As announced on September on this blog, the first European translation of Killing Commendatore was published by Atlas Contact on December 1st. The co-translators from Dutch are Elbrich Fennema and Luk van Haute.
On her public Facebook page, What I think about when I translate Murakami, Fennema wrote:
"It is always a moment of magic to feel an actual, factual book in your hands, even though as a translator I know the content inside out. For months Luk and I ( co-translaters) could keep our options open, simmer over choices, make adjustments. But the text is now fixated in the form of a book. And something strange happens: in print it all of a sudden looks like it was always there. As if Killing Commendatore is an obvious concept.
Of course it wasn't always like that...
As translators we struggled with the right word in Dutch for 'Killing'. Was it murder? Manslaugher? Self defense? At times translating felt a lot like detective work: looking for clues, magnifying glass in hand. After 1000 pages, we are confident to conclude that it is definitely a case of murder..."
Volume II is to appear on January 12, Murakami's birthday.
And now we are waiting for the German translation by Ursula Gräfe, which -- at least as far as I know -- will be next.
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