I read When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back on the train to the city where Naja Marie Aidt was raised, Copenhagen. She wrote it a long journey away from there, back in Brooklyn, where she now lives.…
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When death takes something from you give it back
Tagged with: books, Danish, death, Denise Newman, Naja Marie Aidt, Translation, When Death Takes Something from You Give it BacK
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
The memory police
They took the roses apart themselves, ripping them from their stems and casting the petals on the waters. Silently, purposefully. It was tragic, gardens shaped by decades of love and care destroyed in a moment, yet the people showed little…
Tagged with: International Booker, Japanese, Steven Snyder, The Memory Police, Translation, Women in Translation Month, Yoko Ogawa
Posted in books, Man Booker 2013, translation, Women in Translation Month
Posted in books, Man Booker 2013, translation, Women in Translation Month
Little eyes
I have post-its over the camera on my laptop and my tablet – but not on my phone. Which seems silly as that’s the one that goes everywhere. Now I’m in more and more video meetings, the post-its fall off…
Tagged with: books, Little Eyes, Megan McDowell, Oneworld, Samanta Schweblin, Spanish, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Unquiet
When you lose someone, you try to hold onto them. You might wear their old clothes (and they might be rather too big). You might read things they’ve written (even if it’s just underlining or marginal notes in books they’ve…
Tagged with: books, death, Ingmar Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, Linn Ullmann, Liv Ullmann, Norway, Norwegian, Thilo Reinhard, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Empty Hearts
The year is not that far into the future, near enough that it could almost be now, but far away enough that it really couldn’t, at least one hopes not. A bit like Black Mirror, perhaps. But the location of…
Tagged with: books, Empty Hearts, German, John Cullen, Juli Zeh, Leere Herzen, Penguin, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
Celestial Bodies
The second novel by Omani author Jokhar Alharthi, Sayyidat al-Qamar, is translated into English by Marilyn Booth as Celestial Bodies. Which are what? The men around whom the world revolves? That would be the answer one might expect from an…
Tagged with: Arabic, books, Celestial Bodies, Jokha Alharthi, Man Booker International Prize, Marilyn Booth, Oman, Sandstone Press, Translation
Posted in books, literature, Man Booker 2013, translation
Posted in books, literature, Man Booker 2013, translation
New snow, old words
New year, fresh snow. Fresh snow, old words. I first came across Gwerful Mechain this time last year through her most famous poem of all, translated as ‘Ode to My Cunt’ by Zoë Brigley Thompson for Modern Poetry in Translation.…
Tagged with: books, Broadview, Broadview Press, Gwerful Mechain, Katie Gramich, New Year, Poetry, Translation, Welsh
Posted in books, history, literature, poetry, translation
Posted in books, history, literature, poetry, translation
The Jeweller
The jeweller prepares the sanctuary. And you’re lured into it. Mari is a market stallholder in a small North Welsh town. Ordinary enough. Except The Jeweller is written by Caryl Lewis, who also wrote the fabulously dark hit thriller series…
Tagged with: books, Caryl Lewis, Gwen Davies, Hinterland, Honno Press, The Jeweller, Translation, Welsh, Y Gwyll
Posted in books, literature, translation
Posted in books, literature, translation
The Last Witnesses
Translation often comes with a delay, sometimes of decades. Many of these people’s stories are only being told in English after their death. Before that, it took decades for their voices to be heard in their native language. Last Witnesses:…
Tagged with: Belarus, books, history, Larissa Volokhonsky, Richard Pevear, Russian, Second World War, Soviet Union, Svetlana Alexievich, The Last Witnesses, Translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Arid Dreams
These are feminist stories with a difference, in that many of them show how a male protagnonist is thinking, and how their thinking changes through encounter with the women around them. Which hopefully makes the reader take a long hard…
Tagged with: Arid Dreams, books, Duanwad Pimwana, Feminist Press, Mui Poopoksakul, Short Stories, Thai, Translation
Posted in books, translation
Posted in books, translation
