Foreign Authors You May Not Know

--Heather Murphy

One might think that winning a Nobel Prize would be a ticket to literary success in the United States. Not quite. Even after winning the esteemed award for his book Fateless -- and adapting the novel into an acclaimed movie -- Hungarian author Imre Kertesz couldn't keep his book contract with a major American publisher. It seems sales didn't meet expectations. For his latest novella, he had to turn to the small publisher Melville House, David Kipen of the National Endowment for the Arts told Madeleine Brand on the show this morning.
(Editorial note: Kipen made a mistake. Read more here.)

Only about three percent of all books published in the United States are works that have been translated, Kipen says.

Is the problem that Americans don't like to read books by foreign authors or that they simply don't know about them? Publishers and authors would likely offer different explanations.

In an attempt to reverse the trend -- whatever its root cause -- Kipen offered a list of his favorite foreign authors of the moment. Please feel free to add to the list in the comment section below.

The List

Britain

• *Jonathan Coe, The Rotters' Club and The House of Sleep

Russia

• *Victor Pelevin, The Sacred Book of Werewolf and Buddha's Little Finger.

• *Boris Akunin, The Winter Queen

• *Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party

Albania

• *Ismail Kadare, The Three-Arched Bridge and Spring Flowers, Spring Frost (Read Excerpt)

Hungary

• *Imre Kertesz, Fateless, The Pathseeker (Read Excerpt).

Portugal

• *Antonio Lobo Antunes, What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire?

Norway

• *Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses

Egypt

• *Naguib Mahfouz, The Thief and the Dogs, (Read Excerpt)

• *Muhammad Yusuf Quayd, War in the Land of Egypt

• *Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building

Japan

• *Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Mexico

• *Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz

12:12 PM ET | 10-15-2008 | permalink

comments () | | e-mail

You Listen, You Read

As part of our ongoing look at the California Dream, we aired a segment today on two books with roots in Santa Cruz, James D. Houston's Where Light Takes its Color from the Sea and Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club.

We've also been publishing lists of books about California, with Day to Day staffers Jason DeRose and Skye Rohde providing lists of the favorite Cali reads. We'd like to keep adding to our list, so tell us about your favorite CA-themed books.

--Gary Dauphin

12:52 PM ET | 08-13-2008 | permalink

comments () | | e-mail

More Reading the California Dream

You can't see them in this picture of Jason, but there's a pool and a book outside the frame.

Jason DeRose, NPR

--Jason DeRose: Why does someone like myself--with an abiding love for the Midwest--like to read about the Golden State? I avoided California for the first 25 years of my life. But a much-needed post-grad school vacation here in Los Angeles made me fall in love with the place. Drinking margaritas on the patio. Lolling by the pool. And, of course, reading. I read books about or set in the places I vacation. So, over the last decade, I've been reading about Southern California. Then, earlier this year, I moved here from Chicago to work on Day to Day. I think the reading had something to do with the move. Oddly, not all of these books are flattering. California is a place of contradictions. But they're all true--even the fictions.

Here's my list:

Continue reading "More Reading the California Dream" »

1:09 PM ET | 08- 8-2008 | permalink

comments () | | e-mail

Reading the California Dream

Image by Flickr.com user striatic

--Skye Rohde

As luck would have it, I designed my college major to focus on what the academic in me likes to call "the intersection between person and place." That led me to a whole lot of history, geology and literature about the American West, and California plays a central role in all those stories.

I make no claims about being an expert on "California Lit;" this is just a sampling of what's out there about California. In fact, it's technically just what's on my bookshelf at home. But I'd be curious to know what folks think of these books - and to hear what people would include on their own lists about life in California.

Continue reading "Reading the California Dream" »

12:52 PM ET | 08- 5-2008 | permalink

comments () | | e-mail