The Mookse and the Gripes discussion
Best Translated Book Award
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2021 BTBA Speculation
I also suggested 2020-2021. I like idea of excluding books that were Shortlisted for Booker or International Booker, but would consider Longlisted books since this group is often disappointed with books that don’t make the shortlist, again, just a thought.
Would this be broader than translated works?
Mod
Don't know. I've put out my list. If others can put up a few each then we would have a starting group of books. When we figure out how many that is, maybe we can talk about how we work that down? I frankly don't think it is feasible to come up with A Winner. I would be happy to have a manageable list developed into a shortlist.
But whatever, we certainly need to start with people throwing down their lists.
Paul?
This should definitely be translated fiction - or it's a different discussion altogether. And ideally 2021 BTBA eligible but we can leave that to the nominator I think:If we're excluding International Booker books (not sure there's much need to exclude RoC books as little overlap) then my list might be:
My Devotion
Natural History
The White Dress (seconded from Lascosas list)
Fireflies
Untold Night and Day
Paul wrote: "This should definitely be translated fiction - or it's a different discussion altogether. And ideally 2021 BTBA eligible but we can leave that to the nominator I think:If we're excluding Internat..."
I think the next btba is to include works published in 2020 and 2021. Are you looking to include both or just 2020?
If we are going back to the idea of duplicating the BTBA I will pass.
Sam wrote: "I think the next btba is to include works published in 2020 and 2021. Are you looking to include both or just 2020"I'd assume 2020 otherwise we need to wait till next year and indeed may as well wait till the 2022 BTBA?
Gumble's Yard wrote: If we are going back to the idea of duplicating the BTBA I will pass."
What was it you were hoping this might be that would interest you? Including translations published in the UK in 2020? I think we said we wouldn't be too eligibility fussy so that could work, although Lascosas had made the availability point (the IB discussion tends to be hard for US based readers to get the books)
What would it take to get GY and others involved? For me, it is not so much about reading the books as it is reading the discussions. It is going to be a long time till the next big prize discussion topic.
I also dislike the idea of replicating the BTBA. I saw this evolving more into translated fictions of the type preferred by this group's members.
If I understand correctly, three different ideas have been proposed:1. Replication of BTBA
2. Translated fictions, more broadly defined
3. 2020 U.K. or US published books not longlisted for a major prize
Mod
The point, for me, is to find books that have fallen under the radar. I think it is easier to limit it to the BTBA 2020 books, but if someone has a translation to recommend that was published in 2020 but doesn't seem to fit the BTBA rules, heck, I say throw it down!Paul, I will read your list.
I also like the under the radar aspect of the BTBA. I’m on board with everyone posting their unsorted “Yes” list to a new thread and after the International Booker we take the top 5 or 10 and call that the shortlist. I believe if there’s enough participation the eligibility subtleties won’t matter. I won’t be voting for something not available in the US or already nominated for the International Booker.
Sam only really 3 of Debra’s list would interest me - I think it’s a real shame prizes (other than the best one) split English language originals and translated fiction (as well as splitting novels and short stories in many cases) so seems a shame to duplicate that here. But this is a BTBA thread so I think I am in the minority. And to be honest I will probably be in TBR catch up and pre Booker preview mode for May and June once I have completed RoC/Women’s Prize/Booker International longlists (only 3.5 to go).
I understand GY. For the puposes of this I would only add the same three I had mentioned on the International Bioker topic:
Natural History
The Aosawa Murders
Natural History
High as the Waters Rise
I think GY's idea is a good one - it's just a different one. And could be in a way better than our usual end of year thing where we do end up re-debating the books that dominated the prizes.
Mod
I like the under the radar BTBA eligible books from US or UK publishers that have not made the Anglo or International Booker lists.
The problem I see with under the radar books is that this was an average year so the best books are making it to lists. I think that concept would best be used in an end of year group read consisting of books nominated by various members and having no restrictions between translated and native English. I don't think there was too much exposure for a lot of the U.S. books on award lists.
We have 13 books that have been recommended so far, and all of those meet the regulations for what would have been the BTBA 2021 award. Can we get more recommendations please?I'm off to start reading.
