"The book didn’t want anyone to know it was there. If it were destroyed, everyone who’d survived in the story would be gone too. There would be no one left to remember the ones who had died. The balance of the world goes horribly askew when a story is confiscated; it becomes a darker, more ominous place." -- from 'The Book Censor's Library' by Bothayna Al-Essa; trans. Ranya Abdeirahman, Sawad Hussain
Great networking meeting today at Topping & Company Booksellers in Edinburgh, talking about translating books and selling books. Bought this one at the recommendation of one of the booksellers: Bad Cree by Jessica Johns.
Jenny Erpenbeck opens #Spring 2024 with Sloughing Off One Skin, a haunting #ShortStory that explores truth and identity, translated by Michael Hofmann.
@bookstodon Subscribe for £20 and get all this and a year's more exclusive #ShortStories and #comics from #writers all over the world, as well as access to an ever-expanding archive of stories from writers including Joyce Carol Oates, Ali Smith, Sarah Hall, Alain Mabanckou, Etgar Keret, Diana Evans, Lizzy Stewart and more…
We're on the lookout for perspectives that are currently under-represented on bookshelves in the UK and in the US, and material first written in languages other than English.
So here's a little taste of the marvellous #ShortStories from Jenny Erpenbeck, Jakub Żulczyk, Grahame Williams, Lauren Caroline Smith and Rose Rahtz for #Spring 2024.
Can you make something true just by #writing it down? Jenny Erpenbeck traces a paper trail in Sloughing Off One Skin, translated by Michael Hofmann.
Catch this exclusive short story and listen to Erpenbeck talk about borders, endings and the slippery business of #fiction at https://fictionable.world
“Classical literature has been reinterpreted for millennia. Different generations have made these works their own by translating the original Greek or Latin into their vernacular, and every translation brings fresh perspectives. While the earliest appearances of these texts are unattainable, the history of printing is peppered with remarkable Classical firsts from a wide array of translators.”
Big Barrel is off to the dumpster to get some grub. Jakub Żulczyk draws a picture of decline in Many Years of Hardships, translated by John and Małgorzata Markoff.
Catch this exclusive short story and listen to Żulczyk stand up for the little guy at https://fictionable.world