Britney Spears against Catalan literature at the London Book Fair

taketonews

Good prospects for Catalan literature in London. Although in the hustle and bustle of the London Book Fair, in a stately building in the Hammersmith area called Olympia, the books of the new Catalan authors who have come to promote themselves are somewhat overshadowed by the million-dollar contracts that have moved in the large groups . And the fact is that nothing can compete with the almost 14 million euros that the Simon and Schuster group has paid for the coveted memoir of Britney Spears, with whom one of the largest economic agreements in memory has been signed since the one reached by the memories of the Obama couple. Spanish publishers, including Penguin Random House, have been bidding to take this book without confirmation so far.

But let’s go back to the Catalans and start with the veterans. At the Balcells agency, with the support of Llull, they are working on sales of Gabriel Ferrater, whose birth is 100 years old and which is currently unpublished in English, and recovering James Cabre, sufficiently translated, from an audiovisual perspective. A European co-production for ‘Jo confesso’, which had so much echo in Germany, would be good news. For their part, Casanovas & Lynch are reaping the fruits of the popularity of Mercè Rodoreda, after Jia Tolentino, a true millennial icon and a publishing phenomenon in the United States, recommended ‘La plaça del diamant’. In the agency they have just sold the rights to Turkey, Serbia, Poland and Israel and they are about to close the agreement with Sweden.

Entering the Anglo-Saxon publishing industry, both British and American, is a daunting task, but this does not mean that Catalan literature has ceased to have faithful accomplices. One of them is the Australian Douglas Suttle, who lived for a decade in Catalonia, where he cultivated a personal passion for Catalan literature, to the point of creating in Great Britain a small label, Fum d’Estampa, intended solely for literature from here.

small and amazing

In the publisher’s catalogue, which has recently been opened to other European languages, they coexist in English Joan Maragall with Joan Fuster, Bel Olid with Anna Punsoda, and his absolute best-seller, ‘El cant de la Joventut’, by Montserrat Roig. “Catalan is a small language that produces incredible literature & rdquor ;, explains the also editor of the small label Alice Banksaware that translating supposes a higher outlay for English because, in addition to the rights, the work of the translator must also be counted on. “The books we love don’t always make money & rdquor ;, she says between proud and resigned.

Dean of Translated Literature

One of the acts this Tuesday at the fair brought together the writer and translator Raül Garrigasait with the editor and journalist Rosie Goldsmith and especially with the veteran Scottish publisher Christopher MacLehosedoyen of translated British publishing fiction, who has earned respect not only for being a rare bird but for the quality of his choices: Saramago, Pasternak, Lampedusa, Bulgakov, Solzenitsyn on the Harvill label he led for 20 years and it was a bridge between cultures, which now with Brexit, seems like something very much from the past.

“Fortunately, the European Union is not putting too many obstacles in the way of negotiating rights for European authors,” explains the 82-year-old publisher, who recently sold his old publisher to Penguin Random House and has created a new one, Mountain Leopard Press. The Scotsman, also in love with Catalan literature -he was a friend of Jesús Moncada- has among his stripes the fact of having published ‘Uncertain glory’ by Joan Sales, whose granddaughter he met in Barcelona, ​​after learning that the novel had a version in French and German, but not in English.

little daring

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The editor is critical of the Anglo-Saxon publishing system, which he calls not very daring. “I don’t think that English is the most important language for the dissemination of foreign literature, because most of the authors in other languages ​​are first collected in French. I, without going any further, met Anna Politkoskaya or Cees Nooteboom for their French translations & rdquor ;.

He also nostalgically recalls the old days of publishing, when, after the Second World War, many European publishers sought refuge in Britain, reading in other languages ​​and bringing with them a broader and more generous view. “But today the large groups do not have that concern and that explains why authors like Eduardo Mendoza or Javier Marias take so long to be translated into English & rdquor ;.



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