When we first opened the voting, for the Best Translation of 2007, it looked like Bolano was going to win by a landslide, but in the end, it was Dorothea Dieckmann’s Guantanamo that came in first by a substantial margin.

The Savage Detectives finished a strong second, and Out Stealing Horses (which I thought would win), came in third. The Assistant was fourth, and all the other titles were pretty much bunched together.

Thanks again for everyone who participated, and I’m personally really looking forward to doing this again at the end of 2008 . . .

Remember to vote for your favorite book from our list of of the top 10 translations of 2007. These are the ten books our panel picked out as the best works in translation published this year. It’s a great list, and we’re very interested in hearing what you think of it.

Right now The Savage Detectives has separated itself from the other titles, although Out Stealing Horses and The Assistant aren’t that far behind. . . .

After consulting with our international literature experts, we finally came up with our list of the top 10 translations of 2007 (see below). Unfortunately, no collections of poetry made the top 10, so I’m listing the three favorites separately to make sure these titles get some attention.

I know 2008 is still a week away, but we’re already thinking about next year, how to improve this process, etc. I won’t bore you with the details, but throughout 2008, we’ll be gathering recommendations so that the longlist will be available in November, and we’re planning on having an expanded panel of experts help select the top 10.

Anyway, here’s the list for 2007:

• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (FSG)

• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortazar, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (Archipelago)

• Guantanamo by Dorothea Dieckmann, translated from the German by Tim Mohr (Soft Skull)

• Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Kamran Rastegar (Melville House)

• Ravel by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)

• Sunflower by Gyula Krudy, translated from the Hungarian by John Batki (NYRB)

• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born (Graywolf Press)

• Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen, translated from the Flemish by the author (Dalkey Archive)

• Montano’s Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Dunne (New Directions)

• The Assistant by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)

And the top 3 works of poetry:

• The Drug of Art: Selected Poems by Ivan Blatny, translated from the Czech by Justin Quinn, Matthew Sweney, Alex Zucker, Veronika Tuckerova, and Anna Moschovakis (Ugly Duckling)

• The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 edited and translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole (Princeton)

• The Collected Poems: 1956-1998 by Zbigniew Herbert, translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz, Peter Dale Scott, and Alissa Valles (Ecco)

Just for kicks—and since we may not be posting much of anything the rest of the year—we’ll put up a poll in a minute so that all of you can vote on your favorite title . . .

Compiling the list of Best Translations was fascinating to me for a number of reasons. One of the first things that struck me is how paradoxical the situation regarding international literature is. Minutes after putting this first seeds of this list online, I started getting enthusiastic e-mails about books that should be included, along with a number of great comments. (This thread has been the most visited and most commented upon of all Three Percent undertakings.)

At the same time, there were a number of messages that fell into the “I haven’t read this, but I’ve heard it’s good” camp. In a way, trying to come up with a list of the “best” translations was at times an exercise in trying to think of books that were published in translation . . . (Which led to my Three Percent New Year Resolution)

Looking over the final list of 50 books, I can’t imagine anyone in the world having read all of these, which is sort of disturbing, but really a fact of life when you consider how many books there are and how little time there is in a year.

Anyway, after pulling this together, I thought it would be interesting to see how things broke down across language and publishing lines. Some of it’s too be expected, but still sort of curious.

Twenty-one languages are represented on the list, with French (11 books or 22%) being the most, Spanish (10, 20%) in second, and German (4), Russian (4), and Japanese (3) rounding out the top five. Two titles from both Arabic and Hebrew made the list, and the following languages each had one title: Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Flemish, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Nepali, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, and Turkish. Overall, a pretty nice balance.

The publishing houses represented break down in an interesting way as well, with university presses and independent presses making up the bulk of the list (about 75%). The presses most represented are New Directions (6 titles), Dalkey Archive (4), Soft Skull (4), Harcourt (3), and New York Review Books (3). Archipelago, Columbia, HarperCollins, Melville House, Nan A. Talese, Other Press, and Princeton each had 2 titles on the list. The following each had 1 book: American University in Cairo, California, Dedalus, Ecco, Europa, Fordham, FSG, Graywolf, MIT, New Press, Overlook, Penguin, Shoemaker & Hoard, SUNY, Toby, and Ugly Duckling.

