FICTION IN TRANSLATION

Review

Winter in Sokcho review – broodingly atmospheric

Ten of the best new books in translation

This article is more than 5 years old

The tension builds in Elisa Shua Dusapin’s first novel after a mysterious guest arrives at a dead-end South Korean hotel

Catherine Taylor

Friday 28 February 2020

An out-of-season South Korean resort, a mysterious foreign visitor and a young woman whose dual nationality and anguished diffidence mark her out as an anomaly among her community are the main components of French-Korean author Elisa Shua Dusapin’s compact first novel. The book is set in Sokcho, a city so close to South Korea’s impenetrable northern counterpart that it is possible to take a day trip over the border.

Han Kang’s Nobel win is testament to importance of small press publishing

Han Kang

Han Kang’s Nobel win is testament to importance of small press publishing

Literature in translation has long been reliant on indie presses to bring work such as the South Korean author’s to wider audiences

Catherine Taylor

Thu 10 Oct 2024 18.04 BST

The announcement of the South Korean writer Hawn Kang as the 2024 Nobel Literature laureate is a triumph not only for Korean literature but also a reminder of the huge reach and influence of small press publishing, which takes on so much of the heavy work of introducing literature in translation to a wider audience.

Annie Ernaux / The 2022 Nobel literature laureate’s greatest works

 

‘No triumphant displays of irony’ … Annie Ernaux. Photograph: Francesca Mantovani

Annie Ernaux: the 2022 Nobel literature laureate’s greatest works

Catherine Taylor
6 October 2022

Writer and critic Catherine Taylor explains how the French writer became the ‘great chronicler to a generation’

F

or once, the rumours have proved true. Annie Ernaux, the 82-year-old French writer, who for the last couple of years has been touted as a favourite, has been announced as the winner of the 2022 Nobel prize for literature – only the 17th woman out 119 laureates in the award’s history.