When does a book in translation become a classic book ? Well a number of ways win the nobel prize for one , like Laszlo Krasznahorkai with satantango catch the eye of a star critic James woods in his case and finally word of mouth now I would say Haruki Murakami is a perfect example of this in action .Now I’ll give you my tip and it is Andrej Nikoladis here are reviews and piece on the blog I have met Andrej and rather like Andres Neuman he is someone you know is going to be the next great writer in translation .Istros books is due to publish his third book a book which has Sebald as an influence on it I can’t wait .
Category: thoughts
#bookaday 11 a second hand bookshop gem
This is a second hand gem I found not at a bookshop but a weekly flea market in chesterfield a chap bring some books usually they are either obscure farming ,strange biographies or such like but I always rummage through and last summer this gem turned up. First edition of Mani by Patrick Leigh Fermor ,ok it isn’t a time of gifts but to me it’s a gem I’ve taken inside as cover is cloth and plain and these title pages are just stunning I think .I ve many other gems Du Maurier first editions a couple out of print books .A nice Viking us edition of finnegans wake is latest find ,what about you ,what are your gems ?
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Ethos of winstonsdad
When I started winstonsdad a little under five years ago it was a journey for me of discovery .I had read a lot translation over the years but had maybe not travelled enough in my reading or been faring enough ,so I set forth on the first few years trying to challenge myself and have read loads of books from lots of countries but this last while I’ve struggled with ways to give back to the community of translation but I often feel outsider still , then I’ve discovered what is he pint of this ok my job is to get new folks discovering what’s point in preaching to folks that already know the secret of fiction in translation and the secret is there is no secret really don’t let them tell you there is now it’s the same as everything there is books out there in translation for every one so if it’s a name or a feeling of being alien I. The world you are reading don’t feel that it’s not like that . My ethos is too gently push folks in the direction of translation I have said this before in an earlier post .I’m always full of ideas and will be trying to put some of them into place another reading week later in year for Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one for sure I want to do get people to see more than the two most famous books but even if it is just reading them it small steps .2015 is a way away but I really want to push a year of translation and know folks are very keen on this and will be starting work behind the scenes up too 2015 .Another big project is reorganising all my reviews into categories so stories about war ,families , villages , towns , love ,struggle , issues and alternate worlds (ie magic realism, oulipo ,surrealism or books that just don’t fit a niche so easy ) .I want my blog twitter feed be a friendly helpful place for the reader wanting to challenge or discover the world of translation .A place of discovery where I transfer the seed of my passion to all to grow their own passion .anyone with suggestions idea , willing to help contribute is welcome as I am wanting the blog to grow from 2015 onwards to something bigger for all .
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The people in the photo by Hélène Gestern
The people in the photo by Hélène Gestern
French fiction
Original title –Â Eux sur la photo
Translation by Emily Boyce and Ros Schwartz
Source – review copy
Hélène Gestern is a French writer she is based in Nancy in France is a teacher and researcher at a laboratory studying linguistics  .She is also on the editorial committee of a literary review magazine dedicate to autobiographical writing .Her interest are photography and cats .This is her first book to be translated to English.
                               Ashford ,25 march 2007
Madame / Monsieur
I have only just read your advertisement ref 248 .22o in the Libération of 12 February
I believe I may have some information concerning the person you are inquiring about :I am convinced it is my father , who often used to spend his summers in Interlaken .I am enclosing the photocopy of his Geneva Tennis club membership card from the 1960’s ,which I have found among his papers .You will see his photograph on it
Could you tell me how you obtained his name and why you are seeking information about him
Yours faithfully
S.Crusten
The first letter to Hélène from Stéphane that starts their journey .
The people in the photo is an epistolary novel .The book starts when    HĂ©lène an archivist discovers a photo of her late  mother and two men the photo was taken in 1971 at a tennis tournament in Interlaken .Armed with this info she puts an advert in the French newspaper LibĂ©ration with the names on the back of the photo and is shocked when she gets a reply from StĂ©phane a swiss biologist that is based in Kent ,he believes it is his father is one of the two men with HĂ©lène’s late mother .This is the basis of the book the letters that follow try to find out what happened between the parents at the time ,try to get to the bottom of how HĂ©lène’s mother died .
