Sign-In
Cart
Problems of Translation: Charlie's Comic, Terrifying, Romantic, Loopy Round-the-World Journey in Search of Linguistic Happiness
Paperback
Mystery & ThrillerLiterary Fiction
Publisher Price: $16.00
ISBN13: 9780986238208
Publisher: Blue Mile Books
Published: Apr 21 2015
Pages: 396
Weight: 0.99
Height: 0.88 Width: 5.25 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
...A MERRY, YEARLONG CHASE AROUND THE GLOBE....--Kirkus Reviews
Exceptional, original, deftly crafted from beginning to end, ... an inherently fascinating, unique, funny, and compelling read ...very highly recommended....--Midwest Book Review
A comic masterpiece Poignant Pretty much perfectly doneand A Shelf Unbound 2015 Notable Book
Charles Abel Baker--short story writer and a most unlikely middle-aged hero--sets off around the world on a quest to see one of his short stories translated into ten different languages and back again into English, a sort of literary version of the old party game telephone. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Siberia, China, India, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, and more, Charlie's round-the-world peregrinations are comical, romantic and, at times, hair-raising.
Problems of Translation is a cloak-and-dagger adventure, a love story, and a bracing ride for the language buff. Its naïve hero's quixotic mission will ultimately transform Charlie and those around him. And along the way, Charlie--lonely, divorced--comes to love and be loved by a generous, complicated woman, and at last to understand what drove him to undertake this journey.
Who knew that literary translation could be so perilous? So romantic? So downright funny? A rousing hybrid and a great read, Problems of Translation is as stimulating as it is entertaining.
An insanely amusing adventure that has a deep love of language at its belly-shaking core.-Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure and A Super Sad True Love Story
Jim Story's name says it all: he was meant to be a writer...I hope everyone reads this book!-Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief; editor-in-chief of One Story
In this comic masterpiece...we take a wild ride...through the underside of the literary world...as [Charlie] stumbles and careens into all kinds of trouble in and obsessive pursuit of hid Dream.-Robert Roth, author of Health Proxy; editor, co-creator of And Then
A fascinating look at the issues of translation, publishing, and an unglamorous middle-age.-Edith Grossman, author of Why Translation Matters; award-winning translator of Cervantes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and others
...Marvelous touches of...poignancy that don't...delay the progress of the story toward it's delectable conclusion...pretty much perfectly done.-Ron Story (no relation), Emeritus Professor, UMass Amherst; author of Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, the Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
Ellroy, James
Hardcover
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback