Loosed in Translation discussion

I just found a resource for discovering more obscure(to me) Eastern and Central European authors. From the Friends of the Library's donated books bookstore: Traveler's Literary Companion to Eastern & Central Europe, Published by In Print (UK). They publish guides for other regions too so I assume what I write here describes the other Companions as well.

Each country has a section with a brief (~10page) overview of its literary and general history by one or two academic experts in the language(s). These pages are organized by major national themes and by the locations in the country with literary connections. Then comes a list of works by the country's authors, with full citations. Then excerpts from several of the works. For me the treasures are the not-just-the-usual suspects list of authors who have been translated into English from popular languages, and the names of authors in translation from more obscure languages, even if those lists are shorter.

For example, for Poland, of course the overview discusses displacement via the iconic Place and places of Pan Tadeusz. But also Tadeusz Kantor, Schulz and Singer in a page on the Jewish experience. In Krakow we hear about Stanislaw Wyspianski, in the Tatra Mountains about Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. The booklist offers about 150 works. In addition to 5 works by Gombrowicz, and many by Szymborska, Rozewicz, Milosz, Herbert, etc, there are books by Witkiewicz (publishers Univ of Washington, Winter House, Applause, Quartet, Northwestern Univ), Wankowicz (Canadian-Polish Research Institute in Canada), Konwicki (Faber and Faber, Penguin), Nowakowski (Harvill) and so on.

Then come brief excerpts from Street of Crocodiles, Tin Drum, and works by Przybos, Wyspianski, Reymont, Tuwim, Czechowicz, Conrad, Norwid, Mieckiewicz, Bielecki, Jasteun, and Witkuewicz, each linked to a city or other physical place.


I've only perused the book so far, but the emphasis seems to be on modern writers, while giving an overview of their literary heritage. Modern being up to about 1993. Odd omission of Banffy from the Hungarian chapter.

So if you're looking to fill out you Albanian writers shelf and already have the 8 works by Kadare listed here, this is your source: e g Dritero Agolli The Bronze Bust published by 8 Nentori or The Face-Up by Teodor Laco, also published by 8 Nentori.

Cool! Thanks for posting this, Caroline