What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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ABANDONED. Short story about kid playing shooting from a window, I saw it won 20 thousand euros in a spanish lit contest, but I`m 100% sure I had read it before in english, now I'm asking myself if it was plagiarism, do you know the story?
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This is the Google translation of the story in spanish:"Every day, while I was waiting for the bus, a boy pointed his finger at me from a balcony, and triggered his imaginary weapon like a ritual, shouting "bang, bang!" One day, just to follow the routine game, I also pointed my finger at him, yelling "bang, bang!" The boy fell to the street as if struck down. I ran towards him, and saw that his little eyes were half open and he was looking at me in a daze. Desperate I told him "but I just repeated the same thing that you did to me." Then he replied ruefully: "Yes sir, but I didn't shoot to kill."
That's the story I'm talking about that won the contest, which I also saw and I was certain I read before. And then couple years later I read somewhere else again. What you send is the english translation from the contest itself. It was presented in spanish, actually. My point is that I've read that story (twice) before, in an original english version. It was basically the same story, maybe with minor changes (not a balcony but a door or something like that).
OK. Do you remember when you read the original story? Which year, I mean? Was it before 2014? Could it be that both the Spanish and English versions were written by the same author, or at least authorised by him? I say that because the other winners' stories have been translated from Hebrew and Arabic into English. Also, I saw one website carry the story in 2019 but seemingly crediting a different author. But the website is in French so I may be mistaken.
Hi Ramesh,This particular contest summons micro fiction in 4 different languages: English, Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic.
As in I guess every literary contest, in this particular contest also a condition is that the story hasn't been published before, in any kind of media, no paper, no blog, no e-publication, etc. So no, it had to be original and unpublished.
This story was written in Spanish. The link you send is the translation when clicking on the *English flag icon* on the website. You can click on the "Spanish flag icon* and you will see the original. The runner-ups of the other languages won each a thousand dollars. You can read the English translations of the Arabic and Hebrew stories, as well as the English runner-up, also under the English version of the website by activating the English icon. So, back to the bottom of this:
Precisely that is what I'm saying. When in 2015 I first read the winner from this contest, I was only surprised, thinking it was maybe just me that maybe read a story that was only similar. It was a strange feeling but I let it go.
Now, in 2020, some couple of months ago, I read the story, in English, again. Maybe it is the English one that I read a couple of months ago the one that is a copy or adaptation? I don't know, that's what I was trying to elucidate. It could definitively be.
Now, if you say that you have one French version of 2019, and even under a different author, well that's already strange, because, as you see, if we credit the winner of the contest as the original, then the French one is a copy?
Well, now that you mention a potentially third copy of the story, it kind of reaffirms my gut feeling of the first time that the story that won the contest was not that "original". I'm still trying to make light of it. Would be really cool if we can get hold of the French one to compare.
Cheers!
Link to website: https://www.prixlaurence.lu/literatou...Just to clarify, the story is reproduced in English, but the website is in French (and German).
I think it highly unlikely that the contest winner is not the original author as the contest must have rigorous methods to protect against plagiarism. More likely, someone ripped off the story later.
Yeah, you're right, that has to be the case. What happened to me is maybe something like with the link you are sending. That is actually no doubt plagiarism, that one is straight up a copy/paste. Maybe I read other copies on other sources.Anyway, many thanks for your feedbacks!
Yes, the one for which S.U. posted the link was submitted for the Prix Laurence (Luxembourg) in 2019, but attributed to a different author. The story wasn't a winner, nor was the author a finalist, so if, as seems likely, it was plagiarised, perhaps the judges caught it. But the details are nonetheless still included in the list of participants lower down on the results page, with the link to the actual story:>> Ouadi Noussaiba - Text: The Sniper / Age: 14 / Pays: Marokko <<
https://www.prixlaurence.lu/archive/e...
pays = country
I'm reaching out to you for help in finding the following short story. I read this story (flash fiction or micro-fiction) years ago, exactly the same story, but then I saw a spanish version of it that won 20 thousand euros in a literary contest and I was surprised, but then I was like: well, maybe it's just me and it was maybe only similar. But then, a couple of years after that, I read the story again! by chance, but forgot to save the link, lost it. It was of course a confirmation that I was right the first time, and it has been coming to me every now and then like a pending task, I even talked to my wife and she told me to forget it, but I wan`t to give it a last try. I have copied in the comment below the google translation of the story (used google since spanish is actually my first language).
It would be amazing if you can help me find this story, maybe if you ask people you know. If there is a link or links where I can read it again it would be amazing.
Thank you!!!