The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
Best Translated Book Award
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2021 BTBA Speculation
I wouldn't go out of my way to find César Aira, Artforum. An extremely minor Aira. All wandering around in his head about what is going on in his head.
Lascosas wrote: "I wouldn't go out of my way to find César Aira, Artforum. An extremely minor Aira. All wandering around in his head about what is going on in his head."I did wonder about it, Lascosas. Thank you, I'll replace it with something else though I'd like to get to know Aira better at some point. Something similar seems to be with Krzhizhanovsky's last collection of stories by NYRB. I went to preview and read one story, it seems minor by comparison to his previously published works in the NYRB series.
I’m sad to hear this of Aira- I’ve loved everything I’ve read by him so far. I finished The Hole last night, and enjoyed it. I’m working on Include Me Out right now, after I finish The Vice-Consul from the 1001 list.
I’ve got so many I want to read- this thread is making that list much longer...
On Aira I should clarify that I run hotish and cold. I came across a big haul of his books in a Buenos Aires used bookstore eons ago and read all of them. I disliked many of them, but kept reading. Since New Directions has been translating them I've been reading them in English, and have the same impression. But if you love all of Aira's books, by all means read this one and tell us what you think. I prefer those of his books where he wanders in some odd direction you would never expect.
I haven’t read many- only 3 or 4. If I can find Artforum for cheap, I’ll give it a shot and let you know.
I just finished My Devotion. What a story. I need to understand why I am so blown away by a book about a woman who dedicates her life to a man who takes her for granted. Women doing all the emotional work and all the domestic work is a stereotype that isn’t true in my relationship or those of my closest friends or adult children, so I should be dismissive of this old trope, but this is a 5 star book for me.
I am starting My Devotion today. Little has been mentioned on The Memory Monster which was a NY Times 2020 notable book and one of the few Israeli offferings. If I ever get back to rating these would give it a solid 4 or 5 stars, and would consider I'd be shortlist contender.
A quick update that I read Aira's Artforum after all since it was in stock at my local indie bookshop. We bought quite a few books there to support them, as do many others in the area, because they are on the brink of closure (despite its long-standing cult status). I have to say that I loved it but I can see how there can be very different reactions to his writings. It did connect with me and I plan on reading more of Aira. So far I read these and I'm listing them in the ranking order as of now:
Fireflies
Artforum
Tyll
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
Exposition
Dark Satellites
The Hole
The last two were really a disappointment for me. January will give me the opportunity to read much more.
ETA: I didn't list A Musical Offering because it's not in the PW database for 2020, but otherwise it would be #1.
I've only read five, so far:The Discomfort of Evening, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Natural History, Carlos Fonseca (about 75% through)
Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, Shokoofeh Azar
Abigail, Magda Szabo
Hurricane Season, Fernanda Melchor
I didn't see Winter in Sokcho in the database but would have rated that #1 or #2.
Vesna-Two people on this board have thought highly of Artforum. I am clearly in the minority.
A Musical Offerng is Charco, which is an outlier in determining BTBA eligibility. I think all of the books from that publisher that are listed this year on PW appear to have been published last year. The kindle for A Musical Offering is available now, but the paperback not until next year. No idea what that means for eligibility.
Debra-Winter in Sokcho has an even odder US publication story. The ebook is available now from Daunt while the paperback comes out next year from Open Letter, at which point I assume Daunt's rights to the book in the US expire. But we will see. So for which year is it BTBA eligible. No idea.
