January Translations: Literary Nonfiction

In the ongoing list of translations coming out in 2008, I have to admit that this category is a bit fuzzy. Not that I came across any, but I wasn’t planning on including translations of technical manuals, cookbooks, etc. By “literary nonfiction,” I’m referring to books for a general trade audience ($60 hardcover translations of obscure philosophical works wouldn’t be included—yet again, I have yet to come across any) that have some potential literary merit.

I couldn’t find much, but here are two titles coming out this month, both of which are worth checking out:

• One Soldier’s War, Arkady Babchenko, translated from the Russian by Nick Allen (Grove, $25.00, 9780802118608)

This is a title we’re very interested in reviewing, and one that E.J. was pursuing when he was at Ecco. The Grove site does a great job describing this: “One Soldier’s War is a visceral and unflinching memoir of a young Russian soldier’s experience in the Chechen wars that brilliantly captures the fear, drudgery, chaos, and brutality of modern combat. An excerpt of the book was hailed by Tibor Fisher in the Guardian as “right up there with Catch-22 and Michael Herr’s Dispatches,” and the book won Russia’s inaugural Debut Prize, which recognizes authors who write “despite, not because of, their life circumstances.”

• Queer Lives: Men’s Autobiographies from Nineteeth-Century France, translated from the French and edited by William A. Peniston and Nancy Erber (Univ. of Nebraska, $27.95, 9780803260368)

This book is a collection of eight autobiographies written by gay men in France between 1845 to 1905 in a variety of styles, about a variety of experiences. From the UNP website: “A few of them dramatized their lives following contemporary theatrical and fictional models, while others wrote for medical doctors, who used the men’s writings as case studies to illustrate their theories on sexual deviance. In some instances the doctors’ extensive interpretations cannot be separated from the men’s own stories, but in others the authors speak for themselves.” UNP also has an excerpt available for download on their website.