Farewell to Montalbano
It’s over. I’m turning a leaf. I recently finished my work on Riccardino, the last inspector Montalbano novel, the last novel by Andrea Camilleri. I translated it into Spanish for Editorial Salamandra. Four years ago, when I had already translated a few of his works, I wrote this article for Bianco e Nero magazine. At the time, I was about to start translating El carrusel de las confusiones and I wanted to tell a little about what it was like to come face to face with a book by ...
400 Translations!
I’ve been doing this since 1989 and I have translated very many books: bad or good, long or short or also very short, with or without pictures, with gusto or reluctantly, alone or often with other colleagues... Well, it turns out that with this little gem, which came out a few weeks ago, I have reached a new mark: four hundred tiles. And I couldn’t be happier! It’s Up at the Villa, by my admired Somerset Maugham. Titled Una villa en Florencia in the Spanish edition. And it's one of the ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2021
I’m very happy with the translations I have published this first half of the year, several of them for publishers for whom I had never worked before. They include two graphic novels for Reservoir Books: my favourite comic by Marjane Satrapi and the expanded edition of Kobane Calling by Zerocalcare, plus another comic by Ken Krimstein for Salamandra Graphic. There are also two novels, one by my venerated Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra and another one by Petina Gappah, on which I worked at Looren, for Literatura Random House. Then ...
My Translations from the Second Half of 2020
This very long year has been the most prolific since I started translating and now that it ends I really need to rest and take things easy for a while. But I am also very happy with all the translations I have published in the last six months: a novel by Philip Kerr and a memoir by Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra, Carlota Gurt's first book of short stories for Navona and the novel than won David Nel·lo the Sant Jordi Award for Catedral; wonderful picture books by Farren Phillips and ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2020
A very complicated semester for the publishing world just ended. There was no Sant Jordi and no Barcelona Comic Fair, and new books published in February and March suffered particularly, since almost nobody was in time to buy them. All in all, I have published six translations: a graphic novel by Giorgia Marras on Empress Elisabeth of Austria for Sapristi and another one by Alessio Surian, Diego di Masi and Silvio Boselli on Maria Montessori for DeBolsillo; two novels, one by Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra and another one by ...
New Italian Books
Italy has just launched New Italian Books, a great site that promotes Italian literature and culture around the world, in the style of Books from Norway, New Books in German and New Spanish Books. The project has been launched by Treccani with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Centre for Books and Reading, together with the Italian Publishers Association. They publish newssheets, surveys, interviews and analyses on translations of books by Italian authors worldwide. They also offer information on the main book ...
My Translations from the Second Half of 2019
I'm extremely happy at the end of 2019 because the last six months have been once again full of great books. I've published the following translations: a novel by Jesse Ball and a memoir by Andrea Camilleri for :Rata_ and Salamandra; an exhibition catalogue devoted to Takis for MACBA, together with Irene Oliva; three comics by Marjane Satrapi, by Kris and Vincent Bailly adapting Joseph Joffo and by Odyr illustrating George Orwell for Reservoir Books and DeBolsillo, and four illustrated books by Beatrix Potter and Helen Oxenbury, by Marianna Coppo ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2019
Here are the translations I have published during the first half of the year: two novels by Andrea Camilleri and Joan-Lluís-Lluís for Salamandra and Navona; two exhibition catalogues about Berenice Abbott and Sergio Prego and Itziar Okariz for Fundación Mapfre and the Venice Biennale-Koenig Books, and five comics by John Carlin and Oriol Malet, by Ray Bradbury and Tim Hamilton, by Zerocalcare, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius and by Nick Drnaso for DeBolsillo, Reservoir Books and Salamandra ...
Ten Great Comics Lined Up
I'm terribly excited because my next translations are ten great comics and graphic novels, some ready to print and some yet to be started. They are by Alejandro Jodorowsky/Moebius, Nick Drnaso, Roberto Saviano/Asaf Hanuka, Georgia Marras, Marjane Satrapi, Greg Pak/Jonathan Coulton, John Carlin/Oriol Malet, Zerocalcare, Ken Krimstein and Odyr, and will be published by the likes of Salamandra, Reservoir Books and Sapristi. Good stuff coming ...
Two Wonderful Catalogues
I continue to translate for several museums and art centers regularly, and recently two catalogues on which I have worked have been published. The first is Dadá ruso. 1914-1924, from the exhibition that can be visited at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS) until the 22nd of October. This exhibition explores Russian avant-garde art through the perspective of the Anti-art canons associated with the international Dada movement. The catalogue, edited by Margarita Tupitsyn and the Department of Publishing Activities at MNCARS, has been designed by Tipos Móviles. The ...
De vegades hi ha llibres…
De vegades hi ha llibres che ti piacciono così tanto que tienes que traducirlos dos ...
An Afternoon with Tom Gauld
It doesn’t happen everyday. Sometimes translators are in touch with their authors, sometimes we get to meet them in person and sometimes we even have the chance to chat with them for a while. But rarely can we spend a whole afternoon with an author we admire, ask them whatever we want and then hear them speak in public in the evening. That’s what happened to me a few days ago when Tom Gauld came to Barcelona to speak at Primera Persona, a literary festival held at CCCB. He also ...
My Next Translations
I have several wonderful titles lined-up. My third translation of a Gianni Rodari book, Escuela de fantasía, will be published by Blackie Books in September, and the fourth, which will probably be called Inventem els números in Catalan, will be published by Kalandraka with beautiful illustrations by Alessandro Sanna, just like the previous one, Un conte embolicat. Then there’s the third graphic novel by Zerocalcare that I’m lucky enough to translate into Spanish for Reservoir Books, like the two previous ones, La profecía del armadillo and Kobane Calling. And ...
So, Can I Be Happy?
I’ve been reading books in Anagrama’s Narrativas Hispánicas collection all my life. And now suddenly I’ve translated a novel by Tina Vallès for them. It’s called La memoria del árbol and it won the II Premio Llibres Anagrama earlier this year. And it’s simple and complex and wonderful. Toda la vida leyendo libros de Narrativas Hispánicas de Anagrama y ahora, puf, he traducido uno ¡de @tinavalles_! «¿Puedo ponerme contento?» pic.twitter.com/2qn3gW45Gf — Carlos Mayor (@CarlosMayor) June 12, ...