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