‘Highbrow escapism for the time-poor.’ METRO

New edition, for the third year running: featuring extracts, articles and interviews and introducing our 2015 book series 2

WHAT IS PEIRENE? Peirene Press is an award-winning boutique publishing house based in London.

We specialize in contemporary European novellas in high-quality translation. All our books are best-sellers and/or award-winners in their countries but have never been translated into English before.

Our books are beautifully designed paperback WHY editions, using only the best paper from sustainable British sources. We curate our books according to themes – each year Peirene publishes PEIRENE? Peirene takes its name from a Greek nymph who a new series of three books that belong together turned into a water spring. The poets of Corinth in terms of style and/or content. discovered the Peirene source and, for centuries, they drank its water to receive inspiration. The And because literature – both reading and writing– idea of metamorphosis suits the art of translation can be a lonely affair, Peirene hosts a wide range beautifully: what starts off as a foreign book of regular literary events, from informal reading turns into an enjoyable English read. groups to elegant literary salons.

WINNER OF THE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS GUILD NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2011 2ND PRIZE BRITISH BOOK DESIGN AND PRODUCTION AWARD 2011 & 2013

www.peirenepress.com Follow us on Twitter and Facebook @PeirenePress 3

DEAR READER, Three years ago we published our first Peirene newspaper. At that time it was not much more than a catalogue of books. Now it has evolved into an informative paper about foreign literature and the twin arts of ‘Two-hour books reading and writing. to be devoured Best-selling German author Birgit Vanderbeke allows us a glance into her creative process, comparing writing to cooking. Internationally renowned Polish author Hanna Krall talks about stories of the in a single Holocaust: ‘[They] are stories in which everything has been multiplied. Enormous evil and enormous good.’ Translator and writer Emily sitting: literary Jeremiah gives us an insight into the art of translation: ‘There are things one cannot render.’ And the Deputy Director of English PEN, Catherine Taylor, takes us on an eye-opening journey through world literature: cinema for ‘Imaginations are ignited in infancy by fairy tales drawn from diverse those fatigued cultures and languages.’ But there’s more. Interviews with Peirene subscriber Dirk Foch, the by film.’ MD of Renaissance Learning, and with four of our authors, the Finnish Asko Sahlberg, Danish Pia Juul, Uzbek Hamid Ismailov and Norwegian Hanne Ørstavik. Film-maker Carey Born talks about turning the Dutch TIMES LITERARY novella Tomorrow Pamplona (Peirene No. 5) into ‘a visually arresting, SUPPLEMENT psychologically compelling drama’ for the big screen here in the UK. And translator Jamie Bulloch compares translating full-length novels to rendering Peirene novellas into English: ‘They’re conspicuously shorter than other books I’ve translated, but also stylistically more complex.’

Moreover, no newspaper would be complete without juicy pictures. So we take you behind the scenes of Peirene. The photographer Loy Olsen has documented the trials and tribulations of running our pop-up stall and preparing our literary salons and supper clubs. And my alter ego, the Nymph, spills the beans in my weekly blog, The Pain and Passion of a Small Publisher. Some of her best moments are reprinted here.

I am a publisher because I want to share the books that have set my imagination on fire, provoked me to think and made me feel alive. I hope you enjoy our newspaper.

Best wishes, Meike Ziervogel publisher, peirene press NORTHERN FINLAND

THE BLUE ROOM

NORTHERN NORWAY THE LOOKING-GLASS SISTERS

THE MURDER OF HALLAND

THE MUSSEL FEAST

PEIRENE HQ, LONDON MR DARWIN’S GARDENER

CHASING THE KING OF HEARTS

NEXT WORLD NOVELLA

SEA OF INK READER FOR HIRE MAYBE THIS TIME

BESIDE THE SEA

TOMORROW PAMPLONA STONE IN A LANDSLIDE

PORTRAIT OF THE MOTHER AS A YOUNG WOMAN

THE FOUNTAIN OF PEIRENE, CORINTH

UNDER THE TRIPOLI SKY NORTHERN FINLAND WHITE HUNGER CONTENTS WHAT IS PEIRENE? 02 THE BROTHERS LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER 03 PEIRENE ON THE MAP 04 MY GRANDMOTHER’S CONSOMMÉ 06 INTERVIEW WITH HANNA KRALL 07 THE ART OF TRANSLATION 08 A JOURNEY THROUGH WORLD LITERATURE 10 100 TRANSLATED BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD READ 11

NEW PEIRENE BOOKS 12 SERIES NO. 6 WHITE HUNGER . READER FOR HIRE THE LOOKING-GLASS SISTERS

SERIES NO. 5 18 THE DEAD LAKE . THE BLUE ROOM UNDER THE TRIPOLI SKY

SERIES NO. 4 20 THE MUSSEL FEAST . MR DARWIN’S GARDENER CHASING THE KING OF HEARTS

SERIES NO. 3 22 EASTERN KAZAKHSTAN

THE DEAD LAKE THE BROTHERS . THE MURDER OF HALLAND SEA OF INK

SERIES NO. 2 24 NEXT WORLD NOVELLA . TOMORROW PAMPLONA MAYBE THIS TIME

SERIES NO. 1 26 BESIDE THE SEA . STONE IN A LANDSLIDE PORTRAIT OF THE MOTHER AS A YOUNG WOMAN

PEIRENE EVENTS 28 SALON . SUPPER CLUB BOOK CLUB

ROAMING STORE 30 MAYA CENTRE DONATIONS 31 SUBSCRIBE

With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union 6

BY BIRGIT VANDERBEKE, AUTHOR OF THE MUSSEL FEAST PEIRENE NO. 10. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JAMIE BULLOCH. ’

Writing is very similar to cooking, and I love to cook. surface as an ugly grey scum. It looked like mop water Not especially the huge Sunday roasts, although these of or duckweed, and every few minutes was carefully lifted course are spectacular affairs. ‘Oh, fantastic,’ everyone from the pot with a ladle and given to the cats. cries when the joint arrives at the table, but the meat is Then came the next most important ingredient: time. often tough and dry, and even if it’s not tough and dry, I My grandmother did her housework, attended to the usually find it a bit boring. Yes, these may well be the best chickens and rabbits, the garden, her grandchild, the cuts of meat, but there’s always too much of it on the plate, washing. From time to time, she’d lift the lid off her and somehow it’s overwhelming, off-putting and usually stockpot, from which a magical aroma would waft all boring. By the time I’ve eaten half of my roast I’ve often morning. She’d take the occasional taste, add a bit more had enough and give up. salt, and say, ‘Could do with a bit longer.’ Soups are different. Not the so-called home-made soups The cats never strayed far after licking up the duckweed you find in every café, and which, if you’re lucky, consist because they knew that this was only the starter. For of puréed vegetables, water and a little milk or cream. In around noon the soup was strained through a sieve into fact, most of these are not home-made at all, because they another pot, the meat put on a board, and whatever consist of industrial stock powder stirred into water and remained in the sieve – the vegetables and bones – went then heated up in the microwave (‘home-made’). I mean to the cats again. the real soups that need a very long time to be properly The liquid in the pot was now totally clear and cooked, simmering away on the stove for hours until transparent. It had usually turned a golden-yellow colour, they’ve become highly concentrated, dramatically reduced but unfortunately there was very little of it left. Maybe and wonderfully spicy. More than anything they are full it was a good thing that only a small amount remained. of secrets, because nobody can guess precisely how they’ve Maybe it was an elixir, and maybe this is what I like been made. The queen of all these soups is the consommé, so much about both writing and cooking. It’s not the which my grandmother used to cook every few days. spectacular piece of fillet, but the ordinary things that Practically nobody knows how to make it any more these create the charm. All you need to do is add the right days, because we’re all used to the industrial stock powder ingredients: sometimes a bit of lovage, a little parsley or of ‘home-made’ soups and we no longer pay attention to thyme, another time a piece of ginger – who knows, there the inverted commas. are thousands of possibilities, and each one tastes a little When I was a child, clear soups were served, different. Then heat carefully, just don’t allow it to boil appropriately, in small, fine porcelain cups. I hadn’t yet over or bubble and go cloudy. Heat it just sufficiently to started at kindergarten, so I generally spent the morning allow the duckweed to rise to the surface and then you with my grandmother in the kitchen, watching her as can skim it off. The cloudy stuff is for the cats. she placed a large pot of salted water on the stove, into When that is done, the key thing is to be very, very which she first put some cheap meat – nothing you could patient, because it takes a long time for the ordinary roast, at any rate – such as neck, breast, shoulder, or ingredients in the pot to turn into that secret, transparent often just the bones and other remains of a chicken. This liquid, which tastes different each time, but is always was followed by all sorts of ordinary-looking things she’d clear, concentrated, spicy and fortifying. In an ideal world collected earlier from the garden and cut into pieces or I’d have a small cup of essence every day: a small cup of dice: brownish bulbs, tubers, roots, stalks, leaves and Kafka, a small cup of Chekhov, a small cup of Cortázar, herbs. All of these ingredients were heated, but never, and so on. Because while my soup is cooking, I can do ever allowed to boil and bubble away, otherwise the what I like. I can attend to my chickens, rabbits, garden soup would go cloudy. It needed to simmer just below or grandchild; or read a story and feel a faint sadness boiling point, then the cloudiness would slowly rise to the that it’s over so soon. 7

How do you look for subjects and how did you find Izolda? Izolda called me in 1988 and asked me to write about her. She thought that I knew about love and about war. We talked in Vienna, in Israel and in Warsaw. We started in 1988 and talked for years. Izolda had an incredible memory and recalled every detail. When I was in Vienna I sat in the TASJA DORKOFIKIS INTERVIEWS café where she was arrested. Everything was in the same place as she described it. The mirror, the tables, and in the mirror one could see the door through which the Gestapo entered; and the way from the café to the Gestapo building was the same too. HANNA KRALL Izolda’s name is on the list of people transported to Auschwitz. I trust my characters, but I verify the truth AUTHOR OF CHASING THE KING if I can.

OF HEARTS PEIRENE NO. 12 Details are always very important in your books. The reader knows exactly what clothes Izolda is wearing. A meaningful TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH BY TASJA DORKOFIKIS pack of cards keeps reappearing. Could you tell us how you use these details and facts? How do you choose what you Hanna Krall was born in 1935 in Poland and focus on? survived the Second World War hiding in a cupboard. The world is woven from details. And a reporter needs to select those that have the power of a metaphor. An She began her writing career as a prize-winning armchair, from which a paralysed old woman got up journalist. Since the early 1980s she has worked after having seen her husband killed. Marek Edelman’s red jumper. as a novelist. Translated into seventeen languages, I allowed myself to shorten Izolda’s coat in the book. her work has gained widespread international She was stopped by the criminal police and it turned out that they took her for a whore not a Jewess. Izolda must recognition. Chasing the King of Hearts is her have been provocatively dressed, so she needed to have a first book available in the UK. short coat in order that the reader could see her long legs. So I shortened her coat. Apart from that everything in You are a reporter and you describe your work as reportage. this book is authentic. How do you see the role of a reporter? And how does it differ In my book there is also a scene in Auschwitz, when from the role of a writer? What is the essence of writing and Izolda and her friend, Janka Tempelhof, approached of looking at the world from the perspective of a reporter? Mengele and said that they were nurses and they would These two roles differ in their attitude to characters. A like to join the prisoner transport. He arranged a quick writer creates a character and, if he wants, he can know exam on the spot to find out whether this was the truth. everything about him, while a reporter has to find out and And Izolda told me that Mengele was a beautiful man, but knows only as much as his subject wants to tell him. He the only thing that disfigured him was a gap between his depends on his subject and, even if he finds things out, he teeth. I checked whether Mengele really had a diastema and is not always able to understand everything he is told. it turned out that his diastema really intrigued him and he wanted to find out whether it was a genetic characteristic. One reads Chasing the King of Hearts with bated breath That’s how his interest in genetics started. One could say and the story of the main character, Izolda Regensberg, is that this diastema led him to the ramp in Auschwitz. incredibly dramatic. To what extent is this book based on a real story? Izolda survives the war, by chance, but also thanks to her Chasing the King of Hearts is true, there is no fiction there. strong will and initiative. In your view, is Izolda’s story about Sometimes, I allowed myself a certain degree of freedom. chance or destiny? In the book, the heroine puts her bag on the table ‘like a Izolda believed in the power of destiny, in the sequence of Jewess’. I had to describe that bag – it was a yellow bag events which led somewhere. She decided that her husband made of pig skin and here I allowed myself to change this would survive. And thanks to that, she survived too. And bag to one belonging to my friend, the film director Izolda strongly believed that only her activities and the Izabella Cywi ´nska. Both bags were bought in the same power of her love kept him alive. She was brave, full of shop, both were authentic, it’s just that the one described initiative and ideas. Only she and her husband survived out in the book did not belong to Izolda. of their whole family. CONTINUED OVERLEAF… 8

Is Chasing the King of Hearts a book about love? This book is about a few things, for example about love, but also about the superiority of foolishness over reason. There are two characters: Izolda Regensberg and Janka Tempelhof. Janka Tempelhof was a model THE student, took only sensible decisions, was always reasonable. And out of these two women, only Izolda survived the war thanks to her foolishness. To Outwit God (first published as Shielding the Flame: ART OF Conversations with Marek Edelman) introduces the subject of the Holocaust in your work, which has since appeared regularly. Do you think that the history of the Holocaust can be expressed and described? Marcel Reich-Ranicki said about your books that there is no ‘mercy or sentimentalism, only a hard retelling of TRANS how it was’. In my opinion the Holocaust can be described but not understood. We are all helpless facing the enormity of the past. Stories of the Holocaust are stories in which everything has been multiplied. Enormous evil and enormous good. As in the story of Apolonia LATION Translation is a self-effacing art. If a translation is Machczy ´nska, who hid twenty-five Jews in the by successful, it does not draw attention to itself. Perhaps granary of her estate near Kock, even though she had it is even irritating to have the process brought to one’s three children and was pregnant with the fourth. The Emily attention. One is reminded that the novel or poem or play Jews were killed and Apolonia was shot by a German one is reading or hearing or viewing has been mediated policeman. Then she was awarded the title Righteous through someone else’s, the translator’s, consciousness. Among the Nations. Jeremiah Annoying, and also humbling. If only one could read Christopher Browning describes the story of a group French or German or Greek... of German civilians, who are too old to go to the front, Emily Jeremiah is a So why read translations? Obviously, they grant access in his book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 11 literary translator from to works one would never otherwise be able to read. That and the Final Solution in Poland. They create a battalion Finnish and, together French novel, German poem, or Greek play would remain and come to Eastern Poland near Lublin to kill Jews. with Fleur Jeremiah, is utterly inaccessible. What a loss. For who can read all the And there they learn to kill. What’s more, a group of the translator of Peirene world’s languages? No one. So we must accept the necessity artists from Berlin come to visit them, and then join Nos. 7, 11 and 16. of translation if we believe in the possibility of a shared them for a day to do some killing too. This satanic evil culture, in world literature. of the artists from Berlin and the enormous goodness We needn’t be grudging about the matter, either. Surely of Apolonia Machczy ´nska – these are the situations we can celebrate the fact that translation takes place, beyond our understanding. But one should try to tell and enjoy the fruits of translators’ labours. But there are these stories. Each time one reaches some mystery, sceptical types out there, and even folk who categorically something which is inexpressible. refuse to read translations, since they are not the ‘real’ text. That is true, of course: a translation constitutes a work What do you think about the fact that your books are of art in its own right. You have to live with that. You can now on the lists of set texts in schools in Poland? In 2010, even celebrate the agency of the translator – books don’t To Outwit God was one of the two A-level subjects next translate themselves, after all – and take an interest in her/ to Molière. his work! In the same way one has favourite authors, one What can I think? I am pleased that my writing can might have favourite, or trusted, translators. be beneficial, that somebody has a use for it. Sceptics might seize on this: so a translation isn’t the actual book. Something gets lost. A lot, even. The whole Tasja Dorkofikis is the editor of English PEN Atlas. thing, maybe! This interview was originally published in September Right again. The translation is not the original text. 2013 on www.englishpen.org It bears a relation to that text, undoubtedly, a perhaps uncanny affinity, but it is not the original’s ‘equivalent’. Languages differ from each other – of course! They have their own complex histories and contexts and structures and nuances. 9

The translated work enters the target

There are things one cannot render. Puns offer an language – translated texts – know that better than most. In this way, obvious example. In the original text of Mr Darwin’s translation exemplifies art per se: the construction and Gardener (Peirene No. 11) by the Finnish author Kristina is forcibly creation of new worlds. Carlson, there is a play on the word ‘penkki’, which means Translation is an art, then, but also a discipline. The ‘pew’ or ‘flowerbed’. Since Carlson’s is a work that brings hauled there process takes effort. In my case, I am lucky to work with together theology and horticulture, the pun is apt and a co-translator who is a native speaker of Finnish with pleasing. But it had to go. And in the Finnish-language over the native-level English (I am a native speaker of English original of Asko Sahlberg’s brooding historical novel linguistic with very good Finnish). For the three novels we have The Brothers (Peirene No. 7), the author has fun with the translated for Peirene, we have worked in the following expression ‘oma lehmä ojassa’ (‘one’s own cow in the ditch’, barrier – and way: my mother produced a rough draft, which I then an image that conveys one has a stake in something), read through alongside the original work, checking, which, again, had to go. Terrible losses. invigorates querying and editing as I went along. Then I debated any However, there are also gains. The translated work tricky issues with my mother, and also with the author enters the target language – is forcibly hauled there over that language, of the original text, before soliciting editorial advice from the linguistic barrier – and invigorates that language, Meike Ziervogel of Peirene. I revised, refined, polished dances with words, nudges at them to suggest new dances with – many, many times, until I could read through the meanings and ways of seeing. The translator makes myriad manuscript without coming up against anything jarring choices (consciously and unconsciously), addressing words, nudges or odd (in a bad way). questions of period, style, register and nuance, and tussling For the idea is not to smooth out the text so that it with source and target languages to produce fresh meanings at them to becomes dull, flat or glib. Literary language is strange and that are still meaningful, that is, recognizable and legible disruptive, at its best. But at the same time, the new text to readers of the new work. suggest new has to be readable, and where appropriate enjoyable, in One might still justifiably protest that there are things meanings the new context – not awkward or ungainly. The reader the reader of the target language won’t necessarily ‘get’ in should not stumble over words, wonder if the translator the way the reader of the original text would. For example, and ways has got something wrong or if something has not been in White Hunger (Peirene No. 16), there is a reference to properly got across... Self-effacement, yes: this is a shy, a dream in which tar is being burnt off skis. A surreal of seeing. subtle art. image, yes, but one that has a basis in ‘reality’ – skis were World literature is an idea that is not without problems. commonly coated with tar, as I was advised by my Finnish Of course we cannot fully grasp the other’s difference. mother and co-translator, Fleur Jeremiah. A British reader Of course there are things that we shall never know, will most likely not make the connection. that shall forever remain inaccessible to us. But through Does it matter? Yes, perhaps. Especially if one believes practising or appreciating literary translation, we can at in ‘reality’, in facts, as paramount. I would say that reality least glimpse, respect and marvel at the infinite varieties is something we constitute, not something out there, of human experience and expression. fixed and graspable. Translators – and those who read 10

For many readers their collective childhood experience Given the sobering fact that, according to a survey begins with the delicious opening line: ‘Once upon a time’. conducted in 2012 by Literature Across Frontiers, less than Imaginations are ignited in infancy by fairy tales drawn 4% of fiction published in the UK is through translation, from diverse cultures and languages, carried far and wide it’s time to throw down the gauntlet to publishers to by the great traditions of storytelling, first oral, then correct this tiny percentage and take risks, to see translated recorded. Initial glimpses of translated pieces which lead literature as essential to the reader’s choice and not simply as us back irresistibly through the centuries, to worlds by a specialism. English PEN plays its part in this vital process, turns bewitching and terrifying. Diligently preserved, this awarding grants which enable up to ten books each year type of fantastical literature – with an obligatory moral to be translated into English via its Writers in Translation at its heart – was brought to a wider audience in the early Programme. 18th century by the first English-language publication of One of these was Peirene’s shocking and poignant Chasing the entertainment popularly known as the Arabian Nights. the King of Hearts. It’s thanks to publishers such as Peirene Simultaneously, in France, Charles Perrault almost single- that these gems are brought to light in the first place, and we handedly invented the fairy tale genre with his reworkings are all enriched as a result. of folklores such as Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, in My most treasured work in translation is Nabokov’s The turn rewritten and published, to widespread acclaim, in 1812 Gift, the last book he completed in his native Russian before and 1815 by the German linguists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. moving from Europe to America and turning to English. My own first foray into this ‘hand me down’ aspect One of the pseudo-biographies at which he excels, its hero is, of translated literature were the twelve Rainbow Fairy in fact, Russian literature itself. Books of globally sourced stories collected by the Nabokov wrote The Gift as an émigré in Berlin nineteenth-century Scottish folklorist and editor Andrew between 1935 and 1937, and originally published it under Lang, the perverse, challenging originality of the Danish a pseudonym. The English translation, much revised by Hans Christian Andersen, and the English illustrator the author, appeared in 1962. Appropriately it’s a complex Arthur Rackham. matryoshka of a novel, and I reread my late father’s They’ve travelled with me for over forty years, copy every year. Emotion, heritage, nostalgia, exile and along with the grown-up works which replaced enchantment – this is translated fiction at its dazzling best. them – in no particular order (such is the variousness of discovery), Turgenev, Balzac, Maupassant, Moravia, Catherine Taylor is a former publisher and Deputy Director of Hesse, Nabokov, Bassani, Sagan, Duras, Camus, Tolstoy, English PEN. Goethe, Colette, Wolf, Sciascia, de Beauvoir, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Leduc, Levi, Ginzburg, Stendhal, Chekhov – a heady mix all clamouring for space in my head and on my shelves. Yet with few exceptions, I could not have routinely identified any translator among this crowd of stars – ironic, given that, apart from a basic knowledge of French, without these guides I would not have been able to unlock the secrets to other, more tantalizing worlds, freighted as they are with mystery and potential. A handful of translators, such as Constance Garnett and C. K. Scott Moncrieff, seemed to be constantly name-checked and revered, others overlooked, BY CATHERINE TAYLOR obscured or simply not mentioned in any of the copyright pages of the books they worked so painstakingly to bring to a new readership. I believe it is this amnesia, whether deliberate or accidental, which partly makes us cavalier about literature in translation. We forget we’re actually reading a translation – because the shadowy figure responsible for our pleasure is elided from the process. But no two translations are the same, and gradually I became more discerning. Later, as a publisher of classic literature, I would have the pick of editions and their different interpreters – a rare privilege. Today, as we move – hopefully – towards a renaissance of world literature, the translator is increasingly recognized and praised – so much so that the great narratives of the Anglo- Saxon and medieval periods, with their still ambiguous original authorship, have become synonymous with their respective translators – it is Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf we recog- nize, or Simon Armitage’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 11

