There’s a certain way of looking at the world that is Central or Eastern European. There is a mix of the grotesque, the humorous and the sentimental that probably doesn’t exist in either American or British literature.- Dan Vyleta talking exclusively to Transmission, May 2008.
In Transmission #11, we celebrate the literary variety our European neighbours have to offer, including interviews with two continental author who both have very different takes on both Europe and the wider literary world. Dan Vyleta’s debut novel, Pavel & I, is steeped in literary influences from Dostoyevsky to Günther Grass, via Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. Catalan short story writer, Empar Moliner, on the other hand, cites influences ranging from Radiohead and Bukowski to Martins Scorcese and Amis.
A German of Czech descent, Vyleta’s debut novel, Pavel & I, is a thrilling tour through post-War Berlin, taking in gangs of child thieves, double-crossing prostitutes, Russian spies and a hideously obese British Colonel – all of which he has written about in English, not his native German. ‘English is a liberating world because it’s a language that my parents don’t speak properly,’ he tells Transmission. ‘I could discover it for myself. Despite being the dominant tongue in the world, for me it was a new thing in which I could experiment and play around.’
Moliner writes in her native Catalan, with her new collection I Love You When I’m Drunk recently translated into English. She says of her choice, ‘I write in Catalan because it’s the language in which, at the age of three, I learnt from my mother’s lips such beautiful words as “gin and tonic”, “beer” and “whisky”.’
Elsewhere in this issue, we examine how translators of European fiction deal with the linguistic nuances of their chosen languages. Also, Manchester’s Chris Killen tells us about his experiences bringing his debut novel, The Bird Room, to publication and he admits he attempted to ‘hobnob the living fuck’ out of anybody and everybody.
The magazine also features a selection of previously unpublished short fiction, set in European locales from Romania to Paris.
Issue #11 is available to buy from our online shop →
The full contents for Transmission #11:
Interviews:
Graham Foster talks to Dan Vyleta
NP Murgatroyd chats to Empar Moliner
Articles:
Found in Translation: Sara Newman on the role of the literary translator, photography by Richard Heap
Writer’s Block: Chris Killen on hustling
Fiction:
Covering Tracks by Sean Gregson, illustrated by Richard Short
The Breakdown by Oliver de la Fosse, illustrated by Rachel Jackson
Tepes after the Revolution by James Franklin, illustrated by Jo Phillips
Her First Time in Madrid by Peter John Shearing, illustrated by Kat Stubbings
Prague ‘86 by Tim Love, illustrated by Matthew Gough
The Paris Match by Jonathan O’Brien, illustrated by Liz Greenfield
The Narrow Bed by Mick Parkin, illustrated by Steve Wilkin
Incommunicado by NP Murgatroyd, illustrated by Barney Ibbotson
Stumbling Orthodoxy by Melissa Lee-Houghton, illustrated by Simon Lewis
Strasbourg by Emma Stockwell, illustrated by Kaoru Shimada
Fin de Siecle Chocolate by Oz Hardwick, illustrated by Tracey Long
Reading:
Gerard de Nerval, Cyrano de Bergerac, Mikhail Bulgakov, Guy de Maupassant and Vladimir Nabokov