The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Best Translated Book Award 2017: Fiction Longlist

- The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (Egypt, Melville House)

- The Young Bride by Alessandro Baricco, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)

- Wicked Weeds: A Zombie Novel by Pedro Cabiya, translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell (Dominican Republic, Mandel Vilar Press)

- Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lúcio Cardoso, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson (Brazil, Open Letter Books)

- On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, New Directions)

- Eve out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Mauritius, Deep Vellum)

- Zama by Antonio di Benedetto, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Argentina, New York Review Books)

- A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska, translated from the Macedonian by Christina Kramer (Macedonia, Two Lines Press)

- Doomi Golo—The Hidden Notebooks by Boubacar Boris Diop, translated from the Wolof by Vera Wülfing-Leckie and El Hadji Moustapha Diop (Senegal, Michigan State University Press)

- Night Prayers by Santiago Gamboa, translated from the Spanish by Howard Curtis (Colombia, Europa Editions)

- Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap, translated from the German by Tess Lewis (Germany, Archipelago Books)

- War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (Belgium, Pantheon)

- Umami by Laia Jufresa, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (Mexico, Oneworld)

- The Last Wolf & Herman by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes and John Batki (Hungary, New Directions)

- Oblivion by Sergi Lebedev, translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis (Russia, New Vessel Press)

- Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Knopf)

- In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano, translated from the French by Chris Clarke (France, New York Review Books)

- Ladivine: A Novel by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Knopf)

- Among Strange Victims by Daniel Saldaña Paris, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)

- Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Iceland, FSG)

- Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (Japan, New Directions)

- Vampire in Love by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, New Directions)

- My Marriage by Jakob Wassermann, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (Germany, New York Review Books)

- Moshi moshi by Banana Yoshimoto, translated from the Japanese by Asa Yoneda (Japan, Counterpoint Press)

- Super Extra Grande by Yoss, translated from the Spanish by David Frye (Cuba, Restless Books)

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts later, but initial thought - where the hell is Sudden Death? That book, for me, stood head and shoulders above Zama and The Last Wolf/Herman. Also, Sara, you did quite well with your guesses.

I wasn't a massive Sudden Death fan to be honest so not too upset at it's omission. Good to see we were right with the Margaret J-C guess meaning my favourite ever translator is catapulted to the top of the most frequently longlisted translator charts.

Have read Last Wolf & Herman, Thus Bad Begins, Ladivine, On the Edge and A Spare Life - all of which are good although in a way I hope there is a better book on the list worthy of taking the title.

I'm surprised by how many of them I read. It seems like usually the list has more left-field choices.

Surprised not to see Sudden Death and Munchausen and surprised TO see Umami which I've heard described as more MBI material.

Sorry about the absence of Korean books, Paul. I hope that at least one of the titles above makes up for it by being a beautiful surprise!

Let me know your thoughts on this, but I think I'm going to wait for the shortlist to create individual threads for books. In the meantime, just feel free to go all out on the books (and anything else) here.

One thing I will say as folks feel disappointment about what books have been left off the longlist (beyond the obvious and familiar fact that this is a perennial issue for all of us with all prizes we follow):

My number one didn't make the list until I called it in as my personal choice. With nine judges it's far from easy for anyone's favorites (even yours!) to make the longlist. Of course, then each judge can select their personal choice, but that might be at the expense of a close second, third, etc.

With that said, I don't wish to sound like I'm apologizing for this list or the process. I'm very pleased with the books we've selected and have been excited to share it! And the process itself was wonderful and invigorating and enlightening. I wouldn't change anything about the way the list is made.

Yes it looks an excellent list. I am a bit MBI swamped now though so will probably get more stuck on after the shortlisting. 25 books is a lot to shadow as well!

Trevor, is My Marriage the same book as My First Wife - the description seems to be the same on Amazon?

Yes, I just looked at the text in the Penguin edition and it's the same.

Thank you. Think i might like this one.

Reviews of the 5 I have read here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I would see Ladivine and The Last Wolf & Herman as shortlist material. I would add Thus Bad Begins, but I am a Marias fan and this isn't his best.

A Spare Life and On The Edge were both good and longlist worthy but not for the shortlist for me.

I'm rather surprised that I've heard of any of them, much less had 4 or 5 of them on my tbr before the announcement! Like Anya, I wasn't planning to follow this prize either but now I'm extremely tempted as well! For now I've added them all to my list and I'll see which ones I get to over the next few months!

Ha! don't take my griping about Sudden Death too hard. What else is announcement day for, other than to complain a little, then figure out what to read next. The list looks excellent, I'm looking forward to digging in a bit more.

Chronicle of the Murdered House to win
[not read it myself]

I do always feel a bit swamped by the sight of the BTBA list just after MBI/IFFP but some great sounding stuff here. Had heard of most of these; most interesting that I hadn't looks like Wicked Weeds.

