montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4816 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 1 of 3 25 July 2013 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
For fellow Jussi Adler-Olsen fans and / or those who like to read English translations
of books available in their target languages, the third book in the "Department Q"
series is now available in English translation for sale on Amazon (I happened to notice
today).
They have continued with the theme of using single word abstract-noun titles that they
used in books 1 and 2 of the series. In this case it's "Redemption".
The original Danish title is "Flaskepost fra P - Q3" ("Message in a bottle from P", but
they haven't translated any of the other titles literally - similarly for the German
translations, which have been on the market well ahead of the English ones; the German
title is "Erlösung").
For those who like to L-R, there are good Danish audiobook versions, unabridged so far
as I can tell. Unfortunately, the German audiobooks seem to be in abridged versions.
I have a feeling we have to wait until at least next year for the English translation
of "Q4", but I've just noticed thare is a German edition of "Q5" (which I didn't know
about), due out in September. Perhaps a reflection of the German enthusiasm for
Scandinavian Krimis. (Also popular here, but still something of a niche market,
perhaps).
Edited by montmorency on 25 July 2013 at 1:11pm
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sans-serif Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4547 days ago 298 posts - 470 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Danish
| Message 2 of 3 25 July 2013 at 7:11pm | IP Logged |
montmorency wrote:
For those who like to L-R, there are good Danish audiobook
versions, unabridged so far as I can tell. Unfortunately, the German audiobooks seem to
be in abridged versions. |
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I'm not sure if I've ever even seen an abridged Danish audiobook—or a Swedish or
Finnish one, for that matter. They seem to be much more common in Germany than in the Nordic
countries. The good news: Audible.de carries an unabridged version of Q4, so I suspect
Q5 will be the real deal, as well.
montmorency wrote:
I have a feeling we have to wait until at least next year for
the English translation of "Q4", but I've just noticed thare is a German edition of
"Q5" (which I didn't know about), due out in September. Perhaps a reflection of the
German enthusiasm for Scandinavian Krimis. (Also popular here, but still something of a
niche market, perhaps). |
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Do you have any idea how much translated literature Brits read, in general? I heard
recently that translations account for only about 3% of the American literary market,
making the entire category something of a niche thing over there. :-)
Edited by sans-serif on 26 July 2013 at 11:48am
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montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4816 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 3 of 3 25 July 2013 at 10:17pm | IP Logged |
sans-serif wrote:
montmorency wrote:
For those who like to L-R, there are good Danish audiobook
versions, unabridged so far as I can tell. Unfortunately, the German audiobooks seem to
be in abridged versions. |
|
|
I'm not sure if I've ever even seen an abridged Danish audiobook--or Swedish, or
Finnish for that matter. They seem to be much more common in Germany than in the Nordic
countries. The good news: Audible.de carries an unabridged version of Q4, so I suspect
Q5 will be the real deal, as well.
montmorency wrote:
I have a feeling we have to wait until at least next year for
the English translation of "Q4", but I've just noticed thare is a German edition of
"Q5" (which I didn't know about), due out in September. Perhaps a reflection of the
German enthusiasm for Scandinavian Krimis. (Also popular here, but still something of a
niche market, perhaps). |
|
|
Do you have any idea how much translated literature Brits read, in general? I heard
recently that translations account for only about 3% of the American literary market,
making the entire category something of a niche thing over there. :-) |
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Hi Sans-serif,
Thanks for the info on Q4 and audible.de.
On your question about how much translated literature Brits read, I don't know, but as I said that is definitely at least a niche market for
Scandinavian crime thrillers, partly driven by such things as "Wallander", "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Killing", but even
before then I think people like Håkon Nesser and Jo Nesbø were popular, and in the same vein, the Wahlöö-Sjöwall "Martin Beck" novels had a
certain cachet. (dramatised versions of these have recently appeared on BBC radio).
This article may be of interest:
article
I happened to be in conversation in the last year or so with someone who has translated one German classic novel for the British market, and
would like to translate others, but says the problem is getting the publishers interested. (And probably then, keeping them in print, once
they are published).
1 person has voted this message useful
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