PEIRENE READERS’ LIST OF 100 TRANSLATED BOOKS EVERYONE SHOULD READ José Eduardo Agualusa The Book of Chameleons (tr. Daniel Hahn) 01 51 Elias Khoury Yalo (tr. Humphrey Davies) Alain-Fournier Le Grand Meaulnes (tr. Robin Buss) 02 52 Karl Ove Knausgård A Death in the Family (tr. Don Bartlett) Isabel Allende The House of the Spirits (tr. Magda Bogin) 03 53 Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky Memories of the Future (tr. Joanne Turnbull) Marcel Aymé The Man Who Walked Through Walls (tr. Sophie Lewis) 04 54 Milan Kundera Immortality (tr. Peter Kussi) Honoré de Balzac Cousin Bette (tr. Sylvia Raphael) 05 55 Pär Lagerkvist The Dwarf (tr. Alexandra Dick) Miklós Bánffy They Were Counted (tr. Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Bánffy-Jelen) 06 56 Selma Lagerlöf The Saga of Gösta Berling (tr. Paul Norlen) Thomas Bernhard Concrete (tr. David McLintock) 07 57 Halldór Laxness The Fish Can Sing (tr. Magnus Magnusson) Jens Bjørneboe Moment of Freedom (tr. Esther Greenleaf Mürer) 08 58 Clarice Lispector Near to the Wild Heart (tr. Alison Entrekin) Roberto Bolaño The Savage Detectives (tr. Natasha Wimmer) 09 59 António Lobo Antunes What Can I Do When Everything’s on Fire? (tr. Gregory Rabassa) Heinrich Böll The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (tr. Leila Vennewitz) 10 60 Amin Maalouf Samarkand (tr. Russell Harris) Jorge Luis Borges The Aleph (tr. Andrew Hurley) 11 61 Sándor Márai Embers (tr. Carol Brown Janeway) Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita (tr. Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O’Connor) 12 62 Diego Marani New Finnish Grammar (tr. Judith Landry) Italo Calvino If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller (tr. William Weaver) 13 63 Javier Marías A Heart So White (tr. Margaret Jull Costa) Albert Camus The Outsider (tr. Sandra Smith) 14 64 Yukio Mishima Spring Snow (tr. Michael Gallagher) Bo Carpelan Axel (tr. David McDuff) 15 65 Harry Mulisch The Discovery of Heaven (tr. Paul Vincent) Mircea Cărtărescu Nostalgia (tr. Julian Semilian) 16 66 Abdelrahman Munif Cities of Salt (tr. Peter Theroux) Javier Cercas Soldiers of Salamis (tr. Anne McLean) 17 67 Haruki Murakami Kafka on the Shore (tr. Philip Gabriel) Philippe Claudel Brodeck’s Report (tr. John Cullen) 18 68 Robert Musil The Man Without Qualities (tr. Sophie Wilkins and Burton Pike) Hugo Claus Wonder (tr. Michael Henry Heim) 19 69 Irène Némirovsky Fire in the Blood (tr. Sandra Smith) Osamu Dazai No Longer Human (tr. Donald Keene) 20 70 Andrés Neuman Talking to Ourselves (tr. Nick Caistor and Lorenza García) Michel Déon The Foundling Boy (tr. Julian Evans) 21 71 Bao Ninh The Sorrow of War (tr. Phan Thanh Hao and Frank Palmos) Alfred Döblin Berlin Alexanderplatz (tr. Eugene Jolas) 22 72 Amos Oz A Tale of Love and Darkness (tr. Nicholas de Lange) Fyodor Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment (tr. David McDuff) 23 73 Orhan Pamuk Snow (tr. Maureen Freely) Alexandre Dumas The Lady of the Camellias (tr. Liesl Schillinger) 24 74 Milorad Pavić Dictionary of the Khazars (tr. Christina Pribićevic-Zorić) Marguerite Duras The Lover (tr. Barbara Bray) 25 75 Elena Poniatowska Here’s to You, Jesusa! (tr. Deanna Heikkinen) José Maria Eça de Queirós The Crime of Father Amaro (tr. Margaret Jull Costa) 26 76 Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel (tr. M. A. Screech) Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose (tr. William Weaver) 27 77 Atiq Rahimi The Patience Stone (tr. Polly McLean) Nawal El Saadawi God Dies by the Nile (tr. Sherif Hetata) 28 78 Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front (tr. Brian Murdoch) Hans Fallada Every Man Dies Alone (tr. Michael Hofmann) 29 79 Juan Rulfo Pedro Páramo (tr. Margaret Sayers Peden) Elena Ferrante The Days of Abandonment (tr. Ann Goldstein) 30 80 Françoise Sagan The Unmade Bed (tr. Abigail Israel) Gustave Flaubert The Temptation of Saint Anthony (tr. Lafcadio Hearn) 31 81 Tayeb Salih Season of Migration to the North (tr. Denys Johnson-Davies) Theodor Fontane Effi Briest (tr. Helen Chambers and Hugh Rorrison) 32 82 José Saramago Blindness (tr. Giovanni Pontiero) Max Frisch Homo Faber (tr. Michael Bullock) 33 83 Albertine Sarrazin Astragal (tr. Patsy Southgate) Carlo Emilio Gadda That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (tr. William Weaver) 34 84 Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea (tr. Robert Baldick) Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude (tr. Gregory Rabassa) 35 85 Arno Schmidt The School for Atheists (tr. John E. Woods) Angélica Gorodischer Kalpa Imperial (tr. Ursula K. Le Guin) 36 86 W. G. Sebald Austerlitz (tr. Anthea Bell) David Grossman Someone to Run With (tr. Vered Almog and Maya Gurantz) 37 87 Murasaki Shikibu The Tale of Genji (tr. Royall Tyler) Lars Gustafsson The Death of a Beekeeper (tr. Janet K. Swaffar and Guntram H. Weber) 38 88 Natsume Soseki Sanshiro (tr. Jay Rubin) Knut Hamsun Hunger (tr. George Egerton) 39 89 Stendhal The Charterhouse of Parma (tr. John Sturrock) Marlen Haushofer The Wall (tr. Shaun Whiteside) 40 90 Patrick Süskind Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (tr. John E. Woods) Sadegh Hedayat The Blind Owl (tr. D. P. Costello) 41 91 Junichiro Tanizaki The Makioka Sisters (tr. Edward G. Seidensticker) Hermann Hesse The Glass Bead Game (tr. Richard and Clara Winston) 42 92 Olga Tokarczuk House of Day, House of Night (tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones) Homer The Iliad (tr. Robert Fagles) 43 93 Ivan Turgenev The Torrents of Spring (tr. Leonard Schapiro) Bohumil Hrabal Too Loud a Solitude (tr. Michael Henry Heim) 44 94 Mario Vargas Llosa Conversation in the Cathedral (tr. Gregory Rabassa) Tove Jansson The Summer Book (tr. Thomas Teal) 45 95 Tarjei Vesaas The Ice Palace (tr. Elizabeth Rokkan) Ismail Kadare The Palace of Dreams (tr. Barbara Bray and Jusuf Vrioni) 46 96 Voltaire Candide (tr. Theo Cuffe) Bilge Karasu The Garden of the Departed Cats (tr. Aron Aji) 47 97 Jiří Weil Mendelssohn is on the Roof (tr. Marie Winn) Hiromi Kawakami Strange Weather in Tokyo (tr. Allison Markin Powell) 48 98 Mo Yan The Garlic Ballads (tr. Howard Goldblatt) Nikos Kazantzakis Zorba the Greek (tr. Carl Wildman) 49 99 Émile Zola Thérèse Raquin (tr. Adam Thorpe) Imre Kertész Fatelessness (tr. Tim Wilkinson) 50 100 Stefan Zweig Beware of Pity (tr. Anthea Bell) 12

NEW IN 2015 PEIRENE NO. 16 | CHANCE ENCOUNTER SERIES SERIES NO. 6 CHANCE ENCOUNTER: WHITE HUNGER MEETING THE OTHER AKI OLLIKAINEN Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

BEST FINNISH DEBUT NOVEL 2012: HELSINGIN SANOMAT PRIZE FINNISH BOOK BLOGGERS’ BEST BOOK 2012: BLOGISTANIAN FINLANDIA BOOKSELLERS’ BEST BOOK MEDAL 2012: KIITOS KIRJASTA ¥ MITALI BOOKSTORES’ PRIZE FOR BEST¦SELLING DEBUT NOVEL 2012

Like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, this apocalyptic story deals with the human will to survive. And let us be honest: there will come a point in this book when you can take no more of the snow-covered desolation. But then the first rays of spring sun appear and our belief in the human spirit revives. A stunning tale.

What does it take to survive? The extraordinary Finnish novella ‘A novella that that has taken the Nordic literary scene by storm. 1867: The year of the great famine in Finland. Marja, a farmer’s wife from the north, and her two young children set off on foot feels like a huge through the snow. Their goal: St Petersburg – a place which, rumours suggest, enjoys bread in plenty. However others are also heading south – everyone equally desperate to survive. Only the great novel.’ boy Ruuni tries to help her. But can Marja trust him? PROLOGUE SATAKUNNIAN KANSA The rowlocks screech, like a bird. Two skinny pikes lie at the bottom of the boat. They look more like snakes than fish. They no longer twitch; the cold has made them stiff. Their jaws gape, still trickling blood, which blends in slender swirls with the water around Mataleena’s feet. Mataleena dips her hand in the cold lake, lets it glide lazily alongside the boat until the chill makes her joints ache. The wind tugs waves out of the water. The sky reflected there is patchy, fragmentary, as if smashed. Juhani stretches out his sinewy neck like a crane, looking up. Mataleena takes in her father’s face, the thin bridge of his nose, and then the sky, an immense silver spoon over the lake. 13

