Not long after the IFFP winner was announced, we also get the winner of the BTBA! What a wonderful day!
This year’s winner is:
- The Last Lover, by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelises Finegan Wasmoen
The judges also named three runners-up:
- Harlequin’s Millions, by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Stacey Knecht
- Faces in the Crowd, by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
Wow. So much to read. Once I get the Melancholy of Resistance from Interlibrary Loan, I’ll read that and then these two. I can’t wait!
Amazing show of female writers and translators here (and of course with the IFFP winners). I loved The Last Lover and am looking forward to reading Can Xue’s earlier work.
uhm… “Stacy Knect” aka “Stacey Knecht”… ;)
Oh dear! I’ll fix that Stacey :-) .
okay, Trevver! :)
Well, I guess I’m 1 for 2. Had some vacation time, so read Jenny Erpenbeck’s The End of Days and the Can Xue noted above. Loved Erpenbeck, but struggled through only about the first 80 pages of the Can Xue before just giving up. I’m not a totally lazy reader (for example, on Trevor’s recommendation, I’ve read a couple of Krasznahorkai works recently and found them amazing), but I just could not make sense of anything. I’ve seen The Last Lover described as “oneiric”, and it sure is that. But dreams bore me, and I should have known better.
Clearly, though, this book speaks to some folks. I would love to know what they heard.
Fifty percent is not too bad! Do you have plans to read any more of the list?
Oh, I just remembered: It’s actually two out of three: I read the Jansson short story collection, and very much enjoyed it. I think I may even have written a capsule review for you. Now I’m going back in time now–just ordered Seiobo There Below.