My list of books that are BTBA eligible (in the PW database, confirmed by Amazon listing of publication date). The question is: should this book be linglisted? The four under yes are in order of ranking, top down. The other two categories list the books at random within the category. My goal is to have 10 books to recommend for longlisting, so it is possible I will move books up from 'maybe' to fill-in my ten.YES
The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume II – Peter Weiss
The White Dress – Nathalie Leger
Peach Blossom Paradise – Ge Fei
The Lost Writings – Franz Kafka
MAYBE
Unwitting Street – Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Sketches of the Criminal World – Varlam Shatamov
Villa of Delirium – Adrien Goetz
Tokyo Ueno Station – Yu Miri
Bluebirds First Wife – Seong-nan Ha
Expositions – Nathalie Leger
Breasts and Eggs – Mieko Kawakami
Marrow and Bone – Walter Kempowski
Minor Detail – Adania Shibli
Mansour's Eyes – Ryad Girod
NO
The Hole - Hiroko Oyamada
Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse - Georges Simenon
Our Riches – Kaouther Adimi
Hurricane Season – Fernanda Melchor
Bezoar – Guadalupe Nettel
No Room at the Morgue – Jean-Patrick Manchette
The Teacher – Michal Ben-Naftali
Writer in Wartime – Jan Terlouw
Abigail – Magda Szabo
Cars on Fie – Monica Ramon Rios
Four by Four – Sara Mesa
The Honjin Murders – Seishi Yokomizo
The Discomfort of Evening – Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
Artforum - Cesar Aira
Igifu – Scholastique Mukasonga
Life for Sale -Yukio Mishima
Breathing Through the Wound – Victor Del Arbol
Death of Comrade President – Alain Mabanckou
Reader's Room – Antoine Laurain
Bird Talk and Other Stories – Xu Xu
I've been reading translations slowly while reading othe books. I finished:The Aosawa Murders-Riku Onda
That Time of Year- Marie Ndiaye
My Devotion-Julia Kerninon
Ordesa- Manuel Vilas
The Hole-Hiroko Oyamada
Of the above, I found The Aosawa Murders the most interesting as a possible BTBA listed book. It was a NY Time notable for 2020 and won the Mystery Writers of Japan award for best novel. It is not a simple genre novel though and worthy of more literay attention than it has received.
My present and next reads are:
The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana
Ornamental
Earthlings
An Inventory of Losses
A Country for Dying
I hope to see these appear on the longlist:Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, tr Sarah Moses
Fracture by Andres Neuman, trs Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, tr Sophie Hughes
Rave by Rainald Goetz, tr Adrian Nathan West
The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali, tr Daniella Zamir
Hi all,I thought it best for all of us to create the list so here it is:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/158048.Translated_Literary_Fiction_2020
I included 38 books for a start and tried to add as many books from those mentioned here as worthy to be longlisted, but there are still quite a few left (I partly got exhausted, partly didn't know how to go around some technical issues such as adding the US 2020 edition if the default is the UK edition from 2019).
Please add any book you desire so that we can use this list both as a source of recommended books for others to potentially read and as a pool from which we can discuss those we'd like to be included on our informal longlist later this spring.
I've added those from my top 15 (out of 50+) from earlier downthread but only those as that would constitute those I think of as contenders / longlist worthy.[Not sure I'd worry about right edition but FYI I think only way round it is to find the ISBN of the edition you want, from its GR entry, and enter that in the search bar rather than title/author]
Paul wrote: "I've added those from my top 15 (out of 50+) from earlier downthread but only those as that would constitute those I think of as contenders / longlist worthy.[Not sure I'd worry about right editin..."
Many thanks, Paul. I struggled with the right edition for a few books on your short- and longlist such the volumes of Septology or Tokyo Ueno Station, and I am very glad you added these and others. And thanks for the tip on how to select the edition. It works differently than adding books to our bookshelves.
I didn't add the right edition I'm afraid! Life is too short
Paul wrote: "I didn't add the right edition I'm afraid! Life is too short"Haha. That's fine
Sam-Thank you for your recommendation of The Aosawa Murders. I have a similar recommendation for you. A mystery... but not. Rocardo Piglia's The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: A Day in the Life.
I added the Istros books before it sunk in that it’s primarily a US translated fiction award, I was able to get them through Barnes and Nobel, but if that doesn’t count I’ll remove them if I have that function.
Well technically I think they don't although not sure how much we need to follow the official rules!
