, his novel of isolationism and the quiet dignity of solitude is a master of subtle acts and life.

There you have it again Gentle Reader, the Man Booker Prize International shortlist; and what a diverse shortlist it has become. Five unique novels, which range from: the political, to the historical, to private revolutions; all the way to the subtle masterpieces of quiet solitude. The shortlist also contains literary block busters like Elena Ferrante and Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk. It’s a unique shortlist of unique writers, whose subject matter vary.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary