Two French titles to receive PEN Promotes Award!
How exciting! Two French books translated into English feature in this year's PEN Promotes award selection:
About My Mother, Tahar Ben Jelloun
translated from French by Ros Schwartz and Lulu Norman (Saqi)
Prix Goncourt-winner Tahar Ben Jelloun’s latest book, an evocative tribute to his mother and his homeland of Morocco.
"Since she’s been ill, Lalla Fatma has become a frail little thing with a faltering memory. As her mind becomes more muddled, Fatma starts to believe that she is in Fez in 1944 – where she grew up – not in Tangier in 2000, where the story begins. During his visits, Tahar, her son, patiently sits by her side and listens as she summons members of her family who are long dead and quietly yearns for her first and only love. Guided by these fragments, Tahar vividly reimagines his mother’s life in post-war Morocco: married while still playing with dolls; widowed too young; and for whom resignation was the only way out."
More here
Alpha: Abidjan - Gare du Nord, Bessora and Barroux
translated from French by Sarah Ardizzone (Barrington Stoke)
This powerful collaboration between Bessora and Barroux, translated by Marsh Award-winning translator Sarah Ardizzone, is the heart-rending story of one young man’s journey from the Ivory Coast to France in search of his family.
After you've read the story of the acquisition of this beautiful graphic novel by Barring Stoke, I can guarantee you'll want to get your hands on the book asap!
The two other books selected this year are:
The Sorrows of Mexico, Lydia Cacho et al, translated from Spanish by various translators (MacLehose Press)
The Winterlings, Cristina Sánchez-Andrade, translated from Spanish by Samuel Rutter (Scribe)
About the PEN Promotes Award
English PEN is "the founding centre of a global literary network. It works to defend and promote freedom of expression, and to remove barriers to literature". Their award PEN Promotes has "supported the promotion of literature in translation since 2005 as part of English PEN’s Writers in Translation programme. Its aim has been to celebrate books of outstanding literary value, dedication to free speech and intercultural understanding".
Previously...
Two years ago, The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud, a best-selling riposte to Camus translated from French by John Cullen (Oneworld, 2015), received the PEN Promotes award. The author took part in an event around the book at the French Institute last year.
Check out this blog post to listen to some book extracts and part of the discussion!