{"id":445772,"date":"2024-09-20T14:27:25","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T18:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/?p=445772"},"modified":"2024-09-23T19:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T23:10:52","slug":"woodworm-by-layla-martinez-sophie-hughes-annie-mcdermott-nba-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2024\/09\/20\/woodworm-by-layla-martinez-sophie-hughes-annie-mcdermott-nba-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"“Woodworm” by Layla Mart\u00ednez, Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott [NBA 2024]"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the National Book Award for Translated Literature<\/a> longlist was announced the other week, I realized that I hadn’t read\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>of the books on the list for the first time in . . . ages. Usually it’s a mix of books I’ve loved, some I think are overrated, and a few I’ve never heard of, or at least didn’t stick in my brain. But now that the Translation Database is in a bit of a hiatus, I’ve kind of lost touch with the scene. (Not to mention, almost all of the 80+ books I’ve read this year have been work-related.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, I thought to myself that it would be a good idea to try and read all of these before the award ceremony (I’ll be cutting it tight, and I don’t think the Solvej Balle book comes out before the ceremony) and write something kind of frivolous about each title. Like, in the vein of the old “Why This Book Should Win” posts for the Best Translated Book Award (R.I.P.). So here goes . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Title:\u00a0Woodworm<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Author:<\/strong> Layla Mart\u00ednez<\/p>\n

Translators:<\/strong> Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Two Lines\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Publication Year (Original Text): <\/strong>2021<\/p>\n

Page Count: <\/strong>153<\/p>\n

Goodreads Rating:<\/strong> 4.16 with 11,800 ratings and 2,283 reviews<\/p>\n

Notable Amazon Sales Ranking: <\/strong>#286 in Ghost Fiction<\/p>\n

Publisher Description: <\/strong>The house breathes. The house contains bodies and secrets. The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes.\u00a0It was built by a smalltime hustler as a\u00a0means of controlling his wife<\/span>, and even after so many years, their daughter and her granddaughter can\u2019t leave. They may be witches or they may just be angry, but when the mysterious disappearance of a young boy draws unwanted attention, the two isolated women, already subjects of public scorn, combine forces with the spirits that haunt them in pursuit of something that resembles justice.<\/p>\n

In this lush translation by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott,\u00a0<\/i>Layla Mart\u00ednez\u2019s eerie debut novel is class-conscious horror that drags generations of monsters into the sun. Described by Mariana Enriquez as \u201ca\u00a0house of women and shadows, built from poetry and revenge,\u201d this vision of a broken family in our unjust world places power in the hands of the eccentric, the radical, and the desperate.<\/p>\n

Previous Familiarity:\u00a0<\/strong>So, I wanted to do this book for Open Letter and read a sample back in the summer of 2022. And then blew our chance by not getting in an offer in time for the auction. Which we likely would’ve lost. And that’s fine\u2014Two Lines is excellent! But I did know the outline and general themes of the book before starting it this week.<\/p>\n

Translators: <\/strong>Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott are both absolutely fantastic. I edited their translation of\u00a0Montevideo\u00a0<\/em>by Enrique Vila-Matas (pub date ???) this past spring, and it was such a gifted, assured, excellent translation. Allowed for very strategic editing suggestions, whereas some translations feel like they need one more pass by the translator.<\/p>\n

My Reading:\u00a0<\/strong>It’s a book about intergenerational trauma and, to some extent, the impact of Spain’s Civil War. I mean, there are\u00a0literally\u00a0<\/em>skeletons in the closet in this. It also addresses the divisions between social classes, with the two narrators\u2014 granddaughter and grandmother\u2014and isolated and not well off, yet are entangled for generations with the very wealthy Jarabos.<\/p>\n

Reflections on Style:\u00a0<\/strong>The language in the book is a bit off-kilter, which is fitting with the gothic horror elements present throughout. (The scratching, the spirits inhabiting the house, the grandmother’s conversations with the “saints,” etc.) That said, it’s not wildly experimental or anything, just clipped with interesting word choices, such as in the opening line: “I walked in and the house pounced on me.” The chapters go back-and-forth from granddaughter to grandmother There were times where I’d put the book down, and when I picked it back up have to reorient myself as to who was talking since the voices are rather similar, but that’s a minor complaint.<\/p>\n

Any Big Reviews?: <\/strong>In the\u00a0New Yorker<\/em>, who said, “Shadowed by the Spanish Civil War and the remarkable cruelty of men, the violent tale unspools into a potent consideration of inherited trauma and the elusiveness of justice.”<\/p>\n

Will It Be Discussed in Five Years:\u00a0<\/strong>I would say that’s not assured. If it wins, sure! But otherwise . . . maybe? And this isn’t a slight on the book! It’s just that most books fade from public consciousness after a couple three years\u2014until they’re “rediscovered” a decade later. This does fit a certain type of book that’s quite popular now, so it should have great word-of-mouth.<\/p>\n

What Authors\/Books Does the Publisher Compare This To: <\/strong>Samanta Schweblin and Fernanda Melchor. And throw in Mariana Enriquez, who blurbed it.<\/p>\n

Any Books You Would Recommend for Fans of\u00a0Wormwood<\/em>:\u00a0<\/strong>Chronicle of the Murdered House<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Luc\u00edo Cardoso and\u00a0The Obscene Bird of Night<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Jos\u00e9 Donoso.<\/p>\n

Will it Win:<\/strong> My sense of things\u2014from Winter in Sokcho <\/em>through\u00a0The Words that Remain\u2014<\/em>is that short, localized, slightly strange fiction does really well for the National Book Award. And this book has those qualities! It’s the first I’ve read so I can’t judge it against the field, but, it has a 10% chance right now (shortlist hasn’t been announced), and based on these qualities, I’ll bump it up to 15% (and may adjust this later).<\/p>\n

Your Rating<\/strong>: 3.5 out of 5 stars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist was announced the other week, I realized that I hadn’t read\u00a0any\u00a0of the books on the list for the first time in . . . ages. Usually it’s a mix of books I’ve loved, some I think are overrated, and a few I’ve never heard of, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":445792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[71312,72732,72702,72712,72742,65616,6136,72722],"class_list":["post-445772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-annie-mcdermott","tag-layla-martinez","tag-national-book-award","tag-national-book-award-for-translated-literature","tag-nba-2024","tag-sophie-hughes","tag-two-lines","tag-woodworm"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445772","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=445772"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446062,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445772\/revisions\/446062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}