Fiction Longlist Announced for 2011 Best Translated Book Awards

2010 winners of the BTBAs

By Hannah Johnson

Now in its fifth year, the Best Translated Book Awards (BTBA) fiction longlist highlights 25 translated works of literature published in the United States in 2010. The longlist represents authors from 19 countries writing in 12 languages.

The award was started in 2007 by Three Percent, a blog about literature in translation from Open Letter Press. Co-founder Chad W. Post said the list is a “testament to the number of high-quality works in translation that are making their way to American readers, thanks to a number of talented translators and exciting publishing houses.”

Criteria for selecting was based on the quality of both the original work and the translation. The jury for the 2011 BTBA includes: Monica Carter (Salonica), Scott Esposito (Conversational Reading and Center for the Art of Translation), Susan Harris (Words Without Borders), Annie Janusch (Translation Review), Matthew Jakubowski (writer & critic), Brandon Kennedy (bookseller/cataloger), Bill Marx (PRI’s The World: World Books), Michael Orthofer (Complete Review), and Jeff Waxman (Seminary Co-op and The Front Table).

For the first time this year, winning authors and translators will each receive a cash prize of $5,000, sponsored by Amazon.com.

The shortlist will be announced on Thursday, March 24, 2011 and the winners will be announced during the PEN World Voices Festival in New York City. More information about the award is available on the BTBA website.

Without further ado, here is the 2011 Best Translated Book Awards Fiction Longlist:

• The Literary Conference by César Aira, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver (New Directions)
• The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive)
• The Rest Is Jungle & Other Stories by Mario Benedetti, translated from the Spanish by Harry Morales (Host Publications)
• A Life on Paper by Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin (Small Beer)
• A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex, translated from the French by Donald Wilson (Bitter Lemon)
• A Splendid Conspiracy by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Alyson Waters (New Directions)
• The Jokers by Albert Cossery, translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis (New York Review Books)
• Eline Vere by Louis Couperus, translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke (Archipelago)
• Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)
• The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck, translated from the German by Anthea Bell (Grove)
• Hocus Bogus by Romain Gary (writing as Émile Ajar), translated from the French by David Bellos (Yale University Press)
• To the End of the Land by David Grossman, translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen (Knopf)
• The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal (New York Review Books)
• The Clash of Images by Abdelfattah Kilito, translated from the French by Robyn Creswell (New Directions)
• Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (New Directions)
• Cyclops by Ranko Marinković, translated from the Croatian by Vlada Stojiljković, edited by Ellen Elias-Bursać (Yale University Press)
• Hygiene and the Assassin by Amélie Nothomb, translated from the French by Alison Anderson (Europa Editions)
• I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund and the author (Graywolf Press)
• A Thousand Peaceful Cities by Jerzy Pilch, translated from the Polish by David Frick (Open Letter)
• Touch by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Paula Haydar (Clockroot)
• The Black Minutes by Martín Solares, translated from the Spanish by Aura Estrada and John Pluecker (Grove/Black Cat)
• On Elegance While Sleeping by Emilio Lascano Tegui, translated from the Spanish by Idra Novey (Dalkey Archive)
• Agaat by Marlene Van Niekerk, translated from the Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns (Tin House)
• Microscripts by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)
• Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss, translated from the German by Joel Rotenberg (Archipelago)