Nobel winner 2011 ?
05 Oct 2011 22 Comments
in NOBEL WINNER Tags: 2011, NOBEL LIT, prize winners
Well its nobel time again the yearly award that in last few years has got harder to call as the choices seem more obscure to us english language readers but not on the world stage so I ll throw a number of names up and why they could and why they couldn’t from favourites I ve seen mention and my own feelings -
Philip Roth – well he is the one I feel will win as it has been a long time since an us winner and he is probably the last of the big writers from sixties ie mailer and Updike etc .
PROS – well-known ,make up for Updike or mailer not winning Nobel
CONS - has won man booker this year ,recent books not as good as earlier cannon .
Juan Goytisolo – father of modern spanish writing ,
PROS - he is in Nobel mode of recent years tends to be experimental in his fiction ,best regarded living writer in Spain
CONS – rare for two writers from same language to win in following years
Haruki Murakami Japans best known writer
PROS – he’d be a very popular and well-known choice ,his masterpiece has just come out iq84 due in english soon
CONS – maybe to young ,maybe to well-known
Elias Khoury -my favourite arabic writer (I ll also note the Syrian poet Adonis I ve note read him but he’d have similar reasons to Khoury )
PROS – he is just a wonderful writer ,also with Arab spring be nice to see a voice of Arabic world chosen .
CONS – none really he be a great choice
Ben Okri – I like him enough said and have met him and he is so passionate about fiction
Pros does a lot to promote literacy and reading ,African winner is need at some point
CONS – too young ,maybe not lived up to early promise fully
Ismail Kadare – Has been on the list of contenders a number of times
PROS – Has not written a bad novel ,a new language to win the Nobel prize
CONS – Maybe should have won and as Michael Orther said to me on twitter there has been a lot of eastern european winners .
Ulrich Holbein – the German writer yet to be translated to English ,did shoot up last year in odds .
PRO – obscure ,experimental
CONS – Not well-known outside Germany
Cees Nooteboom – Hollands greatest living writer and master of numerous styles of writing poetry ,fiction and travel writing .
PRO - truly talented
CONS – none really he would be the ideal winner
Peter Nadas – the Hungarian master
Pro – maybe the best living writer (as I draw to end of his latest book)
Cons – he has not written a lot as a slow writer .
my tenth choice is a handful of names I ve not read but heard mentioned
Ko Un – Korean poet
Les Murray – Australian Poet
Antonio lobo Antunes - Portuguese writer (frank Wynne suggested I read him ,still waiting for library copy )
Ngugi wa Thiong’o - Kenyan writer ~(read him but one book many years ago)
Here are the odds on Ladbrokes a big move up odds , late on is usually sign of the winner .
Grass calls in the translators
23 Mar 2011 11 Comments
in book news, news, NOBEL WINNER, TRANSLATIONS Tags: german lit, TRANSLATIONS
I listen to the BBC world service program The strand which feature a piece on the third volume of Gunter Grass auto bio /bio /fiction trilogy .The first two parts being peeling the Onion and the box .Now the third part Grimms Wörter. Eine Liebeserklärung or in english Grimm’s Words: A Declaration of Love ,is a book in the form of a dictionary /bio involving Grass the Grimm brothers .Now this book is virtually untranslatable due to its layout and how its alphabetical layout also follows the story of grass and Grimm brothers .So grass called all his translators to meet him and be challenged to translate this book .Grass has always worked with his translators this led to the new tin drum translation in 2006 as grass felt the original cut to much of his original book, .Now he is want the translators to use their life to translate the book in to their languages ,now it seems as thou only the Dutch and Danish translators will be doing so as their languages closet to german ,there was no mention of the english translation sure one of our talented german translators my take up the challenge .
But this led to a question is the some books that can’t be translated ?
nobel 2010 ?
09 Mar 2010 9 Comments
in around the world, NOBEL WINNER Tags: NOBEL LIT, prize winners
Over the weekend i heard a podcast about jewish book week ,and an interview with the israeli writer Amos Oz where it was suggest he may be a future nobel winner .he wasn’t sure if he would win but would be honoured if he did ,In recent years the winners have been relatively unknown in britain ,but hugely succesful in their own country’s people like Hertha Muller ,J M G Le Clezio and Orhan Pamuk .After a run of four european winners i feel it ll be a non european writer this time round .here are a few i ve in mind
america’s
- Michael Ondaatje -the Canadian has written many great novels and is well-respected
- Carlos fuentes-mexicos most prolific novelist of the last twenty years
- h c Moya -outspoken houndrian writer
- Mario Vargas Llosa – the peruvian has a wonderful body of work behind him
asia
- Murkami - the japanese writer should win one day would be great time to win with new novel due late this year
- Rohinton mistry-respected indian writer
- Peter Carey australia greatest living novelist
africa
- Al AswanY - popular egyptian writer
- Tsitsi Dangaremga -zimbawian writer would be a fresh choice
you any ideas for this year ?