No need for rules. You are welcome Lascosas for the Riku Onda recommendation. I hope we see more of her books translated. I thank you for the Peter Weiss and Piglia recommendations.I have finished the five from my last post plus
Treasure of the Spanish Civil War
Although there were some interesting reads (Still shaking my head over Earthlings) I don't see any of them making a shortlist.
I wm now finally getting to
The Lying Life of Adults
followed by
Our Riches
WndyJW wrote: "I added the Istros books before it sunk in that it’s primarily a US translated fiction award, I was able to get them through Barnes and Nobel, but if that doesn’t count I’ll remove them if I have t..."Wendy, where did you add them? I don't see them on the list. Please feel free to add any books from 2020 you'd like to see on our longlist and vote for any other already there that you would recommend as well.
Sam, Lascosas, Debra, Tracy, Tiffany and everyone else interested, please do the same, and of course Paul if you'd like to add more. So far only Paul and I added the books to this list and I did for many from your lists here (even if I didn't read them) but would leave the rest to you. I hope it helps to use it for our spring discussion.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/158048.Translated_Literary_Fiction_2020
I thought I added The Fig Tree for one. Ingram distributes Istros books to Barnes &Nobel and the evil empire in the US, but if Istros isn’t in keeping with the spirit of BTBA it’s fine.
Actually, I think it was the RofC Prize Listopia. We have too many overlapping prizes right now. Well two, but I got them mixed up.
Actually I think we do have Fig Tree, The Highly Unreliable Account of the History of a Madhouse and Billiards at the Hotel Dobray on this list but looks like either Vesna or I added them!The PW database also does have Istros as eligible, although books don't look up to date (only has Billiards recently).
You did add the Istros books. I added them to RofC list.
I just discovered that there is an actual cache of what I am calling 2020 eligible Dalkey books. Last year none were actually listed as published until the end of the year, and I was never able to find any, including contacting Dalkey...twice. So I'm giddy to discover that there are 7 available from (hypothetically) last year plus 3 from this year. Not that anyone else will want to rush out to buy these, but I'm excited! Dalkey is by far my favorite publisher.
WndyJW wrote: "You did add the Istros books. I added them to RofC list."Was sad not to see one on the RoC list actually
Catching up on some 2020 reads thanks to this thread, added a few to the list and have a few on deck that I am looking forward to. Following the same format as Lascosas for longlist:Yes:
A Luminous Republic
That Time of Year
The Hole
Maybe:
The Bitch
Tyll
Tokyo Ueno Station
Fireflies
The War of the Poor
No:
A Country for Dying
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
Next up for me:
I Don't Expect Anyone to Believe Me by Juan Pablo Villalobos
Straight from the Horse's Mouth by Meryem Alaoui
Tokyo Ueno Station is on my radar. I think I need to read it.I’ve only read two on your list, Paul: The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree and That Time of Year. That Time of Year was excellent.
I loved the idea of Straight from the Horse's Mouth, but DNF'ed after 25 pages because the writing fell flat for me.
I'm probably going to regret raising this as I have little reading capacity - but were we going to pick up the idea of a M&G 2021 BTBA?
Yes, and I am full of guilt around this. I just can not keep my mind on fiction. And reading all of the new Dalkeys didn't help (and no, I don't recommend any of them for the longlist). I'll recommend the following as my longlist:The Aesthetics of Resistance, Volume II – Peter Weiss
The White Dress – Nathalie Leger
Peach Blossom Paradise – Ge Fei
The Lost Writings – Franz Kafka
Sketches of the Criminal World – Varlam Shatamov
Villa of Delirium – Adrien Goetz
So what am I reading? I have fallen down the rabbit hole of Aby Warburg's Bilderatlas Mnemosyne. Also, for months I seem to listen to little but the Mozart 225 box & have paired it with the new Jan Swafford bio.
Paul & others...I will make an attempt to read what others want to recommend as a longlist.
