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Tag: Elizabeth Boburg

  • PEN Atlas recommends: ITD2012 speakers on their favourite translated books

    To celebrate the annual International Translation Day symposium, taking place tomorrow at King’s Place, London, Tasja Dorkofikis asks speakers to recommend their favourite books and writers in translation

    Amanda Hopkinson, experienced translator, academic, and co-curator of Notes & Letters, recommends…

    Raised from the Ground  by Jose Saramago, trans. Margaret Jull Costa and published by Harvill Secker this month.

    This early work by Portuguese Nobel Prizewinner Jose Saramago, translated by perhaps our most garlanded Portuguese literary translator Margaret Jull Costa, shows intellectual inventiveness and political militancy blended in a profound and humorous historical novel. The theme is the landless peasantry that were Saramago’s own immediate forebears and was written at a time when he was suffering persecution and then exile at the behest of the Salazar dictatorship. Raised from the Ground is at once a vivid depiction of rural poverty and a rallying cry for activism.

    Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking by Lydia Cacho, translated by Elizabeth Boburg  and published by Portobello Books.

    Lydia Cacho is a one-person expert/ investigator/reporter on that most confusing of crimes: human trafficking. She is categorical, and has the facts to back her, that this is globalised big business run by consortia of criminals, corrupt police and politicians. Women and children thus exploited may be deluded but are not willing victims of their own transportation and degradation. Rarely has a book had a more appropriate title than $laveryInc.

    Briony Everroad,editor at Harvill Secker, recommends…

    Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delise, translated by Helge Dascher and published by Jonathan Cape and Vintage.

    I first came to love graphic novels, or perhaps I should say graphic memoirs in this context, when I read Ethel & Ernest by Raymond Briggs. Then I was swept away by Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. So I was delighted to discover Guy Delisle a few years later through his graphic travelogue Pyongyang.

    Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City is a powerful documentation of Guy Delisle’s year in Jerusalem with his family. His partner works for Médecins Sans Frontières and he tries to sketch and write, in between taking his kids to school.  Delisle isn’t religious, so it comes across as even-handed observations of this most incredible and perplexing of places. He’s also strikingly honest, admitting when he doesn’t know the history behind certain zones and boundaries or the events that led to them, and so the reader learns as he learns.  I work on (non-graphic) fiction for the most part, and speaking as someone who can’t even draw a stick figure, I am fascinated by the techniques he uses: the powerful wordless frames, the sparing but effective use of colour, his son’s speech bubbles crammed with letters which spill to the end of the frame. His writing style is direct and at times very moving, and Helge Dascher captures it perfectly in the translation. In Jerusalem Delisle offer a wonderful new perspective on a city which is so often the focus of the world’s attention.

    Sarah Hesketh,Events and Publications Manager at the Poetry Translation Centre, recommends…

    Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius, translated by Jamie Bulloch and published by Peirene.

    It’s rare that I’m able to read a book in one sitting, but Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman is structured as just one, single, book-length sentence, and so it invites complete immersion for a few hours. It’s a book that happens in real time – it takes just the length of the narrator’s walk to church on a January afternoon in 1943, and it captures perfectly that suspension of time that a heavily pregnant woman feels when she is waiting to give birth, as well as the sense of a whole continent on the cusp.  

    Alexandra Buchler, Director of Literature Across Frontiers, recommends…

    Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke, translated by Cindy Carter and published by Corsair.

    I recommend this book because it is a must-read for anyone interested in China’s recent transformations and the corruption of a regime which did the unimaginable: fuse the political doctrine of communism with capitalist license, and because it is a such a powerful example of high-quality literature making a political statement. Like some of the masterpieces of 20th
     century literature this book is the opposite of a “good read”: it is sad and heavy, it speaks about a situation of surreal absurdity, conveying a truth that must be said and cannot be shirked.

    Geraldine D’Amico, co-curator of Notes & Letters and curator of Folkestone Book Festival, recommends…

    To the End of the Land by David Grossman, translated by Jessica Cohen and published by Vintage.

    Grossman movingly captures the pain of a mother fearing for the life of her son but above all it is a book about the deep damage caused by war onto people and landscape alike. Lovers are destroyed, innocence is impossible, death is lurking everywhere. One woman alone tries to fight this, rekindle love, give birth to a father and keep her son alive through the magic of words. The fact Grossman’s son was killed as he was writing this book obviously makes it even more poignant but regardless of his personal tragedy, this is a true masterpiece.

    Rosa Anderson, coordinator of Fiction Uncovered, recommends…

    School for Patriots by Martin Kohan, translated by Nick Caistor and soon to be published by Serpent’s Tail.

    Set in Argentina during the Falklands War, it’s an intriguing – and unsettling – investigation into the relationship between power and sex.

