Tag Archives: Istros Books

Cecilia Stefanescu in B O D Y

“A hand migrated to the abdomen; the other was on its way to the other iceberg. But the encounter with the left breast was even worse. The coldness, the skin wrinkled over the flesh, made him shiver. And time stopped still again, as if the coldness of the body he was groping had overflowed into […]

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‘Seven Terrors’

On March 7, 2005 the hero of Selvedin Avdić’s brilliant and captivating novel Seven Terrors decides to get up out of bed after nine months of self-imposed apathy as a result of having been left by his wife. Ready to return to life what he actually returns to is horror. Read the book review in […]

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Interview with translator Will Firth

The latest story in B O D Y’s Sunday European Fiction, the Macedonian “Artist of the Revolution” (as well as next week’s Russian story) was translated by Berlin-based translator Will Firth. Below is an interview in which Firth talks about the various languages he translates from, the difficulties of breaking into the right translating circles […]

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Ognjen Spahic in B O D Y

“He’ll carry the wreath, and Maria and Anna will walk after him. He said it as if he didn’t have any idea what he was supposed to do. Like he’s going to carry the wreath on his back and walk around the house. Cruel. It seems cruel to bother children with that kind of stupidity; […]

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Jelena Lengold in B O D Y

“ … and for a moment he felt himself flagging inside her, that helped him, in fact, to wriggle out again and push her onto her back, now she was looking at him a little surprised, a little breathless, her eyes were shining like some crazed junkie’s, her pupils were enormous, she had placed her […]

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Literary roundup: Hakl, Kurkov and a Croatian Iraqi Windy City

Czech writer Emil Hakl has a novel Of Kids and Parents and story collection On Flying Objects in English translation. Now Tinge Magazine has an excerpt from The Witch’s Flight, which is being published by Twisted Spoon Press later this year, in a translation by Marek Tomin, who previously translated Hakl’s novel. There is also […]

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Central and Eastern European Lit at the London Book Fair

The 2013 London Book Fair will take place from April 15 to 17 with Turkey as this year’s guest of honor. There will be a number of writers and events that touch on Central and Eastern European literature, including: GLAS New Russian Writing will be presenting Debut Prize winners Irina Bogatyreva, Alexander Snegirev and Olga […]

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Literary roundup: Russian heavyweights and a Bulgarian brand

If there is one reason to prefer the boxing to the literary world it is that its heavyweight division is determined by a specific number of pounds (minimum 200, or 90.7 kg.) whereas there are no clear indicators for how heavy a writer has to be to be referred to as a heavyweight. This became […]

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Literary roundup: New Bulgarian fiction and a day of Kafka

In conjunction with the publication of Nine Rabbits by Bulgarian writer Virginia Zaharieva, Istros Books is holding a couple of events in London. On September 20 you can listen to the author in conversation with her translator Angela Rodel while the next evening the pair will be joined by Istros publisher Susan Curtis-Kojakovic and Milena […]

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Slovenia’s Vilenica International Literary Festival

The 27th Vilenica International Literary Festival runs from September 5 to 9 throughout Slovenia, primarily in the region bordering Italy. “Nomadic writers” is a thematic focus at this year’s festival, with a selection of guests who amply illustrate this tendency. Bekim Sejranović is a writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina who lives in Oslo, Dimitré Dinev […]

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