‘They’re already heading south.’ Juhani sighs. looks hopeless. Teo taps the edge of the table irritably. ‘What are?’ ‘Just give up, why don’t you?’ he says to his brother. ‘Or ‘The swans.’ let’s stop for now and carry on another time.’ ‘I can’t see any birds.’ ‘All right. We’ll finish the game when we next meet,’ ‘That’s because they’ve already gone.’ Lars replies. Juhani looks down, to Mataleena. Teo watches his brother’s face with amusement; Lars is still ‘Anyway, we got some fish.’ examining the pieces on the board. He notices that Lars has taken to wrinkling his forehead like his revered superior in Juhani pulls the boat up between some bushes. Marja has the senate. come to meet them, carrying Juho. She lowers the boy to the ‘In my opinion, that senator of yours is mistaken,’ Teo says. ground, and Mataleena takes her little brother by the hand. ‘You don’t understand the essence of this nation.’ Lars Marja looks into the boat. sighs and gets up to ladle punch into small glasses. Passing one ‘What skinny fish.’ Perhaps that to Teo, he goes on: ‘We need to provide people with work. If The trees on the opposite shore are reflected blackly in the you start pouring grain into their silos for nothing, you’ll end water. Somewhere, a loon cries. Soon, it too will fly south. is the crux of up with a bottomless pit. Our most pressing duty is to secure They walk through the forest, along a narrow path. When work for the unemployed.’ Marja bends down to look for lingonberries, she hears a quick, ‘Work’s fruitless when there’s no food to be had. What’s angry hiss, as if a glowing firebrand were being dropped into the matter. the point?’ water. She screams, leaps back. Landing, she loses her footing Lars is getting agitated. The senator arranged a loan and falls among the shrubs. First, she sees blurry dots: the pale Hunger without guarantees from Rothschild’s. He was only able to do lingonberries, whipped by the frosty night. Then she looks in so because of the country’s good name. Skittishness at the first the direction of the hiss and, slowly, a black coil assumes the eliminates hurdle must not be allowed to jeopardize that trust. shape of a snake. Its eyes are the colour of frozen berries, its ‘I can’t see why you don’t understand,’ Lars snaps. twin teeth like icicles. But the adder does not lash out, merely At that moment, the salon doors open and Raakel comes hissing instead. the weakest in with a tea tray, which she places on the small table. Juhani steps forward, a rock in his raised hand. Then he Good timing. Lars takes a deep breath, calmed by his wife’s strikes. The snake is pinned down by the rock. citizens, tender glance. With one breath, Marja releases the air that terror had Raakel is wiser than her husband, Teo thinks. She would locked in her stomach. Juhani reaches out and helps her get up. just as a have solved the begging problem by now, if only someone had ‘Poor devil. Already dazed with cold. Couldn’t escape.’ had the wit to ask her. She would have encouraged everyone Marja looks at the rock; it is as if she can see the snake to go back home, told them: just be patient and wait, there’ll through the grey stone. gardener be food once we find a big enough saucepan. ‘Is it still alive?’ ‘The idea was that businessmen were to arrange emergency ‘No,’ Juhani replies, bending down to pick up the rock. prunes bad supplies of grain. That was the senator’s proposal and he was ‘Don’t, for God’s sake! Leave it be. I don’t want to see a quite right. It’s not his fault the merchants didn’t get their act dead snake.’ branches together.’ Lars sounds like a long-suffering father, explaining ‘All right.’ something to his child for the seventh time. ‘No one ordered that grain. After all, you might just as well A soft, sizzling sound, as the burning spill hits the water in off his apple urge a minister to give one of his fellow men the shirt off his the pail. The dim light succeeds in tracing Juhani’s shadow back as ask a merchant to feed the poor,’ Teo says. on the wall as he rises from his bed, lifts Marja’s dress, places tree. The mention of ministers silences Lars for a moment, and his hands on her knees and pushes her legs apart. Marja takes Teo supposes his brother still feels guilty that neither of them hold of Juhani’s erect penis. She wants it, too, but her fear fulfilled Father’s wish and devoted himself to theology. is even greater than her burning desire. What if she were to ‘I know someone willing to give up his shirt for the whores fall pregnant? Another mouth to feed, in this misery. Marja of Punavuori,’ Raakel says. pushes Juhani back on to the mattress. He sighs, trying to hide ‘I am a doctor of the poor, like the great Paracelsus,’ Teo his disappointment. says, spreading his arms. Marja moves her hand slowly back and forth, squeezing ‘The whores of Helsinki have nothing to worry about, with his member. A subdued groan escapes Juhani. She places her our Paracelsus looking after them.’ free hand between her legs. He comes first. Marja bites the Lars bursts out laughing. Raakel slams the door shut collar of her nightdress, waves pass through her body. After, triumphantly as she leaves. Teo, too, is amused as he pictures she feels empty again. She strokes Juhani’s limp member and the victorious smile playing on Raakel’s lips because she has thinks of the skinny pikes. had the last word. What a good mother Raakel would make, if only she were not barren. Although the problem could be with OCTOBER 1867 Lars, Teo thinks; their family may be condemned to die out with the two of them. He should sacrifice the pawn. Otherwise, the white queen Perhaps that is the crux of the matter. Hunger eliminates will drive the king into a corner and the bishop, a few moves the weakest citizens, just as a gardener prunes bad branches away, will not have time to come to the rescue. off his apple tree. Lars Renqvist has to admit that the situation on the board 14

NEW IN 2015 PEIRENE NO. 17 | CHANCE ENCOUNTER SERIES SERIES NO. 6 CHANCE ENCOUNTER: READER FOR HIRE MEETING THE OTHER RAYMOND JEAN Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter

The premise of the story is brilliant: a woman who loves reading aloud acquires – without realizing – power over others. What’s true for her clients becomes real for you, the reader of this book. As you turn the pages, think of Marie-Constance as the personification of ‘reading’ itself. And we promise you an experience you will never forget.

The French best-seller that became a major motion picture with ‘A beautiful love Miou-Miou. A beautiful homage to the art of reading – light and funny. A declaration to the celebration of the union of sensuality and language. Marie-Constance loves reading and possesses a beautiful voice. So, one day she decides to put an ad in the local paper art of reading. offering her services as a paid reader. Her first client, a paralysed teenager, is transformed by her reading of a Maupassant short story. Marie-Constance’s fame spreads and soon the rich, the A book that will creative and the famous clamour for her services. Let me introduce myself: Marie-Constance G., thirty-four make you want to years old, one husband, no children, no profession. I listened to the sound of my own voice yesterday. It was in the little blue room in our apartment, the one we call the ‘echo chamber’. I recited some verses of Baudelaire I happened read more books.’ to remember. It struck me that my voice was really rather nice. But can we truly hear ourselves? COSMOPOLITAN Funnily enough my friend Françoise, whom I met up with last week, told me: You have a wonderful voice, it’s silly not to do something with it, a woman really needs an 15

occupation these days… when we were at the Conservatoire if that’s what you want, we’ll run it as it is, after all, it’s up you showed such talent… why don’t you put an ad in to you, but at least don’t give your telephone number, just the papers offering to read to people in their own homes? have a box number at the newspaper if you want to limit Françoise is lovely but she often has outlandish ideas. the fallout… believe me, these adds are my standard fare As far as she herself is concerned, she has her feet pretty and there’s nothing standard about what you’re offering… firmly on the ground – she’s a lawyer’s secretary – but I recited he hands the piece of paper to the typist, not even glancing that makes her all the more inclined to project a whiff at her but looking vaguely disgusted, and asks her to type of romance and quirkiness on to other people. And this some out the text three times for the three local newspapers. certainly was a quirky idea: being a private reader – at a Then he picks up a calculator and works out my bill. I write time when speaking books are readily available – like in verses of a cheque, stand up and leave. Aware of his gaze lingering on the days of duchesses, tsarinas and genteel companions. Oh my calves, and my heels. no, retorted Françoise, not at all, it would be very different nowadays, totally practical and concrete: for people who’re Baudelaire I Now I’ve come to see the man I call ‘my old master’. He ill, disabled, old, single. A delightful prospect indeed. But isn’t old. Barely in his sixties. Roll-neck sweater, tweed I have to admit the thought of bachelors was entertaining. happened to jacket, pipe, an expression like a good-natured dog with The idea grew on me. a bright eye. Dear Roland Sora is very relaxed and always remember. seems delighted to see me. He was my tutor on my literature Now I’m sitting facing the man at the agency who takes course fifteen years ago, and we’ve kept up an easy, trusting the copy for classified ads. He’s chewing on an extinguished It struck friendship. He’d set himself a rule never to sleep with his cigarette butt beneath his toothbrush moustache, his eyes students, so I was never his mistress. But I could have been: pinned on me. It’s difficult to put a spark into dead eyes. me that all the signs were there. I come to have a chat with him in But he’s having a go. It’s not up to me to give you advice, he his office from time to time, and to ask for his advice about says, but if I were you… I wouldn’t run an ad like that… I something or other. If there are too many students queuing really wouldn’t… specially not in a town like ours… So I ask my voice to see him, he comes out with me and drives me somewhere him why. He nods his head, heaves a sigh, rereads my piece like the local bistro for a cup of coffee. If he’s free, I sit of paper, which he’s fingering helplessly: ‘Young woman was really opposite him in his office. available to read to you in your own home. Literary texts, documentary texts, many and varied texts.’ Then comes my rather nice. That’s what I’m doing today. The usual compliments. telephone number. You’ll have trouble… A typist sitting at a He says a kind word about the colour in my cheeks, how I nearby table stops every now and then to squirt the contents But can we look. I note – out loud – that his hair is going very silvery of a pocket vaporizer into one of her nostrils. She takes these and it suits him. Then I outline my idea. I can tell he’s opportunities to watch us furtively, probably listening. He truly hear taken aback, but doesn’t want to show it. Everything’s lowers his head and his voice: Believe me, I know my job… possible, he says, so why not reading to people in their own I reply tartly: I’m asking you to run the ad, not comment on ourselves? homes? Seeing you committed the unforgivable error of it. He eyes me in silence, staring, then explains that a lot of not finishing your course, which you were quite capable newspapers, even among the biggest, now publish somewhat of completing, and you have no prospects or position, dubious ads, and that mine could be... misconstrued. He anything that gives you something to do is for the good. goes back to his chewing and nodding. I tell him there’s But a classified ad? I mean, really! And what’s wrong with nothing dubious about my ad. More squirting from the a classified ad? I ask. He fills his pipe, tamps down the typist. In that case, he says, you should take out the words tobacco. Well, yes, why not? he mutters, but doesn’t hide his ‘Young woman’… And put what instead? He thinks about scepticism. He doubts it will get a result, doubts I’ll receive this, concentrates: And put ‘Person’. Now I’m the one who’s any replies. I tell him we’ll soon see, but that I’d like some baffled: What do you mean, person? He still has my piece advice from him about the sort of passages I should choose of paper in his hand, and he holds it further from his eyes for my potential listeners, might any materialize. He thinks as if to get a clearer view of it, the stub quivering on his about this, or pretends to, sucking on his pipe and blowing bottom lip. Yes, you should put: ‘Person predisposed to read smoke rings. Whatever you do, don’t suggest anything to you in your own home, offers their services etc.’, you see, tedious: no great works, no Proust, no Robbe-Grillet, no ‘person’ is sexless! Slightly dazed, I reply that no one will poetry either, easy things that go down well. Like the minor understand what the ad is about with all that gobbledegook naturalists. They’re precise, they have stories, events, facts… in it. He falls silent, piqued, then says brusquely: All right, 16

NEW IN 2015 PEIRENE NO. 18 | CHANCE ENCOUNTER SERIES SERIES NO. 6 CHANCE ENCOUNTER: THE LOOKINGƒ MEETING THE OTHER GLASS SISTERS On the surface this book presents GØHRIL GABRIELSEN the gripping drama of the conflict Translated from the Norwegian by John Irons between two sisters. However, it is also a stunning exploration of the creative process. In Malone Dies, Beckett showed us that the male ego must die before a story can emerge. Here Gabrielsen gives the female version of the creative process. She observes the battle between her two halves: the one who has only words and the other who yearns for purely physical existence. For a story to emerge, both sides have to acknowledge their mutual dependency.

