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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) will publish an English language edition of Patrick Modiano’s latest novel. Gallimard, Modiano’s publisher in France, released the book back in October 2014 and it has become a bestseller.

HMH has scheduled a publication date for So You Don’t Get Lost in the Neighborhood in late 2015. Bruce Nichols, the company’s general interest publisher, negotiated the deal with literary agent Georges Borchardt (who represented Gallimard).

According to the announcement, Euan Cameron has signed on to serve as the translator for this project. The book “is a haunting novel of suspense, in which a single, unexpected phone call to a man living quietly in Paris launches a chain of menacing encounters and events, unlocking a dark secret he had erased from memory.”

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HarperCollins has released the first-ever bilingual version of Goodnight Moon.

Goodnight Moon/Buenas Noches, Luna, an English-Spanish board book, has been made available on the First Book digital marketplace at a discounted price for educators and programs serving children in need. The executives at the publishing house were inspired by First Book’s Stories for All Project to create this special edition of Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd’s beloved picture book. The mission behind this project is to address the lack of diversity in children’s books.

Rhian Evans Allvin, the executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, had this statement in the press release: ”Having a treasured book like Goodnight Moon available as a bilingual edition means so much more than just making a classic bedtime story more accessible. This creates opportunities for very young English language learners to enjoy a cozy story time in their native and learned languages and to create a culture of reading in classrooms and homes. It is also a sign of respect: that we value ALL of our children and families.”

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The British government plans to give £1.5 million (approximately $2.4 million) to the Royal Shakespeare Company. The organization has agreed to translate all of William Shakespeare’s writings into Mandarin.

Here’s more from The New York Times: “The grant, announced by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, will finance a company tour of China in 2016 and allow for select Chinese dramatic works to be translated into English. In bringing Shakespeare’s canon of plays to readers, directors and actors in China, the government hopes to forge ‘stronger links with China,’ according to a statement by Sajid Javid, the British culture secretary.”

Throughout the last four hundred years, Shakespeare’s works have been translated into more than 80 different languages. What do you think?

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Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973, the first two novels written by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami, are getting being published in English. The two novellas were first published in English by Kodansha International in 1987, but are currently out of print.

Knopf will publish these two novellas in one volume in the fall 2015. The works will feature a new English translation by Ted Goosen.

Knopf recently released Murakami’s latest novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage last month and will publish his upcoming novella The Strange Library in December.

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World renowned novelist Haruki Murakami has written a new short story entitled "Yesterday." Japanese literature expert Philip Gabriel served as the translator. The New Yorker has published it in their new Summer Fiction issue; thus far it has attracted 295 "favorites" on Twitter. Here's an excerpt from the piece: "As far as I know, the only person ever to put Japanese lyrics to the Beatles song 'Yesterday' (and to do so in the distinctive Kansai dialect, no less) was a guy named Kitaru. He used to belt out his own version when he was taking a bath." (via NPR)

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Otava, the Finnish publisher of J.K. Rowling‘s adult novel The Casual Vacancy, will only give the translator three weeks to work on the project. On top of this deadline, the translator will not be able to read the book prior to the English version’s September 27th release.

Translator Jill Timbers wrote a guest post on the blog Intralingo protesting Otava’s decisions. The Finnish publisher plans to make its version available in time for the Christmas shopping season. They also hope to thwart Finnish readers from purchasing the English edition.

According to Three Percent, Jaana Kapari (who translated the Harry Potter series from English to Finnish) refused to take on this project due to Otava’s strict constraints.

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Chinese novelist Bi Feiyu (pictured, via) has won the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel, Three Sisters. The author accepted the award and $30,000 in prize money during a ceremony held in Hong Kong.

The novel’s translators, Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin, split a $5,000 award. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published an English translation of Three Sisters last August.

