Winston state of the nation and what more to do ?

Well we are four months into 2013 a quick update of my books read page tells me I ve read 48 books with three on the go I should be at 51 in next couple of days hopefully of the books I ve read this year ,45 have been translations .I ve struggle as ever to keep up reviewing I tend to prefer reading to blogging and this year as ever a few books won’t get reviewed ,I try my best but time to blog is much short than it was the last couple of year .So far the highlights of the year have been

Train to Budapest by Dacia Maraini ,I need to know why she was mentioned a lot as a potential Nobel winner and this multi stranded story showed me why .A hidden gem more of you should be trying .

Suicide by Edouard Leve a touching and thought provoking book about a man looking back on a friends suicide ,Leve himself committed suicide just days after handing this book in .Review coming soon

Other highlights outside books

Elementary is my current favourite tv show I follow so little tv these days I have managed to watch all of this modern retelling of Sherlock Holmes with a female Watson and set in New York .

Well I’ve sign up for spotify this means I tend to spend more time listening to old favourites and records I don’t own,than new stuff these days .Our HMV shut earlier this month leaving us in Chesterfield without a record shop hence move to spotify .But the return of Bowie and the new Album Next day has been played many times on my Ipod ,Ipad and Iphone .My favourite track is the title track a classic piece of cut up lyrics by Bowie

The future

Well this is hard one I feel like I ve been treading water for a long time doing as much as I can with in my time frame to blog ,but still struck by the fact I could be doing more ,18 months ago I felt much more forward facing and just at mo ,I feel like I getting like a hamster stuck on a hamster wheel .I have the big project behind the blog now but moving forward on that is a bit early when I hit five hundred books I will be making major changes on the blog as I need to organise it to fit what I have in mind ,but outside blogging .I feel I should be doing more I still do twitter every thurs ,but one feels there is a whole world more out there I could be doing to promote world lit and also getting it to the ordinary man on the street hence a return to more pop culture references in my reviews ,I could spend hours taking a book apart comparing to all other books by the writer or region of writing with 300 plus books read and reviewed on this blog plus maybe another 700plus books read pre blogging it would be possible but I don’t want to be drawn down this path it isn’t what I intend for the image of the blog I want my reviews to be informative on the book and light with pop culture comparisons how else am I going get more people to read the books I so love !!!! by making them seem like precious stones or a rare painting to only be brought out on special days no thats not the way we need to be thinking how to make translations appeal to the widest audience not the small band that read them already ,because on the whole they know the books I read as well as me ! No I want be as my dear friend Rob calls it a book evangelist for translation so this is where I need to ask you my friends out there what more can I do ? how can we break the wall #

 

 

A personnel odyssey Anthony Burgess

Well earlier this year I was lucky to be sent these from Vintage books it is six Anthonh Burgess novels that have been reissued by them ,now if you have read this blog over the years I have mentioned him from time to time he is one of my five all time favourite writers .I haven’t reviewed him on blog yet but when these came it finalised a plan I had in the back of my head for a couple of years and that was to read a number of his books in Late November /early December 2013 ,which marks 20th anniversary of Anthony Burgess death for me it was a great loss of one of the most unique and individual writers the English language has eve produced so with my own collection of books here

I have 17 novels of the 34 novels listed on Wikipedia as by him if I add in 4 I have wish listed on Amazon for my new kindle that have been published Serpents tail that means 21 novels plus the autobiography little Wilson and big god to read I have made a start reading eve of st Venus already .Now as I said this is a personnel odyssey for me but all are welcome to join in because to me he has always been much more than the one book Clockwork Orange that most people know him for .so from November watch out as from them til e d of 2013 I intend to review all these books not moving from translation but marking an important figure to me as a reader in my reading life .he marked a real change in my reading Habits when I read him in my late teens and early twenties and I feel now is the time to mark that point in my life and honour this great writer before everyone forgets him .For he wrote dystopic fiction, sci fi fiction ,comedy ,historic fiction and philosophical novels but fat from been the writer that moved genres and never succeed he did in nearly every field he tried .Bot bad for a guy that said he was a musician first and writer second

What is your favourite book by Anthony Burgess ?

Best of the world under 40 in English translation

Best writers under 40 2013 list

~(not British but from round the world )

Well as one would expect the chance of the best of British under forty list coming out today from Granta in the new magazine has been eagerly awaited and discussed .So I decide I try to do a list of writers from round the world that have been published or shortly due to be published in English.This is actually quite a task ,because usually you have to be a acclaimed or won a prize to catch the eye of a editor commissioning  translations ,this means the writers I consider newish to use in english say Santiago Gamboa ,Christoph Simon or Mickhail Shishkin all fall out side the under forty classification .But in the end I have found some wonderful writers from round the world myself and a few suggested by Tony as well .