There were six poetry recommendations, and four essays, so fiction made up a whopping 80% of the long-list.

Four translators appear on the list more than once: Chris Andrews, Susan Bernofsky, and Charlotte Mandell, and Natasha Wimmer.

Although we (publishers and readers) bitch and moan about the state of translations all the time, it is encouraging to me to see such a diverse and interesting list of original translations, Now I just need to find the time to read all of them . . .

Listed below is the latest list of recommendations for the best translated works of 2007. Thanks again to everyone who has posted or e-mailed a suggestion. It’s a pretty impressive list, and, as Angela said in the comments, a bit daunting.

If there are any titles anyone would like to add, please post them in the comments or e-mail me (chad.post at rochester dot edu) by Saturday. At that point, we’re going to take the list and together with the help of a few other international literature experts, we’re going to narrow this down to a “Top 10” list. And after that, we’ll try and set up a poll so that everyone reading this blog can vote on their personal favorite . . .

So for now, here’s the complete list:

• How I Became a Nun by Cesar Aira, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

• A Voice from Elsewhere by Maurice Blanchot, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (SUNY)

• Amulet by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (FSG)

• Christ versus Arizona by Camilo Jose Cela, translated from the Spanish by Martin Sokolinsky (Dalkey Archive Press)

• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortazar, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (Archipelago)

• Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Kamran Rastegar (Melville House)

• Ravel by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)

• Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon, translated from the French by Luc Sante (NYRB)

• Guantanamo by Dorothea Dieckmann, translated from the German by Tim Mohr (Soft Skull)

• The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Melville House)

• The Collected Poems: 1956-1998 by Zbigniew Herbert, translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz, Peter Dale Scott, and Alissa Valles (Ecco)

• The Exception by Christian Jungersen, translated from the Danish by Anna Paterson (Nan A. Talese)

• Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms, translated from the Russian by Matvei Yankelevich (Overlook)

• Sunflower by Gyula Krudy, translated from the Hungarian by John Batki (New York Review Books)

• Dark Paradise by Rosa Liksom, translated from the Finnish by David McDuff (Dalkey Archive)

• The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump by Aharon Megged, translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden (Toby Press)

• In Her Absence by Antonio Munoz Molina, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Other Press)

• Day In Day Out by Terezia Mora, translated from the German by Michael Henry Heim (HarperCollins)

• Lost Paradise by Cees Nooteboom, translated from the Dutch by Susan Massotty (Harcourt Inc.)

• The Unforeseen by Christian Oster, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter (Other Press)

• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born (Graywolf Press)

• Spring Tides by Jacques Poulin, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman (Archipelago)

• Delirium by Laura Restrepo, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Nan A. Talese)

• Ice by Vladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell (New York Review Books)

• Vain Art of the Fugue by Dumitru Tsepeneag, translated from the Romanian by Patrick Camiller (Dalkey Archive)

• The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition by Cesar Vallejo, translated from the Spanish by Clayton Eshleman (Univ. of California Press)

• Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen, translated from the Flemish by the author (Dalkey Archive)

• Montano’s Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Dunne (New Directions)

• The Assistant by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)

• I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young-ha Kim, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Harcourt Inc.)

Rather than reply in the comments of the earlier post about the idea of a “Best Translations of 2007” list, I thought I’d post a little update and respond to the various questions people have asked about this.

First off, I think we should definitely include poetry on this list. At first I was going to list it separately, but with only two collections recommended so far, it didn’t seem right to ghettoize them.

I do want to try and restrict this to titles originally published in English in 2007 though, so I didn’t include Jasmine Isle by Ionanna Karystiani, translated from the Greek by Michael Eleftheriou on the list below, but I’ll mention it here instead. (I’ve heard a lot of great things about this book . . .)