A gripping Norwegian drama about the power struggle ‘Raw and between two sisters. Far out on the plains of northern Norway stands a house. It belongs to two middle-aged sisters. They seldom venture dark and out and nobody visits. The elder needs nursing and the younger never dared to leave. Until one day a man arrives. wonderfully The women realize quickly that only one can stay. My sister and her husband are digging outside the house – a deep hole next to the dwarf birch outside my attic different from window. They dig their way down among scrawny roots, the spade hits the earth rhythmically, they’ve been at it for more than an hour now. I lie motionless in my bed, anything else.’ listening to the sounds that are creeping up the thin walls of the house into my room via the vent hole right above the DAG OG TID chest of drawers; the dull spade-cuts, the clanking of stone against steel, spuddack, spuddack down into the dry soil. What are they looking for all this time, during this day that never becomes night? What’s their business down in the depths, under several layers of earth? They talk quietly, don’t exchange many words, I sense an undisturbed 17

friendliness between them. Now and then they stop and You place your ear against it. After a moment, you are completely silent. Do they sense me? The fact that I’m sense the sound of life, not breathing and movement, but a awake? But it was only swapping the spade and the vibration of existence, an unrest that only life can produce. digging, rest and work, equally divided. You bend down, press an eye to the keyhole, it goes dark, As usual, they agree about everything, my sister Ragna you shift position a little, move your weight on to the other and Johan. leg, and then bore right through with your gaze. Deep inside, among white, dancing spots, you can make out the After a long while they disappear and come back groaning contours of a body resting on a bed. And this body, this and with shuffling feet – they’re dragging something heavy only just perceptible unrest – is me. between them, I can hear that from the sounds. It must be heavy, what they’re moving – I can see them in my And you ask yourself, as I have so often done of late: What mind’s eye: Ragna’s knitted brow, the dogged expression am I doing in this room? What’s stopping me from being on her broad face, the thin arms that hold tightly on to the Deep inside, downstairs, together with Ragna and Johan? Am I being load with a gentle strength. And her husband, striving to held a prisoner? Am I seriously ill? Or is the existence in find a grip that can cope with the weight, I can hear it, his among the attic your own imagination, the frozen momentary stomach’s in the way, bloated as it always is, he has to go image of the dread that chases up your spine, a fear of with his back bent and with small, quick steps after her – white, what you might see? always after her. Most recently, I’ve dejectedly thought that I’m actually dancing lying in an attic inside myself, that I am merely an old, The load is heaved into the hole. Earth is thrown over it. dusty thought about living, a hidden soul that has never Deep down there, in the black hole in the ground, lumps spots, you been allowed to go downstairs – to playing and laughter of stone and sand and earth land on some soft substance. and people indoors and outdoors. I can say this for sure from the short, dull thumps, I can feel them right next to my ear as I lie here, thump after can make * thump, until the sounds grow fainter and close around me. I feel tired, am on the point of falling asleep. Far away, out the I don’t know how long she has left me lying here I can hear the earth being tidied and covered with peat and unattended, the days have slid into each other, but it may heather. Soon I am dreamlessly resting, just as hidden as contours well be several days, perhaps as much as a week, how am I the thing down there in the dark earth. to know, lying here without a clock, beneath a window that of a body lets in light from a sky that burns both day and night. * I’m dependent on her help and goodwill, that she brings resting on me food and makes sure I get clean clothes, that she helps Imagine an attic, not just any attic but one in a remote me to the toilet and washes my body every second or third spot in the northern, godforsaken part of the world. day. But she ignores my cries, does not show up, punishes Here, too, lots of things lie packed away, all the rubbish a bed. And me severely – yet again. you don’t need, all the memories of a past have been crammed into boxes and suitcases, invisible to the outside this body, I haven’t eaten or drunk anything since I’ve been here, world under a thin layer of forgetfulness and dust. and have lain exhausted in bed practically the whole time. You only go up there reluctantly, preferably not alone – this only just Thirst, lack of food – it’s possible I can’t think as clearly it’s got something to do with the creaking of the staircase as before, but during the spells when I’m awake, I try that is so narrow and steep that you have to climb up on perceptible nevertheless to understand what has actually happened. your hands and knees. It’s not easy to make it to the room I’m afraid I’ve resigned, given up, that my will is crushed at the top. And it’s even more difficult to come down. unrest – is and that from now on I will deny my own wishes and As soon as you can straighten up and stand under the needs. That from now on she can decide the rhythm of rafters, you are enclosed in a dry air, but something else as when I am to eat, be awake, empty bladder and bowels, well – you wonder if it can be the darkness, the particles of me. when I am to talk, what I can say – and perhaps what dust in the strip of light from the staircase. But when you I can think. And that is what disturbs me most – the stand there perfectly calm, you know that it’s the stillness, exhaustion can change my thoughts, I can already feel it, the silence from the things that cannot talk, the past that the beginnings of resignation – that from now on, without lies gagged in the unceasing rush of life from the floor anger and resistance, I will follow her whims and desires below and nature right outside. in everything. At the end of the attic there’s a door. A faint light comes This incarceration: I view it as a blow to the very core from the keyhole. You advance cautiously along the board of our relationship as sisters, an even deeper gash in the planks that are spaced wide apart and are so dry that the hatred. Everything that in some way has bound us together splinters would bore into your toes if you were barefoot. will soon be completely torn to shreds. 18

This superb novella ... reads like a modern fairy-tale, full of a surreal yet A shrewd and psychologically adroit mundane horror. LESLIE MCDOWELL, mini-masterpiece. PAM NORFOLK, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY LANCASHIRE EVENING POST

PEIRENE NO. 13 PEIRENE NO. 14 THE DEAD LAKE THE BLUE ROOM HAMID ISMAILOV HANNE ØRSTAVIK

Translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield Translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin

‘Not much troubled Yerzhan in those days. There were of course the ‘I wished I could split my body in two, give one part to Mum and the explosions in the Zone, which the boy never called by their proper other to Ivar. Then they could both have their share, and I could keep name out of visceral fear. But besides that he had only one other my ribcage as a little raft on which I’d curl up and float away.’ worry: which side in the third world war would Dean Reed be on?’ Everyone who has read Fifty Shades of Grey should read Like a Grimm’s fairy tale, this story transforms an this book. Why? The Blue Room holds up a mirror to a innermost fear into an outward reality. We witness a part of the female psyche that yearns for submission. prepubescent boy’s secret terror of not growing up into The story shows how erotic fantasies are formed by the a man. We also wander in a beautiful, fierce landscape relationship with our parents. It then delves further to unlike any other to be found Western literature. And by analyse the struggle of women to separate from their the end of Yerzhan’s tale we are awestruck by human mothers – a struggle that is rarely addressed in either resilience in the face of catastrophic, man-made follies. literature or society.

THINGS SYNTACTICAL: A NEW MAN There have been a few affair with Lacan, a one-night stand Last week was Frankfurt Book Fair. It with Roland Barthes. But no one has THE PAIN AND PASSION was a wonderful fair. One of the best. passing flings. A brief had such a profound effect on me as OF A SMALL PUBLISHER Because I met a new man. love affair with Lacan, Schopenhauer and The World as Will It’s been a long time since I felt this and Representation. Throughout this paper you will find kind of attraction. Schopenhauer in a one-night stand But this is all history now. Maurice excerpts from Meike’s Peirene Press fact was the last. A few years ago I with Roland Barthes. Blanchot has captured my heart. I blog (www.peirenepress.com/blog). was besotted by him. Don’t get me started reading him on the plane to The text runs in blue at the bottom wrong. Since then I haven’t exactly Frankfurt last Tuesday. He hasn’t left of each page and gives a taste of suffered from loneliness. There have my side. Peirene’s world of the novella. been a few passing flings. A brief love Admittedly, I’ve encountered him 19

Beautifully simple and restrained prose. LUCY POPESCU, HUFFINGTON POST

INTERVIEW WITH HAMID ISMAILOV, INTERVIEW WITH HANNE ØRSTAVIK, AUTHOR OF THE DEAD LAKE AUTHOR OF THE BLUE ROOM

Born in 1954 in Kyrgyzstan, Hamid With the publication of her first novel Ismailov moved to Uzbekistan as a in 1994, Hanne Ørstavik, born in 1969, young man. He is a prolific writer of embarked on a career that has made prose and poetry in Russian and Uzbek her one of the most admired authors and his work has been translated into in contemporary Norwegian literature. many European languages. He has also Her literary breakthrough came three translated Russian and Western classics years later with Kjærlighet (Love), into Uzbek, and Uzbek and Persian which in 2006 was voted the sixth best classics into Russian. In 1994 he was Norwegian book of the last twenty- forced to flee to the UK because of his five years. Since then the author has ‘unacceptable democratic tendencies’. written several acclaimed novels and He now works for the BBC World has received a number of literary Service. The Railway was his first prizes, including the Brage Prize, novel to be published in English in Norway’s most prestigious literary 2006. His work is still banned in award. Ørstavik’s novels have been Uzbekistan today. translated into eighteen languages but never, until now, into English. What was the first book to make an impression on you? What is the most beautiful book you own? PEIRENE NO. 15 The endless Arabian Nights, which I Take Care of Yourself, an artbook loathed, being forced to read out loud from the exhibition of the same to my granny whenever her chronic name by Sophie Calle. I love the pink UNDER THE TRIPOLI SKY rheumatism would strike. metallic cover.

KAMAL BEN HAMEDA What was your favourite book as a child? What book do you wish you had read Arabian Nights when I read it on my when you were young? Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter own, including the explicit scenes, I read the ones I needed. I think the which I was not allowed to read books you are ready for, at any time, ‘Here with the women, my guardian angels, there were just words, in public. will come. spoken openly and easily, flitting and whirling about, a life force in themselves. Without these moments of trusting abandon, they would And what is your favourite book or books What advice would you give to an now? aspiring author? have dried up with sorrow.’ Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Write, say what you have to say, which proves that English is not the don’t think. This is a fascinating portrait of a closed society. On the language that Twitter teaches… surface this quiet vignette of a story could be read as What is the most research you have gently nostalgic, but underneath the author reveals the What book would you give to a friend’s done for a book? child on their eighteenth birthday? seething tensions of a traditional city coming to terms I went to Brussels to see the house TS Eliot’s Four Quartets, for the where my novel 48 rue Defacqz takes with our modern world. The book gives us privileged reality check. place. Google the address, that’s it. access to a place where men and women live apart and have never learned to respect each other. Who is your favourite fictional character? If you were to write a historical Musil’s man without qualities – a novel, which event or figure would common man... be your subject? I wrote about the Kautokeino conflict before. Fleetingly. Reading extracts For him literature is the experience of What is the funniest scene you’ve read? from 1852 in my novel Presten (The here and there. But I’ve never devoted language as language. While everyday Every rant of Wooster makes Priest) from 2004. But now... maybe my full attention to him. And now I am communication reduces language to me hysterically, homerically, Joan of Arc, but set in India or in the hooked. On Thursday I even skipped literal meaning so that we can relate hyperbolically laugh. Arab world. the biggest party of the night to rush to each other, only in literature do we Which do you prefer – ebooks or the What lessons have you learned about back to my hotel, where he was experience language as unique and traditional print version? life from reading? awaiting me. self-sufficient. Each work of literature Handwritten Oriental manuscripts. None. Reading comes after. So what do I like about him? Quite struggles to reinvent language, simply, he understands literature the according to Blanchot. And it can same way I do. But unlike me, he can only do so by relying on itself. express his views clearly. These are words straight from my 20