                          Paris , 17 Febuary (email)
Dear Stéphane
As if you had to ask ! I will yes ,as molly bloom would say , come with you to Geneva .And we can stop off to see Jean on the way back : I’m dying to meet him .Did the nurse tell you exactly what happened ?
I’ll be waiting for you at the flat on Friday .You know the way ,but you’ll need th new magic number b220
A tender kiss
Hélène
AS you see they draw closer over the course of a year of writing to each other .
Now the book is an exploration of find out the secrets that can be kept from kids by their parents .The two main characters each in turn discover more about their parents than they wanted .The choosing of the epistolary form shows that even given the change from letters to e mails it still shows how the tension can be built from mail to mail as these two uncover the long-lost secrets of the past .Each some how finds out where they came from ,discover what problems can happen when there parents may have had a liaison in the past and what does this mean for the two of them now because although they have been drawn together by chance they actually start to like each other as the go on the journey of discovery .Photos play an important part in the book Hélène Gestern brings the pictures in this book to life in the prose as we see the family snaps of the two pass and the past come alive .This is one for loves of family secrets it is full of them ,loves of photos and if you are like me and see a picture and build your own narrative around it this is one for you ,how often have you found or seen a picture and wonder what happened then and what happened at the time ,also a book for the fan of the epistolary form .I will soon have a q&a with Hélène Gestern .
Have you a favourite epistolary novel ?
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A video treat Valeria Luiselli
I saw this on facebook the other day posted by Daniel Hahn it is an interview with the Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli in english about her book .I have reviewed two books by herÂ
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Its not reinventing the circle hiatus nonsense !
I am one that tends to think in haste and write a post then sit and wonder if I did the right thing so I spent 36 hours away from the net as a test .What I had see in the video I mention  had  upset me , the other day because I have been guilty of all the things seen ion it at some point .But I spent 36 offline over last two days and hated it .The reason I spent 36 years without tech like my laptop was because I just didn’t know what they could bring to my life  which was a world of booklovers and discovering new books .What rather than avoiding all internet ,social media what I needed  is a new way of thinking and that is to use it less at times and more at other times as we work shifts ,I have a lot of time in our house alone which I don’t use to the best ability , usually reading a bit ,but actually I  mainly watch tv mysteries and Sherlock Holmes films (I brought the complete Rathbone collection and I would watch them every day if I could I love them that much even thou I could quite easily quote every film from start to finish ) .So I need to make more use of this time which I haven’t it has become dead time in my life when it could have been used more usefully than I have .Thus freeing time to spend with my darling wife .So I won’t be disappearing I will be here and I will be using my time very different to before and making use of time I haven’t .I will be back to books later today .Also I have a Pushkin press fortnight to run and the Independent foreign fiction prize starts in February ,what a daft time to disappear my favourite event of the year .
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hiatus soon tech free
this video has set me thinking and I decide from 18th jan to 18th march my birthday I’m giving up all media I will move my pushkin fortnight back to then .I came late to tech for my first laptop six years ago my first smart phone five years ago and I do wonder if I am to tues to them and to the world they dive me into and only way to see this is too have a long break so from next Saturday I’ll be back in the world of my life for 36 years tech less ,no google ,no checking stats ,no twitter ,no e mails no let’s take pic of this ,no let’s imdb no it will just be good old books reference books and my self oh of course Amanda winston and my family .
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A man without qualities read along ?
After posting the confusion of young törless earlier this week it was mentioned in the comments strangely the radio three arts show has been running shows all week about the run up to World War One with it being hundred years this year , so have a listen to the show it’s about 45 mins long and teles you a but about the book I did read it twenty years ago but would love to read it again and this seems the perfect time to take on this modernist unfinished beast of a novel together .
