Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisA Peruvian literary master returns with a provocative novel about the intersection of retribution and reconciliation--and a soldier's quest to confront the ghosts of his past after the Shining Path's reign of terror has ended.Trade ReviewOne of the major novelists of his generation. * Diario de Tarragona *Each book by the Peruvian writer Alonso Cueto is a journey into our own selves…To read Cueto is to walk those paths of one’s soul that only writers can shine a light on…The Wind Traveler [is a] prodigious novel. -- Santiago Gil * El Cultural de Canarias *Alonso Cueto records how literature contributes to the definition of our society. The Wind Traveler is simply extraordinary. -- Mariela Sagel * La Estrella de Panama *The Wind Traveler is a must-read for its multitude of nuanced ideas, but above all for the changing atmospheres, a spitting image of real life. A novel that will impact any reader. -- Christian Roinat * Nouveaux Espaces Latinos *Staggering...Cueto imbues every page and character with the brutal consequences of war in his compulsively readable story of a man’s reckoning with a history of violence. Wynne and Mendez’s splendid translation brings readers an essential work of Peruvian literature. * Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *The Wind Traveler is a lyrical novel about loss and atonement...Throughout, details capture the essences of places and people. Cueto’s scenes and descriptions are tactile and immediate, conveying subtext and deeper meaning. Metaphors set a mood that supports the story’s overarching themes of trauma, guilt, and the idea that we are forever bound to people we harm and who harm us, even if that harm is unintended...The Wind Traveler is a powerful, multi-layered novel that meditates on life and death, pain and suffering. * Foreword Reviews *[The Wind Traveler] feels more like two novels. The larger part is rote exercise and bald suspense. Within this, there is a more nuanced, and thus more mesmerizing, consideration of purpose and atonement. * New York Times *Cueto’s magnificent storytelling ably portrays the brutality of Peru’s armed conflict and, more importantly, the many personal scars it left behind...The Wind Traveler is a fast-paced, psychologically charged novel that quickly grabs the reader’s attention. Translators Frank Wynne and Jessie Méndez Sayer should be commended for their excellent rendition of this gripping narrative. The Wind Traveler will allow English-speaking audiences to learn about Peru’s recent painful past, as well as discover the many talents of one of its best storytellers. * World Literature Today *[An] accomplished novel by Alonso Cueto, expertly translated by Frank Wynne and Jessie Mendez Sayer. * Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas *Table of ContentsI II III IV V Acknowledgments About the Author and Translators

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith nods to Miguel de Cervantes and Marcel Schwob, this award-winning novel by one of Latin America's leading contemporary writers presents an allegorical noir history of Mexico's vision of the United States.Trade ReviewToscana is ready to join the ranks of Latin America’s finest novelists. * Kirkus Reviews *David Toscana deserves to be labeled the Latin American Cervantes of the twenty-first century! The Enlightened Army is like a little Quixote. * El Tiempo (Bogotá) *Toscana’s writing proves overall to be witty and disarming, alluding amusingly to Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes. * San Francisco Chronicle *David Toscana may enter the pantheon of great Latin American authors. * Houston Chronicle *What makes for a welcome window into history? The experiences of the frustrated hero of...The Enlightened Army and his quixotic quest to both conquer Texas and receive his due for his long-distance running achievements offer plenty of them. It's no coincidence that much of the action of this novel overlaps with the 1968 Summer Olympics, and the handful of temporal jumps forward add an unexpected sense of tragedy to the proceedings. * Words Without Borders *The Enlightened Army is a delightful exploration of absurdity and delusion as one man attempts to conquer Texas on behalf of an uninterested Mexico. * Shelf Awareness, Starred Review *[A] very enjoyable book, even though things do not go quite right for [Igancio Matus] but he is certainly one of the obsessive fools of literature, whom we cannot help having a grudging admiration for in his foolishness. * The Modern Novel *The Enlightened Army isn't just an amusing tale. Underlying the bizarre story is a subtle analysis of the relationship between Mexico and the US through its surreal comparison of the two countries…an enjoyable romp, a clever look at Mexico past and present, as well as an examination of the wisdom of fools and wanting to make something of your life. * Tony's Reading List *Creative and quite entertaining. * The Complete Review *Absurd and comic but with a bitter edge, this novel takes a unique and refreshing approach to the darker aspects of Mexico's relationship to the United States. * Kirkus Reviews *Toscana's novel pokes fun at the history of the US-Mexican border, lambasting those who cling to either side of it…The Enlightened Army satirizes the tension between Mexico and the US and the struggle for control over a dynamic region. * 3:AM Magazine *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAnimals at the End of the World begins with an explosion, which six-year-old Inés mistakes for the end of the world that she has long feared. In the midst of the chaos, she meets the maid’s granddaughter, Mariá, who becomes her best friend and with whom she navigates the adult world in her grandparents’ confined house. Together, they escape the house and confront the “animals” that populate Bogotá in the 1980s. But Inés soon realizes she cannot count on either María or her preoccupied and conflicted parents. Alone, she must learn to decipher her outer and inner worlds, confronting both armies of beasts and episodes of domestic chaos. In the process, she also learns what it means to test boundaries, break rules, and cope with the consequences.The first novel by Colombian author Gloria Susana Esquivel, Animals at the End of the World is a poetic and moving coming-of-age story that lingers long after its fiTrade Review[Esquivel's] words are stripped to the bone, and they glisten—or perhaps I should say Myers’s words, which can be best praised through negation: as a native Spanish speaker, I’ll browse through originals when reading their English translations (even great ones will flounder at times), but I didn’t feel the need to do that once here. Myers has spawned her own mighty beast. * Asymptote *[Esquivel] offers a kids' eye view on a fragmented family, but she also uses her young protagonist to explore the blinders of race and class that exist within her world. [Animals at the End of the World is] a meticulously written book that doesn't feel meticulous at all, adding to its charm. * Words Without Borders *Animals at the End of the World is a poetic and moving coming-of-age story that lingers long after its final page. * Latin American Literature Today *[Animals at the End of the World] is a tour de force that stands out as the voice of a generation, offering shrewd insights into a country, an era, and a cohort marked forever. * Word Literature Today *Table of Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Acknowledgments

