Saša Stanišić
STORIES THAT GO TRAVELLING

“Herkunft”, “Wolf“ or “Vor dem Fest": It is not only his books that have become travellers thanks to the Goethe-Institut’s translation funding. Even the author himself, Saša Stanišić, is also a frequent guest in other countries such as Italy or Brazil, since his German-language texts have been translated into other languages. In this interview, he tells us how these translations enrich his work as a writer.

Which of your books was the first to be translated from German? What language was it translated into? And how did it feel to hold this book in your hands for the first time?

Stanišić: “Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert”. If I’m not mistaken, it was Icelandic. But it could also have been Dutch, as the two came out at almost the same time. And of course: it was a great feeling to see the stories that are so precious to you go on a journey.

Your works have been translated into more than 40 languages. In which country or language region are your novels and stories particularly well received?

Stanišić: Unfortunately, I can’t judge this at all, as I – deliberately – distance myself somewhat from the criticism and the sales figures. Something like this either makes you vain or unhappy. What I have noticed in passing, however, is that Italy is a good place for my children’s books and that “Herkunft” was recently read a lot in Poland after winning a major prize.

How do the translations of your books influence your work as an author?

Stanišić: I am always in contact with my translators. The dialogue with them about the making of the texts, about word choice and sentence structure, is always a kind of experimental studio for myself, from which I take away a lot of ideas concerning “how”: how are my ideas perceived and read, how does the humour and the wordplay work?

From time to time, this also gives rise to ideas that I toy with in my mind as I write: how would this sentence translate? Especially with my Swedish and French translators, there are a few “insider” expressions that I like to include because I know that they are difficult to translate. Both love a challenge.

The translations of your books take you abroad time and again. For example, you presented the Italian translation of “Hey, hey, hey Taxi” at the Più libri più liberi independent publishing house trade fair in Rome in December 2022, at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut’s Litrix Translation Funding Programme. What’s it like for you when you meet readers from other countries in person?

Stanišić: Pleasing and inspiring! And always with great gratitude for the work of the translators, without whom this enjoyable and inspiring experience would not be possible.

Can you tell us about a particularly enjoyable experience you had in connection with the translation of your books?

Stanišić: In the run-up to my reading in Rio de Janeiro from “Vor dem Fest”, my novel about a village in the Uckermark, I had great doubts about the subject: would this unknown, distant region be of interest to anyone in Brazil? But not only was the event very well attended, an unforgettable dialogue developed with the audience about the concept of “village” and, in connection with this, about the similarities and differences between different lifestyles in rural Brazil and Germany. Unexpected, approachable, constructive: literature creates a fusion and comparison of regions that would otherwise only exist in parallel.

Apart from that, I love the numerous friendships that have developed with the regular translators of my books.

Which book that you have read in translation would you recommend to us?

Stanišić: Sascha Sokolov: “Die Schule der Dummen”