Welcome to Women In Translation Month 2020! This annual event, started by the inimitable Meytal Radzinski, is celebrating its sixth year. Huzzah! To learn more about #WITMonth — past, present, and future — you can visit Meytal’s blog Biblibio: A Life In Letters, or follow the hashtag on Twitter or Instagram. This year I’m going to try to review writers who I feel haven’t received … Continue reading Women In Translation Month 2020
Therese Bohman’s novels have fascinated me since I first read her English language debut, Drowned, in 2012. For a long time, I thought it was simply the ferocity of the stories that I admired. Her portrayals of love, and what passes for love, is intimidating. Reminiscent of Virginie Despentes, sex is a power struggle. There’s an undercurrent of violence and manipulation in all male/female interactions. … Continue reading Eventide by Therese Bohman, translated by Marlaine Delargy
Title: The Emissary Author: Yoko Tawada Translator: Margaret Mitsutani Publisher: New Directions Books, New York (2018) ISBN: 978 0 8112 2762 9 In Yoko Tawada’s The Emissary the future is, somewhat predictably, bleak. Japanese children are frail and infirm creatures, cared for by grandparents and great-grandparents who remain strong and vigorous well past the hundred-year mark. The two main characters, Yoshiro and his great-grandson Mumei, live … Continue reading In Yoko Tawada’s The Emissary the future is, predictably, bleak.
Title: The Embalmer Author: Anne-Renée Caillé Translator: Rhonda Mullins Publisher: Coach House Books, Toronto (2018) ISBN: 978 1 55243 780 We’re all going to die. And while nobody wants to dwell on the state of their own mortality, we’re perfectly happy consuming stories, both on screen and page, involving the deaths of strangers. Especially if a crime is involved. (We do love our crime. I’ve … Continue reading The Embalmer by Anne-Renée Caillé, tr. Rhonda Mullins
Women In Translation Month is upon us! Meytal Radzinski (Biblibio to those who knew her back in the day 🙂 ) embodies the idea of being a “literary citizen” to her core. She is a force of nature and someone I hugely admire. In 2014 she began a conversation on her blog which evolved into an international celebration of women writers in translation. The fact … Continue reading WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH 2018 – Thank You, Meytal! #WITMonth
READER AT LARGE 