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst published in Germany in 1867, this fascinating autobiographical novel of German immigrants on the antebellum Texas frontier provides a trove of revelations about the myriad communities that once called the Hill Country home.Trade ReviewBut it is Kearney’s introduction to Friedrichsburg that makes this volume a must-read for historians as well as descendants of these German immigrants…for descendants of German immigrants who wish to experience the kind of popular literature that entertained their ancestors, even the melodramatic episodes of this novel will be informative and entertaining. -- Betty Holland Wiesepape * Texas Books in Review *Table of Contents Translator's Note Acknowledgments Introduction Friedrichsburg: Colony of the German Fürstenverein Preface Chapter 1 The Solitary Rider. The Wild Ones. Friedrichsburg. Early Morning Hour. The Lovers. The Major. The Two War Comrades. Chapter 2 The Fürstenverein. Prince Carl Solms. The New Braunfels Colony. The Colonial Director Dr. Schubbert. The Cornfield. The Town. The Man from Frankfurt. The Quartermaster. The Cannons of the Verein. The Shawnee Indians. Supper. Chapter 3 Kateumsi (the Archer). Call for Peace. The Path through the Wilderness. The Beautiful Valley. Laying out the Road. Ambush by the Comanches. The Saving Shot. The Night Camp. The Buffalo. Chapter 4 The City of Austin. The Delegates. The Wild Horsemen. Scurvy. The Gathering of Herbs. The Rattlesnake. The Sick One. The Convalescence. The Nanny. Chapter 5 The Slacker. The Stranger. The Mormons. The Three Happy Ones. The Miser. The Rats. The Invalid. Imagination. Death. The Gruesome Apparition. Ready Money. No Peace in the Grave. The Rat King. Chapter 6 The Delaware Indians. The Chief. Believed to Be Dead. The Request. The Hunting Horse. The Trial Shot. The Irreconcilable Enemy. The Ride through the Forest. Welcome. The Presents. The Wild Friend. Chapter 7 The Settlement of the Mormons. The Bloodhound. The Bear. The Jaguar. The Fandango House. The Arrow Shots. The Hunt. Chapter 8 Great Concern. The Old Peace Chief. The Wax Lanterns. Sudden Flight. The Mill. Springtime. The Flourishing City. The Grab. Munitions. The Cannons. The Night Music. The Old Friend. Coffee. Chapter 9 The New City. Government Officials. Big Preparations. Day of Festivities. Grand Entrance of the Guests. The Proud Savage. The Parade. The Conclusion of Peace. The Feast. The Departure. Chapter 10 The Vicious Foe. The Challenge. Defiance. Hostile Appearance. Warning Shot. Caution. Fall Day. Lottery. Pleasure Ride. Chapter 11 The War Party. The Flight. The Storm. The Heroine. The Prisoner. The Honored One. The Triumphal Procession. The Grateful Indian. Undisturbed Tranquility. The Pleasure Trip. Good Advice. Freedom from Care. Charming Night Camp. Chapter 12 Careless. Cry of Terror. Scalping. The Flight. Ruse. The Return. The Death Notice. Sympathy. Funeral Procession. Heavy Gait. Notification. Ill Foreboding. The Hearse. Composure. Chapter 13 The Return Trip. Bad News. The Horror. Night of Love. Melancholy. Desire for Revenge. The Friendly Room. The Journey. The Delaware Chieftain. Chapter 14 The Bear Hunt. Indian Sign. Concern. On the Look-out. The Lovely Young Lady. The Deadly Enemy. Blood. Dismay. Chase. Chapter 15 Much Excitement. Foundation Day. Hurried Preparations for the Festival. Morning of the Festival. Laying of the Cornerstone. Celebratory Feast. The Dance. The Promenade. Sitting at the Fireplace. Alone. The Frightful Face. The Abduction. Anxiety. Despair. The Wild Friend. Chapter 16 The Warriors. On the Trail. The Bandits. Deception. The Valley. The Cave. The Prisoner. The Posse of Revenge. The Wounded. The Departure. Chapter 17 The Enamored Savage. The Grey Bear. The Victor. The Friends. The Bound and Tied Captive. Passion. Horror. The Shot. Rescued. The News. The Return Trip. Chapter 18 Dismay. The Messenger of Glad Tidings. Jubilation. Yearning. Reunion. The Welcome. The Abandoned Town. The Wedding Day. Presentation of Gifts. The Polonaise. The Honored Guest. Merriment. Notes Appendix: Chronological Bibliography of First Editions by Friedrich Armand Strubberg Glossary Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith this newly translated version of The Running Boy, the fiction of Megumu Sagisawa makes its long-overdue first appearance in English. Lovingly rendered with a critical introduction by the translator, this collection of three stories, written in 1989, sits on the thinnest part of Japan''s economic bubble and provides and cautionary glimpse into the malaise of its impending collapse.From the aging regulars of a shabby snack bar in Galactic City to the mental breakdowns of A Slender Back, and the family secrets lurking within the title story between them, Sagisawa offers a trilogy of laser-focused character studies. Exploring dichotomies of past versus present, young versus old, life versus death, and countless shades of meaning beyond, she elicits vibrant commonalities of the human condition from some of its most ennui-laden examples. A curious form of affirmation awaits her readers, who may just come out of her monochromatic word paintings with more colorful realizaTrade ReviewThis collection of stories captures the essence of boyhood in all its sadness and solitude. * Bungakukai *Table of ContentsRunning on Water: A Translator's Introduction Galactic City The Running Boy A Slender Back

Read more less

Book SynopsisKyokutei Bakin''s Nanso Satomi hakkenden is one of the monuments of Japanese literature. This multigenerational samurai saga was one of the most popular and influential books of the nineteenth century and has been adapted many times into film, television, fiction, and comics. An Ill-Considered Jest, the first part of Hakkenden, tells the story of the Satomi clan patriarch Yoshizane and his daughter Princess Fuse. An ill-advised comment forces Yoshizane to betroth his daughter to the family dog, creating a supernatural union that ultimately produces the Eight Dog Warriors. Princess Fuse''s heroic and tragic sacrifice, and her strength, intelligence, and self-determination throughout, render her an immortal character within Japanese fiction.Eight Dogs is the culmination of centuries of premodern Japanese tale-telling, combining aspects of historical romance, fantasy, Tokugawa-era popular fiction, and Chinese vernacular stories. Glynne Walley''Trade ReviewThe presentation here is excellent, beginning with the faithful reproduction and translation of seemingly every last detail. * The Complete Review *It's an excellent introduction to Bakin's semi-fictional world. Hakkenden has all the hallmarks of a wonderful addition to the stock of Japanese literature available in English. * Tony's Reading List *Glynne Walley's lively translation [of] Eight Dogs, or 'Hakkenden': Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest conveys the witty and colorful prose of the original, producing a faithful and entertaining edition of this important literary classic. * New Books Network *The fantastical elements of "Hakkenden" give it a kinship to those endlessly unspooling fantasy sagas by Robert Jordan or George R.R. Martin. * The Wall Street Journal *An Ill-Considered Jest is, in addition to being an excellent translation and a first-rate work of scholarship, a beautifully illustrated and compulsively readable tome. Walley's translation of Hakkenden will be a game changer for scholars and teachers of premodern Japanese literature, and even this first installment opens exciting possibilities for researchers and students. * Monumenta Nipponica *Table of ContentsInaugural Volume Covers and Endpaper Chinese Preface Japanese Preface Table of Contents Frontispieces Advertisement Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Colophon Volume II Covers and Endpaper Chinese Preface Japanese Preface Table of Contents Frontispieces Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn its first modern translation, a novel-cum-memoir of a Frenchman’s erotic awakening in Italy by a preeminent writer of the Romantic period In 1812 Alphonse de Lamartine, a young man of means, traveled through southern Italy, where, during a sojourn in Naples, he fell in love with a young woman who worked in a cigar factory—and whose death after he returned to France would haunt him throughout his writing life. Graziella, Lamartine called this lost girl in his poetry and memoirs—and also in Graziella, a novel that closely follows the story of his own romance.“When I was eighteen,” the narrator begins, as if penning his memoir, “my family entrusted me to the care of a relative whose business affairs called her to Tuscany.” The tale that unfolds, of the young man’s amorous experiences amid the natural grandeur and subtle splendors of the Italian countryside, is one of the finest works of fiction in the French Romantic tradition, a bildungsroman that is also a melancholy portrait of the artist as a young man discovering the muse who would both inspire and elude him.Remarkable for its contemplative prose, its dreamy passions and seductive drawing of the Italian landscape, and its place in the Romantic canon, Graziella is a timeless portrait of love, chronicling the remorse and the misguided ideals of youth that find their expression, if not their amends, in art.Trade Review"In a new translation and with contextual notes and an introduction by MacKenzie, Lamartine's story comes to us afresh." —Kirkus ReviewsTable of ContentsTranslator’s IntroductionRaymond N. MackenzieGraziellaChronologyAppendix from Lamartine’s Mémoires inédits, 1790–1815Translator’s Notes

