Soho has done well with its crime series, and many of those books are translations. Henning Mankell has done very well. I think the key factor is getting them reviewed.
I don't really buy his suggestion that more international fiction in English translation would "give readers a break from their steady diet of James Patterson, Robert B. Parker, Danielle Steel, Mary Higgins Clark and Joyce Carol Oates." Unless those works of international fiction are going to be sold at airport snack stands or advertised on mass transit, it simply won't happen, and I think he's wrongly conflating all readers into a single group with shared tastes. By and large, the new James Patterson novel and the latest Halldor Laxness translation aren't competing for the same sets of eyeballs.
I think you're probably right, Jeff, though some Scandinavian crime fiction seems quite competitive on these shores. Also, even if the publishers brought out the books, it's getting them to the attention of readers that is the problem - and fewer and fewer book review outlets hardly helps.
I don't really buy his suggestion that more international fiction in English translation would "give readers a break from their steady diet of James Patterson, Robert B. Parker, Danielle Steel, Mary Higgins Clark and Joyce Carol Oates." Unless those works of international fiction are going to be sold at airport snack stands or advertised on mass transit, it simply won't happen, and I think he's wrongly conflating all readers into a single group with shared tastes. By and large, the new James Patterson novel and the latest Halldor Laxness translation aren't competing for the same sets of eyeballs.
ReplyDeleteI think you're probably right, Jeff, though some Scandinavian crime fiction seems quite competitive on these shores. Also, even if the publishers brought out the books, it's getting them to the attention of readers that is the problem - and fewer and fewer book review outlets hardly helps.
ReplyDeleteGodine does very well with translations between their literary value and course adoptions (even before the Nobel).
ReplyDeleteAnd Godine is deserving of great praise from readers of good will.
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