Last Name

First Name

Language

Annotation

Feierstein

Ricardo

Spanish

Ricardo Feierstein. Mestizo. Tr. Stephen A. Sadow. Intro. Ilan Stavans. Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Press. 2000 [Editorial Planeta, Buenos Aires, 1994]. 335 pp. Cloth: $45.00; ISBN 0-8263-2115-1. Paper: $19.95; ISBN 0-8263-2116-X. Jewish Latin America series. In this ingenious detective story, the police try to solve an assassination and a lost man tries to reconstruct his identity. These two searches are set against the story of four generations of a Jewish family, a social and cultural narrative that spans nearly a hundred years of cataclysmic events. Personal, cultural, and historical identity is the main theme of this novel, as is the experience of being "other." As the characters find ways to eliminate discrimination, it becomes clear there is no unblended race or religion, and that to be a mestizo (a person of mixed culture and blood) is to reject the concept of purity and homogeneity. With poet Jim Kates, Stephen Sadow translated and edited a bilingual edition of Feierstein's poetry entitled We, the Generation in the Wilderness.

 

Felinto

Marilene

Portuguese

Marilene Felinto.  The Women of Tijucopapo [As Mulheres de Tijucopapo].  Tr. Irene Matthews.  University of Nebraska Press.  1994.  132 pp.  Cloth:  ISBN 0-8032-1988-1.  Paper:  $10.95; ISBN 0-8032-6881-5.  Risia only wants her life "to have a happy ending."  To find it she must go back to Tijucopapo, where her mother was born.  One moonlit night her grandmother gave away a baby, and that baby was Risia's mother.  Sharing the trauma of her mother's miserable marriage, Risia recollects and invents tales of Tijucopapo in the happier days before she was born.  When she was a little girl she clung to the idea that she would kill her father for the way he treated women.  Now, a woman herself, Risia hasn't lost the urge to kill.  The time is ripe for it--war is in the air--but nothing can be taken for granted since everything might be taken away.

 

Ferdowski

Abolgasem

Persian

Abolgasem Ferdowski. In the Dragon’s Claws: The Story of Rostam & Esfandiyar from the Persian Book of Kings. Tr. and intro. Jerome W. Clinton. Mage Publishers. 1999. 144 pp. Paper: $17.95; ISBN 0-934211-56-8. Esfandiyar, the designated heir to the throne of Iran, has just returned in triumph from his campaign against the shah of Turan. He has slain Arjasp, Iran’s greatest enemy, captured his family and treasury, and liberated his own sisters from their captivity. He expects that his father, Goshtasp, will now abdicate his throne of Iran. Instead, Goshtasp sets his son another task – he must bring Iran’s greatest hero, Rostam, back to the court in chains. The story of Rostam and Esfandiyar, one of the most moving tragedies in Abolqasem Ferdowsi’s epic Shanameh, or Book of Kings (AD 932-1025), displays a surprisingly modern skepticism about the values we associate with this ancient work. The only complete poetic translation of the Shahnameh into English was completed in 1925 by Arthur George Warner and Edmond Warner and published in nine volumes. Since then, the only new English translation that attempts to include the whole work is the prose paraphrase by Reuben Levy (1967). In making his translation, Jerome W. Clinton consulted the Warner’s English version and Jules Mohl’s monumental rendering into French (Paris: 1838; reprint 1976). Clinton has also translated The Tragedy of Sohrah and Rostam from the Shahnameh (1987).

 

Feydeau

Georges

French

Georges Feydeau.  Five by Feydeau.  Tr. J. Paul Marcoux.  Peter Lang.  1994.  286 pp.  Cloth:  ISBN 0-8204-2390-4.  Feydeau is considered second only to Moličre as a great writer of French comedy and yet his reputation, at least in English-speaking countries, rests largely on a half-dozen plays.  This book features new translations of five of his lesser-known works as seen from the perspective of a stage director:  Brothers In Crime (Gibier de potence), The Dressmaker (Tailleur pour dames), All My Husbands (Le mariage de Barillon), That's My Girl! (Occupe-toi d'Amélie),  and Nothing But the Tooth (Hortense a dit:  "Je me'en fous").  The introduction provides biographical information, traces the most significant influences in Feydeau's output, and discusses farce as a dramatic genre.