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Nadia Christensen Prize for translation from the American-Scandinavian FoundationIn a masterful blend of fiction and autobiography, a Norwegian novelist sends her character to the far north to learn what she can about their Sami ancestryInspired by Helene Uri’s own journey into her family’s ancestry, Clearing Out, an emotionally resonant novel by one of Norway’s most celebrated authors, tells two intertwining stories. A novelist, named Helene, is living in Oslo with her husband and children and contemplating her new protagonist, Ellinor Smidt—a language researcher, divorced and in her late thirties, with a doctorate but no steady job.An unexpected call from a distant relative reveals that Helene’s grandfather, Nicolai Nilsen, was the son of a coastal (sjø) Sami fisherman—something no one in her family ever talked about. Uncertain how to weave this new knowledge into who she believes she is, Helene continues to write her novel, in which her heroine Ellinor travels to Finnmark in the far north to study the dying languages of the Sami families there. What Ellinor finds among the Sami people she meets is a culture little known in her own world; she discovers history richer and more alluring than rumor and a connection charged with mystery and promise. Through her persistence in approaching an elderly Sami activist, and her relationship with a local Sami man, Ellinor confronts a rift that has existed between two families for generations.Intricate and beautifully constructed, Clearing Out offers a solemn reflection on how identities, like families, are formed and fractured and recovered as stories are told. In its depiction of the forgotten and the fiercely held memories among the Sea (sjø) Sami of northern Norway, the novel is a powerful statement on what is lost, and what remains in reach, in the character and composition of contemporary life.Trade Review"Lyrical, brave, and luminous, Clearing Out offers the overdue translation of a signature Norwegian voice into rapturous English."—Rebecca Dinerstein, author of The Sunlit Night"I’ve long been fascinated by the culture of the Sami people and the part of the world that Helene Uri explores in her new novel. Beautifully translated, Clearing Out is a well-crafted investigation of the stories we inherit and the stories we create."—Vendela Vida, author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name"One of Helene Uri’s most exciting books . . . executed with a living presence and an inquisitiveness that is bound to spellbind."—Hamar Arbeiderblad"Convincing solemnity and stylish simplicity."—Aftenposten"Uri draws up an enticing picture of [Northern places] constantly steeped in darkness."—Dagsavisen

Read more less

Book SynopsisDon’t Whisper Too Much was the first work of fiction by an African writer to present love stories between African women in a positive light. Bona Mbella is the second. In presenting the emotional and romantic lives of gay, African women, Ekotto comments upon larger issues that affect these women, including Africa as a post-colonial space, the circulation of knowledge, and the question of who writes history. In recounting the beauty and complexity of relationships between women who love women, Ekotto inscribes these stories within African history, both past and present. Don’t Whisper Too Much follows young village girl Ada’s quest to write her story on her own terms, outside of heteronormative history. Bona Mbella focuses upon the life of a young woman from a poor neighborhood in an African megalopolis. And “Panè,” a love story, brings the many themes from Don’t Whisper Much and Bona Mbella together as it explores how emotional and sexual connections between women have the power to transform, even in the face of great humiliation and suffering. Each story in the collection addresses how female sexuality is often marked by violence, and yet is also a place for emotional connection, pleasure and agency. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.Trade Review“The translation of Frieda Ekotto’s works Don’t Whisper Too Much and Portrait of a Young Artist from Bona Mbella represent generic, formal, and topical innovations that make this project certain to be a notable English-language publication in its own right, as well as a landmark addition to the canon of Afro-Francophone literature in translation.” -- Carmen R. Gillespie * Griot Institute for Africana Studies, Bucknell University *"Defying the norms of sexuality, culture, and narrative form, Frieda Ekotto brings to her readers a unique vision of queer African life and love. These beautifully rendered translations of Ekotto’s poetic prose are long overdue. A major event!" -- Lynne Huffer * Emory University *"Thematically provocative and narratively delicious, Frieda Ekotto’s first novel challenges constraining expectations of romantic bonding in Africa. Don’t Whisper Much is a tale of three generations of females whose intimate corporeal practices index as well as defy the violence that women’s bodies endure under both local patriarchal practices and global configurations of power. Since the birth of modern African literature in European languages, no other literary imaginings of same-sex eroticism have dared to do what Ekotto accomplishes in her novel. The language is as captivating as the powerful work of imagination that made possible Don’t Whisper Much. Ekotto accomplishes a similar feat with Bona Mbella. It is not surprising that although these novels have only been accessed in French, Whisper has already garnered a sustained critical attention. These English translations are a welcome contribution to a deeper understanding of female (homo)sexuality in Africa and any literature and cultural courses on sexuality will benefit from them." -- Naminata Diabate * Cornell University *"Ekotto masterfully illustrates the complex layers of African women-loving-women, which include patriarchy, violence, agency and colonialism." * Ms. Magazine *"Frieda Ekotto’s fiction opens up new grounds in African queer writing. She was one of the first to write fiction with humanizing representations of the lives of francophone African women loving women. This translation of two of her novellas is a gift to Anglophone readers." * Brittle Paper *"Don’t Whisper Too Much was the first work of fiction by an African writer to present love stories between African women in a positive light; Bona Mbella is the second." * LitHub *"Together, these two works form an odd whole, but it's very much a whole worth seeking out....Remarkably effective in getting [the] story across....The stories all work in different ways, but that too can be seen as part of the appeal; the way different voices leap out of the page across the various stories and sub-stories is another bonus." * Bibliobio *Fiction Spotlight: Don’t Whisper Too Much * Project Plume *“The translation of Frieda Ekotto’s works Don’t Whisper Too Much and Portrait of a Young Artist from Bona Mbella represent generic, formal, and topical innovations that make this project certain to be a notable English-language publication in its own right, as well as a landmark addition to the canon of Afro-Francophone literature in translation.” -- Carmen R. Gillespie * Griot Institute for Africana Studies, Bucknell University *"Defying the norms of sexuality, culture, and narrative form, Frieda Ekotto brings to her readers a unique vision of queer African life and love. These beautifully rendered translations of Ekotto’s poetic prose are long overdue. A major event!" -- Lynne Huffer * Emory University *"Thematically provocative and narratively delicious, Frieda Ekotto’s first novel challenges constraining expectations of romantic bonding in Africa. Don’t Whisper Much is a tale of three generations of females whose intimate corporeal practices index as well as defy the violence that women’s bodies endure under both local patriarchal practices and global configurations of power. Since the birth of modern African literature in European languages, no other literary imaginings of same-sex eroticism have dared to do what Ekotto accomplishes in her novel. The language is as captivating as the powerful work of imagination that made possible Don’t Whisper Much. Ekotto accomplishes a similar feat with Bona Mbella. It is not surprising that although these novels have only been accessed in French, Whisper has already garnered a sustained critical attention. These English translations are a welcome contribution to a deeper understanding of female (homo)sexuality in Africa and any literature and cultural courses on sexuality will benefit from them." -- Naminata Diabate * Cornell University *"Ekotto masterfully illustrates the complex layers of African women-loving-women, which include patriarchy, violence, agency and colonialism." * Ms. Magazine *"Frieda Ekotto’s fiction opens up new grounds in African queer writing. She was one of the first to write fiction with humanizing representations of the lives of francophone African women loving women. This translation of two of her novellas is a gift to Anglophone readers." * Brittle Paper *"Don’t Whisper Too Much was the first work of fiction by an African writer to present love stories between African women in a positive light; Bona Mbella is the second." * LitHub *"Together, these two works form an odd whole, but it's very much a whole worth seeking out....Remarkably effective in getting [the] story across....The stories all work in different ways, but that too can be seen as part of the appeal; the way different voices leap out of the page across the various stories and sub-stories is another bonus." * Bibliobio *Fiction Spotlight: Don’t Whisper Too Much * Project Plume *Table of Contents A Note on the Translation Introduction: "In the Flow of Whisperings" Lindsey Green SimmsDON'T WHISPER TOO MUCH Affi, or the Communion of Bodies The Garba Boui-Boui Ada and Siliki AdaPORTRAIT OF A YOUNG ARTISTE FROM BONA MBELLA Our Quat First Kiss The Most Beautiful Calves in the World The Movie Screen The Revenant Cousin Kalati's Tale The Mute's Red Bicycle Panè Acknowledgments Bibliography About the Author and Translator

