{"id":418682,"date":"2019-04-15T15:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T19:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/?p=418682"},"modified":"2019-04-15T14:40:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T18:40:05","slug":"codex-1962-why-this-book-should-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2019\/04\/15\/codex-1962-why-this-book-should-win\/","title":{"rendered":"CoDex 1962 [Why This Book Should Win]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Check in daily for new Why This Book Should Win<\/a> posts covering all thirty-five titles longlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Awards<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

George Carroll<\/strong>\u00a0is a former bookseller and a West Coast representative for numerous publishers of translated literature. He is currently the curator of\u00a0litintranslation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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CoDex 1962<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by Sj\u00f3n, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Iceland, FSG)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sigurj\u00f3n Birgir Sigur\u00f0sson (aka Sj\u00f3n) and L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Krasznahorkai are the Ronaldo and Messi of translated literature. It\u2019s fortunate that CoDex 1962<\/em><\/a> and Baron Wenckheim\u2019s Homecoming<\/em><\/a> don\u2019t qualify in the same Best Translated Book Award year. Sj\u00f3n should win the award this year. Laszlo should three-peat the award in 2020.<\/p>\n

By this post, I\u2019m not trying to convince the other jurors to advance CoDex 1962<\/em> to the shortlist or why this book should trump theirs. But, I swear, this is the best book of the year and I read a lot<\/em> of books.<\/p>\n

CoDex 1962<\/em> is the most ambitious submission for this year\u2019s award. There are those who could argue Karl Ove Knausg\u00e5rd\u2019s My Struggle: Book Six,<\/em> at over twice its size, could hold that claim. But if one subtracts diapers and crying and toddler meal prep, that drops significantly. Or Uwe Johnson\u2019s 1668-page Anniversaries<\/em>, but because of the new material percentage and\/or crap I don\u2019t understand, it doesn\u2019t qualify for the award. Which is good because reading another 1600+ pages would make my fucking head explode.<\/p>\n

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CoDex 1962<\/em> is three novels: \u201ca love story,\u201d \u201ca crime story,\u201d and \u201ca science fiction story.\u201d Plots flip over plots\u2014myth and history and science and landscape and folklore. I would sound really stupid summarizing the plot, but basically it starts off in Nazi Germany and ends up at an Iceland biotech company. There are a shitload of asides.<\/p>\n

Icelandic saga references\u2014there are many, at least I think there are\u2014went over my head at times, similar to the Continental Philosophy call-outs in Laurent Binet\u2019s The Seventh Function of Language<\/em> (Binet texted me that they went over his head at times as well).<\/p>\n

Stylistically, The Guardian<\/em>, did a pretty interesting blurb: \u201cA clay baby becomes the narrator of this chaotic extravaganza in which Bosch meets Chagall, with touches of Tarantino.\u201d Not sure I agree, not even sure I understand that, but there you have it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a sucker for \u00c1lex Pina\u2019s La casa de papel. <\/em>Just when I thought I had figured out the end game, when I was confident that I was tracking the story arc, it shot off in a different direction. Sj\u00f3n set me up the same way. It\u2019s a tricky book, dodging and weaving. To pull that off over its massive length\u2014and to keep you wanting, really<\/em> wanting<\/em>\u2014is damn impressive<\/p>\n

CoDex 1962<\/em> should win BTBA 2019 because it\u2019s playful and serious, daunting and accessible. Sj\u00f3n is a master storyteller. And stories are what make life interesting, right?<\/p>\n

Victoria Cribb\u2019s translation is aces, just a joy. Sj\u00f3n can\u2019t be an easy writer, and this couldn\u2019t have been an easy book, to translate.<\/p>\n

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Cribb: Sj\u00f3n :: Mulzet: Krasznahorkai.<\/p>\n

A gratuitous sidenote:<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, I met Sj\u00f3n for coffee in Reykjavik, the result of a sweet Icelandair London \/ Seattle layover. He was on his way to a meeting in which Reykjavik was going to endorse Seattle\u2019s nomination to be named a City of Literature. He told me his only regret when he visited Seattle was that he didn\u2019t have room in his carry-on for a Seattle Sounders jersey for his son. My fanboy level ratcheted up to 11.<\/p>\n

Just for fun, check out the \u201cJohnny Triumph\u201d vocals on The Sugarcubes single Luftgitar, <\/em>Bj\u00f6rk on backup.)<\/p>\n