{"id":306226,"date":"2017-04-25T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2017\/04\/25\/why-these-fiction-finalists-should-win-btba-2017\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:39:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:39:10","slug":"why-these-fiction-finalists-should-win-btba-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2017\/04\/25\/why-these-fiction-finalists-should-win-btba-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Why These Fiction Finalists Should Win [BTBA 2017]"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re just over a week away from the announcement of the Best Translated Book Award winners1<\/a><\/sup>, so it’s a good time to start ramping up the speculation. Tomorrow I’ll post about the poetry finalists, and give updated odds on the entire shortlist on Thursday, but for today, I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit the “Why This Book Should Win” post for each of the finalists and get a sense of what stood out from each of these fifteen books. <\/p>\n

If you want to weigh in with your own thoughts, feel free to post to the BTBA<\/span> Facebook page,<\/a> or Tweet us @BTBA_,<\/a> or participate in the GoodReads discussion forum<\/a> run by BTBA<\/span> judge Trevor Berrett. <\/p>\n

2017 BTBA<\/span> Fiction Finalists<\/b><\/center><\/p>\n

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

Wicked Weeds<\/em><\/a> by Pedro Cabiya, translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell (Dominican Republic, Mandel Vilar Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

“But this is no gross-zombies-lurching-around-trying-to-eat-brains kind of zombie novel. Rather, it\u2019s a sophisticated exploration of the mind-body duality, the place of zombies in popular culture, the history of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and the study of plant-human interactions.”<\/p>\n

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

Chronicle of the Murdered House<\/em><\/a> by L\u00facio Cardoso, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson (Brazil, Open Letter Books)<\/b><\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a fully-formed universe taking place in a run-down mansion rotting away in the jungle.”<\/p>\n

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

Eve Out of Her Ruins<\/em><\/a> by Ananda Devi, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Mauritius, Deep Vellum)<\/b><\/p>\n

“The gorgeous, profoundly poetic writing is completely mesmerizing and viscerally affecting: it gave me goose bumps several times.”<\/p>\n

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

Zama<\/em><\/a> by Antonio di Benedetto, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Argentina, New York Review Books)<\/b><\/p>\n

“Di Bendetto presents a violent, tortured character so flawed and unlikeable yet utterly compelling, it\u2019s difficult to ignore this works brilliance. Di Bendetto, a contemporary of Jorge Luis Borges, is an underserved writer whose own life is novel-worthy as well outlined by Esther Allen in her preface. Under two hundred pages, Zama<\/em> feels like we have read a colonial epic.”<\/p>\n

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

Doomi Golo<\/em><\/a> by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated from the Wolof by Vera W\u00fclfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop (Senegal, Michigan State University Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

“With touching repeated refrains like ‘Shame on the nation that doesn\u2019t listen to its little girls’ (a similar statement is made of nations that ignore their poets) and thought-provoking scenes and observations (‘How often in the course of your lifetime do you see your own face in the mirror, Nguirane? Probably not very often, just like the rest of us. No human being, unless he is somehow deranged, will stand in front of a mirror for hours on end, looking at himself. It is in the nature of our reflection to be fleeting.’), the novel toggles beautifully between tones and characters and makes for a fantastic and unforgettable reading experience that also addresses the act of writing itself.”<\/p>\n

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

War and Turpentine<\/em><\/a> by Stefan Hertmans, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (Belgium, Pantheon)<\/b><\/p>\n

“War & Turpentine<\/em> is a sensitive and moving hymn to an ordinary man who each day faced ‘. . . the battle between the transcendent, which he yearned for, and the memory of death and destruction, which held him in its clutches.’ “<\/p>\n

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

Umami<\/em><\/a> by Laia Jufresa, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (Mexico, Oneworld)<\/b><\/p>\n

“Umami\u2019s balance\u2014of light and dark, of cultivation and deluge, of presence and absence\u2014is what makes it such a welcoming home for the reader, one that feels profoundly lived-in (one can almost sense the neighbors\u2019 heartbeats) as well as haunted (one can also sense the hovering shadows of Luz, Noelia, the children Alfonso and Noelia did not have, the parents Marina never quite had, the mother Ana\u2019s mother might have been\u2014but never was\u2014and the abandoning, abruptly returning mother of Ana\u2019s best friend Pina).”<\/p>\n

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

Oblivion<\/em><\/a> by Sergei Lebedev, translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis (Russia, New Vessel Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

“So, Oblivion<\/em> deserves to win because it\u2019s a beautiful, creative, linguistically challenging novel interested in many things besides the history of Russia and its lasting influence.”<\/p>\n

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

Ladivine<\/em><\/a> by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Knopf)<\/b><\/p>\n

“NDiaye\u2019s books are illuminating while retaining so much mystery, or, rather, they are illuminating because they retain so much mystery. For example, the lines between characters often feel blurry to the point I sometimes don\u2019t quite know who\u2019s on the page anymore, and yet this confusion is the very moment I see light.”<\/p>\n

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

Among Strange Victims<\/em><\/a> by Daniel Salda\u00f1a Par\u00eds, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)<\/b><\/p>\n

“The novel revolves around Rodrigo, a young functionary, a ‘knowledge administrator,’ a title he has invented for himself, who works in a museum, a slacker to borrow from Coffee House\u2019s tagline, who\u2019s content to go through life without making any decisions. Or what there is of his life.”<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> This will be in another post as well, but the winners will be announced online at The Millions<\/a> at 7pm on Thursday, May 4th, and will be announced simultaneously in person at an event at The Folly<\/a> (92 W. Houston, NYC<\/span>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re just over a week away from the announcement of the Best Translated Book Award winners1, so it’s a good time to start ramping up the speculation. Tomorrow I’ll post about the poetry finalists, and give updated odds on the entire shortlist on Thursday, but for today, I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit […]<\/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":[35996,64586,48766,1646,37876],"class_list":["post-306226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-translated-book-awards","tag-btba","tag-btba-2017","tag-btba-fiction","tag-review","tag-why-this-book-should-win"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306226","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=306226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315306,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306226\/revisions\/315306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}