In this merry month of May we are wallowing in a joyful abundance of literary events, celebrations, new translations and publications of literature in translation. The highlight was our annual European Literature Night at the British Library, featuring the six authors selected from sixty-five submissions by me and my fellow judges. It was a glittering night of great literature. Tonight, Monday 16th May 2016, the winner will be announced of the Man Booker International Prize – I will be there (in red probably!) and I will report back! Good luck to our translated favourites. Today is also the day we publish May’s #RivetingReviews. I am proud of our discerning reviews, of our painstakingly proficient and passionate reviewers, and of the impact they are having: publishers and professionals in the international book trade are reading #RivetingReviews; readers are reading more translated fiction and more is being translated – read the exciting news here in this report.
If I were to try to find a theme for this month’s reviews I’d say it was ‘humanity’: each book explores some aspect of what makes us tick, whether it’s through the life of Edvard Munch, tales of tortured lives in a Turkish prison, the absurdist life of a ‘Russian fuse’ or the human impact of the legal system mused over by Italy’s leading crime writer. And I offer up my ‘potted plant’ reviews of all six of our European Literature Night authors –each of them in the full bloom of their humanity, creativity and originality.
PS. If you’d like to review us do get in touch – reviews can be potted plant length, trimmed bushes or whole gardens. I’m a very happy editor-gardener.
By Rosie Goldsmith
Check out our photos from the European Literature Night 2016.