In Baho!, the first Burundian novel ever translated into English, the 28-year-old Roland Rugero uses elements of fable and oral tradition to explore the themes of miscommunication and justice in his war-torn Central African nation. When Nyamuragi, an adolescent mute, attempts to ask a young woman in rural Burundi for directions to an appropriate place … Continue reading Title Pick: Baho! by Roland Rugero
Since it is French literature month on our blog, it only seems fitting to highlight one of the great presses out there working specifically in the French translation sphere. In this case, Le French Book. If you not only love noir and crime fiction, but also feel inspired to support female-founded and -run presses, please spend … Continue reading Publisher Spotlight: Le French Book
In keeping with this month’s France theme, I would like to spotlight A Time of Miracles, an upper middle-grade, younger-YA novel translated from French that captured my heart. But first, here is where I found this book: the past winner list for the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, a prize given in the same series as … Continue reading The Batchelder Award and A Time of Miracles
If there are some people you don’t see anymore, it’s usually by choice. When he called, I didn’t recognize the voice and he refused to give his name. He said he had some work for me, paid well. I said meet me at the café across from the Rex, the movie theater. I got there … Continue reading Book Excerpt: Eyes Full of Empty
March is the month of French translated literature on the GLLI blog, and I wanted to highlight French graphic novels, because they are now an integral part of the French literature world. When I was in Bologna for the International Children’s Book Festival, I was on a mission: to find French translated graphic novels so … Continue reading Recent French Graphic Novels for Teens & Middle Schoolers
For an idle literary translator, what’s a good place to search for foreign fiction? Anthologies and bestseller lists, web wish-lists of books that ought to be translated? Old bookshops where floor-to-ceiling shelves are laden with literature from decades or centuries ago? All good suggestions. But there’s another source which can prove fruitful. If your … Continue reading Under Cover of Dust
A Meal in Winter by French author Hubert Mingarelli is a subtle book that quietly but methodically stalks the reader’s sympathies. It does so through a beautiful, spare prose style that begins with the first line: “They had rung the iron gong outside, and it was still echoing, at first for real in the courtyard, and then, for a longer … Continue reading Book Review: A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli
Someone who looks like a banker walks into the BNL bank on Piazza Matteoti. Someone who looks like a crook—with a broken nose, low forehead, and big, protruding ears—comes out of the police station next door, while eight carabinieri stand smoking on the pavement and laughing and acting out on a friend how they’d arrest … Continue reading Excerpt: La Superba by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
WEDNESDAY 1. No one walks through London with a machete. Unless you count the two men passing him just now. Niall had already wrapped up taking pictures of the spot where the Effra River had once emptied into the Thames, when one of the two men looked back at him. The man’s gaze lingered … Continue reading Fade to Black by Zoë Beck
Mr. Squirrel and the Moon Sebastian Meschenmoser, David Henry Wilson (Trans.) NorthSouth Books, 2015 ISBN 978-0735841567 Winter 2015 Top Ten IndieNext Pick When Mr. Squirrel awakens to find that the moon has landed on his tree, he frantically tries to get rid of it before someone suspects him of stealing it and puts him in jail. … Continue reading Title Pick: Mr. Squirrel and the Moon
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 