Vive la France!

One of the most fun things that can happen to an author is when our books are translated into foreign languages. I love being able to admire You’re a Brave Man, Julius Zimmerman in its Japanese version, which opens from (what we would call) back to front and reads vertically rather than horizontally. The only way I can be sure that it is my book is that the copyright page is fortunately printed in English. It always seems amazing to me that I am the author of a book I can’t even read.

It was a special treat for me when Makeovers by Marcia was translated into French, as I studied French for many years in high school and college. One of our wonderful Philosophy Department graduate students, Amandine Catala, who hails from Belgium, found me a copy of the French edition of Marcia at a little bookstore in Paris. While I can’t speak French, or write in French, or understand spoken French, I can still read it, at least a little bit. So I can read tidbits of Marcia in her French version: Marcia Vous Maquille. It all sounds so much more dramatic in French. Now, when Marcia gains three “kilos” over the summer, when she weighs herself in despair, the text reads “Catastrophe!”

Last week I got an email, all in French, that told me that Marcia Vous Maquille “est sélectionné pour le Prix Chronos de littérature 2010” – it’s been short-listed for an award in France. Here’s the link to their website :

http://www.prix-chronos.org/auteurs/auteurs/auteurs_ill_trad.htm


Maybe I’ll win, and they’ll fly me to Paris! Well, it’s fun to dream, anyway.