Issue 64 - January 2010

New Books Published

Sandra Kalniete, With Dance Shoes in the Siberian Snows, transl. into Arabic by Amira Abo Elnoor, supported by South-South Translation Project

With Dance Shoes in the Siberian Snows is a family history, and a testimony to more than fifty years of occupation of Latvia. It tells the story of human survival during both the Nazi and Soviet repressive regimes. The author – Sandra Kalniete – is a renowned politician and diplomat, ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, and the first Latvian Commissioner at the EU. Her poignant story, which reads like a novel, is the most translated Latvian book in the recent history.

Voices from the Faultline. A Balkan Anthology, A. Johnson, and Zakalin Nezic, Eds., Translation into Arabc supported by South-South Translation Project

The anthology resembles a puzzle - seventy-one “pieces” by twenty-four contemporary Balkan writers, poets, and playwrights. Though being a bit eclectic, it is praised for the passion and zest of the works included. The English translation has been carefully reviewed by Robert Murray Davis from Oklahoma University, who points out a few promising names as Alek Popov, Dragoljub Ackovic, Lidija Dimkovska, Nikolina Kulidjan, Venko Andonovski, and Vladimir Levchev. As for the rest of the writing, he claims it “is sincere without being vibrant”, which is possibly due to the overdone modernist and postmodernist influences.