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe journey of the Little Buddha began when Claus Mikosch and his four-year-old daughter used to go walking near a Buddhist temple, and she asked him questions about the Buddha. When Claus had the idea to collect their conversations, the Little Buddha was born. It is not a book about THE Buddha or about Buddhism. It is instead the story of a pretty normal Buddha who, tired of meditating beneath his Bodhi tree, embarks upon a journey. Inspired by Claus' travels to India, The Little Buddha: Looking for Love is the second book in the series: a universal tale of the human need to love and be loved. It carries the reader on a mindful journey in which the Little Buddha encounters a series of people wrestling with matters of the heart, meditates on love in its many forms, and unlocks the secret of love at the heart of life.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the most detailed and wide-ranging comparative study to date of how European literatures written in less well known languages try, through translation, to reach the wider world. Through case studies of over thirteen different national contexts as diverse as Bosnian, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Serbian, it explores patterns and contrasts in approaches to supply-driven translation, cultural diplomacy, institutional support and international gate-keeping, while examining the particular fates of poetry, women’s writing and genre fiction, and the opportunities arising from trans-medial circulation, self-translation and translingualism and a more radical critique of power balances in the translation and publishing industries. Its comparative approach challenges both the narratives of uniqueness that arise from discrete national approaches and the narrative of tragic marginalization that prevails in world literary approaches. Instead, it uses an interdisciplinary mix of literary, historical, sociological, gender- and translation-studies approaches to illuminate the often pioneering, innovative thinking and strategies that mark these literatures as they take on the inequalities of globalization.Trade ReviewReviews'This volume is a welcome addition to the fast-growing literature on translation studies, and on world literature.'Theo D'haen, Emeritus Professor at Leuven University and Leiden University ‘Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations covers a lot of ground and one leaves it with a heightened respect for translators and for the multitude of European literatures.’ Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Translation StudiesTable of ContentsRajendra Chitnis and Jakob Stougaard-NielsenIntroduction1. David NorrisThe Global Presentation of Small National Literatures: South Slavs in Literary History and Theory2. Zoran MilutinovićTranslators as Ambassadors and Gatekeepers: The Case of South Slav Literature3. Ondřej VimrSupply-Driven Translation: Compensating for Lack of Demand4. Rajendra ChitnisLiterature as Cultural Diplomacy: Czech Literature in Britain, 1918-385. Irvin WoltersExporting the Canon: The Mixed Experience of the Dutch Bibliotheca Neerlandica6. Olivia HellewellCreative Autonomy and Institutional Support in Contemporary Slovene Literature7. Richard MansellStrategies for Success?: Evaluating the Rise of Catalan Literature8. Gunilla Hermansson and Yvonne LefflerGender, Genre and Nation: Nineteenth-Century Swedish Women Writers on Export9. Paschalis NikolaouTranslating as Re-telling: On the English Proliferation of C.P. Cavafy10. Jakob Stougaard-NielsenCriminal Peripheries: The Globalization of Scandinavian Crime Fiction and its Agents11. Paulina DrewniakLiterary Translation and Digital Culture: The Transmedial Breakthrough of Poland’s Witcher12. Josianne MamoTowards a Multilingual Poetics: Self-Translation, Translingualism and Maltese Literature13. Rhian AtkinDoes Size Matter? Questioning Methods for the Study of ‘Small’Svend Erik LarsenCoda: When Small is Big and Big is Small

Read more less

Book SynopsisEmilia Pardo Bazán, the most prolific and influential Spanish female writer of the nineteenth century, was a very controversial figure, vilified for her embracement of naturalism and her robust feminist stance.When Insolación was published in 1889 it provoked a litany of negative comments and personal insults. This subtle, psychological novel, drawing on many aspects of its author's personal life, deals with the relationship between Asís, a respectable Galician widow, and Pacheco, a feckless womaniser from Andalucía. Although they scarcely know each other, Asís accepts Pacheco's invitation to visit the San Isidro Fair, where a heady cocktail of sun, alcohol and revelry causes her to behave in an uncharacteristic manner.Insolación explores the conflict between Asís's self-recrimination and concern for the 'qué dirán' and her nascent sexuality. Finally, despite her determination to banish Pacheco from her mind and her intention to go back to Galicia, the couple sleep together and decide to marry.The perceived promiscuity of this work of fiction scandalised the reading public as well as many leading critics. Pereda considered Asís's behaviour reprehensible and Clarín dismissed the novel as a pseudo-erotic boutade. Nowadays, Insolación is recognised as an important novel.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Foreword2. Emilia Pardo Bazán3. The social and political background4. The intellectual and literary context: romanticism, realism, costumbrismo and naturalism5. Insolación: genesis and reception6. Structure and narrative viewpoint7. Language and translation8. BibliographyInsolación / Sunstroke

Read more less

Book SynopsisEmilia Pardo Bazán, the most prolific and influential Spanish female writer of the nineteenth century, was a very controversial figure, vilified for her embracement of naturalism and her robust feminist stance.When Insolación was published in 1889 it provoked a litany of negative comments and personal insults. This subtle, psychological novel, drawing on many aspects of its author's personal life, deals with the relationship between Asís, a respectable Galician widow, and Pacheco, a feckless womaniser from Andalucía. Although they scarcely know each other, Asís accepts Pacheco's invitation to visit the San Isidro Fair, where a heady cocktail of sun, alcohol and revelry causes her to behave in an uncharacteristic manner.Insolación explores the conflict between Asís's self-recrimination and concern for the 'qué dirán' and her nascent sexuality. Finally, despite her determination to banish Pacheco from her mind and her intention to go back to Galicia, the couple sleep together and decide to marry.The perceived promiscuity of this work of fiction scandalised the reading public as well as many leading critics. Pereda considered Asís's behaviour reprehensible and Clarín dismissed the novel as a pseudo-erotic boutade. Nowadays, Insolación is recognised as an important novel.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Foreword2. Emilia Pardo Bazán3. The social and political background4. The intellectual and literary context: romanticism, realism, costumbrismo and naturalism5. Insolación: genesis and reception6. Structure and narrative viewpoint7. Language and translation8. BibliographyInsolación / Sunstroke

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the most detailed and wide-ranging comparative study to date of how European literatures written in less well known languages try, through translation, to reach the wider world. Through case studies of over thirteen different national contexts as diverse as Bosnian, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Serbian, it explores patterns and contrasts in approaches to supply-driven translation, cultural diplomacy, institutional support and international gate-keeping, while examining the particular fates of poetry, women’s writing and genre fiction, and the opportunities arising from trans-medial circulation, self-translation and translingualism and a more radical critique of power balances in the translation and publishing industries. Its comparative approach challenges both the narratives of uniqueness that arise from discrete national approaches and the narrative of tragic marginalization that prevails in world literary approaches. Instead, it uses an interdisciplinary mix of literary, historical, sociological, gender- and translation-studies approaches to illuminate the often pioneering, innovative thinking and strategies that mark these literatures as they take on the inequalities of globalization.Trade ReviewReviews'This volume is a welcome addition to the fast-growing literature on translation studies, and on world literature.'Theo D'haen, Emeritus Professor at Leuven University and Leiden University ‘Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations covers a lot of ground and one leaves it with a heightened respect for translators and for the multitude of European literatures.’ Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Translation StudiesTable of ContentsRajendra Chitnis and Jakob Stougaard-NielsenIntroduction1. David NorrisThe Global Presentation of Small National Literatures: South Slavs in Literary History and Theory2. Zoran MilutinovićTranslators as Ambassadors and Gatekeepers: The Case of South Slav Literature3. Ondřej VimrSupply-Driven Translation: Compensating for Lack of Demand4. Rajendra ChitnisLiterature as Cultural Diplomacy: Czech Literature in Britain, 1918-385. Irvin WoltersExporting the Canon: The Mixed Experience of the Dutch Bibliotheca Neerlandica6. Olivia HellewellCreative Autonomy and Institutional Support in Contemporary Slovene Literature7. Richard MansellStrategies for Success?: Evaluating the Rise of Catalan Literature8. Gunilla Hermansson and Yvonne LefflerGender, Genre and Nation: Nineteenth-Century Swedish Women Writers on Export9. Paschalis NikolaouTranslating as Re-telling: On the English Proliferation of C.P. Cavafy10. Jakob Stougaard-NielsenCriminal Peripheries: The Globalization of Scandinavian Crime Fiction and its Agents11. Paulina DrewniakLiterary Translation and Digital Culture: The Transmedial Breakthrough of Poland’s Witcher12. Josianne MamoTowards a Multilingual Poetics: Self-Translation, Translingualism and Maltese Literature13. Rhian AtkinDoes Size Matter? Questioning Methods for the Study of ‘Small’Svend Erik LarsenCoda: When Small is Big and Big is Small

Read more less

Book SynopsisClémentine Mélois is a writer, artist, and member of Oulipo. Her first published work, Cent titres (2014), is a cult classic. She has gone on to subvert children’s literature and – more recently – the photo-story genre. Sinon j’oublie (2017) – Otherwise I Forget – is a unique work embroidered around a selection of her collection of ‘found’ shopping lists. After a short foreword – exposing her interest in this universal but throw-away form of writing – we find images of 100 shopping lists accompanied by her imagined insight into the lives and minds of their authors. The result is a delightful panoramic view of contemporary France in the guise of an (autobiographical) novel. This is the first of her works to be translated for an Anglophone readership. More accessible than other of her works, universal in appeal, and full of humanity, Otherwise I Forget is a wonderful and deceptively simple introduction to the work of this highly original writer and artist.

Read more less

Book SynopsisClémentine Mélois is a writer, artist, and member of Oulipo. Her first published work, Cent titres (2014), is a cult classic. She has gone on to subvert children’s literature and – more recently – the photo-story genre. Sinon j’oublie (2017) – Otherwise I Forget – is a unique work embroidered around a selection of her collection of ‘found’ shopping lists. After a short foreword – exposing her interest in this universal but throw-away form of writing – we find images of 100 shopping lists accompanied by her imagined insight into the lives and minds of their authors. The result is a delightful panoramic view of contemporary France in the guise of an (autobiographical) novel. This is the first of her works to be translated for an Anglophone readership. More accessible than other of her works, universal in appeal, and full of humanity, Otherwise I Forget is a wonderful and deceptively simple introduction to the work of this highly original writer and artist.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNow in paperback, the touching, timely story of an Iraqi refugee in Germany. In our era of mass migration, much of it driven by war and its aftermath, A Slap in the Face could not be more timely. It tells the story of Karim, an Iraqi refugee living in Germany whose right to asylum has been revoked in the wake of Saddam Hussein's defeat. But Hussein wasn't the only reason Karim left, and as Abbas Khider unfolds his story, we learn both the secret struggles he faced in his homeland and the battles with prejudice, distrust, poverty, and bureaucracy he has to endure in his attempts to make a new life in Germany. As he erupts in frustration at his caseworker and finally forces her to listen to his story, we get an account of a contemporary life upended by politics and violence, told with warmth and humor that, while surprising us, does nothing to lessen the outrages Karim describes.Trade Review"Khider is a master of the comically grotesque. . . . A Slap in the Face is a vivid and often moving portrayal of the prejudice, economic exploitation and simple unfairness facing those seeking to find a European haven from war and persecution." * Times Literary Supplement * "Khider is a master in mirroring existential despair in small moments of absurd and other comedy." * Frankfurter Rundschau * "Abbas Khider's novel, A Slap in the Face (Seagull Books, 2019) opens with an intense, and at first impression, violent scene. Karim Mensy, an Iraqi refugee, ties up a German immigration official for the sole reason of having an audience to listen to his hidden story. It is a palpably tense introduction which sets the pace for Karim's narrative unfolding against a backdrop of perpetual injustice, discrimination, exploitation and navigating the trajectories for survival. . . . Khider has written a book that is at once crude and sensitive, interspersed with humour that only lasts a few seconds before the reader realises that the elicited smiles are all at the expense of the oppressed, in this case, the refugees." * The New Arab *

