Best Translated Books of 2010
By:
January 27, 2011
Our friends at Three Percent (a resource for international literature at the University of Rochester) have just announced the 25-title fiction longlist for the 2011 Best Translated Book Awards.
This year’s judges: Monica Carter (Salonica), Scott Esposito (Conversational Reading and Center for the Art of Translation), Susan Harris (Words Without Borders), Annie Janusch (Translation Review), Matthew Jakubowski (writer & critic), Brandon Kennedy (bookseller/cataloger), Bill Marx (PRI’s The World: World Books), Michael Orthofer (Complete Review), and Jeff Waxman (Seminary Co-op and The Front Table).
Award co-founder Chad W. Post notes that this year’s longlist features authors from 19 countries writing in 12 languages — and that it features titles from the past three centuries, from Eline Vere (originally published in Dutch in 1893) to I Curse the River of Time (first published in Norwegian in 2008).
Here’s the longlist, in alphabetical order by author:
The Literary Conference by Cesar Aira.
Translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver.
(New Directions)
The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz.
Translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland.
(Dalkey Archive)
The Rest Is Jungle & Other Stories by Mario Benedetti.
Translated from the Spanish by Harry Morales.
(Host Publications)
A Life on Paper by Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud.
Translated from the French by Edward Gauvin.
(Small Beer)
A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex.
Translated from the French by Donald Wilson.
(Bitter Lemon)
A Splendid Conspiracy by Albert Cossery.
Translated from the French by Alyson Waters.
(New Directions)
The Jokers by Albert Cossery.
Translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis.
(New York Review Books)
Eline Vere by Louis Couperus.
Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke.
(Archipelago)
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck.
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky.
(New Directions)
The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck.
Translated from the German by Anthea Bell.
(Grove)
Hocus Bogus by Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar).
Translated from the French by David Bellos.
(Yale University Press)
To the End of the Land by David Grossman.
Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen.
(Knopf)
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson.
Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal.
(New York Review Books)
The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito.
Translated from the French by Robyn Creswell.
(New Directions)
Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías.
Translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen.
(New Directions)
Cyclops by Ranko Marinković.
Translated from the Croatian by Vlada Stojiljković,
edited by Ellen Elias-Bursać.
(Yale University Press)
Hygiene and the Assassin by Amélie Nothomb.
Translated from the French by Alison Anderson.
(Europa Editions)
I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson.
Translated from the Norwegian by
Charlotte Barslund and the author.
(Graywolf Press)
A Thousand Peaceful Cities by Jerzy Pilch.
Translated from the Polish by David Frick.
(Open Letter)
Touch by Adania Shibli.
Translated from the Arabic by Paula Haydar.
(Clockroot)
The Black Minutes by Martín Solares.
Translated from the Spanish by
Aura Estrada and John Pluecker.
(Grove/Black Cat)
On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui.
Translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey.
(Dalkey Archive)
Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk.
Translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns.
(Tin House)
Microscripts by Robert Walser.
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky.
(New Directions)
Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss.
Translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg.
(Archipelago)
The 10-title fiction shortlist will be announced on Thursday, March 24th. Three Percent’s website will highlight one book a day from the longlist.