Themed Guides to Translated Literature in 2015
December 31, 2015 8:19 PM   Subscribe

Chad W. Post at Three Percent recently linked to World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2015 and went on a list-making tear to provide more structure and commentary: 7 books by women, 6 water-cooler fiction books, 6 university press books, 3 'funny' books, 4 books from underrepresented countries, and the best poetry I should read. The commentary often leads to further matters of interest, e.g. the Women in Translation Tumblr or Marianne Fritz and the translation challenges (scroll down) in her work.
posted by Wobbuffet (7 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
What a perfect way to start the new year!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 9:13 PM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


This is bloody great, thank you.
posted by smoke at 9:24 PM on December 31, 2015


Though that "75 books" link. I don't know what the fuck riffle is, but it's awful. People, forget your ajax-y widget layout bullshit, just give me a list of books with a short summary beside them, in gorgeous plain html and some links to buy next to the title.
posted by smoke at 9:27 PM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Chad Post discussed these lists, and other issues, with Tom Roberge on the most recent episode of the Three Percent podcast. If you've never listened to the podcast, it's worth diving into. I especially recommend the more thematic episodes, for instance on difficulty in fiction, or Portuguese literature.
posted by Kattullus at 1:54 AM on January 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


Very useful for me as I have a plan to have at least half my 2016 reading be books in translation. I have Ferrante, Knausgaard, and 1Q84 queued up, but I want to get beyond the well-known heavy hitters.
posted by escabeche at 6:13 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


I recently bought a subscription to the Open Letters Books (Chad Post*, publisher) catalog; basically a book a month (ish) for a year. The most recent was War, So Much War, by Merce Rodoreda, which is absolutely stunning.

I like that niche publishers are doing this. I also subscribed to a year of Restless Books, which has a similarly interesting catalog. All books and authors I would never hear of, much less read, without services like these.



* Full disclosure - back in the mid-1990s I worked with Chad at an indie bookstore here in Grand Rapids. He is a righteous dude.
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:24 AM on January 1, 2016 [5 favorites]


Getting subscriptions to small book publishers is an amazing idea. I've just discovered that PM Press offers them, and I'm really tempted.

I've only gotten one novel from them (JJ Amaworo Wilson's Damnificados, but it is so freaking good.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:01 PM on January 2, 2016 [2 favorites]


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