Two Vietnamese works honoured at UK flagship translation awards PEN Translates

According to thebooksheller.com on July 17, for the first time two works translated from Vietnamese have made the list. They were Biên sử nước (Water: A Chronicle) published by Major Books, and Thang máy Sài Gòn (Elevator In Saigon) published by Tilted Axis Press.

Water: A Chronicle was first published in Vietnam in 2020. It is the second novel released by writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu following her first novel Sông (River) in 2012.

Elevator In Saigon was written by French-Vietnamese author Thuan and debuted in 2013. It won the Bourse de Création (creation prize) by French national book centre in the same year. The author has also published many novels in both French and Vietnamese.

Translator Nguyen An Ly hails from Ho Chi Minh City and has done over 20 translations into Vietnamese. She has translated books in various genres, including those by Margaret Atwood, Donna Tartt, Kazuo Ishiguro, Richard Flanagan, and J. L. Borges, as well as the poetry featured in “The Lord of the Rings”.

Backed by Arts Council England, PEN Translates was launched in 2012 with the aim of encouraging UK publishers to acquire more books from other languages.

The books selected demonstrate outstanding literary quality, whilst they are also judged on the strength of the publishing project and their contribution to the UK’s bibliodiversity.