    Sophie Lewis, editor-at-large at And Other Stories and translator from French, recommends…

    Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector, translated from Brazilian Portuguese by Alison Entrekin and published by New Directions.

    I read this book in a state of guilt at being settled in Rio for more than a year yet knowing so little of Lispector’s writing – she is considered one of the greatest 20th century Brazilian writers. Yet what I found in reading this book (and now others by her) was very little to tell me about Brazil and so much to think about, both bigger and smaller than this country,: mood, sensation, place vanishing into specks under the microscope, dialogue in a vortex of thought – genuinely transcendent writing. 

  • Lydia Cacho has gone

    In this week’s PEN Atlas piece, Sanjuana Martinez pays tribute to her friend and colleague Lydia Cacho who has been forced to temporarily flee their native Mexico in the wake of terrifying deaths threats. 

    Translated by Amanda Hopkinson and Cat LucasI am writing this from the heart. There is no other way for me to do it. Lydia Cacho is not just a colleague and fellow journalist, but has been a friend of mine for years. We are united by a passion for our profession, by our commitment to the causes both of women and human rights, and of course by a friendship filled with affection and solidarity.The work that Lydia Cacho does in Mexico is as indispensable as the air we breathe. Her investigative journalism aims to remove the decadent layers of political corruption, both in business and in government.We know that nowadays independent and critical journalism has become a high risk profession, but Lydia has spent seven years living under impending threats from the people in power that she has so bravely identified in her work.Her books are her evidence of it. The most recent, Esclavas del Poder: un viaje al corazón de la trata sexual de mujeres y niñas en el mundo edited by Grijalbo (Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking) is an in-depth investigation not only into human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and financial gain, but also into the people in power who profit from it. In addition there are her newspaper columns, which have become essential reading due to the amount of information they contain, stuffed with facts that shed light on subjects that normally would remain concealed because of the vested interests of differing sources of power.When a journalistic career is characterised by constant criticism and denunciation, it is sadly not unusual to be treated as a discomforting presence, and so become persecuted and banned from numerous professional outlets.  What is unusual is for the State to remain impervious to all the death threats that Cacho and so many other journalists have received. And what is shameful is that a journalist like Lydia Cacho, under threat of death, is forced into temporary exile to save her life and her life’s work.She is not the only one. A number of Mexican media professionals have found themselves forced into exile thanks to the indifference of Felipe Calderon’s government has shown towards more than 100 crimes against journalists that have gone unpunished.In Lydia’s case the lack of governmental action is particularly alarming. Since 2009, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights (IACHR) has been calling on the government to take precautionary measures for her protection, but Calderon and his negligent officials (from the Ministry of the Interior and the failed Special Prosecutor for Crimes Committed Against Journalists) have consistently ignored the urgency of adopting such measures.  It is obvious that they would prefer not to come to the defence of a critical voice.In the meantime, the journalist has been subject to accusations and persecution from one source after another.  On this most recent occasion [29 July 2012] the message was clear: “We already told you, vile bitch, don’t mess with us. We can see that you haven’t learnt from that little trip that we gave you. Next time we get you, you’ll be cut into little pieces, and that’s how we’ll send you home, idiot.”No prizes for guessing where the threat comes from. It originates in organised crime linked to political power. Lately, Lydia has been highly critical of the PRI [Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or Institutional Revolutionary Party]and of other parties in government in the many different states of the Republic, whilst her work on the networks that deal with sexual exploitation have revealed the disgusting abuses of many famously corrupt PRI officials.Mexico is now second only to Thailand in the extent of its sexual trafficking. It is a haven for traffickers who collaborate with regional governors in order to maximise their already substantial profits, then expend them in the exploitation of thousands more women and children.Lydia has always worked on a wide range of issues: she denounces paedophiles, but also corrupt politicians, members of the State who abuse human rights, authorities that exploit migrants, and legislators who refuse to review the law in favour of women’s rights. With her pen, she defends the most deserving of social sectors: indigenous communities, children, homosexuals, migrants, sex workers, and a whole range of other vulnerable groups. Her information sources have enabled her to build up a comprehensive archive of predators.As independent journalists, we know that difficult times are approaching regarding freedom of expression. The PRI has never been a model of respect for our members or our craft. Hindsight is revealing. And one only needs to look at what has happened in the last month for examples of attacks on the media, for example on the daily Monterrey newspaper El Norte. Censorship is the monster with a thousand heads, which never reveals its actual self but appears in myriad forms, such as that of the news service MVS, whose pressure on leader-writer John Ackerman led him to resign rather than yield to the silence of political complicity.Persecution is still in its earliest stages. The swords of Damocles drawn in order to silence independent or critical voices are advancing stealthily. The silence among colleagues who benefit from the present power structure is palpable. Pathetic attempts to cover up corruption, crimes and abuses are apparently far more important that the life of a single journalist, which counts for nothing in Mexico.No doubt there will be many who dream of a country without independent journalists; others will breathe a sigh of relief when critical journalists are exiled; and the rest of the shameless lowlifes will rejoice at the prospective demise of investigative journalism. But it won’t happen, make no mistake.Some of us have decided to continue the fight. Lydia Cacho will soon return. She is not prepared to leave her home, her loved ones, her friends. Nor will she abandon her country. This break is simply to allow her to work on a security strategy that will allow her to sustain her work in future.To those who dream of a Mexico where journalism submits to political power, I warn you: do not let yourselves be deceived. Such a day will never come. There will always be voices prepared to defend the truth, to fight to uncover the dark corners of the power structure, and to expose the content of its filthy sewers. All in good time. Only lies are in a hurry.Insisting on freedom, independent journalists like us are answerable only to our sources, to the human beings who trust us to tell their stories; not to the government, nor to politicians of any party. We owe it to the quest for truth, for justice, and to the victory of the common good.Sensing the fetid breath of evil at our backs only serves to give us the wings to fly higher. To the prophets of evil, to those governors that prefer silence, I suggest you don’t become over-confident. I remind you of the words of Bertolt Brecht: When truth is too weak to defend itself, it has to go on the attack.So it will be.The original version of this piece, ‘Lydia Cacho, se va’ was published on SINEMBARGO.MX, and has been translated and published on the
    PEN Atlas with the permission of the author.

