Bernardo Atxaga’s latest translation has been an hungarian one for Obabakoak. Launched in August by Typotex in their Világirodalom collection and translated by Yvonne Mester, it has been promoted by Atxaga himself in Hungary, having been invited this october to the Margó Irodalmi Fesztivál literature gathering.
The visit resulted in several mentions and reviews in Fidelion, Konyves Magazin and Élet És and also an interesting review in Magyar Narancs by critic Csabai Maté. Some excerpts:
The book, translated by Yvonne Mester, cannot be called a novel, but rather, for lack of a better word, a collection of short stories, letters, anecdotes, memories and mind games. (…) Atxaga shamelessly borrows from others. He quotes and varies the stories of Borges, Cortázar, Calvino, Chekhov, Maupassant and Conan Doyle, with an unbridled storytelling spirit.
The question, of course, is: can tou steal from that treasure that we call world literature at all? This is a particularly delicate matter for a Basque author, whose language is completely isolated, The author does not wish to produce some kind of untouched, ‘ancient’ Basque literature; he doesn’t want to be a fake Ossian, rather he enters into that museum where Borges, Calvino, and the others have already been welcomed.
Check Obabakoak at Typotex’s website.
Csabai’s review in print:
