Monday, July 20, 2009

Translations Some of Us Have Liked

If you need a book recommendation, think about choosing one of the books being considered for this year’s Best Translated Book (BTB) Award. Chad Post has compiled a list of some of the strong contenders over at Three Percent. This isn’t the long list for the award. That won’t be announced until much later this year. In Chad’s words, this list:
simply represents all of the titles that the nine BTB panelists (Monica Carter, Scott Esposito, Susan Harris, Annie Janusch, Brandon Kennedy, Bill Marx, Michael Orthofer, Chad W. Post, and Jeff Waxman) have recommended to each other to take a look at. It’s a sort of list of “books in the running,” or more accurately, “translations that some of us have liked.”

It’s a good list. Personally, I can vouch for Little Fingers by Filip Florian, Vilnius Poker by Ricardas Gavelis, Death in Spring by Merce Rodoreda, and Collector of Worlds by Iliya Trayanov. To that list, I’d add Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I've got Vilnius Poker to read. I just read The Unit and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anonymous said...

The Westport (CT) Public Library has chosen The Housekeeper and the Professor for its townwide read for 2010. A beautiful book.