literature in translation

This week we discuss Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants, an absolutely wonderful gem of a novel from French author Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell. In 150ish pages Énard recreates the Constantinople of the early 16th Century and the brief time Michelangelo resided there to build a grand bridge. If you’ve not read Énard before this is an absolutely fantastic jumping on point.

(We have done A LOT of New Directions this season (with more to come), which isn’t a bad thing but, yes, we’ve noticed and we are trying to be mindful of representing other presses doing the good work of translation.)

Towards the end of the episode Lori mentions a lecture Énard delivered at Barnard College. You can find that here.

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Music: “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” by Traffic

Logo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

F'din l-edizzjoni speċjali ta' Antenni Suspettużi se niltaqgħu mal-mistiedna tagħna f'Żagreb, il-Kroazja, li qed jattendu għall-Festival tal-Letteraturi Żgħar li din is-sena huwa ddedikat lil-letteratura Maltija. Adrian Grima, Leanne Ellul u Nadia Mifsud jiddiskutu x'inhu li jagħmel il-letteratura kontemporanja Maltija, ix-xogħlijiet li qed jiġu tradotti u esportati barra minn xtutna, u l-impatt li dan qed ikollu qabelxejn fuq l-awturi Maltin infushom.

Aqra iżjed dwar il-festival: https://adriangrima.org/2023/10/08/a-partial-introduction-to-contemporary-maltese-poetry/

Antenni Suspettużi huwa l-podcast ta' PEN Malta mal-awturi ta' żmienna. Joħroġ nhar ta' Tlieta.

Jippreżenta: Karl Schembri

Riċerka: Clare Azzopardi

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Special edition - Maltese literature that has made its way overseas

In this special edition of Antenni Suspettużi we'll meet our guests in Zagreb, Croatia, where they are part of the Festival of Small Literatures, which this year focuses on Maltese literature. Adrian Grima, Leanne Ellul and Nadia Mifsud discuss what makes contemporary Maltese literature, the works that are being translated and exported out of Malta, and the impact all this is having on Maltese authors themselves, above all.

Read more about the festival here: https://adriangrima.org/2023/10/08/a-partial-introduction-to-contemporary-maltese-poetry/

Antenni Suspettużi is PEN Malta's weekly podcast with contemporary authors. Out every Tuesday.

Host: Karl Schembri

Researcher: Clare Azzopardi

Twitter: @MaltaPEN

Facebook: PENMalta

Instagram: @pen_malta

Wesbite: https://pen.org.mt/

Email: PENMalta@gmail.com

Having sorted some annoying technical issues, herewith Episode 3 of Season 2 (our way of apologizing for the delay in uploading this episode) in which we discuss The Conqueror by Jan Kjærstad, translated by Barbara Haveland and published by Open Letter Books.

And to kick off our series of guest hosts, Chad Post of Open Letter Books (and Dalkey Archive Press (and the Two Month Review)) joins to chat about The Conqueror, publishing writ large, publishing works in translation, and, well, to maybe have a go at a few different…peoples? (In fairness to Chad, Tom very much started it.) It’s a fun conversation and a really amazing book.

Titles discussed/mentioned:

Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf

kind of all of Knausgaard

also kind of a lot of Dag Solstad

Your Face Tomorrow (you really ought to know who wrote and translated this one)

Njál’s Saga

Egil’s Saga

Dickens, but specifically David Copperfield

W. Somerset Maugham, but specifically Of Human Bondage

Tirza by Arnon Grunberg, translated by Sam Garrett (and the forthcoming Good Men by Arnon Grunberg, translated by Sam Garrett (out 5/23/23 and click here to order from Open Letter)

The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet, translated by Sam Taylor

all of Jean Echenoz: really, all of it

Click here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @lostinredonda across most apps (Twitter and Instagram for now; we’re coming for you eventually #booktok).

Music: “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” by Traffic

Logo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

And we’re back! Welcome to Season Two of Lost in Redonda. We kick things off with a backlist conversation on Chronicle of the Murdered House by Lucio Cardoso, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, published by Open Letter Books. It’s probably one of the fastest moving 600 page sagas of a Brazilian family you’re likely to encounter. And it’s funny. And gothic. And very campy.

Our big project this season is a complete reading of the novels of Muriel Spark. That kicks off next week with her debut, The Comforters, available from New Directions, and, folks!, it’s absolutely incredible. We’ve already recorded a couple of the Spark episodes and are we ever excited. (Her last name of course being the inspiration for this season’s music.)

We’re trying to keep some spoilers out of our conversations this season (or at least flag them when they happen), so: around the 61 minute mark we start chatting about one of the more profound moments at the end of the novel. If you haven’t yet read Chronicle and would rather not hear this bit, skip ahead to 1:06.25 or so where we chat about other works that, to us anyway, resonate with this one.

Click here for Lori’s (great!) article on Chronicle in Full Stop.

Titles discussed:

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

The House of Mist by María Luisa Bombal

Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann

Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner

And click here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @lostinredonda across most apps (Twitter and Instagram for now; we’re coming for you eventually #booktok).

Music: “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” by Traffic

Logo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

It's very strange to be this close to the end of our Marías focus, but that's rather how time moves, ever forward (unless you're Marías and can make time a rather fungible thing in your novels...). This is a fun episode, touching on East End gangsters, Spandau Ballet, the Spanish Civil War, swordplay, and more. And a couple of characters from the previous volume make appearances, though we rather welcome one over the other.

One more episode of Marías, a brief break, and then a new project. Thank you as always for listening.

Click here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @lostinredonda across most apps (Twitter and Instagram for now; we’re coming for you eventually #booktok).

Music: “Estos Dias” by Enrique Urquijo

Logo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

And now we enter the homestretch. Over the next few episodes we'll tackle Marías' masterpiece, Your Face Tomorrow. Starting, of course, with the first volume, Fever and Spear.

Once we wrap up the Marías project we're going to take a week or so off and then we'll be back with more backlist dives and a new author whose work we'll spend some time digging into.

As always, thank you for listening.

Click here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @lostinredonda across most apps (Twitter and Instagram for now; we’re coming for you eventually #booktok).

Music: “Estos Dias” by Enrique Urquijo

Logo design: Flynn Kidz Designs

Lori and Tom discuss Marías' final novel, Tomás Nevinson, just published in the US on May 23rd. A warning that spoilers do occur, especially after the 37 minute mark, so listener beware.

Next episode we will return to discussing backlist in addition to our Marías deep-dives.

Click here to subscribe to our Substack and do follow us on the socials, @lostinredonda across most apps (Twitter and Instagram for now; we’re coming for you eventually #booktok).

Music: “Estos Dias” by Enrique Urquijo

Logo design: Flynn Kidz Designs