A Day Behind Everyone Else, I Chime In

Seems like I'm the only bookblogger left who hasn't commented on Julie Salomon's NYT article about Words Without Borders, a new website devoted to international literature. "In an increasingly interdependent world, rife with ignorance and incomprehension of other cultures," the editors declare, "literature in translation has an especially important role." Bopping around the site, I'm very impressed with how things are going, and I can tell this will be a new regular stop on my circular web browsing path.

The current issue spotlights Argentinean prose, including an excerpt from a new novel by Tomás Eloy Martínez:

"The President Has Mystical Visions." This was the headline in the Heraldo. Mr. Camargo had been convinced that the Heraldo, his newspaper's rival, would not publish a single word about the scandalous bank deposits made by the president’s son in Sao Paulo. Even if they had any information, they would conceal it. In the last couple of years, the president had granted the Heraldo all sorts of favors, bestowing it with radio broadcasting licenses and the concession to a luxury game preserve in Patagonia. Camargo had been sure they would not report the deposits, but he had not expected the coup de théâtre of an even flashier title. Mystical visions. In a country that had once been governed by fortune-tellers and witch doctors, that phrase was a real showstopper.