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Judith Landry Diego Marani Contemporary English

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by Judith Landry,Diego Marani

Author:	Judith Landry,Diego Marani
Subcategory:	Contemporary
Language:	English
Publisher:	Dedalus Limited (November 1, 2012)
Pages:	168 pages
Category:	Fiction and Literature
Rating:	4.7
Other formats:	lrf mobi docx txt

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Diego Marani was born in Ferrara in 1959. He works as a senior linguist for the European Union in Brussels.

Diego Marani was born in Ferrara in 1959. His collection of short stories in Europanto, Las Adventures des Inspector Cabillot has been published by Dedalus. Consequently, when she entrusts Ivan into the self-serving Aurtovo's care, she has no idea of the magnitude of her error.

Dedalus European Classics, Dedalus Europe 1992 -2012, Dedalus Euro Shorts series and Dedalus Anthologies. The Last of the Vostyachs by Diego Marani, translated by Judith Landry was longlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction Award in 2013

Dedalus also publishes literary non-fiction in the Dark Master, City Noir and Concept Book series. The Last of the Vostyachs by Diego Marani, translated by Judith Landry was longlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction Award in 2013. Mike Mitchell was shortlisted in 2014 for French-American Foundation Translation Prize: Where Tigers Are At Home by Jean-Marie Blas de Robles.

Il cane di Dio. Judith Landry, Diego Marani. Nuova grammatica finlandese.

A 'genius' Helsinki mystery with a touch of The Killing.

Some twenty years later the guards desert their posts and Ivan walks free, together with the other inmates. Guided by some mysterious power, he returns to the region he originally came from. A 'genius' Helsinki mystery with a touch of The Killing. Nick Lezard in The Guardian.

Place of Publication. General & Literary Fiction. Dedalus Ltd. Date of Publication. Country of Publication. Translated by. Judith Landry. All listings for this product.

Marani has been awarded the Campiello Prize. JUDITH LANDRY is a translator of works of fiction, art and architecture. and the Stresa Prize for The Last of the Vostyachs, as well as winning the Bruno Cavallini Prize. New Finnish Grammar has received the Grinzane-Cavour Prize, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award, and the Best Translated Book Award, and longlisted for the European Book Prize. Her translations include The House by the Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga, The Devil in Love by Jacques Cazotte, A Bag of Marbles, by Joseph Joffo, and Smarra & Trilby by Charles Nodier. MoreLess Show More Show Less.

The Last of the Vostyachs. Dedalus Europe 2012 - Diego Marani.

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Marani has been awarded the Campiello Prize and the Stresa Prize for The Last of the Vostyachs, as well as winning the Bruno Cavallini Prize. JUDITH LANDRY is a translator of works of fiction, art and architecture

Marani has been awarded the Campiello Prize and the Stresa Prize for The Last of the Vostyachs, as well as winning the Bruno Cavallini Prize.

He is the last of an ancient Siberian shamanic tribe, the Vostyachs, and .

But when the innocent wild man Ivan is found in the forests by the lively linguist Olga, his existence proves to be a triumphant discovery for some, a grave inconvenience for others . This book as with New Finnish Grammar, was translated by Judith Landry, and as with that book, she has my heartfelt thanks for allowing me the opportunity to read this with the ease I did.

Diego Marani was responsible for the novel New Finnish Grammar, which I. .

Diego Marani was responsible for the novel New Finnish Grammar, which I raved about so much in these pages that it stayed on top of the Guardian bookshop bestseller list for weeks. And I still get accosted by people who thank me for putting them on to the book. The beginning of the book is severely disorienting, and deliberately so, as we see the world reduced to an experience of mystery and pain through the eyes of one Ivan, who escapes a Russian prison camp in the frozen north.

The Last of the Vostyachs won two literary prizes in Italy: The Premio Campiello and The Premio Stresa. As a child, Ivan and his father work as forced labourers in a mine in Siberia, the father having committed some minor offence against the regime. Ivan's father is then murdered in front of his young son, after which Ivan - who is a Vostyach, an imaginary ethnic group of whose language he is the last remaining speaker - is struck dumb by what he has witnessed. Some twenty years later the guards desert their posts and Ivan walks free, together with the other inmates. Guided by some mysterious power, he returns to the region he originally came from...

Comments:

Shalinrad

The prose is dense, but well written, with rather long quotations in places that don't really add to the story. Other than that, it is an interesting take on how exploitation by academics can happen in relation to someone who is the last of his tribe. The twist at the end is good but I would have thought that Ivan (the last of the Vostyachs) would have been more fluent in the other languages that surround him, humans are pretty efficient at communicating.

