{"id":293636,"date":"2013-04-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2013\/04\/01\/why-this-book-should-win-kite-by-dominique-edde-btba-2013\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:39:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:39:29","slug":"why-this-book-should-win-kite-by-dominique-edde-btba-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2013\/04\/01\/why-this-book-should-win-kite-by-dominique-edde-btba-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Why This Book Should Win: "Kite" by Dominique Edd\u00e9 [BTBA 2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

As in years past, we will be highlighting all 25 titles on the BTBA<\/span> Fiction Longlist, one by one, building up to the announcement of the 10 finalists on April 10th. A variety of judges, booksellers, and readers will write these, all under the rubric of “Why This Book Should Win. You can find the whole series by clicking here.<\/a> And if you’re interested in writing any of these, just get in touch.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

Kite<\/em><\/a> by Dominique Edd\u00e9, translated from the French by Ros Schwartz and published by Seagull Books<\/b><\/p>\n

This recommendation Rick Simonson, legendary bookseller at the “Elliott Bay Book Company.”:http:\/\/www.elliottbaybook.com\/<\/i><\/p>\n

Translator Ros Schwartz and Seagull Books have given English-language readers a brilliant, searing look at the layers of a very contemporary relationship in this translation of Dominque Edd\u00e9’s Kite<\/em>. Going back and forth in time and in place—from Beirut to Paris, to Cairo and London—this book is both a powerful exploration of love and of the shifts in intellectual culture at a tumultuous time in the Arab and western worlds. Ros Schwartz deftly traces the shifts and changes in setting and narrative through Edde’s wonderfully dense and shifting prose. <\/p>\n

But a novel from the Calcutta-based Seagull Books might still seem like a darkhorse in this race and this is only the second time a book of theirs has appeared on the BTBA<\/span> long list, though they’ve been publishing translations for thirty years and they rank with New Directions and Dalkey Archive in the numbers of new translations they publish every year. They’re also gaining a lot of traction with indie booksellers—I’ve seen new staff recommendations for their books appear here at Elliott Bay, and all down the west coast at City Lights, Green Apple and Skylight Books. And with good reason: Kite<\/em> contains a richly rewarding depiction of a character—one who reads, who writes!—going blind that is, by itself, worth the price of the book. <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Chad here. To add a special bit of something to Rick’s write-up, here’s a really fun bit of the interview Seagull Books founder Naveen Kishore gave in Shelf Awareness:<\/p>\n

\n

Shelf Awareness:<\/em> What do you love about books in translation?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Naveen Kishore: The \u201cedginess\u201d of literature different from mine. The \u201cgetting-under-the-skin\u201d quality. The sense of dislocation and being \u201ctorn asunder.\u201d And the intuitive recognition of humor across cultures!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

SA:<\/em> What do you think is the future of the printed book?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

NK: Healthy. More beautifully crafted than ever before. Shine on, you crazy diamond!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As in years past, we will be highlighting all 25 titles on the BTBA Fiction Longlist, one by one, building up to the announcement of the 10 finalists on April 10th. A variety of judges, booksellers, and readers will write these, all under the rubric of “Why This Book Should Win. You can find the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67476],"tags":[48756,50266,50726,50756,3426,50766,46106,50746,50736,34536],"class_list":["post-293636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-btba-2013","tag-btba-2013-why-this-book-should-win","tag-dominique-edde","tag-elliott-bay-book-company","tag-french-literature","tag-kite","tag-lebanese-literature","tag-rick-simonson","tag-ros-schwartz","tag-seagull-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333976,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293636\/revisions\/333976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}