Well I'm not sure how we're planning to do this - and I'll be honest that I'll struggle to read much that I haven't already read. Thoughts welcome - do we vote somehow on a list of books to then discuss further or everyone nominate a certain number?And who is interested in taking part?
Mod
I am interested if, at the risk of sounding selfish, most of the Longlist is books I already have.
Not sure I understand. What is involved?
Mod
Well from previous posts we had:Lascosas:
I would recommend that we have a deadline for people to recommend titles, maybe limiting it to 10 titles per person, and then set a second deadline for a shortlist of maybe 10 titles taken from the larger list, and later a winner.
One thing I complain about every single year is that the BTBA has zero interest in fostering a group of people that actually read the longlist or shortlist. Why? Because they don't give anyone who hasn't already read many of the titles sufficient time to actually read either the longlist or the shortlist. That would be easy for us to remedy, particularly for a shortlist of say 10 books. Give people 6-8 weeks to read them before a winner is selected.
Wendy:
I like the idea of each of us nominating a number of books we have read then voting down to a longlist, then to a shortlist. Maybe we can nominate books from 2019-2020 published books since it sounds like PW makes mistakes or we designate someone to make that call and we all agree to abide by that person’s decision as to dates.
I suggest we make a rule that one doesn’t have to read all the books to vote, but no one can vote for a book that they have not read.
Vesna pulled together a Listopia of books
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
There is also the PW database the prize itself uses although it doesn't seem terribly accurate this year: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/t...
So would seem idea would be to:
1. have a vote to get to a shortlist of 10 books (that one may just be voting rather than much discussion)
2. then treat that as the BTBA shortlist and read, discuss and dynamically rank as we would otherwise do.
But ideas on how to do 1?
I liked the idea for February, but now, between the books I'm reading for present prizes, 2021 releases, and personal projects, I wonder where I would find time. I like the idea of another group read of 10 books or less to fill the gap between presenent prizes and September, but I would hope it would be something that would draw most of the group to take place in late May or June.
Perhaps that is a good time to pick it up - most Women's Prize and Intl Booker, pre Anglo Booker.Would be good to think now though on any ideas as to how we produce a shortlist though.
One possible way:Constant Sum (Chip) allocation: everyone is given 100 points to allocate across up to 3 (or some other number) eligible books. Can give all points to a single book or spread the points more evenly. Sum points across all participants and we select the 10 books with the most points.
I think I almost understand what you suggested, Debra!
Wouldn't have to be 100 points. Any number would do.Or we could select the top 10 performing books from Vesna's Listopia link (with the option to add other eligible books)
The Mookse and the Gripes
Books mentioned in this topic
The Pachinko Parlour (other topics)Time Shelter (other topics)
Pollak's Arm (other topics)
A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East (other topics)
The Famous Magician (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Hervé Le Tellier (other topics)Annie Ernaux (other topics)
Adania Shibli (other topics)
both Fireflies and A Musical Offering by Sagasti (though PW database lists only Fireflies for 2020)
Exposition by Léger,
Tyll by Kehlmann
The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree by Azar
I already have a few more books and will try to get hold of the remaining through my local indie bookshop, Scribd, kindle, or the library:
César Aira, Artforum
David Diop, At Night All Blood Is Black
Adrien Goetz, Villa of Delirium
Julia Kerninon, My Devotion
Clemens Meyer, Dark Satellites
Hiroko Oyamada, The Hole
Robert Perišić, No-Signal Area
Goran Petrović, At the Lucky Hand: aka The Sixty-Nine Drawers
Dušan Šarotar, Billiards at the Hotel Dobray
Judith Schalansky, An Inventory of Losses
Bae Suah, Untold Night and Day
Éric Vuillard, The War of the Poor
Of the classics, translated for the first time:
Miloš Crnjanski, A Novel of London
Walter Kempowski, Marrow and Bone
Juan José Saer, The Regal Lemon Tree
That's the plan right now until early March, but some may be added, others subtracted, as it usually goes with my plans.