Here’s more from the press release: “The Man Asian Literary Prize was founded in 2007. It is an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. The judges choose a longlist of 10 to 15 titles announced in December, followed by a shortlist of 5 to 6 titles announced in February, and a winner is awarded in March.” (via Shelf Awareness)

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Knopf publicity director Paul Bogaards revealed that Haruki Murakami‘s highly anticipated three-volume novel will come out October 25 in a single volume.

Here’s the tweet: “Haruki Murakami’s long-awaited magnum opus, 1Q84, out from Knopf 10/25. In one volume. Booyah! Midnight store openings for this one?”

In an interview last year, translator Jay Rubin shared thoughts about working with the novelist–revealing the impending deadlines for the English translation of Murakami’s three-volume novel. (Via Michael Orthofer)

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Golden Globe-winner Sacha Baron Cohen (pictured, via) will star in an adaptation of Zabibah and the King, a novel that may have been written by Saddam Hussein. The film will be called The Dictator, and release is set for May 2012.

The book spotlights Zabibah, an Iraqi peasant in an abusive marriage who falls in love with the country’s head monarch. The Guardian explained: “It was intended to be read as an allegory for Iraq in the years following the first Gulf war, with the king representing Saddam, Zabibah embodying the Iraqi people and her husband standing in for the cruel and evil US forces.”

There is some debate about whether or not Hussein actually wrote the book. According to a New York Times article, the  C.I.A. believes that ghostwriters wrote it–directed by the late Iraqi leader.

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A new manuscript for Federico Garcia Lorca‘s “Oficina y denuncia” (“Office and Denunciation”) has been uncovered. Professor Christopher Maurer discovered the draft in the Library of Congress’ music division.

The Guardian reports: “‘Oficina y denuncia’ captures an important moment in Lorca’s career, as the poet turns away from brief lyrical poetry towards an engagement with broad social issues, and begins to write more openly about his love of men.”

The published version of Lorca’s poem appeared in his collection, Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York). Lorca had traveled to New York in 1929 to take an English course at Columbia University and wrote about Great Depresssion-era America. Currently, Maurer is working with Andrew Anderson on a book about Lorca’s time spent in America and Cuba.

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Graywolf Press has acquired the world rights (excluding Chinese languages) to a poetry collection by imprisoned Chinese poet,  Liu Xiaobo. Today the poet received the Nobel Peace Prize, but could not accept the award in person.

Here’s more from the release: “June Fourth Elegies is divided into twenty sections, each section an ‘anniversary offering’ for the June 4, 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square. Xiaobo was one of the leading activists of the non-violent protest at Tiananmen, and was one of the architects of the Charter 08 manifesto. Much of Liu’s writing has been confiscated due to his many imprisonments for his public criticism of the Chinese government; he has not been able to publish June Fourth Elegies in China.”

Poet Jeffrey Yang will translate the collection. Literary agent Peter Bernstein negotiated the deal with Jeffrey Shotts and publisher Fiona McCrae. The press plans to release the collection in 2012.

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Harvard University Press will translate works by Chinese author Liu Xiaobo, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner.  Publication for the untitled anthology is set for 2012.

Xiaobo (pictured) writes poetry, essays, and social commentary about political reform in China. The academic press has enlisted Perry Link (chancellorial chair in teaching across disciplines at the University of California, Riverside) to  supervise a translation team. Link had this statement: “Until he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo was little known in the West. This collection offers to the reader of English the full range of his astute and penetrating analyses of culture, politics, and society in China today.”

So far, Xiaobo has served almost two years of his 11-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power.”  Liu Xia, his wife, has been put under house arrest.

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What’s the Kama Sutra without erotic illustrations? A new version of the 1,600-year-old Hindu text has been polished to focus more on love and relationships. Penguin UK will publish it as a text-only pocket-sized handbook next February.

The Telegraph explains: “[T]he new version, written by A. N. D Haksar, an Indian scholar and a leading translator of Sanskrit texts, will include updated chapter headings such as ‘Making a Pass,’ ‘Why Women Get Turned Off,’ ‘Girls to Avoid,’ ‘Is he Worthwhile?,’ ‘Getting rid of him,’ ‘Easy Women,’ ‘Moves towards sex,’ and ‘Some Dos and Don’ts.’”

