Translated from Russian by Anthony BriggsPublished by Penguin, 2007, 1440 pages. Original version published in its entirety in 1869. The first English translation by Clara Bell was published in 1886.Review by Kamakshi Balasubramanian Such a joy to have read Tolstoy's absolute, unparalleled, masterpiece now, without the spectre of deadlines and exams. This time around, I …
Category: Books in translation
Moogavani pillanagrovi (Ballad of Ontillu) – Kesava Reddy
Translated from Telegu by the author.Published by Oxford University Press, 2013, 152 pages. Original version published in 1993.Review by Sadhana Ramchander Oxford Novellas are a unique series and present to the world, socially relevant themes from languages and genres not published in English earlier. They are translations of not only famous names but also of …
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One World, Many Stories: Sharing Books from the Challenge
We finally held our reading event at the ICV Arcade last Wednesday (19 November)—on the one day that the Geneva public transport system decided to go on strike! I was worried that people wouldn’t come, what with no buses or trams running, and traffic jams because more people were taking their cars. But we had …
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The File on H: Ismail Kadare
Translated from Jusuf Vrioni's French translation by David Bellos.Published by Arcade Publishing, 1998, 192 pages. Original version in Albanian published in 1981. Two naïve Irish-American scholars travel to Albania in the early 1930s in search of the origins of epic poetry—in particular, of Homer’s epics. And the only place where oral epic poetry still exists …
The Book of Chameleons: Jose Eduardo Agualusa
Translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn Published by Simon & Schuster, 2008, 180 pages. “Truth has a habit of being ambiguous... If it were exact, it wouldn’t be human.” This is my first book of the reading challenge and what a wonderful way to begin! A whimsical, lyrical story about truth and memory. The book …
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News of a Kidnapping: Gabriel García Márquez
Review by Usha RamanTranslated from Spanish by Edith GrossmanPublished by Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin, 1997, 304 pages. Original version published in 1996. Okay, this book sat on my bedside table for over a month, waiting to be finished. I finally speed-read it. Not what I would usually do, but this is not the kind …
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The Black Sheep: Honoré de Balzac
Review by Kamakshi Balasubramanian Translated from the French by Donald AdamsonPublished by Penguin, this edition published in 1976, 202 pages. Original version published in 1842. More than forty-five years have passed between my first acquaintance with Balzac and this renewal. Of that first work I read (Pere Goriot) I carry a strong impression, mainly of the …
