Corylus Books Blog Tour: Resilience by Bogdan Hrib translated by Marina Sofia

 

Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkan area is very underrepresented in the English speaking literary realm. Obviously, the topics relevant for this geographical part are covered at certain extent, but the success stories - aka, the bestsellers - are mostly authored by writers who are getting their information second, third etc. hand. Especially for the thriller - particularly political - and crime genre, the characters are copy-pasted from a story to another, mostly black-and-white characters and definitely portrayed in a very patronized way. There may be not so many good things going on there and corruption is rampant and there are huge differences between those you meet in London or Paris or Dubai and those living in the countryside, but it takes a life and a bit to really know your own country of residence so how can one properly cover a country visited a few times and without a deep knowledge of its politics and history and language.

But this happens to many areas, except most of Western Europe and North America. Africa, Middle East, Asia? One can reduce easily to 2-3 sentences most of the contents of the books written by non-local authors covering those regions so frequently present in the new flows so less really understood. Maybe the idea of the objectivity building-up outside your living box is not so relevant when it comes to literature after all.

There is a chance though to correct this mis- and under-representation: translate local authors! Take the advantage of the many talented people who left those countries and regions and that can offer to otherwise curious Western audiences good chunks of authentic testimonies. 

My frustrations, at least when it comes to Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans is the presence of courageous edition houses like Istros Books and Corylus Books is to bring back those countries on the literary map, in their diversity and contradictions and complexities but first and foremost, unique literary tresure. You know, there are very talented people in those countries writing good books for centuries, what about reading them? The same for Kabul, Mosul, Lahore, Cairo or Isfahan. The online environment and the globalisation helped to connect readers and writers in a more genuine, direct way. And created more opportunities for translators of so-called ´less spoken´ languages to use their skills for bringing to light great books.

I had the chance to connect with Corylus Books in more than one occasion and was never disappointed. An edition house brought to life during hard times of the pandemic promising to offer to crime and thriller readers with some (geo)political interests too, the best of Eastern Europe, European and Nordic authors it´s a great aim, but very ambitious given the very hard competition on the market. The market pressure is good in a way, as it pushes the stakes very high while allowing to succeed only the very good books. And, when it comes to books in translation, the art and knowledge of the translator is more important sometimes than the original author´s prodigy.

Resilience by Bogdan Hrib has the big luck of being translated by the very talented Marina Sofia. Being native in a language does not guarantee a successful career as a translator, particularly of literature. Being an educated intelligent native in a language does it, and the translation she made out of Resilience is brilliant enough to demonstrate. Actually, you don´t feel any moment that the book was in fact a translation and for me, a hobby translator myself, is the highest proof of a successful linguistic transfer.

And now, let´s talk a bit about the book. Set in Romania, after the Brexit, in the world when political cyberterrorism can change borders and influence elections. It´s sad how much right Evgeny Morozov had with his Net Delusion...Romania, a NATO and EU member, keep being a country of contradictions, struggling to overcome its geographical and geopolitical challenges. But there are some real people too, and Hrib has the talent of creating real people in a real world that we may acknowledge but in a very dire, unempathic way. Once you have the people with their lows and sparkle of genius the way we see their world changes too. His local depictions of different locations is so vivid that brings all those places in your world - and oh, as I was reading the book in my living room, how much I wished I was instead in Caju by Joseph Hadad (a very famous and talented Israeli chef based in Romania) this Friday. 

Stelian Munteanu is a journalist and editor which is requested by a man with dubious connections to investigate the dead of her daughter, a young Romanian diplomat posted at the cultural institute in London. While tracing the dead, he is stirring a storm - of bullets sometimes - which endangers the life of her wife and brings up serious security challenges such as a separatist movement aimed at uniting the Moldova part of Romania with the country Republic of Moldova (warning: Great does not always bring Greatness) - fuelled with cash brought in bags from the Eastern border. The political and geopolitical concepts are sometimes difficult and additional searching is often needed, but this strong background makes the book stand alone as authentic, local and complex. The characters are interesting, hilarious - the evil Ionescu, the spy, is...well, that kind of new-capitalist spy people in that country refuse to talk about because you don´t know who´s listening, childish and some very seriously interested in their job. I am glad that there is no clear dichotomy between the good and the bad and there are so many colours in between. Like in life, particularly life in a country who went through a complex transition. 

I wished the Gologan character - the dark web connection with a penchant for selfies - is a bit more developed. Somehow, he is important with his mission to encourage sedition via social media, but he cannot grow up as a personality revealing itself along the way, as there are many more people who are busy to move in the story, and his role is relatively simple.

Also, for someone not familiar with all the historical personalities whose statues are popping up in the story, a couple of details may be useful. I was also thinking of a map of the two main locations featured in the book, the capital city of București and the eastern city of Iași.

Personally, I will heartly recommend this book to anyone looking for some good political thrillers from the Eastern borders of Europe. Crime and corruption may be high there, but so is the level of talent and, as anywhere in the world, it´s good to have a look at all sides of the coin.

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own