 

Filippini

Serge

French

Serge Filippini. The Man in Flames [L'homme encendie]. Tr. Liz Nash. Sawtry, U.K. Dedalus. U.S. Distributor: Subterranean. 2000 [editions Phebus, 1990]. 369 pp. Paper: $16.99; ISBN 1-873982-24-0. Rome, 10 February 1600. In seven days' time, the poet-philosopher Giordano Bruno will burn at the stake, condemned by the Inquisition for his 'heretical' beliefs. Defiant to the last, he refuses to recant and spends his remaining days writing the story of his own turbulent life. Pugnacious and earthy, Bruno had incurred the enmity of corrupt, bigoted churchmen and academics and has been forced to travel the length and breadth of Europe, battling to teach and publish his beliefs: that the universe is infinite and in perpetual motion; that God is not outside the world but everywhere in Nature; and that men should be free to think as they choose. Bruno counts among his friends and admirers such notables as Henri III of France, Montaigne, Sir Philip Sydney, Arcimboldo the painter, and a brilliant young actor named Snitterfield, soon to become famous and change his name to Shakespeare.

 

Fischerová

Daniela

Czech

Daniela Fischerová. Fingers Pointing Somewhere Else [Prst, který se nikdy nedotkne]. Tr. Neil Bermel. North Haven, CT. Catbird Press. 2000 [1995]. 176 pp. Cloth: $19.95; ISBN 0-945774-44-3. According to one narrator, stories are "fingers pointing somewhere else." Daniela Fischerová's craftmanship and voice set her stories apart, always surprising in structure, word choice, ideas, and emotions. The strongest thread running through the stories in this collection is the importance of accepting one's emotions and desires, and embracing the imagined as a way to find and express oneself. Fischerová is one of the leading Czech writers of the postwar generation. Her plays have been staged around the world (including the U.S.) and two of her stories have appeared in recent English language anthologies: Daylight in Nightclub Inferno and Allskin and Other Tales by Contemporary Czech Women. Neil Bermel has previously translated I am Snowing and The Widow Killer by Pavel Kohout.

 

Fishman

Rukhl

Yiddish

Rukhl Fishman.  I Want to Fall Like This:  Selected Poems of Rukhl Fishman.  Tr. Seymour Levitan.  Wayne State University Press.  1995.  206 pp.  Paper:  $15.95; ISBN 0-8143-2541-6.  Bilingual.  This collection showcases the poetry of Fishman, the youngest and only American-born Yiddish poet of the "Yung Yisroel."  This group of young poets and writers from across the world settled in Israel after World War II and used Yiddish instead of Hebrew to bridge gaps across time and place.  Her preference for free verse and sparing use of rhyme, her delight in puns and wordplay concentrates on simple subjects─nature, animals, and the world around her.  Includes such works as "Sunned Through," "Full as a Pomegranate," "Now You Are Quieter," "Little Blue Flames," and "My Wild She-Goat."  Translator Levitan's stories and poems are included in Voices Within the Ark, The Spice Box, Identifications, The Penguin Book of Yiddish Verse, and A Treasury of Yiddish Stories.

