National Book Awards list for translation has global reach

Authors from Asia, Africa and South America are among those on the National Book Awards long list for translated literature, a category started last year.

The 10 fiction and nonfiction works announced Tuesday include the celebrated Polish author Olga Tokarczuk's novel "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead," translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Among others cited are Brazilian journalist Eliane Brum's nonfiction "The Collector of Leftover Souls," translated from Portuguese by Diane Grosklaus Whitty, and Yoko Ogawa's dystopian novel "The Memory Police," translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder. "Space Invaders," by Chilean author-actress Nona Fernandez, was translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer, and Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga's "The Barefoot Woman" was translated from French by Jordan Stump.

Others on the longlist are Pajtim Statovci's "Crossing" (translated from Finnish by David Hackston), Vigdis Hjorth's "Will and Testament" (translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund), Khaled Khalifa's "Death is Hard Work" (translated from Arabic by Leri Price), Laszlo Krasznahorkai's "Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming" (translated from Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet) and Naja Marie Aidt's memoir about the death of her son, "When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book" (translated from Danish by Denise Newman).

Longlists for poetry, nonfiction and fiction will be announced over the next three days. The lists will be narrowed to five finalists on Oct. 8. Winners will be announced Nov. 20.

The awards are presented by the National Book Foundation.

Associated Press