Dragons, magic, heaps of gold and jewels, superhuman strength, slaying monsters – both monsters who are slain and monsters who slay. In the ancient and modern senses of the word. It’s fun. It’s fantasy. It’s the perfect read for a…
Blog Archives
Monsters and heroes: Beowulf
Tagged with: Beowulf, books, Grendel's mother, Maria Dahvana Headley, Old English, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
Posted in books, poetry, translation
A window left open
If some of these poems feel like song lyrics, that’s because they are. Pentti Saarikoski’s best-loved work was set to music for the sixties folk group, Muksut. You can watch their original videos in the national treasure trove that is…
Tagged with: books, Dublin Literary Award, Emily Jeremiah, Finland, Finnish, Fleur Jeremiah, Muksut, Norvik Press, Pentti Saarikoski, Poetry, Translation
Posted in books, Dublin Literary Award, poetry
Posted in books, Dublin Literary Award, poetry
The lost soul – zgubiona dusza
The man was moving so fast he had completely forgotten why he was moving at all. So he went to see a wise woman. And the wise woman said, “Slow down. You have to wait for your soul to catch…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, books, Joanna Concejo, Olga Tokarczuk, Poland, Polish, Seven Stories Press, The Lost Soul, Translation, Wydawnictwo Format, Zgubiona dusza
Posted in books, Illustration, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Posted in books, Illustration, Nobel Prize in Literature, translation
Grand Hotel
“People in a hotel” would be a literal translation of Vicki Baum’s groundbreaking novel. It’s nearly a century old now, but when she wrote it, she invented a whole new genre. What sort of people are staying in the hotel?…
Tagged with: Basil Creighton, Berlin, book, Dussmann, German, Grand Hotel, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Margot Bettauer Dembo, Menschen im Hotel, Translation, Vicki Baum
Posted in books, film, history
Posted in books, film, history
And we came outside and saw the stars again
Reading about a pandemic while living through it is not everyone’s idea of staying safe and well (as we’ve wished for each other so often this year). There was a patch in the summer, however, where things were looking up…
Tagged with: And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again, books, Covid-19, Restless Books, Translation
Posted in books
Posted in books
Fifty islands I have not visited and never will
This is the subtitle to Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands. I discovered it eleven years late, because this year Marko Niemi translated it into Finnish. I ordered the German original straight away and despite the pandemic it arrived promptly…
Tagged with: Atlas of Remote Islands, books, Christine Lo, Finnish, German, Mare, Marko Niemi, Poesia, Translation
Posted in books, history, Illustration, translation
Posted in books, history, Illustration, translation
When death takes something from you give it back
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.…
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