Winstonsdad rest of the world best writer under 40

Valeria Luiselli

reviewed he début in English Faces in the crowd and have read a follow-up collection of non fiction pieces sidewalks ,she is my new writer crush for sure she loves wandering round like myself .She is definitely one to watch .An interview with her 

Andres Neuman

well short-listed for both  the IFFP and BTBA this year with this novel .Is one thing but the other he is actually considered a great short story writer as well ,we have a lot to come from Andres here is my review and Gary’s interview with him.

Patrico Pron

I first mention Pron when he was one of the writers and other stories was working with in the first year .but he was taken up by Faber who are publishing his first novel in English later this year -”my fathers ghost is climbing in the rain “a writer returns home as  his father is dying .here is a piece he wrote for paris review .

 

Matias Nespolo

He is a another talented Argentinian writer ,his book Seven ways to kill a cat was translated by the wonderful Frank Wynne .Here is a piece from Granta about him 

Daniel Kehlman

Now this is one that shocked me I have yet to read him but his books been on my radar for a good while and shocked he was eligible ,here is a piece he wrote praising  his translator Carol brown Janeway .

Sasa Stansic

Is one of the new breed of German writer to have come to Germany from Eastern Europe in his case Bosnia and start writing in German .Both Rob and Lisa loved this book ,Here is an interview with him from rumpus

Juli Zeh

Juli is another German writer I had on my radar for a while she is among a group of talented female German writers Judith Herrmann and Jenny erphenbeck being other they both just fell outside the under 40 ,here is a review and interview with her tanslator  from Lizzie

Helene Hegemann

Now this is a controversial choice as by this piece in the new york times shows  ,I did like the book it has a strange arc and is quite unique and she is so young here is my review of Axoltl roadkill.

Tristan Garcia

I think we all admired the style and subject of  hate a romance on last year IFFP prize ,Tristan is not just a writer but also a philosopher as this piece shows and here is a review of hate from my blog .

Laurent Binet

Well he missed our IFFP shortlist but this début from him HHhH has set people talking about what makes a novel and also set many heads turning with its stunning cover .here is my review and interview from the new statesman

Roberto Saviano

Yes he is under 40  ,I know Gomorrah his debut has been round for quite a long time ,the best non fiction writer from Italy at the moment here is my review of beauty and the inferno from last year ,and an interview from huff post .

Joumana Hadda

A lebanese poet and writer I first read about online via arablit via this profile  I think ,but n=known for poems and essays on the arab experience I hope to review her soon rather than later .oh and she is just over 40 but want to add a female arabic writer .

Faiza Guene

Another young writer of French Algerian origin she has had two books translated so far to English ,I hope to read her later this year as she has been on wishlist for a good while .she writes about growing up poor in paris her is a piece from the guardian about her 

Ali Bader

Another writer I had on radar since I read a piece on the wonderful Arab lit again(if you’re not following this blog you are missing the chance to find the Arab lit world opened up ).two of his books have been translated in to English .The last was published in 2011 .

Risa Watya

IS a female Japanese writer ,she has women the Kenzaburo Oe prize with her most recent book isn’t it a pity ,which will be coming to us in English soon .I ll thank Tony for this one I not to sure but a nice piece from the official j lit site her about her 

Hitomi Kanehera

A high school drop out  from Japan published her first book age 21 ,best known for Autofiction which I have had from library but never got to ,this is another from Tony .a profile from a few years ago that isn’t behind paywall of ny times .

FFlur Dafydd

A Welsh language writer and singer ,she is best known for a piece for the Seren collection of tales from Mabinogion series from the famous Welsh myth  her is a profile of her from Seren .Thanks again to Tony for this one .

Well there you go I given you a few alternatives from Wales to Japan ,from Algeria to Argentina also I link to three list .

Granta spanish writers list 

Granta best brazilian link

Beirut 39

Though some of these writers haven’t had a full novel published in English it is worth noting them for the future .

