Salonica World Lit: Quick Hits for Sept. 23: Nobel Guessing, the Murals of Lyon, Wonder of the Dutch

Quick Hits for Sept. 23: Nobel Guessing, the Murals of Lyon, Wonder of the Dutch

Quick Hits for Sept: 23

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Calling All Literary Fortune Tellers: Over at the ever-inventive Words Without Borders , Susan Harris has begun the discussion about who might be a candidate and eventually win this year's Nobel Prize in Literature . The suggestions range from Johnathan Franzen to Philip Roth to Elias Khoury. Don't get me started on Franzen...but if he is even included in the ring then his media team should also get a nod. Anyway, the online discussion is a good one and really brings to light the writers who we consider to be necessary for a literary foundation on a global level. I hope this exercise will get even livelier - Galeano, anyone? Why not throw one of your faves out there that you think deserves it?

If These Walls Could Talk: Just want to point out a great article over at France Today about the murals of Lyon. I recently saw some enchanting ones in Marseilles and I can only imagine how stunning these are in person. The one above looks like it came straight out of the new steam-punk novel I just received, Aurorarama, by Jean-Christophe Valtat. Sublime.

Ever Wonder?: Yes, Wonder is the book that just keeps on giving. Not only is it an engaging read and shortlisted for the Best Translated Book of 2010, but now the translator, Michael Heim, has won the prestigious 2010 PEN Translation Prize. I find this impressive because anyone who can translate Dutch is already pretty amazing, but to capture the nuance of this work by Claus was a challenging task. Here's what the judges had to say:

Michael Henry Heim's outstanding translation has succeeded masterfully in mirroring Hugo Claus's many voicesin this novel that reflects a complex, complicated vision of post-WorldWar II Flanders. It is a world that Claus describes in language that isoften deeply poetic, and that alternates between simplicity and hyperbole, clarity and obfuscation, fantasy and reality. Tocapture all of this in English requires an intensely focused mind aswell as an acutely sensitive ear. Michael Henry Heim proves to haveboth.(Their bold emphasis)

And here he is talking about the work itself: