New Russian-to-English Translations for 2014

I’m a terrible bean counter but it sure feels like my annual lists of Russian-to-English translations are growing. I’m sure one reason is that I now know better where to look for listings but I also think grants—notably from the Institute of Translation and the Prokhorov Fund’s Transcript Program—have contributed, both directly and indirectly, to greater publisher interest in Russian-English translation.

A few caveats. This list is just a start—I’ll be happy to add books throughout the year and make corrections, as necessary. As last year, this is a global list that includes fiction and nonfiction, new translations, and retranslations, though I’ve limited re-releases to fiction titles. I’ve linked titles on the list to publishers’ pages wherever possible. Publication dates are notoriously subject to slippage; I have not included books that appeared on the 2013 list but were not/will not be published until 2014. I’ll place a link to this post on the sidebar of the blog for easy reference. Finally: I’m taking names and titles for 2015 now, so please feel free to send them in. Please note that I have crossed out titles that were not published in 2014 but will be published in 2015; I may have missed some.

Happy reading!

Alexandrova-Zorina, Liza: The Little Man, translated by Melanie Moore; Glas, April 2014.

Babel, Isaac: Red Cavalry, translated by Boris Dralyuk; Pushkin Press, June 2014.

Basinsky, Pavel: Leo Tolstoy: Flight from Paradise, translated by Scott Moss; Glagoslav, April 2014. This book won the 2010 Big Book Award.

Bitov, Andrei: The Symmetry Teacher, translated by Polly Ganon; Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Boyadzhieva, Lyudmila: Andrei Tarkovsky: A Life on the Cross, translated by Christopher Culver; Glagoslav.

Bulgakov, Mikhail: Black Snow, translated by Roger Cockrell; Alma Classics, June 2014.

Bulgakov, Mikhail: Morphine, translated by Hugh Aplin; New Directions, September 2014.

Bulgakov, Mikhail: The White Guard, translated by Michael Glenny; Melville House, July 2014.

Chekhov, Anton: The Little Trilogy, translated by Boris Dralyuk; Calypso Editions. “Gooseberries” has always been a favorite…

Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment, translated by Oliver Ready; Penguin Classics.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The Idiot, translated by Ignat Avsey; Alma Classics, April 2014.

Dragomoshchenko, Arkadii: Endarkenment, translated by Lyn Hejinian, Genya Turovskaya, Eugene Ostashevsky, Bela Shayevich, Jacob Edmond, and Elena Balashova; Wesleyan University Press. Edited by Ostashevky with introduction by Hejinian. Wesleyan sent me a copy of this book: it’s a lovely bilingual edition.

Elizarov, Mikhail: The Librarian, translated by Andrew Bromfield; Pushkin Press. 

Erofeev, Venedikt: Walpurgis Night, or the Steps of the Commander, translated by Marian Schwartz; Yale University Press, June 2014. I read parts of this play years ago—a friend gave me a copy of the journal Teatr back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s—and found it enjoyable for its oddities.

Erofeyev, Victor: Good Stalin, translated by Scott Moss, Huw Davies, and Camilla Stein; Glagoslav, March 2014.

Gazdanov, Gaito: An Evening With Claire, translated by Jodi Daynard; The Overlook Press. Reissue.

Gazdanov, Gaito: The Buddha's Return, translated by Bryan Karetnyk; Pushkin Press, 2014.

Gelasimov, Andrei: Rachel, translated by Marian Schwartz; Amazon Crossing, July 2014.

Ginzburg, Eugenia: Into the Whirlwind, translated by Paul Stevenson and Manya Harari; Persephone Books. With an afterword by Rodric Braithwaite.

Glukhovsky, Dmitry: Metro 2034, translated by Andrew Bromfield; Gollancz/Orion/Hachette, February 2014.

Gogol, Nikolai: Petersburg Tales, translated by Dora O’Brien; Alma Classics, 2014. Includes “Diary of a Madman.”

Gogol, Nikolai: The Nose, translated by Ian Dreiblatt; Melville House, August 2014. One of my favorite Gogol stories. From Melville House’s “Art of the Novella” series.

Goncharov, Ivan: Oblomov, translated by Stephen Pearl; Alma Classics, April 2014.

Iskander, Fazil: Rabbits and Boa Constrictors, translated by Ronald E. Peterson; The Overlook Press, October 2014. Reissue.

Ibragimbekov, Rustam: Solar Plexus, translated by Andrew Bromfield; Glagoslav, 2014.

 

Ismailov, Hamid: The Dead Lake, translated by Andrew Bromfield; Pereine Press.

Kapitsa, Sergei: Paradoxes of Growth, translated by Inna Tsys, edited by Scott Moss and Huw Davies; Glagoslav, November 2014.

Kruchenykh, Aleksei: Victory Over the Sun, translated by Larissa Shmailo; Červená Barva Press, fall 2014. Edited and with an introduction by Eugene Ostashevsky. A futurist opera; I loved seeing it performed in Moscow during the nineties.

Kuznetsov, Sergey: Butterfly Skin, translated by Andrew Bromfield; Titan Books, 2014.

Lavrinenko, Anna: Yaroslavl Stories, translated by Christopher Tauchen and Amanda Love Darragh; Glas, April 2014.

Loginov, Vladlen: Vladimir Lenin: How to Become a Leader, translated by anonymous; Glagoslav, May 2014.