Hinewen

This is a well crafted book that survives translation beautifully. It's a fast paced story that despite the arcane knowledge of languages peoples and dialects keeps you interested.

Gaiauaco

Compelling start but the story fast became very predictable and uninteresting. In the end it was barely readable. Don't bother.

Super P

Better than God's Dog -- has a lot more bark, but not up to the same excellent level of writing as Finnish Grammar.

Uaha

An intriguing premise with real potential, but it descends into farce and slapstick, which diminishes the impact. A book I started with real expectations, but I finally closed the last page with some relief.

Siratius

For twenty years Ivan, arrested together with his father for poaching, had been in a Soviet Gulag in far north of Siberia. After his father had been killed trying to escape, Ivan had not spoken a word. Then, one late autumn day, the soldiers had gone, the inmates left the camp and scattered, and Ivan trudged on alone, for a long time not meeting a soul, surviving by using his old trapping skills. With a home-made drum or flute he can summon, charm or check wild animals. He has the occasional mystical vision. He belongs to the Vostyach tribe, which many scientists believed to have become extinct, and he spoke its near-extinct language.

At last he stumbled on a village inn, and by chance, temporarily marooned there by deep snow, was Olga, a Russian linguist who was making a study of the local languages. She recognized his language, had some Vostyach vocabulary herself, and made recordings of him. She is thrilled to discover that this language is a link between the Finnish and the Eskimo-Aleut language, proving the contested idea that in antiquity the same language group was spoken from Siberia to North America. (There is a good deal of technical discussion about this.) Ivan, for his part, is delighted to be able to communicate with her. Olga was about to attend a congress on the Finno-Ugric languages in Helsinki, and persuaded him to come with her. Needless to say, he was utterly bewildered and frightened by trains, planes, and cities. A commitment makes her send Ivan ahead of her and ask Professor Aurtova, who will be running the Congress, to look after him for a few hours until she arrives.

Up to this point, the story is powerful, poetic, and captivating. But it then changes tone.

Aurtova is a Finnish patriot, hates anything that comes out of Russia, and so has an ideological resistance to the idea that there was any connection between the Finns and the Voystyachs (or, for that matter, between the Finns and the Algonquin Indians). The Finns, he will argue, have long refused to learn neighbouring languages, and he wants this to continue to maintain the purity of their language. Field-Marshal Mannerheim was his hero, and it also emerges later that he hates democracy. Aurtova is also a vile and ruthless scoundrel (he is detested by his ex-wife), and he will go to extreme lengths to prevent Ivan or Olga appearing at the Congress. The descriptive passages are as powerful as ever, but the novel becomes a melodramatic thriller. There are murders. The animals in a zoo are set free and roam the city. Coincidences abound. At first I found this change of tack disconcerting, but because the descriptive passages are as powerful as ever, I adjusted to it, and found the thriller gripping. It does not quite lose sight of the language question, and it reemerges strongly near the end of the book. There is a wonderfully symbolical scene on a liner from Helsinki to the Aland Islands. It is hard to believe, but its development will make for a satisfying conclusion to the novel.

(See also my Amazon review of Marani’s earlier novel “New Finnish Grammar”)

Hasirri

The Last of the Vostyachs is the3rd novel by Italian author, Diego Marani, and the second to be translated into English. When Russian linguist Olga Pavlovna, stranded by a blizzard in a remote Siberian village, stumbles across a wild man speaking a strange language, her boredom is instantly transformed into enthusiasm: Ivan is speaking in a tongue thought long extinct. Could he be the last of the Vostyachs? Olga naively shares her discovery with her Finnish colleague, Professor Jarmo Aurtovo, certain he will share her excitement. Consequently, when she entrusts Ivan into the self-serving Aurtovo's care, she has no idea of the magnitude of her error. To the aforementioned elements add: a scorned ex-wife who is determined to be rid of her husband's dog; a Police officer who just wants to watch the ice hockey final; a bar-owning Laplander pimp; a cold snap that freezes the seas in the Gulf of Finland; the XXIst congress of Finno-Ugric languages; an island cabin complete with sauna; zoo animals loose on the streets of Helsinki; an aging, overweight Russian prostitute; and a bunch of people who get excited over the lateral affricative with labiovelar overlay and you have a novel that is a combination of murder mystery, comedy, tragedy, tongue-in-cheek linguistic text and spiritual tale. Readers who find the philological jargon heavy going should persist, as the truly delicious irony of the ending is well worth it. Flawlessly translated by Judith Landry, this is a brilliant novel which will have readers seeking out Marani's other works. Clever, funny and moving.

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