Final Long-list for Best Translations of 2007

It’s been a very interesting experience putting together this list of the “Best Translations of 2007.” The number and enthusiasm of the responses and suggestions has been overwhelming, and I’m really proud that we were able to put together such an interesting and diverse list. (See my analysis for a bit more info on how this all breaks down.) Thanks again to everyone who e-mailed me, posted comments, or helped spread the word about this project.

This list of 50 books below includes works of fiction, collections of poetry, and even a few books of essays. Next year we might break these all out, but for now, I thought it would be worthwhile to keep everything together in one long list. And on Friday (or Monday at the latest), we’ll post the top 10 titles of the year. (Or the top 10 fiction works, and top 3 collections of poetry. We want to make sure poetry gets its due, and it may be that the best way is to highlight it separately rather than include one title in the top 10 list.)

Anyway, here it is:

• How I Became a Nun by Cesar Aira, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

• Vibrator by Mari Akasaka, translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich (Soft Skull)

• Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, translated from the Arabic by Anthony Calderbank (Penguin)

• The Theory of Clouds by Stephane Audeguy, translated from the French by Timothy Bent (Harcourt)

• Field-Russia by Gennady Aygi, translated from the Russian by Peter France (New Directions)

• A Voice from Elsewhere by Maurice Blanchot, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (SUNY)

• The Drug of Art: Selected Poems by Ivan Blatny, translated from the Czech by Justin Quinn, Matthew Sweney, Alex Zucker, Veronika Tuckerova, and Anna Moschovakis (Ugly Duckling)

• Amulet by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews (New Directions)

• The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (FSG)

• Christ versus Arizona by Camilo Jose Cela, translated from the Spanish by Martin Sokolinsky (Dalkey Archive)

• Mountains Painted with Turmeric by Lil Bahadur Chettri, translated from the Nepali by Michael J. Hutt (Columbia)

• The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 edited and translated from the Hebrew by Peter Cole (Princeton)

• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortazar, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (Archipelago)

• Guantanamo by Dorothea Dieckmann, translated from the German by Tim Mohr (Soft Skull)

• Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Kamran Rastegar (Melville House)

• The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Melville House)

• Ravel by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)

• The City in Crimson Cloak by Asli Erdogan, translated from the Turkish by Amy Spangler (Soft Skull)

• The Book of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)

• Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon, translated from the French by Luc Sante (NYRB)

• The Collected Poems: 1956-1998 by Zbigniew Herbert, translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz, Peter Dale Scott, and Alissa Valles (Ecco)

• The Exception by Christian Jungersen, translated from the Danish by Anna Paterson (Nan A. Talese)

• Rivalry: A Geisha’s Tale by Nagai Kafu, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder (Columbia)

• Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms, translated from the Russian by Matvei Yankelevich (Overlook)

• Sunflower by Gyula Krudy, translated from the Hungarian by John Batki (NYRB)

• The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts by Milan Kundera, translated from the French by Linda Asher (HarperCollins)

• Dark Paradise by Rosa Liksom, translated from the Finnish by David McDuff (Dalkey Archive)

• The Dedalus Book of Russian Decadence: Perversity, Despair and Collapse edited by Kirsten Lodge, translated from the Russian by Grigory Dashevsky and Margo Shohl Rosen (Dedalus)

• African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou, translated from the French by Christine Schwartz Hartley (Soft Skull)

• The Flying Camel and the Golden Hump by Aharon Megged, translated from the Hebrew by Vivian Eden (Toby Press)

• Shame in the Blood by Tetsuo Miura, translated from the Japanese by Andrew Driver (Shoemaker & Hoard)

• In Her Absence by Antonio Munoz Molina, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen (Other Press)

• Day In Day Out by Terezia Mora, translated from the German by Michael Henry Heim (HarperCollins)

• Listening by Jean-Luc Nancy, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Fordham)

• Lost Paradise by Cees Nooteboom, translated from the Dutch by Susan Massotty (Grove)

• The Unforeseen by Christian Oster, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter (Other Press)

• Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Born (Graywolf Press)

• I Am a Beautiful Monster: Poetry, Prose, and Provocation by Francis Picabia, translated from the French by Marc Lowenthal (MIT)

• The Worst Intentions by Alessandro Piperno, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Europa)

• Spring Tides by Jacques Poulin, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman (Archipelago)

• Delirium by Laura Restrepo, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Nan A. Talese)

• The Night by Jaime Saenz, translated from the Spanish by Forrest Gander and Kent Johnson (Princeton)

• The Lodging House by Khairy Shalaby, translated from the Arabic by Farouk Abdel Wahab (American University in Cairo)

• Ice by Vladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell (NYRB)

• Vain Art of the Fugue by Dumitru Tsepeneag, translated from the Romanian by Patrick Camiller (Dalkey Archive)

• The Complete Poetry: A Bilingual Edition by Cesar Vallejo, translated from the Spanish by Clayton Eshleman (California)

• Omega Minor by Paul Verhaeghen, translated from the Flemish by the author (Dalkey Archive)

• Montano’s Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Dunne (New Directions)

• The Assistant by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New Directions)

• I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young-ha Kim, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Harcourt)