 

Happy days when blogging works

I ve often moaned about my places in the blogging world  .But I was just thinking I m in a purple patch of blogging feeling on top of things and my lot in the world  .I feel as thou my interaction in the blogosphere is at its best  level since I started blogging over three years ago .Its much  easy to write a post letting steam off ,as  I am now struggling to write a positive post about my joy in blogging  .I think what I m trying to say is that after a number of years struggling to wonder where my voice and blog belonged in the grand scheme of things .I have decide maybe it belongs where I am at moment . A fair bit of content and taking part in great projects like Man Asian with Matt Lisa and Mark or my own shadow iffp with Gary Mark Lisa and Tony . Then another part is joining in thing like Lizzie and Caroline German Lit month ,Tony’s January in Japan.I think I wanted to be Fonz when I started blogging but I never was the cool kid at anything ,so I m happy being a Richie I want feel part of a family and I finally feel that I am part of the blogosphere .Anpother joy is the people I ve meet over last few years people like Mark ,Simon ,Rob my fellow bloggers ,Nikesh and the book trust folk ,Meike ,Maddy ,Henry ,Fiona and Beth from the world of publishing and of course Frank one of my favourite translators .All in All for a lad from  Chesterfield that start this as a project to do something in my own small way ,I feel I have .

So thanks to all that have stuck with me in lkast few years and here is to many more

The shadow Iffp 2013

 

Well I nearly got it right with my guessing post ,last week but the offical Independent foreign fiction prize is out .Like last year I will be doing a shadow jury for this prize I am again joined by Lisa ,Tony ,Gary and Mark.We will be trying to read as many of the longlist as we all can in the time between longlist and shortlist .I have a great start as I have read eleven of the book and have reviews for nine of them on the blog .We will again choose our own shortlist and winner ,my feeling is ours and the actual shortlist may be quite near as there to me are a number of great books on this list that be on a shortlist any year .I ll be doing a page with links to reviews by everyone when we have a few as at moment it feels like I am showing off reading so many .If you want get involved with reading this year and want read less the Booktrust have organised a reading group from the shortlist stage here ,be lovely to see some other blogs join in that maybe don’t read many translations to expand the discussion on this wonderful year .Paul at Maclehose on twitter called it the best ever longlist I agree it is the strongest in recent years .

A Death In the Family by
Karl Ove Knausgaard
Translated from the Norweigian by Don Bartlett

The Detourby
Gerbrand Bakker
Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

HHhH by
Laurence Binet
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

 
The Sound of Things Falling by
Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean
The Last of the Vostyachsby
Diego Marani
Translated from the Italian by Judith Landry

Shadow reviews
Cold Sea Stories by
Pawel Huelle
Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
The Fall of the Stone City by
Ismail Kadare
Translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson
Black Bazaar by
Alain Mabanckou
Translated from the French by Sarah Ardizzone
Bundu by
Chris Barnard
Translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns

Dublinesque by
Enrique Vila-Matas
Translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey and Anne McLean
In Praise of Hatredby
Khalid Khalifa
Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price

 

The Murder of Halland by
Pia Juul
Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitke

Satantango by
Laszlo Krasznahorkai
Translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes
Silent House by
Orhan Pamuk
Translated from the original Turkish by Robert Finn
Traveller of the Century by
Andrés Neuman
Translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia
Trieste by
Daša Drndić
Translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac

 

Winstonsdad Longlist Guess for the IFFP 2013

Well it’s that time of year when the Independent Foreign fiction prize longlist is announced and I m going to do my annual guessing for it .I want to say 2012-2013 has in my humble opinion has been one of the brightest years in recent times so without further ado I’m going try to guess what will make the longlist and when the list is announced tomorrow how many I have got right -

Certain -

Satantango by László Krasznahorkai

Well this is the book ,I ve read twice and it is the best book from the last twelve month .A man returns to a remote collective farming village after two years away but has he changed is he the devil .

HHhH BY Laurent Binet

Probably the most talked about translation in the last twelve months ,two men set of to kill a notorious Nazi Officer .

Dublinesque – Enrique Vila-Matas

One of the most well-known names in Spanish Literature returns with a new translation and his Homage to Ireland and to the fiction of James Joyce .

My struggle part one(A death in the family ) by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The first of five books that kept Norway hooked for the last few year part bio part fiction .Proust for a modern age .

Three strong women by Marie Ndiaye 

The Prix Goncourt from 2009 finally reached us in English the story of three African women show how hard life can be gripping stuff .

Traveller of the Century by Andres Neuman 

An Argentina writer I had look forward to in English didn’t disappoint a mix of Latin american and Europe set in a medieval Europe .

Seven years by Peter Stamm

Says what it is on the cover but so well written ,A husband strays after they’ve been together for seven years .

