Isabel Cole, Anthea Bell Shortlisted for Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize

I got very excited indeed yesterday when I learned that my good friend, founder and co-editor at no man's land and co-host of the Berlin translation lab, all round wonderful person and godmother of the Berlin translation scene Isabel Cole has been nominated for the shit-hot Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her version of Franz Fühmann's The Jew Car.

Another translation hero, Anthea Bell, is also shortlisted for Eugen Ruge's In Times of Fading Light, but I'm afraid I'll have to root for Isabel because Anthea has won it before. And because it's Isabel and I happen to think she's an incredibly talented translator who deserves recognition. I know the book and its translation well and can heartily recommend it. It's made up of fourteen episodes from the author's life, charting how he was drawn in to National Socialism and then out again, and more. It's very intricately written and Isabel does a great job of rendering that, never ever dumbing down. She's also a really good cook.

The Oxford–Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language, and comes with 2000 pounds and a trip to Oxford.