Translations and Bookstores


wherever-cover-medAfter spending the last few months consciously trying to read translated books, I found the newest anthology by Center for the Art of Translation, Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed, the perfect introduction to translated literature from around the world.  The anthology is a mixture of short stories, book excerpts and poems.  The works are stellar; one after another capturing a haunting moment, the beauty of a life, the isolation of a life alone, with an immediacy that some people believe cannot be translated from one language to another.  When I read a translated book, I often feel like the translator is a person in the corner watching me, knowing but silent.  I poured over the translators introductions to each entry finally feeling like an essential person in my experience was finally given voice.

“Rain at the Construction Site,” a short story from a Greek writer, Ersi Sotiropoulos, translated by Karen Emmerich, contained a combination of the universal, the sadness of a life not lived, a life suddenly and seemingly inexplicitly stolen with elements that were definitely foreign to the American reader.  In a snapshot of one afternoon, the reader feels the main characters isolation and kindness as he stops to keep a stranger company during her grief.  Even if I didn’t know I was reading a translated story, the second paragraph would have screamed it:

    In his opinion the construction of the road wasn’t moving fast enough, not at the pace he would have liked.  “What do you care?” the workmen would bark at him, annoyed.  Sooner or later the road would get built, that was their philosophy.  “Are you really in such a rush to be out of work?” the foreman would joke.

Clearly, not the overworked American philosophy we’re so used to reading about.

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Q & A with Jasper Fforde

From our friends at Viking Books, Mr. Fforde on his latest book Shades of Grey which will be coming out on December 29, 2009 Q.  What is National Color? A. National Color is the Chromatic elite who supply the synthetic hues available—at a price—to the citizens.  Although one might be Red and never able to … Read more

Considering a Facelift at Blarney Books, Port Fairy

We have been asking ourselves this question for the last five years, but I think we are reaching the decision that we probably should.  The front of our building isn’t very welcoming, looking more like a book warehouse than a character-filled secondhand bookshop.  We have a problem in that council doesn’t want us to change … Read more

Working with Book Clubs

bookgroup

Book clubs are a great constant source of clientele for a bookstore.  I chatted with Julie Robinson of Literary Affairs about  hints for how bookstores can better serve book club members and tap into that book loving audience.  Julie is a professional book group facilitator who runs dozens of monthly book groups, in addition to hosting luncheons with literature professors and literary themed trips around the world.  For many of her events, she works with Book Soup of Los Angeles – Julie provides the event and Book Soup provides the books, a perfect match.

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