Publishers turn from Greek fiction to translated titles
As the publishing season opens, there has been a decrease in the amount of Greek fiction, according to statistics from the National Book Center of Greece (EKEBI). It is partly because of an excess of titles in previous years, partly because the big names in the field have recently published books. But it is also due to a preference among Greek publishers for foreign fictions, both classics in new translations and contemporary works. Non-fiction Another factor that plays a part is the rising interest in non-fiction – essays, studies, history and politics. EKEBI’s figures show that in 2006, even though fiction represented the greatest number of titles, there was a fall of 5.9 percent over 2005 and 2.1 percent over 2001. Translations represented 44 percent of the total output in 2005 (out of a total of 9,209 titles), but a higher percent of fiction titles. In 2006, for instance, 47.9 percent of fiction titles published in Greece were translations. In their latest books, many of the leading names in Greek fiction (including Pavlos Matessis, Vassilis Alexakis, Manos Eleftheriou, Dimitris Mingas and Mitsos Kasoulas) have embarked on mystery and detective fiction. Primarily, however, they have focused on the past, the years of childhood and youth, in a journey into self-knowledge. Few new titles deal with contemporary society and problems. Among newly published writers there is a special interest in urban settings, inner quests, and historical fiction. Politics and introspection Greek publishers offer a broad range of foreign fiction in translation. Apart from new translations of foreign classics (such as Dostoevsky, Celine, Forster, Hemingway, Gorki, Camus, Nabokov, Eliot and Chekhov), there are novels by leading contemporary writers who come to grips with the world and the societies they live in. Philip Roth’s political fantasy «The Plot Against America» and Jonathan Coe’s portrayal of 1940-50s English society «The Rain Before It Falls» are both published in Greece by Polis. Antonio Tabucchi, John M. Coetzee, Jose Saramago, John Updike, Yasmina Khadra, John Banville and Orhan Kemal are some of the highly regarded writers that Greek publishers have chosen to translate.