Eve Out of Her Ruins, one of the three I've read, has some stunning writing and is the one I'd most strongly recommend to people in this group. It is also very short.

More pleased I bothered to finish Ladivine a few weeks ago.

This is shaping up to be a controversial longlist - can imagine it's not easy to be a judge this year

Does Boubacar Boris Diop usually write in French?
Remember seeing something of his that appeared to be eligible for the 2016 prize, yet this one here is described as the first book translated from Wolof to English (Orthofer suggests it's double-translated though?)

Antonomasia wrote: "Does Boubacar Boris Diop usually write in French?
Remember seeing something of his that appeared to be eligible for the 2016 prize, yet this one here is described as the first book translated from ..."

I can't figure out how to post a picture here, but the introduction explains that it was originally written in Wolof in 2003 (his first book written in Wolof) and then he translated/rewrote it in French in 2009. Sounds like the English translation is based in both the Wolof and French versions.

WICKED WEEDS by Pedro Cabiya

My reading plan for this longlist is to start with the less known (and mostly shorter) novels, most of which I assume are the judges' picks. As Trevor explains above, each judge gets to add a favorite after the joint list is agreed on. I remember from last year that these lesser known works are often the most unusual and interesting to read. Unfortunately, they are less likely to make the shortlist (having only been championed by one judge), which is all the more reason to read them first, since the incentive is less once they are off the table.

One facet I love about this prize is the daily reviews that appear on the Three Percent blog with a review by one of the judges on why this book "should make the longlist". They started yesterday with a review on WICKED WEEDS by judge Rachel Cordasco. I am sure this must have been her bonus pick since she produces a blog on speculative fiction. Her review is great and so is the book!

http://www.rochester.edu/College/tran...


Yes, it is about zombies which I never considered myself interested in but I am loving the book. There is much humour and philosophy about the "self" that zombies are missing and a very fun read. I should be through with it later today and ready to start on VAMPIRE IN LOVE, for which a review has just been posted on the same site.

Trevor, am I correct in assuming each judge will be writing about their own pick?

Oops, my link above to the Three Percent blog doesn't work....please fix if possible. Thanks;/)

Peg, for some reason Goodreads doesn't let me edit your posts. Even though as administrator I should have absolute power! You can go in and edit it, though.

Meanwhile I will see if I'm just missing something that lets me play with comments (which I can do on most other forums I've ran in the past).

Strange, the link works on my computer but not on my Ipad, where i wrote the original. So I will leave as is and if somebody really wants to they can give a better link. Ha, I was just telling someone how much more fun these prizes are with social media involved...20 years ago I had to read in the newspaper who won the Booker and National Book Awards!

Trevor, GR mods can delete posts but not edit other people's.

I worry about accidentally clicking delete (esp if logging in from tablet) but thank goodness it hasn't happened.

Peg, you should be able to edit your own posts if you're on the desktop version of the site. I don't think the app enables this. The app is apparently fairly useless but I've never tried it to find out first hand.

Antonomasia wrote: "Peg, you should be able to edit your own posts if you're on the desktop version of the site. I don't think the app enables this. The app is apparently fairly useless but I've never tried it to find..."

Yes, you are so right! I was able to change it on the desktop and now it seems to work everywhere. There have been 2 new reviews added since this one so I better get back to reading!

The latest review is by Trevor on MY MARRIAGE and is excellent. I may have to skip ahead in my reading !
Here is the general link to show all the blog posts with the latest first
http://www.rochester.edu/College/tran...

Thanks for linking to these here, peg, and for adding some of your thoughts! It makes it fun!

Trevor - any comment on Michael O's claim that the book is ineligible as a retranslation and therefore must be replaced by Bottom's Dream?

I can say it won't be replaced by Bottom's Dream, but if it turns out it was ineligible it was an honest oversight and the book won't be considered for further advancement. Regardless, read it!

My Marriage is both one of the ones I most want to read and one of the few that cannot be found at any library near me.

My reading strategy will be based on availablity and length, so I'm going to start with Zama next.

It's interesting to hear how other people are planning to tackle this rather long list. Personally, I plan to tackle it through length and have put all the books under 200 pages on hold at my library. From there it's entirely up to the library which I'll read first!

I also own two of the books, and plan to get to them soon as well as they're right there.

Zama's one of the ones I'm most curious to hear others' thoughts on. I had high expectations and ended up disappointed, but I think I'm very much in the minority there.

I'm about midway through Among Strange Victims and have read the beginning of Oblivion. Chronicle of the Murdered House is in route to my library. That should probably be about all I get to before shortlist time.

I'm confused - is My Marriage teh exact same translation as My First Wife and just a new edition or is it a new translation. Michael Hoffman did both. Think i want to read this but unsure whether to pay more money for the 'new' one....

