2020 BTBA Speculation

[Eric]

Thank you. Way to keep it concise?

[Paul]

Doesn't seem to be the annual guessing game this year - last year we got 21/25!

But that took so much time I think I'll just wait this year.

[Eric]

So much easier to guess after the list is announced anyway!

I'm looking foward to this, but as a library user with no open library, this one's a bit anticlimactic.

[Sam]

Eric wrote: "So much easier to guess after the list is announced anyway!

I'm looking foward to this, but as a library user with no open library, this one's a bit anticlimactic."

If your library has Hoopla or Overdrive you can still get ebooks.

[Sam]

This one snuck up on me. I was thinking it was coming out later in April. Lots of good books to choose from. I am curious whether Stalingrad is eligible. Argentina and Japan could have multiple representatives. I read at least three from each country that were worthy. BTBA seems to like French books. Exposed would fit here.

[June]

It's snuck up on me too, after really being on mind as I made reading selections what seems like a lifetime ago last fall.

Regarding Hoopla and Overdrive, that's a good point; I'm also primarily a library user. But doesn't it seem as though many of the eligible books, especially those by small publishers, are not available as e-books? We'll see. I'm looking forward to the list!

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Scribd is often good for BTBA books and has obscure ones that many libraries wouldn't stock.

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Glad they are still going ahead with the BTBA. It has always seemed such an online prize, due to the niche appeal of the books, that it undoubtedly makes sense to IMO.

[Paul]

Incidentally list is out 6am Eastern - bright and early (or lunchtime in Europe)

[Eric]

From what I've read (all of 5 titles) -
Yes:
Vernon Subutex - Virginie Despentes/Frank Wynne
EEG - Daša Drndić/Celia Hawkesworth
Exposed - Jean-Philippe Blondel/Alison Anderson

Maybe:
Welcome to America - Linda Boström/Knausgård, Martin Aitken

No:
Dark Constellations - Pola Oloixarac/Roy Kesey

[Eric]

Adam wrote: "I loved Dark Constellations"
Fair. I couldn't get into it/follow it. I really enjoyed Savage Theories.

[June]

Here's my list -- preferences, not predictions

YES
The Promise - Silvina Ocampo/Suzanne Jill Levine
Death is Hard Work - Khaled Khalifa/Leri Price
Space Invaders - Nona Fernández/Jaime Pinos
Territory of Light - Yūko Tsushima/Geraldine Harcourt
When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book - Naja Marie Aidt/Denise Newman
Welcome to America - Linda Boström Knausgärd
Crossing - Pajtim Statovci/David Hackston
The Living Days - Ananda Devi/Jeffrey Zuckerman
A Change of Time - Ida Jessen/Martin Aitken
Tokyo Ueno Station - Miri Yū/Morgan Giles
Now, Now, Louison - Jean Frémon

MAYBE
Drive Your Plow... - Olga Tokarczuk/Antonia Lloyd-Jones
The Skin Is the Elastic Covering that Encases the Entire Body - Bjørn Rasmussen/Martin Aitken
Will and Testament - Vigdis Hjorth/Charlotte Barslund
The Memory Police - Yōko Ogawa/Stephen Snyder
The Wind That Lays Waste - Selva Almada/Chris Andrews *
Feebleminded - Ariana Harwicz, Carolina Orloff *
The Polyglot Lovers - Lina Wolff, Saskia Vogel
Valerie; or, The Faculty of Dreams - Sara Stridsberg/Deborah Bragan-Turner
Doppelgänger - Daša Drndić/S.D. Curtis
Trout, Belly Up - Rodrigo Fuentes, Ellen C. Jones *

NO
Lie with Me - Philippe Besson/Molly Ringwald
This Tilting World - Colette Fellous/Sophie Lewis
The Factory - Hiroko Oyamada/David Boyd

* Eligible? I'm not sure if these were published in 2019 here in the US

[S]

Some of these books feel like they were published a long, long time ago. I wonder if they need to rethink eligibility timings for whatever new iteration of the prize they are thinking about after this year - especially if they want to stand out from the National Book Awards.

[Adina]

Antonomasia wrote: "Scribd is often good for BTBA books and has obscure ones that many libraries wouldn't stock." I hope so. It wasn’t great with Booker International.

[Sam]

It will be eerie reading experience if Jakarta makes the list.

[Adina]

I have a question for experts like you. It is the first time I hear about this prize and I wonder what is the difference between this one and Booker International. Except the obvious one, that this is an American prize and there are differences in the time of publication for a book in Uk vs Us. I am thinking criteria of selection, type of press etc.

[Sam]

Adina wrote: "I have a question for experts like you. It is the first time I hear about this prize and I wonder what is the difference between this one and Booker International. Except the obvious one, that this..."

1. BTBA awards a poetry prize as well as a fiction prize.

2. The BTBA does not limiit the award to living authors. The Promise or Territory of Light would not be eligible for the Booker.

[Paul]

Sam's 2 has a typo and should read 'does not limit' i.e. deceased authors are eligible.