 

Flaccus

Faius Valerius

Latin

Gaius Valerius Flaccus. The Voyage of the "Argo": The Argonautica of Gaius Valerius Flaccus. Tr. David R. Slavitt. Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1999. Cloth: $45.00; ISBN 0-8018-6177-2. Paper: $15.95; ISBN 0-8018-6178-0. The story of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece is one of the oldest and most familiar tales in classical literature. Apollonius of Rhodes wrote the best-known version, in Greek, in the third century B.C.E. The Latin poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus began his own interpretation in the first century of the Christian era, but he died before completing it. With The Voyage of the "Argo," poet and translator David Slavitt recovers for modern readers the only surviving work of this little-known writer. The result is an engaging rendition of Jason's adventures, of particular interest when compared to the Greek version of the story. While Apollonius's tale offers a subtle psychologocial study of Medea, Valerius Flaccus's achievement is to present Jason as a more complete and compelling heroic figure. Slavitt's translations include the Metamorphoses of Ovid, The Fables of Avianus, and Seneca: The Tragedies, vols. 1 and 2 (Johns Hopkins). He is co-editor of the Complete Roman Drama in Translation series, and the Penn Greek Drama Series.

 

Flaubert

Gustave

French

Gustave Flaubert.  A Simple Heart [Le coeur simple].  Tr. Arthur McDowall.  New Directions.  1996.  64 pp.  Paper: $6.00; ISBN 0-8112-1318-8.  In 1875, to console himself from various personal misfortunes, Flaubert turned from his monumental survey of modern follies to a series of miniatures.  A Simple Heart, "the legend of a modern saint," was the greatest of these.  A Simple Heart was a sequel to Madame Bovary, more particularly to the episode at the agricultural show, where Cathérine Leroux, a single heroic figure in the crowd, was cited for half a century of servitude.  Félicité, the most real of Flaubert's heroines and one of his few characters of good will, sprang from the same peasant stock, belonged to the same Norman countryside, and incarnated the same "animal-like devotion and religious veneration" as Ms. Leroux.

 

Fontane

Theodor

German

Theodor Fontane.  Effi Briest.  Trs. Hugh Rorrison and Helen Chambers.  Angel Books/Dufour Editions, Inc.  1995.  245 pp.  Paper:  $18.95; ISBN 0-946162-44-1.  Effi Briest is set in the hey-day of Bismarck's Berlin.  It is Germany's answer to Madame Bovary, Middlemarch, and Anna Karenina.  Effi, its effervescent seventeen-year-old heroine, is a most unforgettable heroine.  A marriage is arranged between Effi, daughter of a country gentleman, and the considerably older Geert von Innstetten, a civil servant and confidant of Bismarck.  In the remote Baltic town where they first live, Effi has an adulterous affair; when the couple later move to Berlin, the social code exacts a drastic price.  Fontane's depiction of a rigid, hypocritical, male-dominated society is full of subtle humor and irony.

 

Fontanella

Luigi

Italian

Luigi Fontanella. Angels of Youth [Ceres]. Ed., tr., and preface Carol Lettieri and Irene Marchegiani Jones. Intro. Rebecca J. West. Riverside, CA. Xenos Books. 2000 [Caramanica Editore, Formia, 1996]. 170 pp. Paper: $13.00; ISBN 1-879378-43-4. "Angels of Youth contains most of the poems included in the original Italian volume, Ceres, a title that refers not only to a long section and a specific poem in the collection, but more significantly to the goddess of agriculture also known as Demeter. This mythic story is about loss: of a daughter, of innocence, of eternal spring. It is also about retrieval and compromise: the acceptant of Necessity, which marks the mortal condition. Fontanella's poetry similarly speaks of loss, but it avoids a purely elegiac tone by rooting itself squarely in the plenitude of the here and now." (Introduction) Fontanella, who is the editor of Gradiva, an international journal of Italian poetry, has published numerous books of poetry, fiction, and criticism.

 

Fourcade

Dominique

French

Dominique Fourcade.  Xbo.  Tr. Robert Kocik.  Sun & Moon Press [P.O.L. éditeur, 1988].  1993.  79 pp.  Paper:  $9.95; ISBN 1-55713-067-1.  Fourcade is a writer of witty, lyrically intense meditations on the self, art, poetry, and language in general.

