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Michael Orthofer runs the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ a book review site with a focus on international fiction ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ and its weblog.

Final selections

The deadlines approach ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ well, that one first, big deadline: with the Best Translated Book Award longlist due to be announced March 11 we judges have to decide what makes the 25-book cut. Twenty-five titles seems like a lot, but the procedure is that each of us submits our top-ten list (on March 1), from which the top sixteen vote-getters make the longlist, and then each judge gets to add one personal choice to round off the list, for a total of twenty-five titles. So each of us only gets to select ten+one titles. (, only six of my top-ten choices for the longlist made it (with a seventh then slipping on as the plus-one).)

Since my top-ten/must-have list currently stands at roughly fourteen titles (fluctuating daily, as two or three titles different fall in and out of favor, depending on my mood ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¦) this is proving a more arduous exercise than I had hoped. Twenty-five slots would be easy (well, easier ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¦ maybe) to fill), but ten feels really, really tight.

There are half a dozen or so titles that I simply canÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t not put in my top-ten (which, in cruel-tease-form I wonÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t name here ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ though IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m probably sufficiently on the record regarding my feelings about them elsewhere …) ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ because I think they are really the most deserving (and, in some cases, because I worry that they might otherwise be overlooked) ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ but after that it gets complicated. There are a couple of titles that so many judges already seem to feel enthusiastic about that IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m not sure I need to put my full weight behind them yet ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ books by recent BTBA winners like WiesÅ‚aw MyÅ›liwski’s or Krasznahorkai’s , for example, or Karl Ove KnausgaardÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s , among others. But itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s hard to leave off any title that I truly want in the running: one favorite not making the initial cut is okay, since we each get to add that one personal selection, but likely there will be several that donÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t get enough votes, making for quite a quandary with that lone personal selectionÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¦..

There are a lot of titles at the upper margins, the ones that I think I could make a case for ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ clear top-25 titles, to me, but maybe not top-ten (though some days IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m convinced title X is, other days title Y …).

There are the big novels my name-authors: Javier Marías’ (translated by Margaret Jull Costa), Antonio Muñoz Molina’s (translated by Edith Grossman, The Economist just recently that: “Its author, one of SpainÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s leading writers, has been unjustly ignored in the English-speaking world. With this book, he should get the acclaim he deserves” (though Entertainment Weekly (yes, well …) the novel moves at: “the pace of a narcotized elephant” …)), Christa Wolf’s .

There are the works by authors who have been getting great reviews and quickly gaining large followings, like Robert Walser () and Elena Ferrante .

There are translations that have already won translation prizes: by Gerbrand Bakker, which won (under a different title) the British counterpart to the BTBA, the and Dimitri Verhulst’s -winning . And I was already on a translation-prize-jury that found Elfriede JelinekÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s to be a worthy winner ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ the ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ so how can I not longlist it this time around? (Sure, the competition might be tougher here ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ certainly there are a lot more titles in the running ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ but this remarkable piece of work (and the excellent translation) continues to stand out ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ helped also by the fact that itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s different from almost everything else weÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™re looking at.)

There are the smaller works that linger nicely (and often donÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t seem to have gotten enough attention). Sure, Amélie NothombÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s is kind of simple much of the way ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ but in its conclusion totally won me over. Jang Eun-jinÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ among the least-Dalkeyesque of the (many) Dalkey Archive Press titles to consider ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ has been among this yearÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s most pleasant reading surprises. The same goes for Uday PrakashÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s , a rare (okay, the only ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½¦) translation from the Hindi we get to consider. And while Yoko OgawaÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s is the rare smaller (paperback original, too) title in translation to get pretty widespread coverage I still think itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s widely misread as a story-collection: I find it comes together beautifully and very effectively as a unified novel-whole. And then thereÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s a book like Jan Jacob Slauerhoff’s , which held me rapt and whose strangeness still haunts me.

Finally, thereÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s than annual search for a worthy ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½˜genreÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ title ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ a top-notch thriller, solid sci-fi, or the like. There were certainly mysteries and thrillers galore to consider this year (like every year), but it was not a great year ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ with the highly touted ones feeling particularly derivative. I suppose OgawaÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s Revenge might be considered genre, of sorts (horror). Otherwise, thereÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s only one of these titles in my mix: Ofir Touché GaflaÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s (and not just because of the authorÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s awesome/ridiculous name ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ ³Ù´Ç³Ü³¦³óé!), which certainly hasnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t gotten the (ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½˜mainstreamÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™) attention it deserves.

Of course, time is not yet up, the decision doesnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t have to be made yet. I still have a few weeks days of reading ahead of me, a few more books to discover and consider. Part of me hopes to find another gem ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ but part of me also worries: what then? which book gets knocked off the already too-long list?