Hugh-I understand your argument about extending it to UK published books, but...
There are lots of books that aren't in the PW database but still show up as available in the US, particularly as ebook. So I can see where the BTBA rules would be stretched to books that have some US publication argument. But for something clearly not US available, well, we are talking about BTBA. And that is US.
It’s hard to get a consensus with so many people making suggestions, especially as we aren’t all talking to each other at the same time. I will go along with whatever is decided and in the spirit of getting this going I suggest that we let two or three members who are the most interested take charge of this M&G-BTBA contest and allow them to set the rules and have final call on which books are eligible.
I’m willing to go along with the pack, too. I have a lot of books in translation from the last year that I would be happy to get off the TBR.
Does anyone want to volunteer? If we were to nominate people Lascosas, Paul, Sam, and Vesna led the conversation, and Debra had constructive suggestions.
I am also one who will try to read along for any project that is chosen.
I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post in, but a book I want to flag as a possible contender in the translated fiction category/International Booker for next year is No Touching published by Europa Editions, translated from French. It's on NetGalley, and is nicely controversial: my review is here goodreads.com/review/show/4030869597
Thanks RC. It seems Europa is having a good publishing year.
This does sound like a conversation starter!
Ha, definitely - and one of those conversations that go to all kinds of unexpected places :)
Signing back in to throw in the towel. I read a few more of the 13 books people recommended, but nothing particularly clicked with me and I have gone back to non-fiction. Sorry.
Fair enough - and we never really got the idea of the Mookse BTBA off the ground. In a way I spent too much time reading prize lists without inventing one of our own to read.Will be interesting to see what's on the 2022 list - given it covers 2 years should be a strong one.
Lascosas wrote: "Is BTBA dead?"Looks to be. No activity about the award in months. Pen awards and Nationql Book Critic's Circle are going to be coming up soon with translated fiction longlists.
The NBCC translated fiction award won't start until the 2022 publishing year, but PEN America should announce their longlist towards the end of this month.
No interest in those. BTBA or nothing. At least we have the Publishers Weekly database to see what has been published.
Yes it seems to have ceased to be. Trying to run a prize that accepts 300-400 eligible books, and then run it merging 2 years was always a tall order. Was an odd decision really to postpone it last year as other prizes carried on.
Was the BTBA consistently better than the others?
David wrote: "Was the BTBA consistently better than the others?"I'd say yes. I personally found BTBA shortlists consistently better than the international Booker, although the latter hasn't been around for long in its current format.
It typically was more at the innovative / small press end than the International Booker (perhaps reflecting the US scene) and I'd say generally better books. It wasn't an easy award to 'shadow' though - longlist of 25 books, shortlist of 10. Lascosas was pretty much the only person who managed to make a reasonable dent on them. And bit of a zero-budget operation as well vs. the Booker publicity machine.
Isn’t the long list announcement usually in the Spring? Last I heard 2022 would include eligible books from the previous year as well.
But when was last you heard? One might have expected a call for submissions, details of judges etc. But nothing.
Even the thing they planned in 2021, The BTBA Champion of Champions didn’t happen. https://www.rochester.edu/College/tra...
We are very lucky to read in English. Books are more likely to be translated into English than other languages. BTBA had (oh no...I'm using the past tense) a very flexible definition of published in the US. As long as it had a US distributor (Seagull) or sometimes even just Kindle availability (Hoopoe) is was counted as eligible. World literature is incredibly rich and diverse, and today in the US we have access to a truly wide spectrum of that universe. Still of course tiny compared to what exists in the world, but growing all the time. Only BTBA made any real effort to address that world. Overly ambitious it always was, but damn, if it is in fact history, that is a huge loss.
The silence is unfortunate. If they are in need of sponsors or judges or resources, they should say something.
We are very lucky to read in English, Lascosas. I’ll add that to US mail service as something I’ve taken for granted.
David-Amazon has always been the BTBA sponsor.
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I think a contest based on say 2020 U.K. or US published books not longlisted for a major prize might get wider engagement here? Just a thought.