Where I left my soul by Jérôme Ferrari

Three men in the Algerian war show the many sides of the war and the horrors of war ,he recently won the Prix Goncourt .

Where the Tigers are at home by Jean Marie Blas de Robles

The stunning epic and the most overlooked book in the last twelve months .A man in the back and beyond of Brazil ,writes a bio and meet many people .

My brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Two friend grow up in Fifties Italy ,a story of how two friends from the same place can end up so far apart .

The briefcase by Hiromi Kawakami 

A Japanese take on the May to December story a young women and her old teacher who is retired have a romance .

Necropolis by Santiago Gamboa 

A writer is invited to a strange conference of writers in Israeli .Someone is murder there and we hear the other writers stories .

Our man in Iraq by Robert Perisic

A Journalist with a trouble marriage sends a family member to the Gulf war to report trouble follows .

Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan

A monk in the 5th century working on a text is tempt by the devil ,this won the Arab Booker .

Murder of Halland by Pia Juul 

My favourite from last years Peirene books a new take on the crime from the wife of the victim and how she copes .

The sound of things falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez 

A man remembers a man he knew and the time of the drug cartels and their power in Columbia

Well sixteen books there and a few others just on the verge for me

Zbindens progress –  Christoph Simon

The island by Carlos Gamerro

The human part by Hari Hotakainen

Heaven and Hell by Jon Kalman Stefansson

What are your thoughts ?

Train To Budapest by Dacia Maraini

Train to Budapest by Dacia Maraini

Italian Fiction

Translator  Silvester Mazzarella

Original title Il treno dell’ ultima notte

Source personnel copy

Now Dacia Maraini is a name that always seems to be in the top ten when the odds for the Nobel literature prize are mentioned every year so when before Christmas I saw this in my local Oxfam I decided it was time to try her .So Dacia Maraini is an Italian writer her mother was a Sicilian Princess she was an artist and art dealer and her father was an Ethnologist and mountaineer ,The family fled Fascist Italy but end up In a camp in Japan til 1946.They return to Italy and Dacia lived with her father and was educated in well-known Florence school .She started writing age 27 in 1963 ,she had been married before that but was at that time living with the well-known Italian writer Alberto Moravia whom she spent time with til his death in 1983 .Well longer than usual Bio but I felt after reading her Wiki entry she has had a really interesting life .

How can that stone child have survived in that Ghetto ? Would he have had the strength to survive ? Was turning to stone a way of holding on ? And what if ,after all ,he had made it ? A boy has his life before him and it isn’t easy to break stone .

Amara musing after reading a letter from Emanuele

So to Train to Budapest well this is a novel of stories and two main plotlines ,mix styles and genres .So to break it up the main character in the book is Amara she is an Italian Journalist ,we join her on the train to Budapest she has been ask to write about the growing divide that is happening between east and west Europe post world war two  .This is 1956 and the Budapest itself  is heading to is itself heading to trouble as the brief freedom that is flourishing there is looking troubled .The reason that Amara took this job to write about Budapest is the second main plot of the book and that is the other main character in this book and that is Emanuele who was a friend of Amara when she was growing up they had both lived in Florence, then Emanuele family had gone to Vienna and this fallen foul of the Nazis .Emanuele story is told via the letter he had written to Amara during this time so you see the changing face of Austria the fact they have to wear stairs then can’t go here and there and then they are moved to The Ghetto the ? Well I leave that you to find out but at a point the letters to Amara ended and she is taking this journey to find out what happened to her friend  after that point and the people he knew and she did via the letters .Then you add to that a lovely half Jewish man that she meets on the train who’s  job sees him stepping in to be the father for people at weddings .Amara own war memories are mixed in as she take the journey things she will never forget .She also meets someone wanting to print letters from the Russian front .Will she find out what happened to her soul mate ?

The future opens before her like a precious flower touched by the first ray of the sun but still frozen on the branch ,Because spring is not yet here and the sun has deceived her .

The closing words so poetic .

Well this sounds complicated I can see you saying that but it works ,it is great musing on the world war two and how it affect just individuals not nations people also the echoes of the present (well 1956) Budapest and the situation in the Ghetto and for the Jews a sort of comparison of Communism and Fascism  ,with neither coming out on top .The pacing of the book works the sort of feeling of a train journey that feel of moving through the book but not  knowing you have done so .Dacia Maraini shows why she is a frequent Nobel favourite to make something so complex so easy to read and to stick with you long after I put the book down is very hard to do .This is one of those books you think why isn’t it better known it should be it is better than some similar books with less complex themes .

