translation

Nov 24 2011

Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov

Thirst by Andrei Gelasimovme is part of the new imprint from Amazon, AmazonCrossing.  What is AmazonCrossing? Here is how Amazon describes it:

With translations of foreign language books from around the world, AmazonCrossing makes award-winning and bestselling books accessible to many readers for the first time.

Short book, interesting hook and a chance to read something different? Sure, I will give it a shot.  As you might have guessed, Thirst ties into alcohol:

Masterfully translated from the original Russian by award-winning translator Marian Schwartz, Thirst tells the story of 20-year-old Chechen War veteran Kostya. Maimed beyond recognition by a tank explosion, he spends weeks on end locked inside his apartment, his sole companions the vodka bottles spilling from the refrigerator. But soon Kostya’s comfortable if dysfunctional cocoon is torn open when he receives a visit from his army buddies who are mobilized to locate a missing comrade. Through this search for his missing friend, Kostya is able to find himself.

It is a spare and impressionistic story of a veteran trying to makes sense of his life after having his face and body disfigured in the war in Chechnya.   Hunkered down in his apartment with so much vodka it wont fit in his small refrigerator, Kostya occasional rehabs apartments for the Euro-rich – working alone of course. His interaction is limited to his neighbor calling on him to scare her son into going to bed.

When his buddies call on him to assist in their search for another fellow vet, he ends up meeting up with his estranged father and his young family. These interactions shake him out of his depression and allow him to see the wider world rather than just his internal struggles. Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Aug 20 2011

The Break by Pietro Grossi

As has been noted on this blog before, I am an eclectic reader. If I was dedicated and savvy about these things I would pick an audience or niche and stick with it (read the right books, connect with the right blogs, market in the right places, etc.).

But I am neither savvy nor dedicated so what you get is a little of this and a little of that – whatever happens to catch my attention at the time and/or whatever I get the time and energy to write about.

I bring this up because it has been a while since I have read a more “literary” work and particularly one that is translated (Fame if memory serves).  But when the publisher brought The Break by Pietro Grossi to my attention I was intrigued.

Here is the publisher’s description:

Dino is a placid, unambitious man. Living in a small provincial town, he and his wife spend their time planning journeys to faraway places–journeys they never take. Dino’s only passion is billiards, and he spends his evenings in the local billiards hall honing his technique.

One day, however, Dino’s quiet life is interrupted–his wife falls pregnant. This the first in a series of events that shake him from his slumber and force Dino to test himself for the first time.

It may sound like a cliche, but what I enjoy about works like this is how the author drops you into another  character’s world and mind. What I admire is the way skilled writers create this world and describe both the physical and psychological reality in such artistic and though provoking ways. In literary efforts the power of words and ideas come together – the reader can enjoy both the art of the sentence and the larger art of how these words and the story come together.

This is exactly what The Break achieves.  With an economical yet philosophical style Grossi slowly sketches the exterior and interior world of Dino. His personality and habits are revealed and in such a way as to fit within the larger world and his particular worldview. Despite the economical prose their is an emotional punch.

More below.

Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , ,

Feb 24 2010

In the Mail: Tattoo: A Pepe Carvalho Mystery

*This was inadvertently buried in the Mail pile and wanted to make you aware of it

Tattoo: A Pepe Carvalho Mystery (Pepe Carvalho Mysteries)

Publishers Weekly

Those who prefer getting inside characters’ heads to figuring out whodunit will enjoy this mystery in Montalbán’s series featuring food-loving PI Pepe Carvalho (Buenos Aires Quintet, etc.), first published in Spain in 1976. When the corpse of an unknown man with the words Born to Raise Hell in Hell tattooed on his shoulder surfaces off the Barcelona coast, Ramón Freixas, a hair salon owner, asks Carvalho to investigate. For reasons he doesn’t share with the gumshoe, Freixas wants the victim identified. The tattoo’s trail takes the detective to Amsterdam, where he figures out the murder was related to the drug trade. Carvalho’s cynicism (he divides the world into those who go to jail and those who might go to jail) will make him a familiar figure to hard-boiled devotees. The final twist will appeal to readers comfortable with some ambiguity.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , ,