In terms of criteria, I think the quality of the original book and the quality of the translation should go hand-in-hand. So the books on the list should be great books in great translations. A great book in a poor translation will unfortunately come off as a mediocre book to readers unable to read the original, and a great translation of a crappy book doesn’t deserve to be on the list. (I hope that’s clear.)

Listed below is what I have so far. But please keep sending in recommendations (chad.post at rochester dot edu) or posting them in the comments below.

• How I Became a Nun by Cesar Aira, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

• Amulet by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (FSG)

• Christ versus Arizona by Camilo Jose Cela, translated from the Spanish by Martin Sokolinsky (Dalkey Archive Press)

• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortazar, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (Archipelago)

• Ravel by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)

• Guantanamo by Dorothea Dieckmann, translated from the German by Tim Mohr (Soft Skull)

• The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Melville House)

• The Collected Poems: 1956-1998 by Zbigniew Herbert, translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz, Peter Dale Scott, and Alissa Valles (Ecco)

• Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms, translated from the Russian by Matvei Yankelevich (Overlook)

• Sunflower by Gyula Krudy, translated from the Hungarian by John Batki (New York Review Books)

• Montano’s Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Dunne (New Directions)

• The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump by Aharon Megged, translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden (Toby Press)

• In Her Absence by Antonio Munoz Molina, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Other Press)

• Day In Day Out by Terezia Mora, translated from the German by Michael Henry Heim (HarperCollins)

• Lost Paradise by Cees Nooteboom, translated from the Dutch by Susan Massotty (Harcourt Inc.)

• The Unforeseen by Christian Oster, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter (Other Press)

• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born (Graywolf Press)

• Ice by Vladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell (New York Review Books)

• The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition by Cesar Vallejo, translated from the Spanish by Clayton Eshleman (Univ. of California Press)

• The Assistant by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)

• I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young-ha Kim, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Harcourt Inc.)

As anyone reading this blog even on a casual basis can figure out, I’m a big fan of year end lists. (Actually of lists in general. And lists of lists. But whatever, that’s a personal problem.)

What I’d personally really like to see though is a “best of literature in translation 2007” list. And instead of just lamenting the fact that nothing like this exists, I figured we could use this forum to try and create one.

We don’t want to come up with a list on our own, or do anything too formal, but we thought it would be interesting to gather together all recommendations of great works in translation published during 2007 and post a top 20-25 list later this month. If there’s actually some interest, we could set up some sort of voting for the top 5 books. . . .

The only restrictions I’d like to impose are that 1) the work nominated is in translation, 2) that it was published in 2007, and 3) that it’s not a retranslation. (So no War and Peace, and unfortunately, no Growth of the Soil.)

Scott Esposito recently posted about the NBCC “Best Recommended” project stating that he had voted for Montano’s Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas, but that it unfortunately didn’t make the long-list. I personally love this book, so to start this project off, I’ll list it first among this small group of 2007 translations that I read over the past year:

• Enrique Vila-Matas, Montano’s Malady (New Directions)
• Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives (FSG)
• Roberto Bolano, Amulet (New Directions)
• Julio Cortazar, Autonauts of the Cosmoroute (Archipelago)
• Georges Simenon, The Engagement (NYRB)
• Cesar Aira, How I Became a Nun (New Directions)

One of the downsides of being in publishing is that you generally don’t have time to read books that you’re not working on, thinking of publishing, etc. So I haven’t had a chance to get to Daniil Kharms’s Today I Wrote Nothing, Robert Walser’s The Assistant, or Eca de Queiros’s The Maias, all of which I could see on such a list . . .

What books would you like to recommend or add to this list? Please insert them in the comments below, or email me at chad.post at rochester dot edu. I’ll post an updated list sometime next week.

CORRECTION: I wasn’t following my own rules . . . The Engagement is a retranslation, as is The Maias, so both can be eliminated from the list above. (Thanks Michael for pointing this out.)