Comments on: Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010

By: Shelley

Shelley — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:27:23 +0000

I’m just glad the men and women doing the translating are mentioned each time. So much depends on them.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:34:14 +0000

And so the list drops to six with the announcement of the shortlist: The Blind Side of the Heart, Julia Franck Brodeck's Report, Philippe Claudel Broken Glass, Alain Mabanckou Chowringhee, Sankar The Dark Side of Love, Rafik Schami Fists, Pietro Grossi

By: Guy Savage

Guy Savage — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:04:09 +0000

I really, really liked Thursday Night Widows, so that means it probably won’t win.

I read Embers, BTW, and wasn’t crazy about it–but I think it was more the novel’s themes than its style etc, so it comes down, for me, to a matter of personal taste.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:13:57 +0000

Thanks for the thoughts and the links. Good luck with your weekend project.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:33:01 +0000

Do you have an opinion on Sandor Marai?

Sorry, Kevin. Not much as I haven't read him. Fictionwise we've seen four of his novels translated to English - Embers, Conversations In Bolzano, The Rebels, and Esther's Inheritance) - and I believe there's work afoot to bring more and more of his work over, so it must have some appeal to the English speakers. Embers appears in that 1,001 Books To Read Before You Die list, and the thread on World Literature Forum was pretty much positive overall (I say, having only skimmed it for fear of spoilers). For reviews of translated works I highly recommend M.A. Orthofer's Complete Review site - a fantastic resource. (Index M is here). He has five Marai titles under review. On the topic of reading, I have managed a few books in the time but haven't felt motivated to write about them, even though I want to. I'm hoping to find time this weekend just to sit down, turn off all the electrics, and just get through a book from start to finish. If I can achieve that, it's a start.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 03:54:50 +0000

Stewart, if you finished a book two days ago, then that probably puts you ahead of many many people on this planet! Maybe you just need to go sit under a tree; sometimes the mind needs to run free in pasture.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:29:24 +0000

I’m somewhat off topic here, Stewart, but you are my leading source on translated literature. Do you have an opinion on Sandor Marai? I see you have not reviewed him, but I’m guessing you know of him. He’s been recommended to me and I would appreciate any thoughts (when you have time — it isn’t like I need to start buying yet another author immediately). And I am sure that once you will be returning to reading in the near future — I went through a similar patch when “life” disruptions (a move and a cross-continent commute) left me out of touch with serious reading for a fairly long time. Look at it this way: this temporary disruption just means you are building up a reading backlist that you can turn to in the future.

By: Tom Cunliffe

Tom Cunliffe — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:06:27 +0000

Broken Glass and The Kindly Ones are the only books in the list that I’ve read. And how utterly different they are – what a varied list it is

By: Constantine

Constantine — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:35:02 +0000

“The Madman of Freedom Square” is absolutely brilliant, and wonderfully translated. Four of the stories are superbly read by Raad Rawi on the audiostory website, http://www.spokenink.co.uk

By: Stewart

Stewart — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:46:27 +0000

...sometimes I get out of [reader's block] by reading something different from my usual thing, sometimes that picks me up again.

I've been reading everything but I rarely get more than a chapter or two in. Nothing has worked. It's not just the reading, however, but outside influences are at work: university essays and the like, plus, at work, the year started busy and has yet to let up, so after both of those my head's too frazzled to settle into a book for long enough, especially as I never know when the next window to read on will come. That said, I did manage to finish a book two days ago. I want to write it up, but it's all about getting the time.

By: jem

jem — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:11:02 +0000

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Stewart. I’d miss it every year if it wasn’t for you. It’s always a good way to grab a couple of titles a bit outside of what I usually read. I think I’ll go for the Claudel, as I loved his ‘Grey Souls’, and also the Ogawa which sounds my kind of thing. Sorry to hear about your reader’s block – I hate it when that happens – sometimes I get out of it by reading something different from my usual thing, sometimes that picks me up again.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:01:33 +0000

I’ve quite a number of them: certainly more than I don’t, if that makes sense. I dipped into the first story of The Madman of Freedom Square last night…and it was good. It was all down to the last paragraph.

By: Stujallen

Stujallen — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:27:26 +0000

i ve two of this list the kindly ones which i abandonned halfway through last year as just didn’t have time to commit to the book and broken glass which i ve got to read .have the first in the Javier Marias series to read ,also have another akunin murder on the levithan that i read but didnt really rate