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Blogging is fun
Well I said at start if the year blogging was going to be fun and it should be after another day of what I call what is wrong with blogosphere how about what is good we all love books especially the blogs that hang around post regularly and get involved in the community like everything in life the are gripes but that beside I’ve met lovely people been given access to place and books that are actually out of the grasp of my seven pound an hour job .I do accept review books but never go out hunting for them and lots of the books I review for them I get sent I have actually been the only person to review the book for them . I do positive review because that is me not to kiss arse to folks because anyone from my real life not the virtual world knows I never kiss people arses in fact just the opposite I tend to speak my mind for me the books I read are a joy and adventure a little world to escape my life and u read the books that give me that if I didn’t what would be the point in reading just because you think person x y and z will like you or to be in a group bugger that I say read for fun for yourself talk to who you want be who you want because in the end your blog is a reflection if you as a person and I feel my is yes I wear my heart on my sleeve from time to time but people say that in real life to me yes I may be over nice but that is me I do a job were it is the core thing is to be calm polite and help people make most of there life .So not sure why I’m writing this but let’s all just have more fun hey and get the books out there and make people want to read them as this is what I want the more ripple read translation the more that get translated !!!! And remember I love you all really 🙂
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Translation Laureate ?
Just a quick thought after listening to open book the radio four show about books .Where they had three children’s laureate on talking about the work they had done promoting children’s literature .This set me thinking why isn’t the a translation Laureate ? We talk about not knowing what to read or books getting under promoted now if everyone could get behind one person a well known writer or figure in the lit world and they could advocate the beauty and variety of fiction in translation and do this around the country get a grass roots surge of people really showing interest in literature in translation . What do you think ? Who could do this great task ?
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Stoner ,stoner how many translations could be discovered like stoner
Well unless you’ve been under a rock for last couple of years .you won’t have missed the rise and rise of Stoner a slow climber a writer book it is said ,I enjoyed it but maybe not as much as others the style had the soft spoken style you find in a number of European writers ,this as I start considering a review of stoner , set me thinking of how many stoners are out there either translated and out of print or not even translated ? For me the answer is more than we imagine every year sees a few gems that have been waiting for a publisher to take a dive to translate or a publisher to reissue people like pushkin press , Peirene ,NYRB , Dalkey archive and twisted spoon have in recent years all discover gems Walser ,Zweig , Fallada , Vanderbeke to name a few of many .I’ve been buying and looking at books towards my century of translation project and am amazed what has been translated and fallen out of print .So let’s hope the next stoner is a translation and sets about a wave of rediscovery of lost writers from around the world ?
have you a writer in translation you think should be highlighted ?
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What is your blogging routine ?
Hello all today I’m asking a question of you my fellow bloggers writers and that is what is your blogging routine ? I feel this last year I’ve lost a rhythm I once had and just can’t find it ,with 2014 looming large in the background it is the perfect time to push on and try and improve my posting and writing routine .My question is what time do you write , how many post do you do at a time I.E do you do all your post once a week then just comment through the week or daily .I didn’t go to college etc which may have help me work a way to build a routine as I want to move winstonsdad to the next level of being a constant blog that post regularly and keeps up with the amount of books I read which I have struggled with for the last two years .Any advice will be gratefully received many thanks for following my blog and may I note this is the 800th post on winstonsdad
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To score or not to score
Well it’s telling me on the WordPress post counter I’ve reached post 750 and I feel like a change in reviewing previously I’ve been quite against scoring books I’ve read partly because I feel that I tend to be over generous .But after 354 book reviews maybe I should my reviews tend to be basic and maybe I don’t give out enough of what I thought of the book ,I used do a pictorial score of a book giving more a feel of a book ,when I was a naive blogger it was fun but never gave my own view .So the question is should I ? I was nudge a bit by Sam of Sam still reading saying they had only given out one 10/10 score that had set me think and actually there maybe is ten books in the 354 I’ve read I’d actually give ten out of ten too . So if you’d like to see me score books let me know . Many thanks to those still here after 750 posts .
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Reading and families
Well I ve a nice selection for Simon of savidge reads Greene for gran idea I love Greene anyway since here Our man in Havana as a young teen on the radio .I ve read five books in the picture so have fun for sale or the power and the glory to choose from as a new read plus if I get chance I’ll reread another book . I was thinking as Simon posts about his gran remind me of my own family and what impact reading has had on me , my gran loved Agatha christie ,my dad is a huge reader he tends to be escapist reader Zane Grey Louis L’amour westerns and thrillers from Forsyth ,Higgins,Le Carre and Thomas ,litter my memories of growing up .Now Amanda sits with the occasional true life book and I read all the books from round the world she ask about books I’m reading but always says she prefers true life tales .So as today is our sixth wedding anniversary and also my brother in laws wedding .I remember how important families can be to use all
Happy anniversary amanda