Read more less

Book SynopsisNow in paperback, the epic tale of a violinist who must navigate the fractious world of early twentieth-century Germany.“Ruven Preuk stands apart from the village, on an August day in 1911, and listens.” Thus begins an epic bildungsroman about the life of Ruven Preuk, son of the wainwright, child of a sleepy village in Germany’s north, where life is both simple and harsh. Ruven, though, is neither. He has the ability to see sounds, leading him to discover an uncanny gift for the violin. When he meets a talented teacher in the Jewish quarter, Ruven falls under the spell of a prodigious future. But as the twentieth century looms, Ruven’s pursuit of his craft takes a turn. In The Last Country, Svenja Leiber spins a tale that moves from the mansions of a disappearing aristocracy to a communist rebellion, from a joyous village wedding to a Nazi official’s threats, from the First World War to the Second. As the world Ruven knows disappears, the gifted musician must grapple with an important question: to what end has he devoted himself to his art? Winner of the 2015 Arno Reinfrank LiteraturpreisTrade Review‘The literal and titular ‘Last Country’ is Germany which Leiber describes with a few literary brushstrokes and casts a panoramic view into its hellish years.” * Spiegel Online *“The Last Country is an exciting book that could be called a Bildungsroman, a novel of the artist or a panorama of a century—all of that. But above all, it is a book about what it means to see how their own desires cannot be fulfilled.” * Die Welt *“Leiber has an eye for people who cannot find a place in life or make a living and hardly have a voice. Leiber gives them voice in her books.” * Deutschlandfunk *“A socially clairvoyant novel.” * Neues Deutschland *

Read more less

Book SynopsisNow in paperback, Silke Scheuermann's portrayal of intimacy and estrangement between sisters as they navigate rivalries, addiction, and shared love interests. A young woman who has been living abroad returns to her hometown of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Her sister Ines—a beautiful, impetuous painter—who still lives there, soon appears and promptly asks for financial help. But the returning sister knew this was coming—it is how their relationship has always worked. And this time, she’s determined that that will change. ​But our plans don’t always hold up to the surprises presented by life—and when the sister finds herself about to drift into an affair with Ines’s lover, the two women grow unexpectedly closer. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf is a tale of disorientation in a modern, fundamentally rootless society that has become increasingly erratic and self-absorbed—it is a powerful exploration of the difficulties of intimacy and addiction.Trade Review"In this debut [. . .] I am aware of the writer’s intentions on every page, what she wants me, her reader, to feel. It is neither manipulation nor a display of tacky craft, but the skill of a writer who can show you the world she wishes to share with you without devious obscurity. This is a surprising feat for a writer who started out as, and still is, a poet." * Asymptote *

Read more less

Book SynopsisNow in paperback, a haunting story of trauma, memory, and healing in post-Cold War Romania. Victoria has just recently moved from Zurich back to her hometown of Bucharest when the bank where she works is robbed. Put on leave so that she can process the trauma of the robbery, Victoria strolls around town. Each street triggers sudden visions as memories from her childhood under the Ceausescu regime begin to mix with the radically changed city and the strange world in which she now finds herself. As the walls of reality begin to crumble, Victoria and her former self cross paths with the bank robber and a rich cast of characters, weaving a vivid portrait of Romania and one woman’s self-discovery. In her stunning second novel, Swiss-Romanian writer Dana Grigorcea paints a series of extraordinarily colorful pictures. With humor and wit, she describes a world full of myriad surprises where new and old cultures weave together—a world bursting with character and spirit. Trade Review"All the elements of good literature come together in this book: humour, comedy, tragedy, poetry, melancholy, sadness, misery, and love." —Neue Zürcher Zeitung "Colorful and enlightening, fun and thought-provoking at the same time." —Schweizer Feuilletondienst "An ambitious and high-quality work of literary fiction. A rich and rewarding read with a deep vein of dark humor that will work well on the international stage." —New Books in German * Praise for the German edition *"An Instinctive Feeling of Innocence explores the fragmentation and dissociation resulting from trauma, both immediate and sustained over time. It is a novel about identity, belonging, and self-discovery, but also the deconstruction of a self. . . . Alta L. Price brings it into English in a translation brimming with sensitivity, daring, and grace." * The Scores *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA collection of unique, profound, and witty stories that relate animals’ peculiarities to human attitudes.Animals is a collection of short stories in which each story takes a peculiar item about animals that appears, like fables, to shine a spotlight on different aspects of human behavior—like caterpillars digging their own graves, sharks in need of artificial respiration, ducks that keep an eye out for hungry predators even in their sleep. It is a treat to watch Eva Menasse spin these observations into scenes of people battling their everyday anxieties and doubts. An old tyrant realizes that he is unable to prevent his wife’s worsening dementia from erasing his own past as it erases hers. A mother who tries to protect a Muslim child from hostile accusations finds that her own boundaries between good and evil begin to blur. A woman realizes how starkly her father’s traumatic past has shaped her quirky habits and deepest fears. Combining biting wit, mystery, and melancholy, these tales are the work of a masterful storyteller.Table of Contents1.Butterfly, Bee, Crocodile2.Caterpillars3.Hedgehog4.Sheep5.Opossum6.Sharks7.Snakes8.Ducks

Read more less

Book SynopsisA play about defiance of systemic racism. Juan de Mérida, an Afro-Spanish soldier aspires to social advancement in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War (1566-1648). His main enemies are not Dutch rebels but his white countrymen, whom he defeats at every attempt to humiliate him. In this play one encounters military culture, upward mobility, mistaken identities, defying destiny, royal pageantry, swordfights, cross-dressing, revenge, homosexual anxiety, and inter-racial marriage. Andrés de Claramonte’s El valiente negro en Flandes (c.1625) is an Afrodiasporic play that enjoyed great success and multiple stagings in Spain and in Latin America. Its 1938 negrista performance in Havana, Cuba, and Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, attest to the power of this play to illuminate contemporary racial dynamics. This is the first annotated, critical edition and English translation of El valiente negro en Flandes with a comprehensive introduction, three critical essays, the critical apparatus comparing the eleven extant versions of the play, and an appendix with alternative scenes and related historical documents. A tool for scholars of early modern European literature and a pedagogical aid to discuss the early discourses on Blackness in Spain and its trans-Atlantic empire.Table of ContentsIntroductionEl valiente negro en Flandes / The Valiant Black Man in FlandersFootnotesCritical EssaysBibliographyIllustrationsCritical ApparatusAppendices

Read more less

Book SynopsisEbook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open initiative. The years following the Second World War saw an exponential increase in the translation of contemporary foreign poetry in Italy. The practice was at its most prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s, when publishing houses across the board almost doubled the number of foreign poetry titles in their catalogues. This remarkable phenomenon, however, has received scant critical attention, which has been limited to an aesthetic perspective. Publishing Contemporary Foreign Poetry: Transnational Exchange in the Italian Publishing Field, 1939–1977 is one of the first studies to examine the sociological significance of publishing poetry translations. Drawing on untapped archival materials, it investigates from an interdisciplinary perspective the processes and products of poetry translation, and how they impacted on publishing, cultural, literary, and political dynamics in Italy. It explores the internal reconfiguration of Italian culture, and how Italy sought to position itself in the world, without neglecting the contradictions of national and transnational cultural networks and movements. The book argues that translation was a means to modify power relationships in the field of poetry publishing and the contemporary literary arena; this ultimately changed the map of Italian cultural production and its transnational networks, thus anticipating the further developments provoked by globalisation in the 1980s.Trade Review"An insightful analysis of the way that the translation of foreign poetry helped shape the Italian publishing industry and its power dynamics – enormously well-researched and highly readable."Liz Wren-Owens, Cardiff UniversityTable of ContentsINTRODUCTIONPublishing and Poetry Translation: A Methodological IntroductionCHAPTER 1Publishing, culture, and poetry: a field investigationCHAPTER 2Editors, Habitus and Translation: publishing strategies in poetry translationCHAPTER 3Contemporary foreign poetry anthologies for new cultural and publishing horizonsCHAPTER 4Towards Globalisation, by a way of conclusionAppendix 1Appendix 2Works Cited

