By Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
Friday, 12 March 2010
Photo - Global book lovers: Readers at the 2007 book fair in Calcutta, setting of Sankar's Chowringhee - AP/Getty Images
The numbers fell; but not the scope or the quality. A preference for safe bets and low horizons in recession-era publishing did serve to thin the field of translated fiction published in the UK during 2009. Entries for this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shrank by more than a quarter. That only means, take note, that the total of titles considered by the judges (Tibor Fischer, Kate Griffin, Daniel Hahn, Kirsty Lang and myself) merely returned to its level a few years ago.
And, as a properly global shop-window for the range and depth of fiction in translation available in Britain, the long-list of 15 books that we have selected strikes this judge - at least - as a mixture as robust, alluring and diverse as ever. From Berlin (Julia Franck) and Calcutta (Sankar) to Buenos Aires (Claudia Piñeiro) and Baghdad (Hassan Blasim), and from a Russian historical mystery (Boris Akunin) and a Congolese low-life comedy (Alain Mabanckou) to a French wartime blockbuster (Jonathan Littell) and an Italian trio of coming-of-age novellas (Pietro Grossi), our choice accesses all areas of world fiction in form as well as theme and place.
It contains international literary stars as well as dynamic newcomers, with a third of the books translated from non-European languages. For the first time, three Arabic-language authors (Bahaa Taher from Egypt, Hassan Blasim from Iraq and Elias Khoury from Lebanon) feature on the list, as well as Syrian-born Rafik Schami, who writes in German.
Read Boyd Tonkin's full article at The Independent online.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize long-list
Boris Akunin The Coronation (translated by Andrew Bromfield from the Russian) Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Ketil Bjørnstad To Music (Deborah Dawkin & Erik Skuggevik; Norwegian) Maia Press
Hassan Blasim The Madman of Freedom Square (Jonathan Wright; Arabic) Comma Press
Philippe Claudel Brodeck's Report (John Cullen; French) MacLehose Press
Julia Franck The Blind Side of the Heart (Anthea Bell; German) Harvill Secker
Pietro Grossi Fists (Howard Curtis; Italian) Pushkin Press
Elias Khoury Yalo (Humphrey Davies; Arabic) MacLehose Press
Jonathan Littell The Kindly Ones (Charlotte Mandell; French) Chatto & Windus
Alain Mabanckou Broken Glass (Helen Stevenson; French) Serpent's Tail
Javier Marías Your Face Tomorrow, Volume 3: Poison, Shadow and Farewell (Margaret Jull Costa; Spanish) Chatto & Windus
Yoko Ogawa The Housekeeper and the Professor (Stephen Snyder; Japanese) Harvill Secker
Claudia Piñeiro Thursday Night Widows (Miranda France; Spanish) Bitter Lemon Press
Sankar Chowringhee (Arunava Sinha; Bengali) Atlantic
Rafik Schami The Dark Side of Love (Anthea Bell; German) Arabia Books
Bahaa Taher Sunset Oasis (Humphrey Davies; Arabic) Sceptre
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