Lorchenkov, Vladimir: The Good Life Elsewhere, translated by Ross Ufberg; New Vessel Press. (excerpt)

Lotman, Yuri: Non-Memoirs, translated by Caroline Lemak Brickman; Dalkey Archive Press.

Lotman, Yuri and Pogosjan, Elena: High Society Dinners: Dining in Tsarist Russia, translated by Marian Schwartz; Prospect Books, May 2014. Darra Goldstein edited this book and wrote an introduction; I love her Russian and Georgian cookbooks. This book sounds like lots of fun.

Lukyanenko, Sergei: The Genome, translated by Liv Blissplease see comment below; Open Road Media, 2014.

Mamleyev, Yuri: The Sublimes, translated by Marian Schwartz; Haute Culture, April 2014.

Lungina, Lilianna: Word for Word, translated by Polly Gannon and Ast A. Moore; The Overlook Press, November 2014.

Mandelstam, Osip: Poems of Osip Mandelstam, translated by Peter France; New Directions, June 2014. Peter France’s personal selection of poems.

Medinskiy, Vladimir: Myths about Russia, translated by Christopher Culver; Glagoslav, May 2014.

Pavlov, Oleg: The Matiushin Case, translated by Andrew Bromfield; And Other Stories, July 2014. The second book in Pavlov’s Tales from the Last Days trilogy.

Pepperstein, Pavel: A Prague Night, translated by Andrew Bromfield; Artwords Press, 2014.

Petrushevskaya, Ludmilla: There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In, translated by Anna Summers; Penguin, 2014. Three novellas about family.

Prilepin, Zakhar: Sankya, translated by Mariya Gusev and Jeff Parker with Alina Ryabovolova; Disquiet International/Dzanc Books and Glagoslav, April 2014. With a foreword by Alexey Navalny. I have an advance copy of this book and like its glossaries very much: a few expressions and proper names in the front and a listing of historical and cultural figures in the back.

Pushkin, Alexander: Belkin’s Stories, translated by Roger Clarke; Alma Classics, May 2014. Some of my very favorites from Russian literature.

Pushkin, Alexander: The Captain’s Daughter, translated by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler; New York Review Books, summer 2014. Another novella I’ve always loved. With an introduction by Robert Chandler.

Rubinstein, Lev: Compleat Catalogue of Comedic Novelties, translated by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky; Ugly Duckling Presse, Fall 2014.

Sedakova, Olga: In Praise of Poetry, translated by Stephanie Sandler, Ksenia Golubovich, and Caroline Clark; Open Letter, 2014.

Sharov, Vladimir: Before and During, translated by Oliver Ready; Dedalus Books.

Soloviev, Vladimir: Empire of Corruption: The Russian National Pastime, translated by anonymous; Glagoslav, May 2014.

Starobinets, Anna: Икарова железа, translated by Jamie Rann; Skyscraper Publications, October 2014.

Strugatsky, Arkady and Strugatsky, Boris: Hard to Be a God, translated by Olena Blumberg; Chicago Review Press, June 2014. With an introduction by Hari Kunzru.

Strugatsky, Arkady and Strugatsky, Boris: Definitely Maybe, translated by Antonina Bouis; Melville House.

Teffi, Nadezhda: Subtly Worded, translated by Anne Marie Jackson and Robert Chandler; Pushkin Press, December 2014. Short stories.

Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina, translated by Marian Schwartz; Yale University Press, August 2014. This tome will include an introduction by Gary Saul Morson, a professor at Northwestern: Dr. Morson taught War and Peace to me twice, which is, I’m certain, one of the reasons I love W&P so much. All of which is to say that one of these days I’ll finally read Dr. Morson’s book about Anna Karenina along with the novel…

Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina, translated by Rosamund Bartlett; Oxford University Press, est. August 2014. This will be the August of Anna Karenina! I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Rosamund Bartlett speak about her translation at the Translator’s Coven last summer.

Tsvetaeva, Marina: Moscow in the Plague Year: Poems, translated by Christopher Whyte; Archipelago Books, August 2014.

Ulitskaya, Ludmila: The Big Green Tent, translated by Bela Shayevich; FSG, December 2014.

Yershov, Pyotr: The Little Humpbacked Horse, translated by Lydia Razran Stone; Russian life, 2014.

Various: Russian Drama: Four young Female Voices, translated by Lisa Hayden; Glas, April 2014.

Various: Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj, by Nadya Tolokonnikova and Slavoj Žižek, with introduction by Michel Eltchaninoff, translated by Ian Dreiblatt et al. (please see Google Books for details); Verso, 2014.

Various: Heroes of the 90s: People and Money: The Modern History of Russian Capitalism, translated by Huw Davies; Glagoslav, August 2014.

Various: Real and Phantom Pains: An Anthology of New Russian Drama, edited by John Freedman; New Academia Publishing, 2014.

Various: Gossip & Metaphysics: Russian Modernist Poems & Prose, edited by Katie Farris, Ilya Kaminsky, and Valzhyna Mort; Tupelo Press, 2014.

Disclaimers. The usual since there are far too many to mention.

Up Next. Alexei Motorov’s Male Nurse Paravozov’s Young Years, which is still engaging. The first post in a new series with brief takes on (relatively) new translations… it’s time to finally start writing more about all the translations I receive.