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis novel by esteemed Swiss writer Max Frisch is an exploration of the question: 'Why don't we live when we know we're here just this one time, just one single, unrepeatable time in this unutterably magnificent world?!' This outcry against the emptiness of ordinary, everyday life uttered by the hero of Frisch's book is countered by 'an answer from the silence' he meets when face to face with death. "When An Answer from the Silence" begins, the protagonist has just turned thirty and is engaged to be married and about to start work as a teacher. Frightened by the idea of settling down, he journeys to the Alps in a do-or-die effort to climb the unclimbed North Ridge, and by doing so prove he is not ordinary. But having reached the top he returns not in triumph, but in frostbitten shock, having come dangerously close to death. This highly personal early novel reflects a crisis in Frisch's own life, and perhaps because of this intimate connection, he refused to allow it to be included in his 'Collected Works in the 1970s'. Now available in English, this distinctive book will thrill fans of Frisch's other works.Trade Review"Frisch is a great, and even an inspiring, writer, because he gives us the unique sense that the act of analysis is a passionate act, impelled by our fear of the world's dissolution and our knowledge of our own fragility."-Newsday"

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen a meteor crashes into greaser Rockabilly’s backyard, a ripple of strange events ensues. The tattoo of a pin-up girl on his back comes to life and begins to exert her murderous control over the suburb in which he lives. His precocious teenage neighbor Suicide Girl begins spontaneously lactating, and her pet lizard goes missing. A disturbed neighbor begins to pace the block to quiet his unseemly thoughts. Meanwhile, the neighborhood dog, Bones, suddenly able to think human thoughts, begins to hatch a plan. With economic language and well-crafted timing, Rockabilly leads us on a hair-raising journey, artfully deconstructing archetypes of suburban America. Taking us past garish lights of strip malls and empty strips of desert, this dystopian novel presents a unique take on trash aesthetics, the philosophy of tattoo art, and American pop culture.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSitor Situmorang, one of the most celebrated Indonesian literary voices of the twentieth century, claimed that all his work dealt with a single theme—“love and wanderlust,” which are “two aspects of one and the same experience.” His remarkable short stories are celebrations of modern life, dealing with subjects such as seeking, belonging, identity, masculinity, and sensual interaction with the world at large. The characters are both introspective and physical, the settings sparse but evocative, the circumstances ordinary yet unexpected. The publication of this volume of fourteen stories is the culmination of a request Sitor once made of Harry Aveling to render his stories in English. The translation of his complete short stories now shares the exceptional creative prose of Sitor Situmorang with audiences around the world.

Read more less

Book SynopsisJaroslav Hasek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read yet incomplete novel "The Good Soldier Svejk", a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant soldier in World War I. Hasek - in spite of a life of bufoonery and debauchery - was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Here, in a new English translation, is a series of short stories based on Hasek's experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia. First published in the "Prague Tribune", these nine stories are considered to be some of his best, and they provide delightful entertainment as well as important background and insight into "The Good Soldier Svejk". This collection, by a writer some refer to as a Bolshevik Mark Twain, is much more than a tool for understanding Hasek's better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. "Behind the Lines" focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma and takes aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, "Behind the Lines" is an enjoyable, fast-paced collection of great literary and historical value.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA favorite work of Czech humor, We Were a Handful depicts the adventures of five boys from a small Czech town through the diary of Petr Bajza, the grocer's son. Written by Karel Polacek at the height of World War II before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944, this book draws on the happier years of Polacek's own childhood as inspiration. As we look upon the world through Petr's eyes, we, too, marvel at the incomprehensible world of grownups; join in fights between gangs of neighborhood kids; and laugh at the charming language of boys, a major source of the book's humor. This translation at last offers English-language readers the opportunity to share in Petr's (and Polacek's) childhood and reminds us that joy and laughter are possible even in the darkest times.

