Book after Book

By Gudmundur Andri Thorsson Translated from the Icelandic by Andrew Cauthery and Bjorg Arnadottir Published by Peirene Press Synopsis: In this story we hear the voices of an Icelandic fishing village. On a summer’s day a young woman in a polka-dot dress cycles down the main street. Her name is Kata and she is the village choir conductor. As she passes, we glimpse the members of the village: a priest with a gambling habit, an old brother and sister who have not talked for years, and a sea captain who has lost his son. But perhaps the most interesting story of all belongs to the young woman on the bicycle. Why is she reticent to talk about her past? How did this book end up in my hands? The publisher kindly sent me a copy of the book to review. I was only too happy to accept the offer of ‘relaxing Nordic hygge in a book’! Was it a page-turner? With less than 200 pages, this book can definitely be read in one sitting – unless you’re like me and you like to savour a...

Hi Delija! Thank you for joining me today. I have just finished reading Shadows on the Tundra , which you translated from the Lithuanian to English, and I’d like to ask you a few questions both on this specific book and more generally on translation. So let’s begin… How did you get started in literary translation? A:   You could say it began nearly fifty years ago with my doctoral dissertation, in which I examined the Lithuanian translations of Shakespeare's plays. But I've never actually made a career of translation. Shadows on the Tundra is the only book I've translated. Yes, I have translated academic articles, some plays for the National Drama Theater in Lithuania, and other genres, but it was always the result of a specific request. What did you think when you were first approached to work on Dalia Grinkevičiūtė’s outstanding memoir? Were you already aware of it or was it a new discovery for you? A: When Meike Ziervogel, the publisher, “found” me in 2017...

By Dalia Grinkeviciute Translated from the Lithuanian by Delija Valiukenas  Published by Peirene Press Synopsis: In 1941, 14-year-old Dalia and her family are deported from their native Lithuania to a labour camp in Siberia. As the strongest member of her family she submits to twelve hours a day of manual labour. At the age of 21, she escapes the gulag and returns to Lithuania. She writes her memories on scraps of paper and buries them in the garden, fearing they might be discovered by the KGB. They are not found until 1991, four years after her death. This is the story Dalia buried. The immediacy of her writing bears witness not only to the suffering she endured but also the hope that sustained her. It is a Lithuanian tale that, like its author, beats the odds to survive. How did this book end up in my hands? I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange of my honest opinion. Was it a page-turner? No, I wouldn’t say it was. I did read it fairly qui...

Hi Nashwa ! Thank you for joining me today. I have just finished reading Shatila Stories , which you translated from the Arabic to English, and I’d like to ask you a few questions both on this specific book and more generally on translation. So let’s begin… How did you get started in literary translation? A: Thanks for reading! I have been translating since I was a child really, although translating literature came relatively recently. Having been raised bilingual I always found myself interpreting elements of my native Egyptian culture to my friends in England, particularly when it came to customs, concepts and jokes without a direct equivalent in English. I also translated a great deal in my work as a journalist over the years. But I came to literary translation as a necessity when I was looking for work that didn’t involve commuting to London after I moved away from the capital. Since I love reading and creative writing, it seemed natural to combine my skills and passion by ta...

By Omar Khaled Ahmad, Nibal Alalo, Safa Khaled Algharbawi, Omar Abdellatif Alndaf, Rayan Mohamad Sukkar, Safiya Badran, Fatima Omar Ghazawi, Samih Mahmoud, Hiba Mareb Translated from the Arabic by Nashwa Gowanlock Published by Peirene Press Synopsis: Adam and his family flee Syria and arrive at the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. Conditions in this overcrowded Palestinian camp are tough, and violence defines many of the relationships: a father fights to save his daughter, a gang leader plots to expand his influence, and drugs break up a family. Adam struggles to make sense of his refugee experience, but then he meets Shatha and starts to view the camp through her eyes. How did this book end up in my hands? I was offered a copy of this book in exchange of my honest opinion by one of Peirene Press’s talented publishing assistants and I didn’t hesitate to accept the opportunity to read this novel written by Syrian and Palestinian refugees. Was it a page-turner? In line with ...

