Friday, 26 February 2010
You can now become an official fan of love german books on Facebook. Just in case you want to impress people.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
German Embassy Translation Prize to Samuel Pakucs Willcocks
My informers had informed me already, but I just spent ten minutes digging around obscure websites to get the official version:
The Germanist Samuel Pakucs Willcocks has won the first ever German Embassy Translation Prize for his version of an extract from the novel Du bist zu schnell by Zoran Drvenkar. The lucky guy gets a month on the shores of the Wannsee at the LCB, 1000 euro spending money and a trip to the Leipzig Book Fair. Which is handy, because he's researching in a silent Berlin library as we speak. You can download his winning translation via that link above, by the way. Runner-up is my friend Jamie Lee Searle, who gets a big pat on the back and her name mentioned on the internet. Congratulations to both of you!
I like the idea of this prize a great deal, even if I'm not eligible to enter myself. Anyone can have a shot at it, provided they live in the UK. Let's hope it lures many more budding translators out of the woodwork in the years to come.
The Germanist Samuel Pakucs Willcocks has won the first ever German Embassy Translation Prize for his version of an extract from the novel Du bist zu schnell by Zoran Drvenkar. The lucky guy gets a month on the shores of the Wannsee at the LCB, 1000 euro spending money and a trip to the Leipzig Book Fair. Which is handy, because he's researching in a silent Berlin library as we speak. You can download his winning translation via that link above, by the way. Runner-up is my friend Jamie Lee Searle, who gets a big pat on the back and her name mentioned on the internet. Congratulations to both of you!
I like the idea of this prize a great deal, even if I'm not eligible to enter myself. Anyone can have a shot at it, provided they live in the UK. Let's hope it lures many more budding translators out of the woodwork in the years to come.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Get Into And Other Stories
I've mentioned in the past that a select group of British book lovers and translators is in the process of setting up a not-for-profit publishing house showcasing international fiction. The project now has a name - And Other Stories - and is already launching into discussion of what books to translate.
And you too can join in. Yes, you - provided you read German, Spanish and/or Portuguese. You don't even have to be in any particular country. They've set up three discussion groups on LibraryThing, for Portuguese books, Spanish books and of course German books, looking at titles by Anne Weber, Gabriele Petricek, Susann Pásztor and Katharina Hacker for the time being. The idea, I believe, is to single out the best ones to actually publish in English. Now how exciting is that?
Watch this space for more breaking news.
And you too can join in. Yes, you - provided you read German, Spanish and/or Portuguese. You don't even have to be in any particular country. They've set up three discussion groups on LibraryThing, for Portuguese books, Spanish books and of course German books, looking at titles by Anne Weber, Gabriele Petricek, Susann Pásztor and Katharina Hacker for the time being. The idea, I believe, is to single out the best ones to actually publish in English. Now how exciting is that?
Watch this space for more breaking news.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Eva Braun Redux
The international press have been swarming all over Heike B. Görtemaker's book taking a closer look at Eva Braun. See, for instance, Jessa Crispin at Foreign Policy, Kate Conolly in the Observer or the Guardian's take on Daily Mail readers' reactions (I haven't dirtied my eyeballs by reading the actual article they all commented on). German reviews, meanwhile, have been mixed. There just isn't enough source material to put a real portrait together on a serious academic basis, which is what Görtemaker has attempted.
But who cares about that in movieland? According to trade mag Börsenblatt, the publishers have sold film rights to the book to Michael Simon de Normier, the producer of The Reader. He says he plans to spend 20 million euro to make a film aimed at the international market. I imagine Madonna is already digging out her pubic wig for the sofa scene, having played another blonde Eva with Nazi pals in the past. But who will play Adolf in this ground-breaking new cinematic look at German culture?
But who cares about that in movieland? According to trade mag Börsenblatt, the publishers have sold film rights to the book to Michael Simon de Normier, the producer of The Reader. He says he plans to spend 20 million euro to make a film aimed at the international market. I imagine Madonna is already digging out her pubic wig for the sofa scene, having played another blonde Eva with Nazi pals in the past. But who will play Adolf in this ground-breaking new cinematic look at German culture?
Monday, 22 February 2010
Happy Birthday Helene
I know I said it was my last word, but I'm obsessed, OK? Every single newspaper has run a story on Friday's big party for Helene Hegemann's eighteenth birthday and belated book launch, in the former technoland legend Tresor.