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2014

FOYLES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2013

Sinister, funny and heartening… a OBSERVER BEST HOLIDAY READS 2013 modern German classic. A book of human warmth. CJ SCHÜLER, INDEPENDENT NICHOLAS LEZARD, GUARDIAN

PEIRENE NO. 10 PEIRENE NO. 11 THE MUSSEL FEAST MR DARWIN’S GARDENER BIRGIT VANDERBEKE KRISTINA CARLSON

Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

‘I don’t know what would have happened if we’d been able to eat at six ‘When reason and hope arise from the long season of despair, it is o’clock as usual. It’s astonishing how people react when the routine is time to think, and make plans, and banish the God who has disturbed, a tiny delay to the normal schedule and at once everything haunted me since childhood. His voice is planted in our heads and is different – and I mean everything.’ does not allow us a word in edgeways. God is silent now, but the sun rises and sets.’ We love this monologue. It’s the first Peirene book which made us laugh out loud with tears in our eyes. The author lays A stunning, poetic work. Like Dylan Thomas in Under Milk Wood, bare the contradictory logic of an inflexible mind. This is a Carlson evokes the voices of an entire village, and, through them, poignant yet hilarious narrative with a brilliant ending. the spirit of the age. The apparent tensions between science and spirituality, Darwinism and humanism, reach a beautiful, life-affirming resolution. heart. When I look for new Peirene of their authors seem to aim more for HOME SWEET HOME books, I want stories that are a literal than a literary truth. Good but Three weeks ago we were burgled. Cells, animals and anchored in the cultural, historical ultimately not what I am looking for. The insurance company is probably humans have always and social environment of the writer. ‘I’m not sure I like your new man,’ the not going to pay out because I ‘run a But I always want to feel that the Nymph remarks. ‘You’ve now become business from home’. They argue that migrated, need to author has created their own literary even more choosy than before looking because I receive business contacts migrate to survive. reality.That is easier said than done for our next titles.’ in our house, our home is not really in a world of social media and global ‘My criteria haven’t changed,’ I tell a ‘home’ and thus our home content But does this alter communication. I have just spent three her. ‘Only, I have finally found a man insurance does not apply. our idea of home? days listening to international agents who understands me. How many The business insurance refuses to and publishers talking about books.Most women can claim that!’ pay because stolen jewellery – mine 21

WINNER ENGLISH PEN AWARD 2013

GUARDIAN’S BEST FICTION 2013

GUARDIAN READERS’ BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013 A remarkable find. DAVID

MILLS, SUNDAY TIMES INTERVIEW WITH DIRK FOCH, In your opinion, how are Peirene PEIRENE SUBSCRIBER books different from other books in the current literary and publishing Dirk Foch is a Dutch national who landscape? has lived in London since 1991. As stated above, Peirene uses He is an avid reader and MD of different criteria in selecting books. Renaissance Learning, a literacy Meike very cleverly makes use of software company which motivates the fact that other countries such as children to read popular fiction and Germany are far more open-minded non-fiction. Their Accelerated Reader about international literature than scheme, used by over one million the UK. I believe she closely follows British schoolchildren on a regular what gets translated into German, basis, measures reading growth, and if and when she finds a treasure, monitors progress and provides she’ll mobilize anyone who can play literacy data for kids, teachers and a positive role in getting the book parents. Dirk strongly believes that translated and published here. every child deserves the chance to learn to read and develop a genuine You are also a regular Peirene Salon passion for books – regardless of attendee. How would you describe their ability and ethnic and social our literary salons for those who have background. never attended one? And what has been your favourite Salon? What was it about Peirene that first They are very informal and intimate attracted you and made you become gatherings with glass in hand during PEIRENE NO. 12 a subscriber? which the author of the book reads I love the concept of a small from, and discusses, their book, and publishing house promoting high- often Meike invites a literary critic CHASING THE KING quality non-English literature in to comment on the book. This is a very attractive, no-nonsense, followed by a Q&A with the author OF HEARTS entrepreneurial way to the UK and a delicious simple meal. HANNA KRALL market, following a grassroots I’ve only been to five salons but approach: Peirene has been steadily I particularly liked the one with Translated from the Polish by Philip Boehm building up an ever-growing circle Hamid Ismailov, the Uzbek author of friends and admirers. It’s all based (what do you mean you’ve never ‘He likes her hair. (That’s not my real hair, mine is darker.) He likes her on Meike’s unerring ability to detect heard of him!?) of The Dead Lake. He novellas of quality without being turned out to be a very entertaining, name. (That’s not my real name...) Is there anything real about you? he sidetracked by any other criteria, perceptive and funny man, and was asks. Waiting. That’s the most real thing about me.’ and her modesty: it’s about the happy to answer any questions. books, not about the company! How This is a beautiful love story but also an incredible account of refreshing... Chasing the King of Hearts is now one one woman’s quest to be heard. Told with astounding simplicity, of the titles on Renaissance Learning’s the book recreates the Holocaust not as a historical event but as a What is your favourite Peirene book Accelerated Reader scheme. Can you and why? explain what the scheme is and how terrifying, shared experience. We are amazed – and honoured – It has to be Chasing the King of Hearts, it’s helping teachers and students that it was left to Peirene to publish this book for the first time a small haunting masterpiece that across the UK? in English. is highly economical and matter- Accelerated Reader very accurately of-fact in its use of language but assesses children’s reading ages, and remains etched in your mind directs children to a wide variety and my daughter’s – has nothing to do what she had expected. ‘Well, long after you’ve finished it. It’s of popular fiction and non-fiction with the business. I thought you might use an extension incomprehensible to me that this titles that are appropriate for them - On Saturday we held the Peirene to your house,’ she explained. book wasn’t picked up earlier appropriate in terms of challenging here in the UK and Peirene must and motivating them to read for Winter Salon. As always in our house. Our guest star was the British poet be tremendously proud of having pleasure, providing the building Some I knew, others I met for the fi rst Ruth Padel. She read from her latest been the publisher who selected blocks for a lifelong love of reading, time as they walked through the door. work, The Mara Crossing. The book it. It deserves to be a best-seller which has a proven positive impact One newcomer, while she was shown explores the notion of migration. and should be read by anyone who upon their academic career. Chasing into our bedroom where she could All life stems from migration. Cells, would like to know more about the the King of Hearts is a fascinating leave her bag and coat, exclaimed: animals and humans have always Holocaust. addition to the range of books we ‘Wow, the Salon really does take place migrated, need to migrate to survive. have analysed. The Dead Lake and in your home.’ I laughed and asked But does this alter our idea of home? The Mussel Feast are next on our list. 22

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2014

Intensely visual ... a brooding, LONGLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2013 atmospheric, Scandinavian late LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2014 night movie. BRANDON ROBSHAW, Anything but a standard crime novel. INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ECONOMIST

PEIRENE NO. 7 PEIRENE NO. 8 THE BROTHERS THE MURDER OF HALLAND ASKO SAHLBERG PIA JUUL

Translated from the Finnish by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken

‘My nose tells me the fire is dying. My eyes see nothing, for they have ‘All I needed for happiness was a detective series… Simplicity was spied another kind of dark. a virtue. First a murder, nothing too bestial. Then a police inspector. The war has been waged, but here we may yet have corpses.’ Insights into his or her personal problems, perhaps. Details about the victim. Puzzles and anomalies. Lines of investigation. Clues. Detours. This is a historical novel in miniature form. It deals in dark passions Breakthrough. Case solved. Nothing like real life.’ and delivers as many twists as a 500-page epic. And as if that were not enough, each character speaks in a distinct voice. We’re thrilled If you like crime you won’t be disappointed. A murder, a gun, an to publish a book that is as Finnish as a forest in winter but that inspector, suspense. But the story strays far beyond the whodunnit resembles a work from the American South: William Faulkner’s norm. Pia Juul charts the phases of bereavement in beautifully stark As I Lay Dying. language. PS Don’t skip the quotes.

‘Home is where you start from, but ten people left, we talked about the Pity that the insurance company Well, I guess, then, that Peirene and I where is a swallow’s real home? And paintings on our wall. We analysed doesn’t agree. But I won’t waste still have a few life lessons to learn. what does “native” mean if the English their male and female symbolism. It my time trying to persuade them. Two days before the Independent oak is an immigrant from Spain?’ was a riveting and, at times, hilarious I would rather save my energy for Foreign Fiction Prize awards evening So, the word ‘home’ is certainly conversation. Six of these people I the next Salon. we both succumbed to our fantasies: problematic. However, one thing would never have met without the images of an applauding crowd as is clear: home is as much linked to Peirene Salon. I am thrilled that my A MORAL TALE we climbed the podium with our movement and change as to the children grow up in a house where At my age I should know that winning author Birgit Vanderbeke and commonly held notion of a never- strangers share creative thoughts and daydreams lead to disappointment. translator Jamie Bulloch to receive changing haven. become friends. This is home as I And an ancient Greek nymph should the prize. And afterwards interviews Late on Saturday night, with only have always imagined. certainly know it. with star-struck journalists. After all, 23

FOYLES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2012 Delicate and moving.

BOYD TONKIN, INDEPENDENT INTERVIEW WITH ASKO SAHLBERG, INTERVIEW WITH PIA JUUL, AUTHOR AUTHOR OF THE BROTHERS OF THE MURDER OF HALLAND

Asko Sahlberg, born in 1964, has Pia Juul, born in 1962, has claimed acquired a fame in Finland that has her place as one of Denmark’s yet to be replicated in the English- foremost literary authors. She has speaking world. His first novel, published five books of poetry, two Pimeän ääni, published in 2000, short-story collections and two was a literary phenomenon in his novels. The Murder of Halland was country and won the Kalevi Jäntti published in Danish in 2009 and Literary Prize for young authors. won Denmark’s most important He has written steadily since then, literary prize, Den Danske Banks completing his ninth work, The Litteraturpris. Pia is also the Brothers, in 2010. translator of Ali Smith and Alain de Botton into Danish. What book changed the way you think about fiction? Where and how do you write? Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz. I write everywhere - in bed, in the kitchen, in the cinema, on buses and What was your favourite book as a child? trains, rarely at my desk. On my mobile, Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson. my laptop or by hand in my notebooks.

