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on the 2013 list but were not/will not be published until 2014.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.
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,
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ulitskaya, Ludmila:
The Big Green Tent, translated
by Bela Shayevich; FSG, December 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.
In other award news, Cardinal Points announced that writer
and translator Alexander Veytsman is the new director for the Compass Translation Award. This is
as good a time as any to mention that this year’s Compass Award will be accepting
entries until July 31, 2014: this year’s poet is Arseny Tarkovsky. The
choice of Tarkovksy is great: I can only second Compass’s hope that the contest
will help more readers discover Tarkovsky and his poems. I discovered Tarkovsky
because he’s buried in the same cemetery as Boris Pasternak in Peredelkino, chanced
upon a nice, compact three-volume set of his poetry soon thereafter, and then
began bringing him flowers, too, on my annual trips for poetry readings at Pasternak’s
dacha on the anniversary of his death. 
