The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Time to start next year's speculation.

Assuming the prize stays the same then this is for translated fiction(*) - novels or short stories - by living authors, first published in the UK/Ireland, by a UK/Ireland publishing house, between 1 May 2021 and 30 April 2022. Self-translations are eligible.

(* which seems to be interpreted quite broadly)

Listopia here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

You need a (*) after "novels" also

As for early contenders:

After a year of short books, could this be a year of long ones

The Books of Jacob is the big contender, in both reputation and page count

Also from Fitzcarraldo the final parts of Fosse's Septology - A New Name, parts VI-VII - are likely to attract scrutiny from the Nobel judges, although final parts of trilogies are trickier for an award for one book.

A Luminous Novel (the translation of La novela luminosa) from Andotherstories is another heavyweight [I overlooked the author's death]

Others:

Tony's already called Nostalgia by Mircea Cărtărescu as better than any of 2021's contenders - it's a reissue but we think the first UK edition so should be eligible

Breast and Eggs was overlooked this year, but hearing very strong reviews of Heaven

The Antarctica of Love would have been very timely this year - and the author has been previously featured on the prize

Whereabouts has had mixed reviews but a self-translated novel made the list this year

On the 2021 thread, No Touching was discussed. It didn't work for me (bit of a Showgirls, Sophie's World and Grange Hill mash up) but will certainly gain the judges' attention.

As for publishers:

Pushkin Press and Europa usually feature as do Pereine, and Charco have had in previous years. I need to root through their catalogues for contenders.

Of others who haven't featured:

I'd love to see some of the Honford Star Korean translations on the list - Cursed Bunny to me the strongest contender

Istros seem to be oddly overlooked each year - but Blind Man would be a worthy inclusion

I have not been keeping up with translated fiction this year. I felt a couple of early year reads weren't that good and I am leery of experimenting. There seems to be a lot of popular/bestseller fiction being translated and the promos make it hard to discern the books I want to read. The are also a number of books that are being released in the U.S. like the Tove Ditlevsen trilogy that aren't eligible because of previous or lack of UK publication. Finalists for the Neustadt prize are supposed to be out on the 15th and I may just sample from those and potential Nobel nominees preferring to wait till end of the year best lists before choosing any new international releases. I intend the Fosse series when the last is released.

Sam wrote: "...the Tove Ditlevsen trilogy...."

Also ineligible on the grounds of the author being deceased, although I think the UK re-publication (2019) was before the US one (which seems more recent?)

One title I'm indecisive about is Perumal Murugan's The Story of a Goat - this was published in the last week of March 2021, so I think it just missed the cut off?

I don't know about the Murugan eligibility. There will be s new book of his published this year but it is short stories.

I’ve read a couple of good ones already, though not in English translation:

Trust by Domenico Starnone (five stars)
Red Milk by Sjón (four stars though a friend gave it only two stars)

Will read The Antarctica of Love and Whereabouts soon, as I’m able to read them in other languages than English, i.e. good library availability for me.

Looking forward to reading The Morning Star by Knausgård in a few months’ time.

Robert wrote: "One title I'm indecisive about is Perumal Murugan's The Story of a Goat - this was published in the last week of March 2021, so I think it just missed the cut off?"

Yes I was looking at that one today - and yes a last year book (cut off is actually 30 April 2021, and it was late April I think)

Declan reviewed Nostalgia in his blog. I was trying to think where I saw it mentioned. Now I can’t remember if I ordered it!

New Directions published an English translation in 2005, would that make it ineligible?

https://dodmill.wixsite.com/theunfort...

Would be eligible so long as wasn't UK published back then (New Directions wouldn't count as UK published)

What about M. Son of the Century - which won Italy's most prestigious literary prize in 2019?

There is a review in the New Statesman which says "It is presented, perversely as a novel, thought it would be more accurately described as history-writing with a few liberties taken"

Now I would say that the 2021 judges would hardly say that as a criticism and would hardly use the word "perversely" about a non-fiction book masquerading as a novel ...... except, irony of irony, the view is by the 2021 chair Lucy H-H.

Maybe my hastily dismissed rumour about the eligibility dispute among the judges in choosing the 2021 winner was not made up after all?

These issues will continually be debated I think.

Fiction and nonfiction are not black or white but a blur of grey.
Some opine that once a fact is processed by any consciousness it is already becoming fiction.
Letters or creative nonfiction hasn't a singular defined vehicle of recognition.

All will fuel this debate.

She seems to be trolling herself to me

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: What about M. Son of the Century - which won Italy's most prestigious literary prize in 2019?."