 

Fox

Everett

Hebrew

Give Us a King! Samuel, Saul, and David. A New Translation of Samuel I and II. Tr. and intro. Everett Fox. New York. Schocken Books. 1999. 294 pp. Cloth: $26.00; ISBN 0-8052-4160-4. Everett Fox's translations of The Five Books of Moses: The Schocken Bible, Volume I, which contains translations of Genesis through Deuteronomy, has been widely acclaimed as a scholarly, religious, and literary masterpiece. In Give Us a King!, Fox turns to the two books of Samuel, which contain some of the Bible's most famous stories and most unforgettable personalities: the barren Hannah, the tragic King Saul; Bathsheba; and King David himself, the romantic hero who becomes a legendary but morally compromised monarch. Accompanied by commentary and notes, this new translation recreates the echoes, allusions, alliterations, and wordplays of the original Hebrew in order to recreate in English the full power of the ancient saga.

 

Franco

Veronica

Italian

Veronica Franco.  Poems and Selected Letters.  Ed. and tr. by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal.  University of Chicago Press. 1998 [Gruppo Ugo Mursia, Milan, 1995]. 300 pp. Cloth: ISBN 0-226-25986-2. Paper: ISBN 0-226-25987-0. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Bilingual. Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was a poet who articulated her pro-woman views in poems and letters usually written in a tactful, courteous style.  She was not an explicitly feminist essayist or polemicist, but her frank eroticism and her impressive eloquence set her apart from the chaste, silent woman prescribed in Renaissance gender ideology. In the Familiar Letters, the translators have maintained the elaborate syntax of Franco's dedications but have given a slightly less formal character to the epistles themselves. Rather than imitate Franco's eleven-syllable lines, they aimed for a four-beat line in English and added prose summaries of each poem.  The volume also includes introductions to both the series and the book itself, as well as an extensive bibliography.

 

Frank

Anne

Dutch

The Diary of a Young Girl:  Anne Frank:  Definitive Edition.  Eds. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler.  Tr. Susan Massotty.  Doubleday.  1995.  340 pp.  Cloth:  $25.00; ISBN 0-385-47378-8.  Restored in this edition are diary entries that had been omitted from the original edition.  These passages (30% more material) reinforce the fact that Anne was first and foremost a teenage girl, not a remote and flawless symbol.  She fretted about, and tried to cope with, her own emerging sexuality.  Like many young girls, she often found herself in disagreement with her mother.  And like any teenager, she veered between the carefreee nature of a child and the full-fledged sorrow of an adult.  Anne emerges more human, more vulnerable, and more vital than ever.

 

Fredriksson

Marianne

Swedish

Marianne Fredriksson. Simon's Family [Simon och ekarna]. Tr. Joan Tate. Ballantine. 1999 [Bengt Nordin Agency, Värdmö, Sweden, 1985]. 336 pp. Paper: $24.00; ISBN 1-345-43459-5. Though at the center of a loving family, Simon Larsson has struggled with inexplicable feelings that something from his past was not quite right. The expansive sea bordering his Swedish homeland fills him with longing—for connection, for freedom. But freedom from what? As the shadow of World War II falls across Europe, Simon forms a friendship with his Jewish classmate, Isak Lentov. It is a relationship that will forever change both their lives, as the two families are irrevocably drawn together in their striving to endure shame, betrayal, war, and even madness. Marianne Frederiksson's previous novel, the international bestseller, Hanna's Daughters, was her first U. S. publication.

Frei

Irene González

Spanish

Irene González Frei. Your Name Written on Water [Tu nombre escrito en el agua]. Tr. Kristina Cordero. Grove Press. 1999 [Tusquets Editores, Barcelona, 1995]. 196 pp. Paper: $12.00; ISBN 0-8021-3648-6. A charged exploration of desire and narcissim, Your Name Written on Water reads like Anaďs Nin with a twist of The Story of O. Sofia works in a gallery in Madrid, the young wife of an architect whose fierce love for her has hardened into a furious resentment. Her life is transformed when one afternoon, by chance, she spends her lunch hour at a public pool outside the city. There she meets Marina, a woman who could be her twin. They are immediately drawn together—so powerfully that Sofia feels it all may be a trick of her fevered mind—and together they forge a love that is tender as well as passionate, with an intimacy that is almost eerie. Irene González Frei is a pseudonym. The author is from Latin America and works as a translator.

