Ice-Cream, Summer, Literature

The TRADUKISTAS share their thoughts on summer holidays, summer reads and the best ice-cream to cool down in the shade.

ANDREJ

Favourite childhood memories that remind you of  “summer” and “holidays”.
Haha, nothing concerning books. 😊 I stayed with my grandmother on a small farm and ran around quite freely. Holidays by the sea were nice too, but the highlight of every summer was the great freedom to do whatever you wanted.

Books that remind you of summer?
Thick crime novels from the library. 😊

What will you be reading this summer?
I plan to read as many books by Dževad Karahasan as possible. Maybe a crime novel for in-between.

Classic or contemporary literature?
Contemporary literature. I always say I’ll read a classic or two when there’s no interesting contemporary literature left, but there always is.😊

What books outside of the TRADUKI sphere would you like to recommend? Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, Doghead by Morten Ramsland, The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson, all books by Patrick Modiano.

Favourite ice-cream?
In a place in Syracuse, Sicily.

ANGELIKA

Favourite childhood memories that remind you of  “summer” and “holidays”.
I grew up in the countryside at a time when many agricultural roads were still unpaved: So running around barefoot and feeling the fine dusty earth under my feet.

Books that remind you of summer?
Big tomes such as à la „Recherche » de la Madeleine …

What will you be reading this summer?
Ahead of Slovenia’s Guest of Honour stint at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October I’ll be reading all the Slovenian authors & books that are already available.

Classic or contemporary literature?
I’ll play on the side that needs me: so both.

What books outside of the TRADUKI sphere would you like to recommend?
Die Erweiterung by Robert Menasse, which, well, isn’t actually outside at all … all books by the wonderful Swiss author Ruth Schweikert, who passed away way too soon this early June.

Favourite ice-cream?
STRACCIAFRAGOLATA

BARBARA

Favourite childhood memories that remind you of  “summer” and “holidays”.
Poreč: Sneaking out for an early swim with grandpa – before breakfast and brushing our teeth (ha!) – and slicing through the watery looking glass. Gorging on watermelons and ice-cream; one day on watermelons, the next day on ice-cream, never both on the same day, only grandma knows why. Doing the dishes alongside grandpa and feeling very grown-up for being allowed to help. It feels ridiculous how happy I felt.

Books that remind you of summer?
The first two that come to my mind are Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Marilynne Robinson’s Lila. Kundera I read in Poreč. Something about the explanation of the word ‘compassion’ in Slavic and other languages made me sit up. It was also the year grandpa accused me of staring at the pages without actually reading them – apparently I was reading too fast. The latter I recall reading one late summer evening in Tiergarten. Suddenly the full force of Lila’s loneliness washed over the vast, half-empty space – perhaps a harbinger of the sadness that coming winter, when grandpa was gone and I cursed myself for not having visited over the summer.

What will you be reading this summer?
Hopefully there will be writing. Failing that: I picked up a used copy of Antonio Muñoz Molina’s El jinete polaco, which I read ages ago. I’ve skimmed over the first pages and am not sure that it will hold up but I remember good things and want to find them again. Plus it talks about interpreters, so there’s that.

Classic or contemporary literature?
Uy! Both-ish, these days mostly the in-between. Stuff that came out in the 60s and 70s, neither classic nor contemporary but still topical. I feel there’s many things in that „gap“.

What books outside of the TRADUKI sphere would you like to recommend?
A mixed bag from here and there (lots of it translated). Claire Etcherelli’s Élise ou la vraie vie, Marguerite Duras’s Un barrage contre le Pacifique, and Alice Zeniter’s L’art de perdre, winner of last year’s Dublin Literary Award. Luisa Carnés’s Tea Rooms & Elena Medel’s Las Maravillas. Julian Barnes’s early stuff, such as Flaubert’s Parrot, which reminds me of Gospodinov (and Ugrešić). Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, Mohammed Hanif’s A Case of Exploding Mangoes and Kim Thúy’s Ru. Guy Delisle’s graphic novel Jerusalem. Binyavanga Wainaina’s essay How to Write About Africa. Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter. Marilynne Robinson’s When I Was a Child I Read Books – especially the essay on Oberlin. I could go on and on … but because cats get all the likes I’ll also mention Junichiro Tanizaki’s A Cat, A Man, and Two Women.

Favourite ice-cream?
Gelateria Zampolli in Trieste gives a much appreciated helping hand to the indecisive. They have a flavour called Mix 3 (or 4?), which gives you chocolate, pear and raspberry, all in one lovely chilled scoop.

 

LJUBICA

Favourite childhood memories that remind you of  “summer” and “holidays”.
Our family spent many summers in Budva, Montenegro, and my memories are probably mixed and span different years: My parents reading the newspaper over their morning coffee in the hotel garden while I am running around on the limestone pavement eager to go to the beach; eating cotton candy on an evening stroll; drinking milk from white blue-striped hotel cups; an unpleasant feel of pruney fingers after too much time in water… All these memories are very dear to me, they remind me of Yugoslavia.

Books that remind you of summer?
Being as luscious and cruel as the summer itself, the first book that comes to my mind right now is Adio, kauboju by Olja Savičević Ivančević. Powerful and brilliantly written, bearing a strong social and political message, the book made me feel rather guilty for having my fine time in one of the Croatian mass tourism hotels where I read it. I neka je!

What will you be reading this summer?
I always struggle with the question of what to read on summer vacation, since on one hand I don’t like wasting time on books I don’t enjoy, yet on the other hand my reading routine requires full concentration, soundless surroundings, a notebook and a pen – all of which are lacking on a beach, so I feel I am not being fair to a good book by reading it in such poor conditions. The books I will be “doing wrong to” this summer are probably the poetry collection A htela sam by Maja Solar and La plus secrète mémoire des hommes by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.

Classic or contemporary literature?
Both. (But, What is a Classic? 😊)

What books outside of the TRADUKI sphere would you like to recommend?
It’s rather difficult to recommend a particular book to a large number of people, as each of us has our own interests and preferences. But I would definitely say – explore more literature written by women. Dive even deeper into the past. There have most certainly been women who have written beautiful and smart literature in every country and culture, and it´s on us to rediscover them and save them from oblivion.

Favourite ice-cream?
For the sake of childhood – Rumenko!

 

RADMILA

Favourite childhood memories that remind you of  “summer” and “holidays”.
The smell of pines and the sudden burst of blue through the car window approaching the Adriatic coast.

Books that remind you of summer?
Olja Savičević Ivančević, Singer in the Night, Aidan Higgins, Balcony of Europe, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises.

What will you be reading this summer?
I am keen to catch up on Georgi Gospodinov’s Time Shelter, Katja Oskamp’s Marzahn, Mon Amour and Alida Bremer’s Split.

Classic or contemporary literature?
Both, please!

What books outside of the TRADUKI sphere would you like to recommend?
In terms of contemporary literature, I’m a Sally Rooney fan, so if you haven’t read any of her novels, I’d definitely recommend that.

Favourite ice-cream?
Dingle Salted Caramel is to die for.