And what is your favourite book now? What is the most research you have The Sound and the Fury by William done for a book? PEIRENE NO. 9 Faulkner. My whole life is research for all my books. What is your favourite fictional SEA OF INK character? What was the first book to make an Benjy in The Sound and the Fury. impression on you? RICHARD WEIHE Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. What book do you wish you had read (If you have to read them in English, Translated from the Swiss German by Jamie Bulloch when you were young? then choose the translation by The Bible. Jean Hersholt.) ‘He wet the brush tip with ink a second time and signed the small piece of paper with the characters ba da shan ren. He had given himself What lessons have you learned about life What book would you give to a friend’s another name: man on the mountain of the eight compass points.’ from reading? child on their eighteenth birthday? That life is even stranger than it seems One of the new amazing collections Fact and fiction achieve a perfect union in this exquisite novella. to be. of Danish poetry. There are lots to A beautiful story about the quiet, determined pursuit of inspiration, choose from. What is the most beautiful book you own? this is a charming and uplifting book. After reading it, we looked Turner in his Time by Andrew Wilton. What book influenced you the most? at the world a little differently. Not a book, but TS Eliot’s poem ‘The Which do you prefer – ebooks or the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. traditional print version? Traditional print versions as long What is the funniest scene you’ve as I live. read? Perhaps a scene in one of the novels What is your favourite quotation? by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, I forget we had made history. For the fi rst the Iraqi Hassan Blasim, for his fine The famous last sentence in The Wild the title. A police raid goes terribly time ever a woman author had won book The Iraqi Christ, published by my Palms (meaning the love story). wrong. Hilarious.Very cruel. the prize. Moreover, a woman author fellow indy publisher Comma Press. What advice would you give to an Which writers, living or dead, would published by a woman publisher. The But. aspiring author? you invite to your dream dinner party? literary world was ecstatic. For the first time ever in the prize’s Don’t do it, but if you really have to Jane Austen, Hans Christian Andersen In our dreams. history there was a runner-up. A book do it, don’t listen to anyone. and Oscar Wilde, please. The Independent Foreign Fiction that received a special mention. A Prize, the most prestigious prize for book that the judges felt deserved What is your favourite word? foreign fiction in the Anglo-Saxon recognition even though they didn’t Tender. world, went for the twenty-fourth award it the prize: Peirene’s The consecutive year to a male author, Mussel Feast. 24

LONGLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2012

INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2011 FILM RIGHTS SOLD TO UK PRODUCTION COMPANY FIRST BORN FILMS

GUARDIAN PAPERBACKS OF THE YEAR 2011 An intriguing and intricate gem A heartbreaking tale of loss. of a novel. PAM NORFOLK, NICHOLAS LEZARD, GUARDIAN LANCASHIRE EVENING POST

PEIRENE NO. 4 PEIRENE NO. 5 NEXT WORLD NOVELLA TOMORROW PAMPLONA MATTHIAS POLITYCKI JAN VAN MERSBERGEN

Translated from the German by Anthea Bell Translated from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson

‘If only it hadn’t been for that smell! … Schepp noticed it at once, that ‘You hear the bulls coming closer. You feel the ground shaking subtle sense of something Other in the midst of ordinary life, slightly beneath your feet. And when you see that first bull and it’s time skewing the morning.’ to run, everyone starts screaming. You can’t even think. All you can do is run as fast as your legs will carry you.’ This novella deals with the weighty subjects of marriage and death in an impressively light manner. Shifting realities We adore the deceptive simplicity of this story. On the surface, the evolve with a beautiful sense of irony and wit. It is a tone fast-moving plot, the short sentences, the ordinary words make that allows us to reflect – without judgement – on the text as straightforward as punches in a boxing match. But just misunderstanding, contradictory perceptions and the as physical conflict stirs deep emotions, so too does this book as it transience of life. focuses on a single question: how do you choose between flight and fight?

As we clapped the winner, I can’t ‘This is brilliant. Much better than manager Jen and my assistant Clara, deny it: for a moment the Nymph and receiving the official prize,’ she Let the fantasies run our designer Sacha, Philip and Ellen I were a tiny bit disappointed to see whispered into my ear. ‘Everyone now wild in your head and, who work at the stall, Maddy, my our beautiful dream go up in a puff will know that we made the judges husband, the Nymph and I. And we all of smoke. I threw Peirene a worried think twice. Prizes are always political. maybe, reality will agreed: that evening we had received glance, as I half expected her to turn But the panel knew they couldn’t give you something official recognition that Peirene has on her heels and march out of the simply sidestep us. The Mussel Feast become a force in the literary world. room in indignation. I quickly handed is too impressive.’ different and almost So, the moral of the story: let the her a glass of champagne. She took a Thirteen people went for dinner that as good. fantasies run wild in your head and, couple of big gulps. Then she suddenly night. Birgit and her husband, Jamie maybe, reality will give you something began to smile. and his wife, our Roaming Store different and almost as good. 25

GUARDIAN PAPERBACKS OF THE YEAR 2011 This award-winning collection... drew comparisons with Kafka. But Hotschnig’s quietly terrifying voice is all his own.

JANE SHILLING, DAILY MAIL INTERVIEW WITH CAREY BORN, story and setting that are inseparable: DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER AT FIRST if you take something out it all falls BORN FILMS apart. Also, there is a great deal of subtext contained in the spareness of Carey Born is an award-winning the writing, which means that it is film-maker with fifteen years’ one of those books that reveal more experience in production. Following on each reading. I think books like a collaboration on the short film this can often make good films. Shadow Man, directed by Amanda Rudman, which Carey wrote and In just a few words, how would you co-produced in 2002, she and describe the kind of movie that you Darren Heath formed independent have in mind? production company First Born A visually arresting, psychologically Films in 2006. They produce drama, compelling drama driven by the comedy and documentary films, and relationship between the two main have recently acquired the film rights characters and the dark secret at the to Tomorrow Pamplona. heart of the boxer’s need to run.

When you came across Tomorrow You are working with Laura Pamplona, what was it about the book Watkinson’s English translation and that first attracted you? the film will be shot in English, but I thought the premise sounded the original novel is Dutch and the dramatic so I asked Alli Smith, who two main characters are from Holland, works with us, to read it and let me where their journey starts. How are you PEIRENE NO. 6 know her thoughts. Alli immediately planning to approach this? Should we flagged this as a book we should expect a change of setting? read: there are three of us who make We are indeed working with Laura MAYBE THIS TIME decisions to take things forward, and Watkinson’s excellent translation. it’s rare that we all agree! In this As the film will be shot in English ALOIS HOTSCHNIG instance we were all gripped and and we are a UK-based company we unanimous in our reaction that this are intending for the characters to Translated from the Austrian German by Tess Lewis was for us. Tomorrow Pamplona is become British and for the action written in a deceptively spare style to start in the UK. Thanks to the ‘He became a happy father and could not bear the thought of having that masks an intricate world and universality of Jan van Mersbergen’s children. He was a student attending the school in which he taught. complex interaction of characters. characters and story the characters’ He performed surgery and awoke from anaesthesia. He raised bees, It’s the kind of book where the closer nationality is something we feel you look, and the more you read it, fell in love, mourned, was afraid and frightened others, and was we can alter without damaging the the more you see. substance of the piece. However, happy. He was finally alone and intolerably lonely.’ there are elements of scenes set in Why do you think it would make a good Holland that we will retain in the We love Kafka and here we have a Kafkaesque sense of alienation film? Is there one particular aspect film: for instance, where the presence – not to mention narrative experiments galore! Outwardly normal that stands out or is it the combination of water is important. events slip into drama before they tip into horror. These oblique of all the different elements (setting, characters, storyline...)? Do you have a favourite scene in the tales exert a fascinating hold over the reader. The book is visually vivid, but it’s book? If so, how do you envisage it on the combination of all the elements the screen? that made us respond to it in terms I have a number of favourite scenes, of translating it for the screen. but if I have to choose a particular NYMPHS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN at the manuscript one last time – even There is a coherence to it – the scene the one that springs to mind is Friday morning. ‘I’m off.’ The Nymph is though I’ve already done two rounds characters drive the storyline and when Danny the boxer goes to meet already halfway out of the door before of editing. Furthermore the book has the storyline reveals more about the boxing promoter Gerard Varon in his characters within particular settings I look up. ‘Where are you going?’ I say been subedited, set and proofread, but house. The scene is so subtly drawn – everything is skilfully interwoven and has a chilling, Faustian quality; slightly absent-mindedly. Frankly, I worry that the text doesn’t yet gel. like a delicate puzzle. This, I believe, every gesture feels significant and – right at this moment I don’t care that ‘You are stressed. I can see it from is what you’re looking for in a film in retrospect – telling. I hope we can much about her movements. your pursed lips,’ Peirene replies. ‘And – this interweaving of character, do it justice! I have my own problems. No. 14 was all you will do is revise the text for the supposed to have gone to the printers rest of the day. And if I make a tiny today. But in the morning I woke with noise, you’ll snap at me. So I am off to a nagging feeling that I ought to look seek some fun elsewhere.’ 26

LONGLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2011

WINNER OF SCOTT MONCRIEFF PRIZE 2011 FOR BEST ENGLISH TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2010

BOOKTRUST TOP 5 TRANSLATED BOOKS 2010 FOYLES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2010 Tragic. Moving. Essential reading. Short, spare and haunting. ROSIE GOLDSMITH, BBC THE STRAND, BBC WORLD SERVICE

PEIRENE NO. 1 PEIRENE NO. 2 BESIDE THE SEA STONE IN A LANDSLIDE VÉRONIQUE OLMI MARIA BARBAL

Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter Translated from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell

‘The children didn’t move, I could hear them breathing, it was the first ‘And when Barcelona in the evening becomes a story from up north, time I’d slept next to them and, hearing them breathing like that, I knew there is no one to tell it to, and it annoys everyone that I want to turn I was the one who’d given them that breath. Me. What a job life is… an evening in Barcelona into some remarkable event on a forgotten what a funny old job...’ mountain.’

This is the most impressive novel about the relationship between We fell in love with Conxa’s narrative voice, its stoic calmness and a mother and child that we have read. Véronique Olmi handles complete lack of anger and bitterness. It’s a timeless voice, down to an aspect of motherhood that we all too often deny. She depicts a earth and full of human contradictory nuances. It’s the expression of woman’s fear of releasing her children into the world. someone who is searching for understanding in a changing world.

I look up from the pages with a my instinct. Editing translations is in the last hour alone. Fame at last. sigh. I don’t need a Nymph tantrum. Editing translations like peeling an artichoke. Each round Call us back.’ She explains: ‘I’m going to Jen’s. is like peeling an of revision brings us closer to the I open the internet browser on my She is scouting out new Roaming essence of the original and improves computer. And true! Twitter has gone Store locations and she asked me to artichoke. the English text. Peirene-mad. accompany her.’ Peirene waves at I take a break. While the kettle is I call Jen. ‘Wow! This is amazing. me and exits. Pleased that the Nymph boiling I check my messages. It’s the What has happened?’ is making herself useful, I return to Nymph. She can barely talk, she is In the morning Jen had linked to my work. so excited. a BBC book list of 100 must-read A few hours later, my life looks ‘Have you… have you seen Twitter? classics on our Facebook page. A brighter. I am happy that I followed I am trending. Over seventy responses couple of our Twitter fans commented 27