    About the Author

    Multi-award winning Mexican journalist Sanjuana Martinez was born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico in 1963. Her work focuses on issues related to the defence of human rights, gender violence, terrorist activity and organised crime in Mexico, the United States and Europe. Martinez has been subject to threats, harassment and persecution for her reporting since 2006, in retaliation for writing about alleged links between child sexual abuse and the Catholic Church in Mexico, and was the focus of a PEN International action to mark Women’s Day in 2009.Martinez, who has worked for a range of major media outlets in Mexico, now works as a freelance journalist, and is also a regular contributor to one of Mexico’s leading daily newspapers, La Jornada.

    About the Translators

    Amanda Hopkinson has been active in Human Rights and literature throughout her life. Much of her writing has been concerned with and for, and influenced by publications on, human rights and freedom of expression. She has contributed, through writing, translating and editing, regularly to the magazine Index on Censorship. As an academic, she has been involved in establishing both Swansea and Norwich as ‘cities of refuge’, offering a haven to refugee writers. She has long supported the goals of PEN, a founding and enthusiastic member of PEN Writers in Translation committees, both in the US and UK, and is an active member of English PEN’s Writers at Risk Committee.Cat Lucas is Writers at Risk Programme Manager at English PEN, responsible for campaigning on behalf of PEN’s cases of concern around the world. She graduated from University College London in 2007 with a BA in French and Spanish. Her translations of poetry and short stories by Cuban writer Jorge Olivera Castillo have been published in the magazine Index on Censorship and online.

    Additional Info

    Lydia Cacho is an award-winning author, journalist and women’s rights activist. Following the publication of her book on child pornography inMexicoin 2005, she was illegally arrested, detained and ill treated before being subjected to a year-long criminal defamation lawsuit. She was cleared of all charges in 2007 but has continued to be the target of harassment and threats due to her investigative journalism. In August 2012, she was forced to temporarily flee her native Mexico in the wake of particularly terrifying death threats.In addition to her work as a journalist, she founded and directs the Refuge Centre for Abused Women of Cancun and is president of the Centre for Women’s Assistance, which aids victims of domestic violence and gender discrimination.Lydia Cacho was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize for an International Writer of Courage in 2010.

    Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking

    Published by Portobello Books: 6 September 2012‘Illegal, inhuman, and impervious to recession, there is one trade that continues to thrive, just out of sight. The international sex trade criss-crosses the entire globe, a sinister network made up of criminal masterminds, local handlers, corrupt policemen, wilfully blind politicians, eager consumers, and countless hapless women and children. In this ground-breaking work of investigative reporting, the celebrated journalist Lydia Cacho follows the trail of the traffickers and their victims from Mexico to Turkey, Thailand to Iraq, Georgia to the UK, to expose the trade’s hidden links with the tourist industry, internet pornography, drugs and arms smuggling, the selling of body organs, money laundering, and even terrorism.’English PEN will be co-hosting the launch of Lydia’s latest book Slavery Inc: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking (translated by Elizabeth Boburg) and belatedly presenting her with her PEN Pinter Prize at the Free Word Centre on 29 August.  Please join us for what promises to be a fascinating discussion, and to show your support for Lydia.  Event details here.