This month’s Bridge Series event, coming up one week from today, presents four translators from the German: Ross Benjamin, Isabel Fargo Cole, Tess Lewis and Tim Mohr, quadrupling your chances of finding a translator to your taste. They’ll be gathering to discuss the publication of two new books, The Jew Car (Seagull Books, June 2013), by Franz Fühmann, translated by Isabel Fargo Cole and Wrecked (Grove, May 2013), by Charlotte Roche, translated by Tim Mohr. Fühmann is a very great East German writer who has hitherto been ridiculously neglected in English – so glad to see this book come out. I did a translation of his fairy tale “Anna, genannt die Humpelhexe” (Anna the Hobbledy-Witch) twenty years ago that got turned down by every kids’ magazine I sent it to (“No stories about witches!”, “No stories about disabilities!”) even though it was a story about a girl’s self-discovery and triumphant adventures. Maybe I should try again. And Roche is the author of Wetlands, also translated by Mohr, which made quite a splash (sorry) when it came out a few years ago. See, plenty to talk about already! There’ll be readings by all four translators, there’ll be translation talk, there’ll no doubt be a glass of vino before the evening is done. Hope to see you there.
There = the Goethe Institut, 72 Spring St., 11th Floor., Thursday, June 13, 6:30 p.m.