[WPF] The Illiterate, by Agota Kristof - 4 stars

[Hilde]

Analfabeten / The Illiterate / La analfabeta. Un relato autobiográfico by Ágota Kristóf - 4 stars

Narrated in a series of brief vignettes, The Illiterate is Agota Kristof’s memoir of her childhood, her escape from Hungary in 1956 with her husband and small child, her early years working in factories in Switzerland, and the writing of her first novel, The Notebook.

Interesting memoir which gave me even more respect for the author, who had to publish her first novel in a different language than her mother language, after escaping her home country, hence the name of the memoir. She never gave up hope of becoming a writer through all her struggles, and I am glad her books are being republished and rediscovered at least by a European audience – highly deserved. (It doesn’t look like she is read at all in the US, but I might be wrong about that).

[Theresa]

I suspect the problem in US is availability of English translations. I searched NYPL, Brooklyn and Queens Public Libraries and found 2 spanish translations of Claus y Lucas and one book of hers in german. Granted that search is limited to ebooks, but it is pretty telling when the 3 library systems in one of the US largest cities does not have a single English translation of one of her books.

I also remember checking Amazon out of curiosity... I think only 3 of her books had English translations available.

It puzzles me no end how a publisher decides what authors get translated. A few years ago I read several different recent translations of newly published books from Scandinavian countries. All but one were awful...not the translation but the book itself and it should never have been published in the original language, let alone translated.

[Hilde]

Yes, I think you’re right. It was first translated to Norwegian a year after the publication date, but I don’t think she was well known here until they made a new translation in 2019. She is now generating quite a buzz over here, and the new translations have sold well. Clever publisher indeed:)

I know I am lucky by the fact that I can read a book in English if it’s not translated. But they are quite good at translating books here, guess they must be since there are so few of us. The library also have multiple languages available. Libby is only English, and mostly US literature over here as well, they have great audio availability. The downside is that we can’t transfer e-books from Libby to Kindle as Amazon has blocked that feature outside of US, and I hate reading on my phone. So I mostly use it for audio.

Just out of curiosity, which books were the stinkers? Just gotta check if I have read any of them ;)