Penguin published Michael Hofmann's translation as My First Wife in England. NYRB Classics published his translation as My Marriage in the U.S. They are the same text. Sometimes publishers change the names of books when they cross the sea, but the books are the same.

Incidentally, that's not why this might be ineligible. Just because a book was published in the UK before doesn't mean it was published in the U.S. (which is why sometimes a book shows up on, say, the MBI list one year and then, a few years later, on the BTBA). We're looking into whether the book was translated and published in the U.S. as part of a larger book back in the 1930s. It looks like it was.

Thanks Trevor. Sorry if I seem a bit thick!

I'd love to see Among Strange Victims on the shortlist. Definitely NOT a book that's going to be universally loved, which makes me like it even more. There's poo, a chicken, hypnosis, a synopsis of what urine tastes like....what's not to love?

Also, let's start ranking some books, folks.

Fine, fine - I'll start. I've read five and am a bit over 200 pages into Chronicle of the Murdered House, which I'm enjoying in a very soap opera way.

1. Among Strange Victims
Also 1. Chronicle of the Murdered House
3. Moonstone
4. Ladivine
5. The Last Wolf & Herman
6. Zama

My top two are the clear winners of this lot. Moonstone was definitely the more solid read, but the highs of Among Strange Victims were higher.

1. Chronicles of the Murdered House
2. Zama
3. Ladivine
4. Memoirs of a Polar Bear
5. Moonstone
6. The Queue
7. In the Cafe of Lost Youth
8. Super Extra Grande

I should try watching soap operas. Every time that a book is described as a soap opera, I love it.

Great to see some ratings popping up here! We are in the process of debating the shortlist, so all of these books and my own rankings are very much on my mind!

Turns out I've never really watched a soap opera. I should stop making that stock comparison. And Sara, you were quite right in your compare/contrast with Faulkner, so thanks for that.

And I really feel like I dropped the ball on my reading of Zama. I just could not get into that one until the last section.

I was the opposite--I thought Zama's first section was its strongest. I hope it makes the shortlist so that we can get more discussion of it going on here. My thoughts on Zama are all over the place.

Zama is one of the reasons a more extended BTBA season would be nice. I'd like to reread parts of it to see what I missed, but only after reading about 10 other books on the longlist. Right now I'm halfway through Chronicle of a Murdered House, have just started Oblivion, have Doomi Golo and On the Edge waiting for me at the library, and The Queue en route. At my pace, it would take me through May to read all of those.

Of the 6 I've read

1 Ladivine
2 The Last Wolf & Herman
3 Thus Bad Begins
4 A Spare Life
5 On The Edge
6 War and Turpentine

With less than two weeks to go before the announcement of the shortlist, I probably won't get to any more of the longlisted books. Of the few I have read, I would order them as follows:

1. On the Edge
2. Chronicle of the Murdered House
3. The Queue

Hmm, that's strange. I just went back and looked at my ratings at the time I read these books, and I gave Chronicle of the Murdered House 5 stars, compared to On the Edge's 4, but On the Edge is the one I feel most positive about now.

I do own Angel of Oblivion, War and Turpentine, Umami, Oblivion, and Super Extra Grande, so I will eventually get around to reading at least those.

Updated above for War and Turpentine. Odd choice to make both the MBI and BTBA longlist as one of the weakest I've read on both lists.

I'm halfway through Extra Super Grande and will update my list later today when I finish it. It's short enough to read in one sitting, but I fell asleep reading it. I suspect it's mostly on the longlist due to the general hype surrounding Yoss. Unless the ending is spectacular, it wouldn't have made it on this year's list of Hugo nominations, for instance, so I'm not sure how it made it onto the BTBA list.

The quality of the book itself is lovely though. This is the first from Restless Books that I've bought and I'll be looking for more.

I finished Chronicle of the Murdered House, and agree - it was pretty great. Right now it's right up there with Among Strange Victims as my favorite off the longlist so far, and I have a feeling it will solidify a place as my favorite of those two reads after a week or two, making it an annual tradition that Open Letter puts out my favorite book off the longlist every year.

I'm about a quarter of the way through Oblivion, and that's shaping up to be another good read.

I've read seven and have War and Turpentine in process.

1. Chronicle of the Murdered House
2. Eve Out of Her Ruins
3. In the Cafe of Lost Youth
4. Moonstone
5. Night Prayers
6. Angel of Oblivion
7. The Queue

I've heard great things about Eve Out of Her Ruins, but so far you're the first to rate it. I may have to pick it up on my way home from work today and give it a shot.

Sara - I thought it was great. It's one of those "punch in the gut" books. It's a really close pick for my first spot between Eve and Chronicle of Murdered House. I hope you read it.

That's one I'm very interested in as well. If my library system had it, I'd have read it already. If it makes the shortlist I'll be sure to pick up a copy.