Read more less

Book SynopsisJaroslav Hasek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read, yet incomplete novel The Good Soldier Schweik, a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant WWI soldier. Hasek in spite of a life of buffoonery and debauchery was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Behind the Lines presents a series of nine short stories first published in the Prague Tribune and considered to be some of Hasek's best. Based on his experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia, Behind the Lines focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma, taking aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution. Providing important background and insight into The Good Soldier Schweik, this collection by a writer some call the Bolshevik Mark Twain is nevertheless much more than a tool for understanding his better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, Behind the Lines is an enjoyable, fast-paced anthology of great literary and historical value.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn its initial publication in Czech in 1942, Saturnin was a best seller, its gentle satire offering an unexpected if temporary reprieve from the grim reality of the German occupation. In the years since, the novel has been hailed as a classic of Czech literature, and this translation makes it available to English-language readers for the first time which is entirely appropriate, for author Zdenek Jirotka clearly modeled his light comedy on the English masters Jerome K. Jerome and P. G. Wodehouse. The novel's main character, Saturnin, a "gentleman's gentleman" who obviously owes a debt to Wodehouse's beloved Jeeves, wages a constant battle to protect his master from romantic disaster and intrusive relatives, such as Aunt Catherine, the "Prancing Dictionary of Slavic Proverbs." Saturnin will warm the heart of any fan of literary comedy.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSummer of Caprice, a captivating comic novel first published in 1926, is a classic of Czech literature, yet it is little known elsewhere. Commonly considered untranslatable due to the complexities of the text, which is characterized by a playful narrative and an exceptional mastery of language, and its profound cultural context, it is rendered here in English that beautifully captures Vladislav Vancura's experimental style or, as the author himself called it, his "poetism in prose." Mixing the archaic with the innovative, raw colloquialisms with biblical quotations, Summer of Caprice opens an uproarious window onto the Czech spirit, humor, and way of life.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is a book about collective guilt, individual fate, and repentance, a tale that explores how we can come to be responsible for crimes we neither directly commit nor have the power to prevent. Set in the Czechoslovakian borderland shortly after WWII amid the sometimes violent expulsion of the region's German population, Jaroslav Durych's poetic, deeply symbolic novel is a literary touchstone for coming to terms with the Czech Republic's difficult and taboo past of state-sanctioned violence. A leading Catholic intellectual of the early twentieth century, Durych became a literary and political throwback to the prewar Czechoslovak Republic and faced censorship under the Stalinist regime of the 1950s. As such, he was a man not unfamiliar with the ramifications of a changing society in which the minority becomes the rule-making political authority, only to end up condemned as criminals. Though Durych finished writing God's Rainbow in 1955, he could not have hoped to see it published in his lifetime. Released in a still-censored form in 1969, God's Rainbow is available here in full for the first time in English.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor The Pied Piper, Czech writer Viktor Dyk found his muse in the much retold medieval Saxon legend of the villainous, pipe-playing rat-catcher. Dyk uses the tale as a loose frame for his story of a mysterious wanderer, outcast, and would-be revolutionary--a dreamer typical of fin de siecle Czech literature who serves Dyk as a timely expression of the conflict between the petty concerns of bourgeois nineteenth-century society and the coming artistic generation. Impeccably rendered into English by Mark Corner, The Pied Piper retains the beautiful style of Dyk's original Czech. The inspiration for several theater and film adaptations, including a noted animated work from critically acclaimed director Jiri Barta, Dyk's classical novella is given new life by Corner's translation, proving that the piper is open to new interpretations still.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMahasweta Devi is one of India's foremost literary figures. Mother of 1084 is one of her most widely read works, written during the height of the Naxalite agitation - a militant communist uprising that was brutally repressed by the Indian government and led to the widespread murder of young rebels across Bengal. This novel focuses on the trauma of a mother who awakens one morning to the shattering news that her son is lying dead in the morgue and her struggle to understand his decision to be a Naxalite. Breast Stories is a collection of short fiction about the breast as more than a symbol of beauty, eroticism, or motherhood, but as a harsh indictment of an exploitative social system and a weapon of resistance. At a time when violence towards women in India has escalated exponentially, Devi exposes the inherently vicious systems in Indian society. Old Women tells the touching, poignant tales of two timeworn women - Dulali, a widow since childhood, who is now an old woman preoccupied only with day-to-day survival, and Andi, who loses her eyesight due to a combination of poverty, societal indifference, and government apathy. All three volumes, written in Devi's hard-hitting yet sensitive prose, are significant milestones in India's feminist literary landscape.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe late 16th-century novel Jin Ping Mei has been described as a landmark in the development of the narrative art form, there being no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature. However, it is also seen as something of a wild horse, its graphically explicit depiction of sexuality earning it great notoriety. Although Jin Ping Mei was banned soon after its appearance, today the novel is considered one of the six classics of Chinese literature. It is thus no surprise that Jin Ping Mei has caught the attention of scholars working in many different fields, places and periods. Unfortunately, the interdisciplinary and transnational exchange has been limited here, in part because of distance and language barriers. The present volume aims to bridge this gap, bringing together the best quality research on Jin Ping Mei by both established and emerging scholars. Not only will it showcase research on Jin Ping Mei but also it will function as a reader, helping future generations to understand and appreciate this important work.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCombining myth, legend, geography, history, and politics, The Saga of Satisar is the panoramic history of the Kashmiri Pandits. In it, award-winning Hindi writer Chandrakanta unspools a novel that spans two centuries, illustrating how Kashmiri lives have been transformed and the multicultural tradition disappeared in the face of military oppression. Finding as its culprits militancy, state mismanagement, and the dirty play of politics, The Saga of Satisar is a passionate and heartfelt cry for a treasured land and way of life that is quickly disappearing. Chandrakanta writes beautifully of her beloved Kashmir, remarking that even as the colorful memories of her youth mingle with the fragrance of the cool breezes, these realities are fading, leaving her only a world of memories to dwell in.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPublished in 1899, Muhammad Hadi Ruswa's famous novel "Umrao Jaan Ada" created a sensation when it came out, with its candid fictionalized account of the life of Umrao Jaan, based on a renowned Lucknow courtesan and poetess of the same name. Considered by many to be the first Urdu novel, it remains highly popular today and has been the basis of three films and a Pakistani television serial. But despite Ruswa's notoriety, few know that a month after he wrote "Umrao Jaan Ada", he penned a sly novella entitled "Junun-e-Intezar", in which "Umrao" avenges herself on her creator, Ruswa, by narrating the story of his life. Blurring the lines between truth and fiction, narrator and character, this clever narrative strategy gives the courtesan a voice. While "Umrao Jaan Ada" is still celebrated, "Junun-e-Intezar" has been completely forgotten - until now. The "Madness of Waiting" redresses this imbalance, featuring both the Urdu original and a superb English translation. The book also includes a critical introduction that rethinks "Umrao Jaan Ada" and the Urdu literary milieu of the late-nineteenth-century Lucknow courtesan.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPerhaps the strangest—and most strikingly modern—work to survive from the ancient world, The Satyricon relates the hilarious mock epic adventures of the impotent Encolpius, and his struggle to regain virility. Here Petronius brilliantly brings to life the courtesans, legacy-hunters, pompous professors and dissolute priestesses of the age - and, above all, Trimalchio, the archetypal self-made millionaire whose pretentious vulgarity on an insanely grand scale makes him one of the great comic characters in literature. Seneca's The Apocolocyntosis, a malicious skit on 'the deification of Claudius the Clod', was designed by the author to ingratiate himself with Nero, who was Claudius' successor. Together, the two provide a powerful insight into a darkly fascinating period of Roman history.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics

Read more less

Book SynopsisA masterful translation of one of the great novels of the 20th centuryNothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. Full of pungency and wit, this luminous work is Bulgakov's crowning achievement, skilfully blending magical and realistic elements, grotesque situations and major ethical concerns. Written during the darkest period of Stalin's repressive reign and a devastating satire of Soviet life, it combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with incident and with historical, imaginary, frightful and wonderful characters. Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published until 1966 when the first section appeared in the monthly magazine Moskva. Russians everywhere responded enthusiastically to the novel's artistic and spiritual freedom and it was an immediate and enduring success. This new translation has been made frTrade Review“My favorite novel—it’s just the greatest explosion of imagination, craziness, satire, humor, and heart.” —Daniel Radcliffe“Nude vampires, gun-toting talking black cat, and devil as ultimate party starter aside, the miracle of this novel is that every time you read it, it’s a different book.” —Marlon James, “My 10 Favorite Books,” in T: The New York Times Style MagazineTable of ContentsThe Master and MargaritaIntroductionA Note on the Text and AcknowledgmentsFurther ReadingBOOK ONE1. Never Talk with Strangers2. Pontius Pilate3. The Seventh Proof4. The Chase5. There were Doings at Griboedov's6. Schizophrenia, as was Said7. A Naughty Apartment8. The Combat between the Professor and the Poet9. Koroviev's Stunts10. News from Yalta11. Ivan Splits in Two12. Black Magic and Its Exposure13. The Hero Enters14. Glory to the Cock!15. Nikanor Ivanovich's Dream16. The Execution17. An Unquiet Day18. Hapless VisitorsBOOK TWO19. Margarita20. Azazello's Dream21. Flight22. By Candlelight23. The Great Ball at Satan's24. The Extraction of the Master25. How the Procurator Tried to Save Judas of Kiriath26. The Burial27. The End of Apartment No. 5028. The Last Adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth29. The Fate of the Master and Margarita is Decided30. It's Time! It's Time!31. On Sparrow Hills32. Forgiveness and Eternal RefugeEpilogueNotes

Read more less

Book SynopsisA major new collection of Japanese short stories, many appearing in English for the first time, with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, author of Killing CommendatoreA Penguin Classics HardcoverThis fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the art of the Japanese short story, from its origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable practitioners writing today. Edited by acclaimed translator Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated some of the stories, and with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, this book is a revelation.Stories by writers already well known to English-language readers are included--like Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata, and Yoshimoto--as well as many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's Flames to Yuten Sawanishi's Filling Up with Sugar to Shin'ichi Hoshi's Shoulder-Top Secretary to Banana Yoshimoto's Bee Honey, The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, cha

Read more less