LONGLISTED FOR THE INDEPENDENT FOREIGN FICTION PRIZE 2012

INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2011

GUARDIAN PAPERBACKS OF THE YEAR 2011 A small masterpiece. HELMUT SCHMITZ, THE

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT INTERVIEW WITH JAMIE BULLOCH, Feast). Which is your favourite of the TRANSLATOR OF PORTRAIT OF THE three and why? MOTHER AS A YOUNG WOMAN They are all highly accomplished pieces of writing, but the historian in Jamie Bulloch is a historian and has me is drawn to the allegory of East worked as a professional translator Germany in The Mussel Feast. from German since 2001. After studying Modern Languages at You have also translated many books Bristol University, he obtained an for other publishers. How are the MA in Central European History and Peirene books different from other followed up with a PhD in interwar works you have translated? Austrian history. He taught German They’re conspicuously shorter than language and Central European other books I’ve translated, but also History at UCL, King’s College stylistically more complex. London and Warwick University. His translations include books by What was the biggest challenge Paulus Hochgatterer, Alissa Walser when translating Portrait of the and Timur Vermes. Jamie has also Mother as a Young Woman? translated Peirene Nos. 9 and 10 The itinerary taken by the young and he is the author of Karl Renner: woman on her walk through Rome Austria. is a real one, and described by the author in great detail. To begin with How did you get into literary I was not sure how accurate my translation? rendering of these descriptions was, PEIRENE NO. 3 My break came when Christopher but by using Google Street View I MacLehose of MacLehose Press could do the walk virtually myself invited me to do a sample. He liked and eliminate the uncertainties. PORTRAIT OF THE MOTHER it. The novel is written as one single AS A YOUNG WOMAN What are the best and the worst things sentence, with no full stops, and FRIEDRICH CHRISTIAN DELIUS about being a translator? follows the thoughts of just one Best: The work is always challenging character. In what ways did that Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch and creative. Worst: It doesn’t earn affect the translation process? you a living. It looks more difficult than it ‘ ... even in Germany she had not read the papers, it was better not to actually was. Although the novella What do you think makes a good is composed of a single sentence, it know too much, not to say too much, not to ask too much, one always translator? is in fact divided up in a way that heard bad news soon enough…’ You need to have the confidence presented few syntactical challenges to make lots of difficult decisions when translating. Once I had found We were simply enthralled by the structure of this narrative, a single and you must write convincingly in the voice of the protagonist, the rest 105-page-long sentence with a beautifully clear rhythm. At the same English. followed on from there. time it’s a compelling and credible description of a ‘typical’ young What have been your most enjoyable Given the above question, how would German woman during the Nazi era. If we can relate to her we translation projects? you describe Portrait of the Mother come close to understanding the forces that were shaping an Timur Vermes’s Hitler satire, as a Young Woman in one (short!) entire generation. published in English as Look Who’s sentence for those who haven’t read it? Back, was hard work, but enormous A highly lyrical and vivid exploration fun. The author and German of the thought processes and fears of on how Anglocentric the list was. ‘No offence,’ Peirene texted me, publisher gave the translators a young woman on the threshold of So Jen suggested she’d draw ‘but Jen just knows how to have substantial creative licence to make motherhood in a foreign land. up a top 100 Peirene list with fun. We are tweeting with the the book funny in their respective languages. Do you have a favourite line or scene recommendations from our readers. world. I hope you’re enjoying in the book? She received nearly 200 suggestions. adding full stops and taking out You have translated three books for What I like most of all is the inner In the evening she proudly put up commas.’ Peirene Press (Friedrich Christian conflict of this woman from a simple our list, the 100 Translated Books Delius’s Portrait of the Mother as a background who does not want to Everyone Should Read, compiled Young Woman, Richard Weihe’s Sea of feel unpatriotic but yet somehow entirely by Peirene Press readers. Ink and Birgit Vanderbeke’s The Mussel knows the war is wrong. I haven’t seen the Nymph all weekend. She’s staying with Jen. 28 PEIRENE EVENTS To find out about our forthcoming events, visit: www.peirenepress.com/events PEIRENE SALON ‘A combination of fringe Soirées of literature, conversation, dinner and drinks theatre, psychiatrist’s couch, conversazione @ Peirene Premises, 17 Cheverton Road, London N19 3BB society and flirtation Doors open at 7.30pm. parlour, the Peirene The evening starts with drinks. Salon is unlike any The reading commences at 8.15pm, other literary gathering. followed by dinner and wine. Whisky and coffee will be served at 11pm. It was intellectually stimulating but Saturday 28 February 2015 Aki Ollikainen, author of White Hunger full of laughter, Saturday 13 June 2015 argumentative but Deborah Levy, British author friendly, seriously Saturday 12 September 2015 focused on the Novel Gøhril Gabrielsen, author of but without forgetting The Looking-Glass Sisters the Wine.’ Saturday 5 December 2015 JOHN WALSH, INDEPENDENT Moniza Alvi, British-Pakistani poet 29 PEIRENE SUPPER CLUB Intimate dinners with the great minds of contemporary European literature @ Book & Kitchen, 31 All Saints Road, London W11 1HE ‘With the Supper Club, 7pm - 9pm. Dinner and conversation start promptly at 7pm. Peirene has produced a Friday 27 February 2015 typically innovative new Aki Ollikainen, author of White Hunger forum for intelligent and Friday 12 June 2015 Ella Berthoud, bibliotherapist unpretentious discussion Friday 11 September 2015 of interesting novels, Gøhril Gabrielsen, author of The Looking-Glass Sisters creating a space for ideas to grow.’ PAUL MITCHELL, SUPPER CLUB GUEST

PEIRENE BOOK CLUB A midweek literary escape with fellow book lovers in the heart of Bloomsbury

‘The Book Club provides @ Persephone Books, 59 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1N 3NB an additional way to 6.30pm - 8pm Cheese, grapes and wine will be served. experience and enjoy the Reading the book before the evening is a requirement. book. You get insights and Wednesday 11 March 2015 ideas you wouldn’t have Beside the Sea, Véronique Olmi (No. 1, Female Voice) otherwise. A warm and Wednesday 13 May 2015 White Hunger, Aki Ollikainen (No. 16, Chance Encounter) friendly atmosphere, lovely Wednesday 8 July 2015 people, surrounded by Tomorrow Pamplona, Jan van Mersbergen (No. 5, Male Dilemma) beautiful books with cheese Wednesday 9 September 2015 and wine – what more could Reader for Hire, Raymond Jean (No. 17, Chance Encounter) Wednesday 11 November 2015 you ask for from an evening?’ The Looking-Glass Sisters, Gøhril Gabrielsen (No. 18, Chance Encounter) LINDSEY HORSFIELD, Wednesday 9 December 2015 BOOK CLUB PARTICIPANT Chasing the King of Hearts, Hanna Krall (No. 12, Turning Point) 30 COME RAIN OR SHINE A day in the life of the Peirene Roaming Store BY JENNIFER CAIRNS

* Delete as applicable The alarm buzzes me awake at 5am/6.45am/7am and I see that it’s a glorious/ wet/blustery/icy/humid Saturday/Sunday/midweek morning in April/June/ September/December.

I put on my wellies/sunglasses/warmest winter coat because today I am taking the Peirene Roaming Store to Old Spitalfields Market/Crouch End Broadway/ The Hampstead Festival/Kew Midsummer Fete/Oxford Arts & Crafts Fair.

I pack my book trolley and order a taxi. The driver helps me cheerfully/ reluctantly/grumpily to lift the heavy trolley into his car.

As I set up the stall I speak with a book-loving housewife/literature student/ eccentric artist/retired university professor/busy young mother/unpublished writer/tourists from Denmark who cite Irène Némirovsky/Kate Atkinson/Franz Kafka/Ian McEwan/Virginia Woolf as among their favourite authors.

I recommend The Mussel Feast/Beside the Sea/Next World Novella. The day has started well.

I then try to catch the eyes of passers-by. They walk straight past me/throw me a dismissive glance/approach the stall, wondering if we are a religious society/asking if I am a self-published author/admiring our beautiful book covers. When they hear we publish European best-sellers for the first time in English translation their eyes light up/they inform me they don’t like reading/insist that foreign literature is too difficult for them. I smile and ask them what they like reading/films they like to watch/news story touched them recently and they walk away with a Peirene book/a Peirene newspaper/our event flyers.

As the sky clouds over/sun comes out/rain starts to fall/snowflakes whirl I meet a Peirene subscriber/book blogger/Twitter fan who has read Stone in a Landslide/ Tomorrow Pamplona/The Murder of Halland and we discuss the poetry of the text/ the unusual structure/the controversial ending/the reliability of the narrator.

They go away with another Peirene book/a 2015 subscription/a ticket to the next Supper Club.

By the time the taxi comes to collect us I have a considerably lighter suitcase. At home the Nymph and I sit over a hot cup of tea/glass of Chianti/ ice-cold gin and tonic and we congratulate ourselves on another brilliant day and a job well done.

Our Roaming Store pops up all across the UK. Jennifer, our Roaming Store manager, is busy planning Roaming Store tours and locations. If you know of a spot – a market, a street, a shop, a café – that would love to host our pop-up stall, please contact her at [email protected] 31 Peirene Press is proud to support the Maya Centre

Peirene donates 50p from By buying a copy of these The Maya Centre needs £2,000 the sale of each copy of books you help the Maya to provide one year of therapy Beside the Sea (Peirene No. 1), Centre to continue their for one woman. In 2013, we our Turning Point series pioneering services for collected £3,565 for the Maya (Peirene Nos. 10, 11, 12) and vulnerable women. Centre. This figure also includes our Coming-of-Age series You can also donate to the thirty-three extra donations of (Peirene Nos. 13, 14, 15) to centre via our website: £5 each, given by readers when the Maya Centre. www.peirenepress.com/shop ordering books from our shop. We are immensely grateful. The Maya Centre provides Our aim is to reach at least free long-term psychodynamic ‘I can speak in English but I £4,000 annually to enable two counselling and group prefer a counsellor who can more women to receive help psychotherapy for women on understand my culture and every year. low or no income in London. my way of thinking; you give The counselling is offered in me your insight.’ MAYA CENTRE In 2015 we will continue our many different languages, SERVICE USER support. To the list of the above including Arabic, Turkish books, we will add our Chance and Portuguese. The centre ‘I faced my ghosts and Encounter series (Peirene Nos. also undertakes educational have a better understanding 16, 17, 18). work on women’s mental of myself.’ MAYA CENTRE health issues. SERVICE USER www.mayacentre.org.uk

www.loyolsenphotography.com e [email protected] m +44 (0)7989605397

‘ Beautiful photographs, like evocative literature, always tell a story. The pictures linger in our minds and, if the moment is right, we can capture these on the canvas too.

I love to tell stories with my photographs, to illuminate the grace and beauty in your story and translate tham into an image you are inspired by.

You might discover a new side of yourself, a side you didn’t know was there.

I am a natural light photographer specializing in portraiture and life documentary.

It has been a pleasure to tell Peirene’s story.’ SUBSCRIBE Subscribe to Peirene and receive a beautiful book of world-class literature every four months delivered directly to your doorstep. £35 1 Year Subscription (3 BOOKS, FREE UK P&P) ‘An £65 2 Year Subscription (6 BOOKS, FREE UK P&P) £90 3 Year Subscription (9 BOOKS, FREE UK P&P) www.peirenepress.com/shop with secure online ordering facility invaluable E [email protected] contribution to our cultural life.’ ANDREW MOTION

‘A class act.’ GUARDIAN

To receive our monthly newsletter, join our mailing list: www.peirenepress.com/signup PUBLISHER Meike Ziervogel Follow us on Twitter and Facebook E [email protected] @PeirenePress ROAMING STORE Jennifer Cairns Our books are available at E [email protected] www.peirenepress.com/shop and all good UK bookshops, NEWSPAPER EDITOR Clara Ministral including Waterstones and Amazon. E [email protected] For worldwide delivery and special offers visit: SALES REPRESENTATION www.peirenepress.com/shop Signature Books E [email protected] Peirene Press 17 Cheverton Road, DESIGN & ART DIRECTION London N19 3BB, UK Sacha Davison Lunt T +44 (0)207 686 1941 E [email protected] www.peirenepress.com www.davisonlunt.com