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This entry in the Why This Book Should Win series is from George Carroll, former and future BTBA judge, soccer fanatic, world literature correspondent for Shelf Awareness, and curator of .

by Pola Oloixarac, translated from the Spanish by Roy Kesey (Argentina, Soho Press)

I would seriously love to write a piece on why Pola OloixaracÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s Savage Theories (translated from the Spanish by Roy Kesey) should win the 2018 Best Translated Book Award, but itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s a Jurgen Klopp / Mo Salah problem.

Should Klopp have played Salah in LiverpoolÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s second leg of the Championship League semi-final against Roma even though his side was up 5 -2 from the first leg? Do you start your best player when heÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s obviously running out of gas and you need him for a critical Premier League match? And is it fair to have Salah (the best player in England, well, maybe Le Bruyne), burn his minutes in a playoff thatÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s almost a done deal and hamper his chance at the Golden Boot?

This aligns with my participation in the 2019 Best Translated Book Award. I donÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t write a lot and when I do, itÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s really mind-numbing. I have no aspirations to be a writer, mostly because I have nothing to say. So, even though IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m a big fan of Savage Theories, I donÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t want to contribute to the 2018 discussion when IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m going to be on the 2019 jury and IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m going to have to write regular posts and a why-this-book-should-win thing for next year. I should sit on the bench and champion the @BTBA2018 team on.

All IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m going say is that I drop Savage Theories into the same basket as Laurent BinetÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½˜s The Seventh Function of Language (which didnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t even make the 2018 BTBA longlist, seriously, WTF?). Both books made me suspect that I was mistakenly advanced a grade. Or when I got an A in high school physics when it should have been obvious that I had 1) not cracked the textbook, ever, and 2) submitted the same answers on tests as Greg Herlick, who sat right in front of me.

Honestly, IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™ve never heard of Palito Ortega or Roger Trinquier or Alfred Adler or Basilides of Alexandria or Philip II of Macedon. Maybe I have, but like beer, I donÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t own it, I just rent it. But that doesnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t really matter because OloixaracÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s references are like speed bumps ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“ if you go over them fast enough, they donÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t really hurt that much. I admit to doing the Google / Wikipedia thing a few times, maybe more than a few, just to make sure she wasnÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™t messing with me.

Savage Theories should win this yearÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s award because it works. Just when you think a shot is going off-frame (another soccer reference) thereÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s a bend and it hits the back of the net. Like Binet (yeah, IÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™m going back there again) Oloixarac is insanely, truly insanely, talented and the book gives the oft-justified criticism of literature in translation as dark, depressing and too-serious-for-its-own-good a nice, sharp poke in the something.