Oct 24 2009

In the Mail: In Translation Edition

–> Many and Many A Year Ago by Selcuk Altun

Publishers Weekly

Altun’s second novel to be made available in the U.S. has a premise almost as intriguing as his first, Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, but the execution is less successful. Kemal Kuray’s meteoric ascent to the top of the Turkish Air Force comes to an abrupt end after the engine of the plane he’s piloting fails. Barely escaping serious injury, he’s assigned to coordinate a secret translation project, during which he befriends Suat Altan, a technology consultant working on the project to complete his military service. Later, Kemal learns from Suat’s identical twin, Fuat, that Suat, who’s vanished, has left behind a cryptic note for Kemal and arranged for monthly payments to him of $5,000 a month after his retirement. Kemal spends the rest of the book seeking the purpose, as well as the true meaning, of Suat’s message. If Poe’s fans are meant to be enticed by the title, taken from Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee,” they will find little to chew on.

–> The Last Supper by Pawel Huelle

Library Journal

Twelve men make their way to a theater to pose for a photo to be used as the basis for a new painting of The Last Supper. This pastiche is set in the near future in Gdansk, Poland, paralyzed by terrorist attacks during the 19th-century travels of a painter and in much earlier times in real and imaginary Middle Eastern locales. A few problems prevent this book from being a near masterpiece: the irony is laid on too thick, and pages 99–100 contain a terrible spoiler. It’s like revealing “whodunit” right in the middle of a mystery, so readers should be strongly advised to skip those pages, which take a little power out of an otherwise spectacular final chapter. VERDICT Huelle addresses some of the same issues found in Nikos Kazantzakis’s The Last Temptation of Christ or Christopher Moore’s Lamb but in a very different way, yet fans of those authors might enjoy this book. The ultimate ironic act would be to use The Last Supper as a Christmas present.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , , ,

Jul 22 2009

Nicholas by Rene Goscinny & Jean-Jacques Sempe

Cover of "Nicholas"
Cover of Nicholas

I am sure readers here know by now I am a sucker for well packaged and illustrated young adult books.  So I guess it is no surprise that I am a fan of Nicholas by Rene Goscinny & Jean-Jacques Sempe brought to US readers by Phaidon.

These 19 collected tales about a French school boy (originally published in French 1959) are published in English with a simple but elegant design that matches the simple but classic New Yorker style illustrations.

The stories are narrated by Nicholas himself.  And of course, he sees life as rather simple.  He likes to have fun with his friends wherever and whenever they can. But he finds himself puzzled by the adults around with their complex emotions and surprising reactions to life.

Adults on the other hand are constantly surprised to find out just how much chaos young children create in such a short period of time.  Whether it is picture day at school, a pickup soccer game in the empty lot, or a play date with a friend the well intentioned Nicholas and his classmate soon have the adults on the verge of breakdown in short order.  And anyone who has young children – especially boys – can relate to this all to well.

The stories are droll, tongue-in-cheek, and have a sense of nostalgia about a simpler world (despite the Cold War at the time of their writing) of provincial France. But they are also timeless in that they so perfectly reflect the reality of human nature in both children and adults; and are able to laugh at both.

I have been vaguely aware of the series for some time and have often been tempted to pick this first volume up while on my various jaunts to bookstores.  Someone mentioned the stories on Twitter recently, however, and I decided it was high time I read them.  I am glad I did.

During a recent illness I needed something simple and fun to read and they fit the bill perfectly.  They brought a smile to my face and often an out loud chuckle.  I plan on reading them out loud to the family soon.  If your family hasn’t discovered this classic series I highly recommend them.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , ,

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