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[CCBC-Net] Batchelder: THE KILLER'S TEARS
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From: Annette Goldsmith <ayg>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:52:47 -0400
I agree, Ginny, this book is haunting. In this case, the translation of the title is a literal one ("Les larmes de l'assassin".) The focus is on the emotional transformation of a killer through his love for a child... which sounds awfully sentimental, but this book is anything but. There is not a maudlin moment. I remember the prose as spare, poetic, and very moving, though unfortunately I don't have the book here to offer an example. For those of you who haven't been able to read the book yet, Amazon.com reprints the first chapter in their entry, so at least you can get a feel for it. Y. Maudet also translated The Pull of the Ocean. I don't know if the same translator has ever had two Batchelder books in the same year; does anyone happen to know? I suspect this is a first.
Annette
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
[mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu]On Behalf Of Ginny Moore Kruse Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 12:19 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [CCBC-Net] Batchelder: THE KILLER'S TEARS
Although I'm waiting "in line" to read THE PULL OF THE OCEAN, I've read THE KILLER'S TEARS by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from the French by Y. Maudet. (U.S. publisher: Delacorte Press).
I'm impressed - perhaps haunted - by this unique page-turner set in Chile. THE KILLER'S TEARS features a boy who needs both a physical and an emotional home. The narrative unfolds in several distinct and quite different locales, each with dramatic characters who step in & out of the plot.
Regardless of how readers might choose to identify its narrative form, as a reader of THE KILLER'S TEARS I felt I was in another region of the world. That's essential for Batchelder Award eligibility. Among other requirements the Batchelder Award Criteria state that "The book's reader should be able to sense that the book came from another country."
(Batchelder Manual, June, 2006). Not only must a "Batchelder book" have been translated into English for the first time, and published in this English translation in the U.S. before it's published in English anywhere else, it must provide the sense that the book originated in from another nation. I assume that's true of the two other books honored by the Batchelder Award process this year, as well.
Cordially, Ginny
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Received on Fri 16 Mar 2007 11:52:47 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:52:47 -0400
I agree, Ginny, this book is haunting. In this case, the translation of the title is a literal one ("Les larmes de l'assassin".) The focus is on the emotional transformation of a killer through his love for a child... which sounds awfully sentimental, but this book is anything but. There is not a maudlin moment. I remember the prose as spare, poetic, and very moving, though unfortunately I don't have the book here to offer an example. For those of you who haven't been able to read the book yet, Amazon.com reprints the first chapter in their entry, so at least you can get a feel for it. Y. Maudet also translated The Pull of the Ocean. I don't know if the same translator has ever had two Batchelder books in the same year; does anyone happen to know? I suspect this is a first.
Annette
-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
[mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu]On Behalf Of Ginny Moore Kruse Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 12:19 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [CCBC-Net] Batchelder: THE KILLER'S TEARS
Although I'm waiting "in line" to read THE PULL OF THE OCEAN, I've read THE KILLER'S TEARS by Anne-Laure Bondoux, translated from the French by Y. Maudet. (U.S. publisher: Delacorte Press).
I'm impressed - perhaps haunted - by this unique page-turner set in Chile. THE KILLER'S TEARS features a boy who needs both a physical and an emotional home. The narrative unfolds in several distinct and quite different locales, each with dramatic characters who step in & out of the plot.
Regardless of how readers might choose to identify its narrative form, as a reader of THE KILLER'S TEARS I felt I was in another region of the world. That's essential for Batchelder Award eligibility. Among other requirements the Batchelder Award Criteria state that "The book's reader should be able to sense that the book came from another country."
(Batchelder Manual, June, 2006). Not only must a "Batchelder book" have been translated into English for the first time, and published in this English translation in the U.S. before it's published in English anywhere else, it must provide the sense that the book originated in from another nation. I assume that's true of the two other books honored by the Batchelder Award process this year, as well.
Cordially, Ginny
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Received on Fri 16 Mar 2007 11:52:47 AM CDT