 

Frénaud

André

French

André Frénaud.  Rome the Sorceress/La Sorcičre de Rome.  Tr. Keith Bosley.  Bloodaxe Books/Dufour Editions [Éditions Gallimard, 1973].  1996.  224 pp.  Paper:  $18.95; ISBN 1-85224-318-X.  Bloodaxe Contemporary French Poets: 7.  Bilingual.  Rome the Sorceress is Frénaud's richest and most disturbing confrontation with the hidden life of myths and the sacred, probing the themes of time, inheritance, revolt, illusions of divinity, father-figures, mother-figures, and the insatiable monuments of language which pretend to grapple with this weight of experience.  Includes "Under the floorboards," "Cities," "Time and Motion," "Fires of the Sorceress," "Crossroads of the Voice," and "The Poem in the Mirror."  Bosley's translations include An Idiom of Night, a selection from Pierre Jean Jouve (1968);  A Round O by André Frénaud (1977); the last Penguin Mallarmé (1977); and From the Theorems of Master Jean de La Ceppčde (1983).

 

Fuentes

Carlos

Spanish

Carlos Fuentes.  The Orange Tree [El naranjo, o los círculos del tiempo].  Tr. Alfred MacAdam.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux [Alfaguara Literaturas, 1993].  1994.  229 pp.  Cloth:  $21.00; ISBN 0-374-22683-0.  In the five novellas that comprise The Orange Tree, Fuentes continues the passionate and imaginative reconstruction of past and present history that has distinguished Terra Nostra and The Campaign.  From the story of Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean, to the fate of Hernán Cortés's two sons, to the destruction of the Spanish city of Numantia by the Romans and the annihilation of Hollywood by Acapulco, Fuentes couples the historical with the many pleasures of the flesh.

 

Fuentes

Carlos

Spanish

Fuentes, Carlos.  Inez.  Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden.  New York: Farrar,

            Straus and Giroux, 2002.  150 pp.  Cloth: $18.00.  ISBN 0-374-17553-5.

            [Instinto de Inez, 2001].

 

            Inez weaves together two stories that evoke two different times and two grand passions.  One concerns Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara, a fabled orchestra conductor, and his great passion for Inez Prada, a renowned singer.  In the other, Fuentes delineates the first encounter in human history between a man and a woman.  Linking these two stories is a beautiful crystal seal that belongs to Atlan-Ferrara.  The seal may allow one to read unknown languages and hear music of impossible beauty.  Mr. Fuentes currently divides his time between Mexico City and London and lectures regularly in the United States.

 

Fumiko

Hayashi

Japanese

Hayashi Fumiko.  I Saw a Pale Horse and selected poems from Diary of a Vagabond [Aouma wo mitari and H_r_ki.  Ed. Karen Smith.  Tr. Janice Brown.  Cornell East Asia Series - East Asia Program.  1997.  135 pp.  Cloth:  $22.00; ISBN 1-885445-66-0.  Paper:  $14.00; ISBN 1-885445-86-5.  Hayashi Fumiko, one of the most popular prose writers of the Showa era, began writing as a down-and-out poet wandering the streets of 1920's Tokyo.  In these translations of her first poetry collection, I Saw a Pale Horse, and selected poems from Diary of a Vagabond, Fumiko's literary origins are colorfully revealed.  Little known in the west, these early poetic texts focus on Fumiko's unconventional early life, and her construction of a female subject that would challenge, with gusto and panache, accepted notions not only of class, family, and gender, but also of female poetic practice.