Have you ever read her books ?

Do you have a favourite Italian writer?

That was the month that was January 2013 – a quarter million milestone

Well the nights are starting to lighten its been a busy month here at Winston’s tower ,some how shocked how I managed to get 14 books read this month but a number where rather short .I had a number of night shifts and was off for the last five days of the month .I managed to have a little more time than normal to read .Any way favourite book of the month Train to Budapest by Dacia Marani ,which I shall review early next month ,other honorable mentions go to The eleven by Pierre Michon and the two Donald Antrim reissues I read .A good book finding month as many of you may know I tend to have tight book finances ,when it comes to what is available to spend sad to say I had to return to Amazon after nearly a year just because of cost and availability of the books I want for three books ,I hope in summer trips out to cities with Amanda will mean I can buy books in shops I want .But the other side of this is I am a huge second-hand buyer and this month saw me hit gold with a number of penguins a Roman Gary ,Andre Gide ,Henrich Boll and a Samuel Beckett novel .Which eased my conscious re using amazon as some of  these books  are out of print and will be reviewed on here which I hope will get people to find them all out as they are   all writers I feel the need to read and think other people should these are the ones that explain modern literature in France and Germany as they tend to inspire or have been read by most modern writers in these countries .So the month ahead well here at Winston towers two dates spring to mind ,the first is valentines day as a romantic at heart I’ve my book ready for the day and will be spending time myself with the darling Amanda .The other date in my diary is Amanda’s birthday which may not be so bookish as she isn’t a huge reader but sure we will have a lovely time and I ll get her some great gifts .For the blog I sit on the verge of a quarter million views in my stats sometime today or tomorrow I will pass that total so thanks to every one who visits on a regular or just once all welcome  great that you all come and visit the blog .The picture at the top was taken in the middle of the month out with Winston in the middle of the snow .

What was your favourite book last month ?

Plans for next ?

 

Humbooks my choices for Sue

I nearly missed Emma and Guys  Humbook post and thus missed chance to join in the virtually gift books to a partner for Christmas .So when I managed to get in and was chosen to be partner with Sue from whispering Gums , who I got to know via last year’s Shadow Man Asian . So one of my choices is one I think she will love and the other is one I d like to see her view on it,because when I read it I loved it and now planning a reread so be great to compare notes  .

Faces in the crowd by Valeria Luiselli -

this is the choice I feel Sue will love  ,like I did when I read it earlier this year .It is short novella from the up and coming female Mexican writer ,A women now back in Mexico looks back on her time in New York and the fact she was working on a paper on an earlier Mexican poet ,his and her worlds blur as she starts to see him as she heads round New York .Wonderfully poetic and one I feel Sue will love she doesn’t do many translated book but I feel this is one she will really get and I know she tends to read more female writers so this is great choice .

A Dead man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess -

I love his works and the fact that Vintage have just reissued a number of his books including this one , seemed a  great excuse to virtual gift it to  Sue as she  seems to read a few historic fiction novel than myself and this is in that style but the imagine life of Christopher Marlowe as a spy ,I really felt he capture Marlowe as a man trying to keep alive .I read this one when it came out it,sadly  was one of Burgess last novels ,I also have another  motive through gifting this to Sue ,but more about that at another time .

What books have you got for Christmas ?

My books of the Year 2012

Well I was lucky enough to be asked to name five but actually got ten books for Booktrust Translated fiction Blog so if you click over there .You can see my main choices ,but here are some others .

Honourable mentions for fiction -

When picking the books for the  Translated fiction list I tried to stick with certain places and countries thus two books I loved I didn’t mention there they are -

The flying creatures of Fra Angelico by Antonio Tabucchi -a clever collection of quirky stories and fictional letters from the late Italian writer .

Azazeel By Youssef Ziedan – A Coptic monk struggles with his consciousness as he works on some scripts in 5th century Egypt .

Best non fiction in translation -

A journey to Nowhere by Jean Paul Kaufmann -A man journey to Latvia to discover the long-lost country of Courland a small but important country in its time .

Honorable mention – brother mendels perfect horse by Frank westermann

Best memoir in translation -

The Patagonian  Hare by Claude Lanzmann Editor of Les Temps Modernes Sartre’s famous  lit mag ,resistance fighter in world war two, oh and he made the film Shoah as well .

Honourable  mention fictional memoir  -  A Death in the Family By Karl Ove Knausgaard

Well that’s my year .