Cinderella here wasn't invited, despite having listened in on at least two excited conversations about it beforehand. But, you know, that's OK, I went to Tresor once in the 90s and it was kind of underwhelming. I probably would have just ignored the pink-and-black invitation proclaiming which movie stars and theatre directors were going to be DJing anyway. And who wants to stand in a queue in the rain with hundreds of journos and publishing folk? Let alone eat candyfloss under a giant papier-maché axolotl or try and make out what the writer and her friend read on stage over all the malicious gossip in the background.
At least I can revel in the illusion that I'm just too damn underground to get an invite.
Cinderella here wasn't invited, despite having listened in on at least two excited conversations about it beforehand. But, you know, that's OK, I went to Tresor once in the 90s and it was kind of underwhelming. I probably would have just ignored the pink-and-black invitation proclaiming which movie stars and theatre directors were going to be DJing anyway. And who wants to stand in a queue in the rain with hundreds of journos and publishing folk? Let alone eat candyfloss under a giant papier-maché axolotl or try and make out what the writer and her friend read on stage over all the malicious gossip in the background.
At least I can revel in the illusion that I'm just too damn underground to get an invite.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Axolotl Roadkill: My Final Word
Yesterday the publishers Ullstein sent out a list of Helene Hegemann's sources for Axolotl Roadkill. And the magazine Bücher went and put them online (scroll down to pdf). So now's your chance to make up your mind. According to Ullstein the poached bits make up less than half a percent of the book. What's clear, though, is that much of the sections on Berghain and heroin consumption is closely inspired by and modified from reformed blogger Airen's book Strobo.
My final word is this:
There are two separate issues at stake here. The first is that Hegemann shouldn't have lifted from other people's work without crediting them. She got caught, she owned up, and now they're credited. I know I'm going to get more anonymous comments on this, but she didn't harm anyone. She didn't put a bomb under anyone's car, she didn't steal anyone's boyfriend, she didn't give anyone a Chinese burn in the playground. To put it bluntly, I don't understand why such a wave of hate has descended upon her. Unless, of course, people don't like seeing young women being successful in such a spectacular way.
The second issue is the quality of the book now that we know exactly which words are Hegemann's and which are other people's. Because I for one am not prepared to dismiss the novel out of hand because of the way it was written. And I stand by my opinion that Axolotl Roadkill is a good book, tackling much more than just heroin and Berghain, featuring genuine linguistic invention and capturing the spirit of Berlin as it is now. Above all, it paints a picture of a severely disturbed narrator who doesn't in fact come of age - instead refusing to do so like all those around her, living the lives of hedonistic teenagers well into their 40s.
And that, for all those clamouring for authenticity, is the real thing.
My final word is this:
There are two separate issues at stake here. The first is that Hegemann shouldn't have lifted from other people's work without crediting them. She got caught, she owned up, and now they're credited. I know I'm going to get more anonymous comments on this, but she didn't harm anyone. She didn't put a bomb under anyone's car, she didn't steal anyone's boyfriend, she didn't give anyone a Chinese burn in the playground. To put it bluntly, I don't understand why such a wave of hate has descended upon her. Unless, of course, people don't like seeing young women being successful in such a spectacular way.
The second issue is the quality of the book now that we know exactly which words are Hegemann's and which are other people's. Because I for one am not prepared to dismiss the novel out of hand because of the way it was written. And I stand by my opinion that Axolotl Roadkill is a good book, tackling much more than just heroin and Berghain, featuring genuine linguistic invention and capturing the spirit of Berlin as it is now. Above all, it paints a picture of a severely disturbed narrator who doesn't in fact come of age - instead refusing to do so like all those around her, living the lives of hedonistic teenagers well into their 40s.
And that, for all those clamouring for authenticity, is the real thing.
Two German-Language Titles on Best Translated Book Shortlist
The people behind the Best Translated Book Award have published the shortlist, including Robert Walser's The Tanners (trans. Susan Bernofsky) and Wolf Hass' The Weather Fifteen Years Ago (trans. Stephanie Gilardi and Thomas S. Hansen).
My fingers are well and truly crossed.
My fingers are well and truly crossed.
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