Translated from French by Norman DennyPublished by Penguin, 1976 (this translation), 1232 pages. Original version first published in 1862. This is probably one of Victor Hugo’s best-known books, popularized by the musical starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway. But since a two-hour film can only provide a brief summary, I decided to read …
Category: Books in translation
Judas: Amos Oz
Translated from Hebrew by Nicholas de LangePublished by Chatto & Windus / Vintage, 2016, 288 pages. “Here is a story from the winter days of the end of 1959 and the beginning of 1960. It is a story of error and desire, of unrequited love, and of a religious question that remains unresolved. Some of …
Macbeth: Jo Nesbo
Translated from Norwegian by Don BartlettPublished by Hogarth, 2018, 624 pages. Original version published in 2018. A town in Scotland where the sun never breaks through the clouds, pollution hangs heavy, unemployment is high and people are in thrall to a potent drug called the brew, manufactured and sold by the drug lord, Hecate. This …
Kafka on the Shore: Haruki Murakami
Translated from Japanese by Philip GabrielPublished by Vintage, 2005, 505 pages. Original version published in 2002. A man talks to cats, fish and leeches rain down from the sky, a man dressed like Johnny Walker (of whisky fame) is making a flute from cats’ souls, and a stone opens the door to another world. Welcome …
Frida Folk: Gaby Franger
Review by Sadhana Ramchander Book translated from German by Gita WolfPublished by Tara Books, 2018, 192 pages. Original version published in 2018. Frida Folk celebrates, in an unusual manner, the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and her many ‘avatars’. This is indeed a fascinating book! It documents an unbelievable variety of interpretations of Frida—the woman and …
To the Back of Beyond: Peter Stamm
Translated from German by Michael HofmannPublished by Granta, 2017, 140 pages. Original version published in 2016. What happens when a man walks out of his seemingly perfect life? Thomas and Astrid live in a village in northern Switzerland. Thomas has a steady job, they have two children, a nice house and a marriage that seems …
Shadowless: Hasan Ali Toptas
Translated from Turkish by Maureen Freely and John AnglissPublished by Bloomsbury, 2017, 320 pages. Original version published in 1995. I am honestly not sure what to make of this strange, hallucinatory book. Reading it is like wandering into a dream where not everything makes sense. In spite of its title, it is full of shadows …
No sweet song, this
Lullaby by Leila Slimani translated from the French by Sam Taylor Published by Faber & Faber, 2017, 224 pages. Original version published in 2016. Review by Usha Raman I encountered Leila Slimani and her work in the New York Times Review of Books, months before the English translation came to market. My fingers raced across the …
Recognizing the Talent of the Translator: The Subtle Art of Translating
From time to time, this blog showcases books in translation to tempt readers to explore writing from countries that do not always make it to the bestseller lists. But we often overlook the work of the translator, who has not only to be fluent in two languages but has to be able to write. The …
Continue reading Recognizing the Talent of the Translator: The Subtle Art of Translating
A Land Without Jasmine: Wajdi Al-Ahdal
Translated from Arabic by William Maynard HutchinsPublished by Garnet Publishing, 2012, 94 pages. Original version published in 2008. Over the last year, Yemen has been in the news, its people suffering the ravages of war and famine. I realized that I knew very little about the country, especially what it had been like to live …
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