A splendid night at the Royal Institute of British Architects for the
annual Taittinger-lubricated celebration of fiction in translation. It
was good to catch up with so many friends and take bets on the potential
winner. Bill Swainson of Bloomsbury was right in tipping The Detour as
the dark horse of the competition – I thought the prize would be a close
race between Pushkin Press' The Traveller of the Century by Andrés
Neuman or Maclehose Press' Trieste by Daša Drndić (I hope the accents
come out OK). We also had a book in the shortlist – Bundu by Chris
Barnard – but having won last year, we weren't very hopeful of a new
success and were secretly cheering Pushkin's book alongside ours.
When they began to describe the winner, all the contenders thought
they'd won: "It's a lyrical book… beautifully written… perfectly
translated… a love story… a quest… an escape…" That wise man, François
von Hurter of Bitter Lemon Press, who was standing next to us, rightly
said: "Every cliché applies to every book – because all books are
clichéd."
In the end, as I said, it was a bit of a surprise when the winner (a
deserved one, I am sure) was declared to be The Detour by Gerbrand
Bakker (translated from the Dutch by David Colmer). The author's and
translator's speeches were sweet and I am sure their nerves eased once
they got off the podium and toasted their success with more champagne.
Here I am with our author Elaine Feinstein in front of the podium.
Tonight is the Man Book International Award ceremony, and we'll be there
to cheer our shortlisted author, Aharon Appelfeld – and catch up with
some other friends over a glass or two of bubbly.
A.
Great job! Well done and keep up the good work.
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