The Independent’s ‘Foreign Fiction’ Longlist Features Four Arab Writers
The Best Translated Book Award (BTBA) from Open Letter Books was just awarded to The Confessions of Noa Weber (fiction) and The Russian Version (poetry), and now comes The Independent’s longlist of “best foreign fiction.”
Three Arabic titles are on the list this year: Sunset Oasis by Bahaa Taher (trans. Humphrey Davies), The Madman of Freedom Square by Hassan Blasim (trans. Jonathan Wright), and Yalo by Elias Khoury (also trans. Humphrey Davies). Also, Syrian novelist Rafik Schami’s The Dark Side of Love, (trans. Anthea Bell), which was written in German, also made the longlist.
I have reviewed Sunset Oasis and The Dark Side of Love; I have unfortunately not yet read The Madman of Freedom Square, but you can find it reviewed by M. A. Orthofer over at The Complete Review and at The Independent, and, I’m sure, elsewhere.
But despite not having read Madman or a number of other titles on the list, I have an unreasoning desire for the gorgeous, terrifying Yalo to win.
According to Boyd Tonkin over at The Independent, “The judges will meet again in mid-April to scrap over the cull that will have to shrink this formidable field into a shortlist of six.” Tonkin also writes today about the literary landscape in (part of the) Arabic-writing world.
Thanks to Jonathan for the tip about the longlist.
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Shortlists /Dark Side of Love/, not /Yalo/ « Arabic Literature (in English)
April 16, 2010 @ 5:54 am
[…] can’t comment on the whole list, as I was only really familiar with the Arab lit on the longlist (Madman of Freedom Square (Hassan Blasim), Sunset Oasis (Bahaa Taher), Yalo (Elias Khoury), […]
Publishers: It’s Time To Submit to the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize « Arabic Literature (in English)
July 30, 2010 @ 2:16 pm
[…] Last year’s longlist saw a number of works translated from the Arabic: Bahaa Taher’s Sunset Oasis (which also won the inaugural Arabic Booker), Elias Khoury’s Yalo, and Hassan Blasim’s The Madman of Freedom Square. To my disappointment, the shortlist elevated Syrian author Rafik Schami’s The Dark Side of Love, written in German, but not the brilliant Yalo. […]