From book fairs to bestsellers, the world of international letters knows no rest. In Qatar, the 31st Doha International Book Fair has launched with an in-person schedule. In Japan, a new project aiming to promote Southeast Asian and Indian literature has published an impressive roster of short fiction, and in Sweden, two beloved figures are immortalized in text. Read on to find out more!
MK Harb, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Lebanon
Happy New Year from the world of Arabic literature! With Omicron, media frenzies, and restrictions around the world, we could all use some escape. Travel might be limited, but how about an escape to the fantasy world of Arabian Nights? The iconic collection that has inspired countless others around the world, from the Brothers Grimm to Naguib Mafhouz, has received a fresh new translation by Yasmine Seale—known for her riveting new translation of Aladdin. Enter the world of ghouls, mystics, and enchantresses, and enjoy your COVID-free time travel (it has some brilliant images!).
The theme of time travel continues with the launch of the Winter issue of Arab Lit Quarterly! Responding to the theme of folk and featuring great writers such as Palestinian author Sonia Nimr, this issue promises to “cover stories, songs, and poetry from the last millennium, from Andalusia to Yemen, with stops across the cities in between!” You can get your copy here.
That being said, the world is not entirely being relegated to the virtual, as Qatar launches the 31st Doha International Book Fair for the year of 2022, under the theme of “light is knowledge.” Finally, we will visit our first in-person book fair in years, which will host renowned Arabic book distributors such as Samarkand Books from Qatar and Antoine Cachet from Lebanon!
Here at Asymptote, we are excited about the iconic Lebanese author Rabih Alameddine’s new novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope, published with Grove Atlantic. Faithful to writing the stories of our pressing times, the plot follows the life of a trans doctor attempting to help Syrian refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. The story is inspired by the author’s own work on the island, and it follows his usual craft of haunting inner monologues and uncanny interactions between people. Expect a review from us soon! In the meantime, check out an older post we wrote about Alameddine’s work.
Peera Songkünnatham, Editor-at-Large, reporting for Japan and Thailand
The Japan Foundation’s Asian Literature Project YOMU (meaning “read” in Japanese) has kicked off to an impressive start. Featuring twenty-seven short stories and essays on the pandemic from six Southeast Asian countries and India, the project showcases their English and Japanese translations from eleven different languages. Most stimulating so far are the short stories from Malaysia: in “Second Course,” Terence Toh imagines an afterlife of shuttered restaurants; in “Notice of Closure,” Li Zi Shu shows how life finds a way despite—or perhaps thanks to—death; in “Angsana,” Nadia Khan implies that the one unbroken rule of social distancing is class division; and in “Light” by M Navin, a rural Tamil girl finds herself a media spectacle when rival politicians provide her with remote learning devices.
The project also publishes reports, interviews, and online seminars. The boom of South Korean literature in Japan (a self-help title, for example, has sold around 500,000 copies) provides a thought-provoking case study in the roundtable talk “The Future of Southeast Asian Literature: Connecting Authors and Readers.” Soft power strategies certainly open gateways for South Korean literature abroad, but it is local connectors like publisher and literary agent Kim Seungbok who parlay that foreign investment into a virtuous cycle of readership expansion, with annual translation contests and networking trips with young translators to the Seoul International Book Fair. Considering the current surge of popularity of Thai dramas and boy’s love series in various Asian countries, there is cause for hope for a similar trickle-down effect in the spread of Thai literature.
That hope, however, may be far-fetched. In the words of Fukutomi Sho, a translator and researcher of Thai literature: “Sadly, I doubt that the torch has been passed on or that even a trend has emerged” for the translation of various literatures from Southeast Asia. This is despite the surprising fact that more Thai titles have been translated into Japanese than into English. What’s missing here: favorable policy, training ground, freedom of expression? In the meantime, one-off initiatives like YOMU prove that what’s certainly not lacking is talent.
Eva Wissting, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Sweden
Of the last month, the highest-selling non-fiction books in Sweden were two biographies on two of the most famous Swedes of all time: football player Zlatan Ibrahimović, and musician Avicii. The former, entitled Adrenalina: mina okända berättelser, was co-written by Ibrahimović and the Italian journalist Luigi Garlando; published by Albert Bonniers Förlag in early December in Viveka Holm’s Swedish translation, there is also an Italian version available published by Cairo. An English translation, titled Adrenaline: My Untold Story, is forthcoming from Penguin later this year.
Penguin has also previously published the English translation of Ibrahimović’s 2013 book I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović, co-authored by David Lagercrantz and translated by Ruth Urbom. Closely following Andrenalina is Tim – biografin om Avicii by journalist Måns Mosesson. Avicii, or Tim Bergling, was a Swedish DJ and musician, most known for the Grammy-nominated 2011 hit “Levels”. His music career began during his teens, and he quickly ascended to become a prominent name in house music. In 2016, he stopped touring and only two years later tragically passed away at the age of 28, after struggling with both physical and mental illness. Mosesson has interviewed family, friends, and colleagues of Avicii, as well as accessed a lot of the musician’s written material and communications, in order to paint a true depiction of both the artist and the person. This month, Little, Brown will publish an English translation by Brad Harmon with the title Tim: The Official Biography of Avicii.
These two books were not the only success stories in Sweden last year. Even though statistics for the full year are not yet available, there are likely indications that 2021 will turn out to be the strongest for the Swedish book market in history. It seems that sales numbers of the already record-breaking year of 2020 will be surpassed, both for streamed audiobooks and physical books. Primarily, audio streaming services have seen a great increase, but interestingly, sales of physical books are also increasing, mostly through online sales.
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