This week, our writers bring you the latest news from Sweden, Iran, and the UK. In Sweden, a new translation of Albert Camus’s The Plague is on its way, and the annual children’s book award ALMA has announced Baek Heena as its winner; in Iran, sales of The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree have surged after its nomination for The International Man Booker Prize, and readers have welcomed a Persian translation of Italian writer Paolo Giordano’s new non-fiction work about contagion; in the UK, authors and publishers are proving resourceful after the cancellation of key literary festivals; finally, people around the world have been mourning the death of best-selling Chilean author Luis Sepúlveda, who sadly passed away this week in Spain.
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
Easter in Sweden is usually a time when people have a few days off and either go skiing or open up the country cottage after the winter. This year, however, like in a lot of other places around the world, people have had to alter their plans as traveling was discouraged, even within the country. Unlike most of its neighboring countries, Sweden still allows bookstores as well as most other stores to remain open. Nevertheless, changed habits in a time of social and economic uncertainty has led to a decrease in sales of physical books by 35%. Although sales of e-books have increased by over 10%, bookstores have started plans to lay off employees and renegotiate rent costs, in order to manage a possible prolonged decline in book sales.
One book that nonetheless sells like never before in Sweden at this time, is French Algerian author Albert Camus’s The Plague from 1947. Swedish readers have the book today in a translation by Elsa Thulin from 1948, but a new translation is on the way, by Jan Stolpe, and will be available in stores by the end of April.
Regardless of the ongoing pandemic, the annual Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) was announced shortly before Easter, albeit online because of the travel and gathering restrictions. ALMA is the world’s largest children’s book award with a prize sum just under $500,000, established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honor the celebrated author Astrid Lindgren, and administered by the Swedish Arts Council. Out of two hundred and forty nominated candidates from sixty-seven countries, the 2020 ALMA award went to Korean author-illustrator Baek Heena, for creating miniature worlds based in reality and enriched with imagination and playfulness. Baek Heena has a background film animation and multimedia, with degrees from Ewha Woman’s Universtiy in Seoul and the California Institute of the Arts in the US. She is the author of thirteen children’s books, several of which have been translated to English, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Norwegian, as well as being adapted to musicals and animations. She is best known to English language readers for Cloud Bread from 2011.
Poupeh Missaghi, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Iran
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Europa Editions, 2020,) by Shokoofeh Azar, an Iranian author based in Australia, and translated from the Persian by an anonymous translator, has been shortlisted for The International Booker Prize. According to Azar, the original book, which due to censorship issues has had to be published in Iran as samizdat, has sold more than five thousand copies underground in the month following its nomination. The final winner of the prize will be announced on May 19, 2020.
In news of translated texts that deal with life in the time of coronavirus, the long essay “How Contagion Works: Science, Awareness, and Community in Times of Global Crises,” by Italian writer Paolo Giordano, was translated from Italian into Persian (by Mahya Bayat) and made available online for free by Borj Publications. The text has been simultaneously translated and released in thirteen other languages as well. The English audio version of the book is available through Penguin Random House.
On another front, to accommodate its users during the coronavirus quarantine, the Iranian Children National Library has made twenty-three thousand books available to its users; it has had twenty-eight thousand daily visits in the past month. Meanwhile, easing its membership conditions, The Iranian National Library has seen its digital library members rise from thirty thousand to two hundred thousand users in just one month. The National Library has also made a large part of its archive accessible to users digitally.
In sadder news, publishers and bookstores around Iran that had been looking forward to a surge in sales at Persian New Year (March 20, 2020) have been hit very hard due to shutdowns and uncertainties. Reports estimate a 90% drop of sales in the past month, despite attempts for some online promotions and sales. Moreover, the 33rd Tehran International Book Fair, which was to be held in April 2020, has been postponed to a future date, still unannounced. The Fair has also been one of the most important sales events of the year for Iranian publishers, so its postponement has exacerbated the difficult conditions.
Daljinder Johal, Assistant Managing Editor, reporting from the UK
It will be of little surprise to anyone that the UK’s literary scene has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, with everything from smaller one-off events to the long-standing Edinburgh Festivals, including Edinburgh International Book Festival, being cancelled. Alongside key literary festivals like the Hay Festival and Oxford Literary Festival falling victim to the crisis, other aspects of the publishing industry have been severely disrupted. Postponed book launches, staff furloughed, bookshops shutting up shop, the list goes on.
Nevertheless, the industry has proved resourceful in taking events digital. Publisher DK, for example, has rallied top authors to share daily videos with the campaign #EverydaywithDK. From home learning videos and family activities to cook-alongs and exercising, their readers continue to be motivated and inspired by DK’s online content. Authors themselves have taken the initiative to connect with their audiences. Some have taken a more conventional approach, including columnist and consultant Matthew Syed discussing his ideas on achieving high performance on YouTube, and writer Nikki Smith organizing a live Q&A via Twitter as part of online literature festival #StayAtHomefest.
More thrillingly, however, some writers have applied their creative talents to their launches. Dance psychologist Peter Lovatt hosted a live dance party on Instagram to demonstrate his message of the positive impacts of movement. Memoirist Abi Palmer took the opposite approach of finding stillness and contemplation in “Bathtub Conversations.” Performing live from her bathtub, she chatted with other creatives, including acclaimed theatre artist Travis Alabanza.
It’s heartening to see the industry persevere in times of such difficulty, even to the degree of helping those at the forefront of the struggle against the global pandemic access great literature. Companies like Hachette have been offering free e-books to NHS staff and Amazon’s Audible has granted free access to some of its educational content as UK schools have closed.
Despite all this, it remains to be seen whether indie presses will survive the heavy financial losses of the COVID-19 crisis—they have reportedly experienced a 90% reduction in revenue as a result of the lockdown according to Bluemoose Books founder, Kevin Duffy.
Duffy has called for bigger publishers to support their smaller counterparts since government funds will likely still be insufficient. With this in mind, for many it is hard to feel optimistic about post-lockdown life. Still, it does seem that, thanks to these small spots of endurance and community, the industry has the potential to return to normal, or to evolve into something even better.
Sarah Moore, Assistant Blog Editor, reporting from Spain
People around the world have been mourning and remembering Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, who sadly died yesterday (April 16) in Spain from COVID-19. The best-selling author was a political activist and a vocal opponent of the Pinochet dictatorship—he was imprisoned in 1973 and exiled from Chile in 1977, eventually settling in Europe. Author of novels, poetry, and children’s books, he was best known for his 1988 novella, Un viejo que leía novelas de amor (The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, Mariner Books, 1995). Set in the Ecuadorian Amazon, it tells the story of Antonio José Bolivar who, having lived in harmony alongside the native Shuar Indians, must participate in the hunt for an enraged ocelot, whose litter has been killed by a hunter. Translated into over thirty languages, its resounding environmental message is indicative of Sepúlveda’s ecological and political commitment. His children’s book Historia de una gaviota y del grato que le enseñó a volar (The Story of a Seagull and the Cat who Taught Her to Fly, Alma Books, 2003) is equally beloved throughout the world, having been translated in over forty countries with several film and theatre adaptations. A moving and life-affirming story, it is the source of one of Sepúlveda’s most famous quotes: “Only those who dare may fly”.
*****
Read more on the Asymptote blog: