The Bookseller.com

20th November 2008

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Independent celebrates foreign fiction

29.02.08

The Independent announced the shortlist for its Foreign Fiction Prize today (29th February), with literary editor Boyd Tonkin calling for "a little celebration" of books in translation.

The shortlist comprises Model by Lars Saabye Christensen, trans Don Bartlett (Arcadia); Castorp by Pawel Huelle, trans Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Serpent's Tail); Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, trans Carol Brown Janeway (Quercus); The Way of the Women by by Marlene van Niekerk, trans Michiel Heyns (Little, Brown); Gregorius by Bengt Ohlsson, trans Silvester Mazzarella (Portobello); and Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen, trans by the author (Dalkey Archive).

The £10,000 prize, which is supported by Arts Council England and Champagne Taittinger, will be shared by the winning author and translator.

Tonkin wrote: "Yes, the British book trade should translate more; yes, translators deserve a better deal; and yes, fiction from outside the Anglosphere can meet too much of the sort of prejudice that would outrage young Castorp. Still, a little celebration might be in order too. The dedicated translators and publishers (often from independent firms) who bring the best of the world's fiction to these shores have helped contribute to another golden age of cross-cultural interchange.

"From their balance sheets and bank statements, it might not look that way. But no evidence supports the pessimist's idea that British readers had access to a broader range of high-quality literature in translation a generation ago than they do now. If anything, the opposite is true, both for the new fiction this award promotes and for classic works. Readers, in ever-greater numbers, should enjoy it while they can. The good ship globalisation hit the rocks before. It could do so again." 

Independent

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