It seems to be potentially ineligible on the grounds of being a tome not a novel.

Thankfully published on the 29 April 2021 thereby rendering it ineligible for the 2022 award yet likely too late for the judges to consider for the 2021 award.

I do wonder though if those rules get bent - i.e. whether they could ask to enter it for 2022. Hopefully not.

I don't feel the Strega carries that much weight now. With diversity taking more spots, I imagine it will carry even less. I think whoever is publish8ng the Scurati is more important than the book in determining selection, cynical as that sounds.

Paul wrote: "Would be eligible so long as wasn't UK published back then (New Directions wouldn't count as UK published)"

So the IB is not open to American publishers like the Anglo Booker. I wish it was the other way around. I’d be happy for the Booker to remain a UK only prize and rather they opened the IB to US publishers like New Directions, Open Letter, Archipelago, and Two Lines.

Yes it is also UK/Irish publishers only. The Booker is rather keen on copies being readily available to the reading public which makes widening press eligibility hard I guess. Although as we have seen before having a UK office can work (eg Yale University Press this year).

There is also the issue of rights ie would be a bit odd for say New Directions to enter a book where Fitzcarraldo had the UK rights.

The International DUBLIN Literary Award is, however, as far as I can tell from the rules, open to all English-language (including in translation) publishers as well as treating translations alongside English language originals.

Paul wrote: "Would be eligible so long as wasn't UK published back then (New Directions wouldn't count as UK published)"

Having now got Nostalgia it states that this is the first UK publication (although it refers to the US publication by ND) so it should be eligible

I forgot about Fitzcarraldo and Istros co-publishing with New Directions.

I ordered Nostalgia, too.

Just read Violeta Among the Stars which feels a good contender

Just started Trust- can't help feeling at times Starnone feels like a slightly inferior male version of Ferrante (yes I know)

Nostalgia I'm a little wary of starting - I could see Blinding was likely a great novel, but I can't say I understood much of it

I've started Violeta Among the Stars and like the narrative voice so far - there's an interesting juxtaposition of tones.

Violeta Among the Stars sounds very good, Blinding sounds like a book I couldn’t be paid to read, especially at 464 pages.

Blinding is actually also a novel in three parts and more like 1100 pages. The part I read was just part 1. Not sure if the other two parts have even been translated.

Halfway through Trust and it strikes me that I get on better with dislikable female narrator’s than with male ones. I think that is because there are enough selfish, sexist men in the world than I don’t need authors to create more of them for me.

Really didn't like Trust at all I'm afraid https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That's disappointing to hear, Paul, as I have an ARC - I'll read your review when I've finished, but we often tend to overlap in our opinions.

Well it was the unlikeable male narrator thing - I usually look snootily the sort of review that reads "but none of the characters were likeable" but that's what I felt here. Tommi loved it (5 stars) as did Meike (4 stars) so I may be the outlier.

I can't help feel though that he needs to take some lessons from Ferrante.

It’s interesting that there are unlikable characters we can be okay with and unlikable characters that ruin a book for us.

I usually like an unlikeable narrator, but it has to be hard to write a book with no sympathetic character and keep it interesting. I read another of his a few years ago and liked it. I may give this a try when it comes out.

I am not sure whether the narrator was meant to be unlikeable. To be fair I realised part way through the book was set in the 80s so the attitudes reflect the time to an extent.

Paul wrote: "Blinding is actually also a novel in three parts and more like 1100 pages. The part I read was just part 1. Not sure if the other two parts have even been translated."

Blinding seems to be a hair under 1500 (!) pages... I updated the word count on Wikipedia and added it to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

You're right, the second and third volume haven't been translated.

I must admit having read volume one and being lost by about page 11, I wouldn't be rushing to read volumes 2 and 3.

And as an avowed disliker of long novels, I was surprised that I'd read several of the 1000+ whoppers on that list, albeit typically ones, like Blinding, published in instalments (Neopolitan tetralogy; In Search of Lost Time, Knausgård, Man Without Qualities, Anniversaries etc)

I appreciate your sober thoughts on long novels. There's definitely a tendency sometimes to equate length and overwhelmingness with greatness.

It is that tendency which is indeed my particular bugbear. As Michelangelo almost said:

"The novella is already complete within the tome, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1191...


Probably best I don't derail this thread though!

Paul wrote: "Well it was the unlikeable male narrator thing - I usually look snootily the sort of review that reads "but none of the characters were likeable" but that's what I felt here. Tommi loved it (5 star..."

