Sir, – It is unfortunate that Alison McCoy (December 6th) does not indicate the reasons why she was “put off” by the high number of translations in Eileen Battersby’s choice of the top fiction titles of 2014. However, her query about whether “there [were] really only four written in the original English worth recommending” suggests that fiction in translation is to be considered only when the literary options in one’s native language have been exhausted. This seems an insular stance to adopt – in an era of increasing globalisation, are we to limit our reading exclusively to writers from Anglophone cultures? With around 96 per cent of all literary publications annually in the UK and Ireland being originally written in English, it is unlikely that even the most voracious bookworm will run out of reading material before she or he must resort to literature in translation. Yet in providing different stories about other cultures, world views, and histories, we believe such literatures to be essential to understanding ourselves and our position in the world. Moreover, the success of writers such as Haruki Murakami, Umberto Eco and, more recently, Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbø, has demonstrated that translations too can be blockbusters. Thus we commend not only Eileen Battersby’s decision to include such a geographically and linguistically broad selection of writers in her list, but also her commitment to highlight recent developments in international literature, such as her surveys of Finnish (December 6th) and German (November 3rd) books in translation, as well her recent reviews of works by Georges Perec, Antonio Pennacchi, Hanne Orstavik, Daniel Kehlmann, Béla Zombory-Moldován, Wolfgang Koeppen, and others (in all of which she mentions the translator!). – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN KEARNS,
Irish Translators’ and
Interpreters’ Association,
Irish Writers’ Centre,
19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.