Wiola is growing up. We are still growing up in parallel. She is a student in Poland exactly when I am a student in Poland, the academic session of 1995/1996. Except I’m in Warsaw for a year of my degree,…
Accomodations
Tagged with: Accommodations, books, Jennifer Croft, Polish, Translation, Wioletta Greg
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Empty Words
“This book might change your life, or at least your handwriting.” Alejandro Zambra is not wrong about Mario Levrero’s Empty Words. Annie McDermott’s translation, out last Thursday, might just do the same for you. There are plenty of “how to…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, Annie McDermott, books, Mario Levrero, Spanish, Translation, Uruguay, writing
Posted in books, translation, words
Posted in books, translation, words
The Condition of Secrecy
Words grow out of her like leaves from a tree. They just emerge that way, it’s an organic process. There are so many endless possibilities, starting from somewhere, one could end up anywhere at all. Words fight each other and…
Tagged with: books, Danish, essays, Inger Christensen, Susanna Nied, The Condition of Secrecy, Translation, writing
Posted in books, translation, words
Posted in books, translation, words
Negative Space
A voice from Albania, somewhere I’ve never been, seems to know exactly what I’m thinking. This is all the more interesting as for a long time, the poet, Luljeta Lleshanaku, couldn’t go anywhere at all. Born in 1968, she grew…
Tagged with: Albania, Albanian, Ani Gjika, Bloodaxe Books, books, Luljeta Lleshanaku, Negative Space, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
To Leave with the Reindeer
What makes humans different from other creatures? We draw a clear distinction, but maybe our actions show there’s less of a difference than we think in the way we try to raise children and animals. There is a lot of…
Tagged with: And Other Stories, books, French, Kiki Smith, Olivia Rosenthal, Sophie Lewis, To Leave with the Reindeer, Translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
What we owe
As an immigrant to a Nordic country under very different circumstances, I devoured this. I’m vastly more privileged – I am not a political refugee, although my grandparents and great uncle were, in their day. But the otherness and sameness…
Tagged with: books, Elizabeth Jane Clark Wessel, Golnaz Hashemazeh Bonde, Iran, Sweden, Swedish, Translation, What we Owe
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Love
This PEN award winner is indeed about love, and distance. I haven’t read such a desperately sad story for a long, long time. Like Romeo and Juliet, it’s the just-too-lateness of it all that is the most tragic. But this…
Tagged with: Archipelago Books, books, Hanne Ørstavik, Love, Martin Aitken, Norwegian, PEN Literary Award, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
