The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Daša Drndić (1946-2018). Croatian novelist

Bibliography to be added. These are the ones Wikipedia lists:

Selected works[2]

Put do subote (1982). Way to Saturday.

Kamen s neba (1984). Stone from Heaven.

Marija Czestochowska još uvijek roni suze ili Umiranje u Torontu (1997). Maria Częstohowska Still Shedding Tears or Dying in Toronto.

Canzone di Guerra (1998). Translation to be published in 2022 (Istros Books/New Directions)

Totenwande (2000).

- Doppelgänger (2002). Translated by S.D. Curtis and Celia Hawkesworth (Istros Books/New Directions, 2019).

- Leica format (2003). Translated by Celia Hawkesworth (MacLehose Press, 2015).

- Sonnenschein(2007). Translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać as Trieste (MacLehose Press/Harcourt, 2012).

- April u Berlinu (2009). April in Berlin.

- Belladonna (2012). Translated by Celia Hawkesworth (MacLehose Press/New Directions, 2017).

- EEG (2016). Translated by Celia Hawkesworth (MacLehose Press/New Directions, 2019).

I can't believe we didn't have a topic for Daša Drndić, so here it is. I was prompted by the recent Maclehose Press re-release of cheaper paperback editions of the four books that they have rights to in English, including the previously rare Leica Format, which I plan to read later this month.

Thanks, Hugh. Trieste is in my stack of summer reading.

My reviews of the 5 that have been translated:

Doppelgänger: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Leica Format: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Trieste:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Belladonna: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

E.E.G:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am a big fan - and hoping April in Berlin is translated at some point soon - indeed a little disappointed that the Machelose was just a re-issue.

Another author strongly influenced by Thomas Bernhard - when asked for her influences:

What comes to mind immediately is Thomas Bernhard, because he gave me the courage, I saw that you can be angry, you don’t have to be polite, you can be nasty, you can criticize. And while reading him I was so happy that I had the right to be angry: with my country, with politics. Because during this old system I was just thinking now: you could talk softly against your country and the party at home. When you went abroad that was sort of forbidden. You weren’t supposed to criticize your country and also it was also preferable to drop by the embassy or the consulate and tell them you were there. And Bernhard said, when I read his first book translated into Serbian, it was „Frost” I think, some thirty years ago, then they discovered him in Croatia, so, when I first read him I thought: „This is wonderful, you can be angry, you can curse, you can really say what you think if you really know how to say it".

Thanks, Hugh. Daša Drndić deserves a thread. I’ve only read Belladonna and Doppelgänger, but I will read everything that is translated to English eventually. Belladonna is dense and raw, but important.

Exciting news of a new English translation. Canzone di Guerra out next spring from Istros in UK and New Directions in the US. I am not sure who the translator is though.

http://istrosbooks.com/products/catal...

Another feather in the cap for Istros. This is very good news!

I just looked for Canzone di Guerra and War Song in New Directions under New and Forthcoming books, but didn’t see it. Where did you see New Directions was publishing this? My other Drndic novels are from ND so I’d like their edition.

I just saw the tweet, it’s coming out in 2022 (if Istros win a grant?)

They implied they would publish it even if they didn't get the grant.

I am hoping someone is also working on April in Berlin - perhaps Machelose.

I still have to read EEG: A Novel

ND will be publishing Drndić's Canzone di Guerra as Battle Songs early next year. If there is a GR librarian in the group, it would be good to merge it with the original title.

I love that cover will go with the other Drndic ND covers.

Have combined them.

Wish people (not on here) would check before they add a translation and link it to the original.

Also wish UK and US publishers would use the same name.

Paul wrote: "Have combined them.

Wish people (not on here) would check before they add a translation and link it to the original.

Also wish UK and US publishers would use the same name."

Thanks, Paul.

I wonder if, at least symbolically, ND are distancing themselves from Istros.

Perhaps

Given their latest cause is protesting against the shadowy world order electoral fraud that denied their hero Bolsanaro his rightful election victory one would hope other publishers and literary prizes will distance themselves also.