I, for one, am looking forward to reading the new translation of Kafka's third--and least read--novel, alternatively called The Missing Person and Amerika. The novel was originally published in 1927, after Kafka's death, by his literary executor Max Brod. A new translation, by Mark Harman, is being published by Shocken Books. Adam Kirsch gives an overview of Amerika--not Harman's translation, as such, but Kafka's story in general--in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
N.B. In the same NYTSBR, Sarah Fay reviews Tokyo Fiancée by Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb--a semi-autobiographical account of a young Belgian woman teaching French in Japan and falling in love with her student.
2 comments:
I am the US editor of Nothomb's new novel, Tokyo Fiancée , and I thought your readers might like to know that we are currently scheduling several events with Nothomb to be held in the Boston area. More info here: http://www.europaeditions.com/news.php?year=2009&month=1#news_id_514
michael reynolds
Am currently studying Kafka (in Japan - somehow adds to the oddness!) and will be interested to see how any new translations affect the interpretations of his work. Am obviously reading works in English, so the translator has a huge affect on how the work is taken. I think a lot of Japanese works actually suffer because of this, though my Japanese isn't good enough to tell yet. Thanks for the New York times link, by the way, the article was just what I was looking for.
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