Sorry to hear you didn’t like Trust, but I’m not sure if you’re an outlier! I read it at a time when almost every contemporary novel I started happened to hit a wrong note for me, and somehow Trust was different. Some of the content is already getting blurry, but then some of its psychological depth plus the economical writing style do still stay with me.

Looking into placing an order for some new titles soon and Violeta might end up in the basket...

I was very moved by Sara Stridsberg’s The Antarctica of Love (read in a non-English translation). I could see somebody argue it’s too much misery porn, and I’m growing tired of the trend in recent lit fic to dwell in shocking content too, but I think the novel makes a justifiable and strong case against the way femicide is often portrayed by media. But it’s also more than sociology: there are beautiful sentences and beautiful ideas, even if at times quite krasznahorkaian in their negativity. It’s a five-star read for me even if the details will get blurry soon – that’s the problem with short novels. (I’m counting this as a short novel because of the amount of white space – I read it within the span of 24 hours and there’s a night’s sleep and a 9-hour working day included.)

Yes I was impressed by that one. Wasn't quite in the league of The Faculty of Dreams from the same author (and in English same translator) but impressive nevertheless.

Your comment on it being short is interesting as my one criticism in my review was "the novel’s effect if anything was diffused by repetition and the wide scope - for me this would have been more powerful as a more concentrated 100-150 page text." But then I think that of most books!

My favourite (if that's the right word) passage speaks to the point you make about the way femicide tends to be portrayed, even hijacked, without regard to the victim:

Someday I too will be indifferent to what happens on earth, like everyone else. But that takes time, and there are so many voices not yet hushed. A distant hubbub from professors and criminologists and private investigators and journalists. They say you die three times. The first time for me was when my heart stopped beating beneath his hands by the lake, and the second was when what was left of me was lowered into the ground in front of Ivan and Raksha at Solna Church. The third time will be the last time my name is spoken on earth. And so I am waiting for it to happen. I wish all the voices would hush soon. I don’t like hearing my name. It crawls like insects in the place where my heart once was.

I often get restless c. 300 pages into a novel and this one ended right there, but theoretically I could have taken a few hundred pages more because of all the white space at least in my edition. I tend to joke about the blank space: 300 pages in an average new novel is basically what 100 pages meant, say, a hundred years ago... :-)

The beautiful quotes. I would've underlined quite a few had it not been a library copy.

Paul wrote: "Just read Violeta Among the Stars which feels a good contender."

Definitely, and it's technically impressive. More thoughts in my review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/4043754...

Violeta Among the Stars sounds promising.

Well, I am already rooting for Jonas Eika‘s ‚After the Sun‘. A stunning story collection which has won the most important Nordish lit prize where Jonas delivered a strong speech! Out in August by Lolli Editions.

Cristiano wrote: "Well, I am already rooting for Jonas Eika‘s ‚After the Sun‘. A stunning story collection which has won the most important Nordish lit prize where Jonas delivered a strong speech! Out in August by Lolli Editions"

Great to hear - it did look good from the catalogue. Consider me sold - I have now pre-ordered it on your recommendation

Also added the Lolli Editions version here (in the US it is out from Riverhead)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Comes with blurbs from Marlon James, Claire-Louise Bennett and Annie Proulx, which is impressive (albeit first two at least seem quite generous blurbers - have seen them on a number of books)

Yes I have been caught out by some Claire LB blurbs recently which cover up books true nature to make them sound a lot more experimental than they are - I think it’s a bit like whitewashing

I call it Pond Dipping.

2022 Judges announced:

https://thebookerprizes.com/internati...

Thanks, Robert. Looks good to me. I’ve never understood TV and media personalities joining book prize judging panels (seems to happen a lot in Finland) but maybe it makes book prizes a tad less intimidating for the general audience. A wonderful chair this year, considering Wynne’s excellent translations.

Wynne should be a great chair - he's very much a champion of translation including setting up a prize with his own prize winnings from the IMPAC/Dublin Literary Award.

I've also quoted him elsewhere on how one judges a translation prize.

Excited for Frank Wynne and Jeremy Tiang. They are both well-respected figures in the translated fiction world and I trust their tastes. Less enthusiastic about Merve Emre, I know she tends to focus mostly on English language fiction and I've found her articles on Ferrante to be rather uninspired.

I guess Wynne being on the panel will disqualify a few books which he translated e.g. All Human Wisdom

Thanks Tommi 🙂. I know Mel has presented Great British Bake Off but she also has her Hungarian roots, which she is proud of so I’m expecting a novel about immigration

As for frank wynne - I think it is an excellent choice - I’m expecting some controversial or transgressive titles in next year’s booker dozen