Last year we wrote about the audiobook version of the famous sex manual. Beautiful Books published it last summer. British actress Tanya Franks narrated.

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Bestselling Arab novelist Alaa Al Aswany has objected to a Hebrew translation of his novel, The Yacoubian Building.

According to the AFP, a volunteer translated the novel despite the author’s disapproval. The Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information (IPCRI) emailed the Hebrew translation to readers with the goal of “expand[ing] cultural awareness and understanding in the region.”

The New York Times offered this quote: “Dr. Al Aswany told Agence France-Presse, ‘What the center and the translator did is piracy and theft, and I will be complaining to the International Publishers’ Association.’ He added: ‘My position has not changed regarding normalization with Israel. I reject it completely.’”

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In an essay at Three Percent blog, Open Letter Books director Chad W. Post responded to Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson‘s decision to withdraw his press from future participation in the Best Translated Book Awards.

In the essay, Post confessed that “reading about Dennis’s post on dozens and dozens of blogs and tweets and whatever rocked my mind a little bit.” The director explained that the awards received $25,000 from Amazon–a $5,000 award for two winning translators and authors and  an $5,000 to help the 14 judges attend the awards ceremony.

Here’s more from Post’s essay: “Point being, unless Melville House stops publishing literature in translation (which I don’t think is going to happen anytime soon), their titles will still be considered for the award. We won’t expect any review copies to be arriving on the doorsteps of our panelists anytime soon (although seeing that the majority are also reviewers, we might end up receiving more books than we expect), and if a Melville House title is chosen, we will offer the money to the winning author and translator. It’s up to them if they want to reject it or not. We’ll still promote the book, try and get people to read it, etc., etc.”

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In an interview with the Japanese site Asahi, translator Jay Rubin shared thoughts about working with Haruki Murakami–revealing the impending deadlines for the English translation of Murakami’s three-volume novel, 1Q84.

Rubin (pictured, via) has translated a number of Murakami novels, including Norwegian Wood and  The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. The translator turned in his translation of the first book in January and must complete the second book by November 15th.  He thought that translator Philip Gabriel had the same deadline for the third book.

Here’s more from the interview: “I e-mail him or his editor at Shinchosha Publishing Co. He is a good e-mail correspondent. Many passages of “1Q84″ could be translated into either first or third person, and I have asked him which he prefers in certain cases. He usually advises me to do whatever works best in English…Because Murakami’s style is generally simple, the challenge is to write simple sentences in English that still have rhythm and don’t sound flat or boring.” (Via Michael Orthofer)

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The September issue of Playboy magazine will feature an excerpt from the Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary. Playboy's headline called Gustave Flaubert's classic "The Most Scandalous Novel of All Time."

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner declared the piece to be "a great read" in a tweet. The Book Bench scoffed at the "scandalous" title.

What do you think? An excerpt from the post: "Though Madame Bovary was truly scandalous when it was released, it cannot shock now, in part due to Playboy and its role in, shall we say, defining deviancy downward; and in part due to [Madame] Bovary itself-having been written (and successful), it changed the standards for what was acceptable territory for fiction."

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As the recession dragged on this year, translated fiction saw a small increase, but poetry translations decreased by nearly 14 percent compared to last year.

Over at the excellent blog Three Percent, Open Letter Press director Chad W. Post compiled the 2009 Translation spreadsheet, tabulating all the translated poetry and fiction released in the United States. To find out more about Open Letter, check out this new NY Times feature.

Here's more about the spreadsheet, from the post: "In 2008 there were 362 total titles published (280 fiction, 82 poetry); In 2009 there were 348 total titles published (283 fiction, 65 poetry) ... The most translated language in 2009 was Spanish (59 books), followed by French (51), German (31), Arabic (22), Italian (18), Japanese (18), Swedish (18), Russian (12), and Norwegian (11)." (Via Book Bench)

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