Spotlight on Translation: May Edition

In this, our third monthly spotlight, you’ll find reviews of collections of stories by two Argentine authors, Cecilia Pavón’s Little Joy, translated by Jacob Steinberg, and Federico Falco’s A Perfect Cemetery, translated by Jennifer Croft; tributes to the “forgotten genius” of Czech-born Austrian-Jewish author Leo Perutz and the “sharp and witty” German-language journalism of Billy Wilder, now available in Shelley Frisch’s translation; a conversation with writer and translator Damion Searls, whose rendition of the Norwegian author Jon Fosse’s three-volume novel Septology will soon be fully available; an overview of new translations of Russian playwright Alexander Griboedov’s Woe from Wit (by Betsy Hulick) and of Yuri Tynianov’s novel about Griboyedov, The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar (by Anna Kurkina Rush and Christopher Rush); a radio chat with George Saunders, whose latest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, draws lessons from the translated works of four major 19th-century Russian writers; a deep consideration of the wartime writings of Thomas Mann, newly rereleased in Walter D. Morris’s English version; as well as Fady Joudah’s translation and recitation Syrian poet and artist Munther Masri’s poem “People” and my own rendition of Russian author Maxim Osipov’s reflections on the fate of Alexei Navalny.

— Boris Dralyuk, Editor-in-Chief

 

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This digest is part of our year-round celebration of our 10th anniversary. To celebrate with us, please visit our anniversary page!

 

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Photograph by James Gordon.