By Friedrich Christian Delius Translated by Jamie Bulloch Published by Peirene Press From its first page to its last, Portrait of the Mother As a Young Woman is just one long sentence. Yes, one sentence. Divided into manageable paragraphs, true, but still one sentence. If you don’t let this put you off, you’ll be rewarded. The novella opens with a young German woman who, pregnant with her first son, sets off from her temporary home in Rome to go to a Bach concert at the Lutheran church. We follow her along the streets and across the squares of the city, which we see through her foreign eyes, and we are permitted to share her thoughts. Walking, reminiscing and thinking are her only actions and she doesn’t interact with anyone on her way to church. This, however, doesn’t make for a boring book, as you might fear. By the time we reach our destination, we know everything there is to know about this young woman - her upbringing, how she met her husband, the life she imagines by his side o...

Written by Asko Sahlberg Translated by Fleur and Emily Jeremiah Published by Peirene Press If you’re interested in contemporary European literature, you won’t want to miss The Brothers by Asko Sahlberg, published this month by Peirene Press as the first title in the Small Epic series. Epic might sound like an overstatement when applied to a novel that is only 122 pages long but believe me when I tell you that, with its 8 narrative voices and a wide spectrum of human emotions, this description is indeed quite fitting. The setting is a farm in Finland in 1809, where brothers Erik and Henrik have returned after fighting in the war between Sweden and Russia on opposing sides. Family tensions had pushed Henrik to leave his country and seek a new beginning in St. Petersburg but when he turns up at the farm unexpectedly it becomes clear that all those past matters are far from being a thing of the past. As the Farmhand, one of the novel’s characters, declares at the very beginning of the bo...

By Alois Hotschnig Translated by Tess Lewis Published by Peirene Press First published in German in 2006, Maybe This Time was published yesterday in English thanks to the efforts of translator Tess Lewis and enlightened publisher Peirene Press. The author, Alois Hotschnig, is considered to be one the most important contemporary short story writers in the German language and his books have won several literary prizes. This little volume, which, like all other Peirene titles, promises to be “thought-provoking, well designed and short”, doesn’t fail to deliver. To properly savour each short story, I set out to read only one each day rather than one after the other. I did well but didn’t always succeed because some of the short stories just made me want to see what else Hotschnig had in store. Which boundaries he would break next. I normally get frustrated by short stories because I feel that – despite the clue being in their name – they end too soon, just as I’m getting involved and want...

Jan van Mersbergen and Laura Watkinson, respectively author and translator of Tomorrow Pamplona , are on a blog tour organised by Peirene Press . Here is what I asked them... To what extent was Jan involved in the translation process and what do you both feel has been gained and/or lost during the transition from Dutch to English - both linguistically and culturally? Perhaps you could give us an example of a particularly successful solution or of a compromise that had to be reluctantly made. Jan: In the first place I think a translation is wonderful, because readers now can read the novel in English. My English isn't good enough to write a novel, that would be a disaster, so I only can write in Dutch and our language is really small. I guess about 25 million people read Dutch (Holland, Belgium, Surinam, Antillen). English is big! It's hard for me to judge if the translation is ok. When I read my novel now it's like reading an English novel. It feels English. That's a g...

By Jan van Mersbergen Translated by Laura Watkinson Published by Peirene Press Were it a film, Tomorrow Pamplona would keep your eyes glued to the screen. Being a book, it keeps your eyes glued to its pages and makes your fingers itch with anticipation! To celebrate its publication day, here is what some lucky readers had to say about Jan van Mersbergen's enthralling novel... Sonya from London said: This is the first time in a while that I have read a book written by a foreign author. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if I would enjoy it but I really did, so much so that I found it extremely hard to put down. Praise has to be given also to Laura Watkinson who made a really good job of translating this novel into English. The storyline follows a professional boxer who is fleeing from an unhappy love and a family man who likes to escape his dull routine once a year by going to the annual Pamplona Bull Run. These are two strangers who meet on the road and end up travelling t...

By Matthias Politycki Translated by Anthea Bell Published by Peirene Press Next World Novella , the English translation of the German Jenseitsnovelle by Matthias Politycki, is the fourth title published by Pereine Press, which specialises in contemporary European literature. Hinrich Schepp wakes up one morning to find his wife Doro sitting at the desk. He thinks that she must have fallen asleep while editing one of his writings but as he gets nearer to her slumped figure, he realises that she is dead. Not wanting to let her go so quickly, he decides to read the last comments she wrote – her last words to him – while she’s still there with him. During the following hours he will experience a spectrum of emotions – tenderness, anger, forgiveness, astonishment – as he re-reads through Marek the Drunkard , his only attempt at novel-writing. Far from being simple comments on his style, what he finds on the margins is his wife’s account of their marriage. Years of a life shared misunderstan...