I'd also add - but this is more perception, it's not written in the rules:

- the BTBA tends towards the more innovative/literary and to smaller presses than the Booker

- probably due to geography, Spanish / Latin American literature tends to feature more and European less

- it's rather lower profile with the wider reading public.

[Sam]

Thanks Paul. Fixed it.

[Paul]

Haven't had a chance this year to do a detailed look at eligible books and work out what should appear.

But a personal bugbear is the BTBA has been very Korean literature lite in the past.

From the eligibility database, there are lots eligible this year including:

The White Book (would be a worthy overall winner), Blood Sisters, Flowers of Mold, What Makes A City, At Dusk (not my personal favourite but a lot of people liked it), Princess Bari, Nine Cloud Dream, Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River

Will be disappointed not to see a few of those. Flowers of Mold is perhaps the most likely to appear - feels a very BTBA type of book.

[Paul]

Best Translated Book Award 2020: Fiction Longlist

The Wind that Lays Waste by Selva Almada, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (Argentina, Graywolf)

The Book of Collateral Damage by Sinan Antoon, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Iraq, Yale University Press)

Welcome to America by Linda Boström Knausgård, translated from the Swedish by Martin Aitken (Sweden, World Editions)

Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, translated from the French by Frank Wynne (France, Grove)

Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes, translated from the French by Frank Wynne (France, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)

EEG by Daša Drndić, translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth (Croatia, New Directions)

Space Invaders by Nona Fernández, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Chile Graywolf)

Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman, translated from the Russian by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler (Russia, New York Review Books)

Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz, translated from the Spanish by Sara Moses and Carolina Orloff (Argentina, Charco Press)

Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund (Norway, Verso)

Good Will Come From the Sea by Christos Ikonomou, translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich (Greece, Archipelago Books)

Tentacle by Rita Indiana, translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas (Dominican Republic, And Other Stories)

China Dream by Ma Jian, translated from the Chinese by Flora Drew (China, Counterpoint)

Parade by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell (Japan, Soft Skull)

Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price (Syria, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The Boy by Marcus Malte, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan and Tom Roberge (France, Restless Books)

The Cheffe: A Cook’s Novel by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordon Stump (France, Knopf)

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder (Japan, Pantheon)

A Dream Come True by Juan Carlos Onetti, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (Uruguay, Archipelago Books)

77 by Guillermo Saccomanno, translated from the Spanish by Andrea G. Labinger (Argentina, Open Letter Books)

Beyond Babylon by Igiaba Scego, translated from the Italian by Aaron Robertson (Italy, Two Lines Press)

Labyrinth by Burhan Sönmez, translated from the Turkish by Umit Hussein (Turkey, Other Press)

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Poland, Riverhead)

Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, translated from the Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt (Japan, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

[Paul]

No Korean books! Very poor!!

[Paul]

Actually I've read 11. In rough descending order I'd rank them.

Animalia
Die, My Love
EEG
Will and Testament
Death Is Hard Work
The Wind that Lays Waste
The Memory Police
Beyond Babylon
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
The Cheffe: A Cook’s Novel
Vernon Subutex 1

Generally impressed by most other than the last which I absolutely detested!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Read 6 due Charco, And Other and Fitzcarraldo subscriptions - my ranking.

Die, My Love- 5*
Animalia - 4*
The Wind that Lays Waste - 4*
Tentacle - 3*
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - 2*
Vernon Subutex 1 - DNF

[Neil]

I have read 8.

1. Animalia
2. Vernon Subutex I
3. Die, My Love
4. Drive Your Plow...
5. Territory of Light
6. The Wind That Lays Waste
7. The Memory Police
8. Tentacle

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Okay, going to set up a thread

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Will ask Hugh if he has a moment to do rankings

[[deleted user]]

I also feel like some of these books are very old. Vernon Subutex 1 only came out last year? March has really been an entire year in itself.

[Sam]

It was out a year or so earlier in the UK.

[June]

I read the UK version of The White Book so long ago that I forgot about it when hastily making my list. Regarding Flowers of Mold, are short stories eligible?

[Paul]

Yes I think so re short stories - one year they featured The Complete Stories of Clarice Lispector which (as the name suggests) wasn't even a coherent collection or even something published in that form in the original.

Although they don't seem to feature very often.

[Sam]

Labyrinth and A Dream Come True are short stories.

[Antonomasia, Admin only]

Sam wrote: "It was out a year or so earlier in the UK."

Spring 2018!

[Paul]

I like to think of the BTBA as a great way to see what I may have missed. I think Space Invaders wasn’t even out yet in the US when it made the NBA longlist, and since it didn’t make the shortlist I kinda forgot about it. Plus, if you’ve already read several of the more famous books, it can highlight some smaller books with a very long longlist.

Especially since several of the MBI longlisted books are not yet available in the US, it’s nice that I can pick which books I find interesting instead of choosing only what’s available *cough* Serotonin *cough*

[Paul]

And I think some eg Dalkey haven't been eager to contribute copies in the past.