January Translations: Fiction

As I mentioned earlier, one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2008 is to create a fairly comprehensive list of new translations published here in the States. (I’ll do my best to exclude reprints and retranslations, instead mentioning those separately.) So, here’s the first post highlighting all the works of fiction I could find that are coming out this month.

I’m 100% sure this list is incomplete (seriously, there are only so many hours in the day available for trolling publisher websites), so if you know of any other titles that should be added, please post them in the comments or e-mail me at chad.post at rochester.edu. Aside from the fun of seeing what’s coming out, I think it will be extremely useful and interesting to have some fairly reliable stats on U.S. translations . . .

I’ll post the poetry and literary nonfiction in a bit, and next week, I’ll put up the titles I for February.

• Between Two Seas, Carmine Abate, translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar (Europa, $14.95, 9781933372402)

Dark story of a photographer in post-WWII Italy who gets involved with a man obsessed with rebuilding the south’s most famous inn. Winner of the Fenice-Europa prize for fiction.

• The Five Seasons of Love, Joao Almino, translated from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Jackson (Host Publications, $15.00, 9780924047510)

Praised by Alberto Ruy-Sanchez, here’s how Host describes this novel: In The Five Seasons of Love, acclaimed Brazilian writer João Almino presents a compelling and sympathetic portrait of a woman whose life has not turned out as she anticipated, and whose once audacious dreams have been replaced by half-truths, failures, and frustration.

• Detective Story, Imre Kertesz, translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson (Knopf, $21.00, 97803087266446)

The first of three Kertesz titles to come out this year (really—the other two are coming from Melville House), Detective Story is one of the books I’m most excited about for this month. Knopf’s website is a bit lacking in descriptive details (re: the pages is blank), but there is an excerpt and a great review at Complete Review.

• Yalo, Elias Khoury, translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux (Archipelago, $25.00, 9780979333040)

The other title I’m most excited about, and one that we plan on reviewing. From the starred review in Publishers Weekly: “After the acclaimed Gate of the Sun, Khoury returns with the spellbinding ‘confession’ of Beirut criminal Daniel Jal’u, aka Yalo, who is picked up by the cops for rape, robbery and suspicion of arms smuggling. [. . .] a dense and stunning work of art.” (I know that last line is one of those bullshit “not for everyone” sales killers, but I like books that are stunning, dense, and works of art, and based on the Best Translation recommendations, I suspect a lot of readers of Three Percent do as well.)

• David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autum, The Courilof Affair, Irene Nemirovsky, translated from the French by Sandra Smith (Everyman’s Library, $25.00, 9780307267085)

David Golder appeared in English back in 1930, but Sandra Smith retranslated it for this collection. Doesn’t sound as important to Nemirovksy’s oeuvre as Suite Francaise, but according to Complete Review this is a solid overview of her writing.

• Shinjuku Shark, Arimasa Osawa, translated from the Japanese by Andrew Clare (Vertical, $14.95, 9781932234374)

This is the first volume in English of the popular Japanese police series featuring Tokyo detective Samejima.

• The Parson’s Widow, Marja-Liisa Vartio, translated from the Finnish by Aili and Austin Flint (Dalkey Archive, $13.95, 9781564784834)

From Kirkus: “The central characters are the eponymous Adele; her maid, Alma; and the parson who remains a vital presence even in death. Adele and Alma spend most of their time reliving the past and arguing about whose recollection is the perfect one. Their stories reveal much about their own fears and preoccupations and the pitiful secrets that seethe just beneath the surface of respectable rural life.”