Commendatore Translates Itself!

The Spanish and English translations of Killing Commendatore appeared this week. The Spanish translation, by Fernando Cordobés and Yoko Ogihara, came out from Tusquets Editores. Interestingly enough, the translators' names are not mentioned on the publisher's page.  

The English translation, by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen, came out from Knopf in the US and Harvill Secker in the UK today.  A Washington Post review by Charles Finch also didn't find it expedient to give the translators' names. No doubt the book keeps translating itself. 

In his review, Finch says that in this book Murakami "gets the balance right." He writes:

Perhaps this lies in its exhilarating portrayal of how it feels to make art. In long, powerful passages, Murakami describes painting with the intensity of what seems like just-concealed autobiography. ...One could argue that the realism of such scenes saves “Killing Commendatore” from its flights of outlandishness; conversely, it’s possible that only in the calm madness of his magical realism can Murakami truly capture one of his obsessions, the usually ineffable yearning that drives a person to make art. 

Another review, by Johanna Thomas Corr in The Guardian, is not as positive. Corr doesn't mention the translators, either... She writes:

The novel spins wide, exploring ideas about art, grief and rebirth with echoes of Alice in Wonderland, Don Giovanni, Bluebeard’s Castle and an 18th-century story by Ueda Akinari about a mummy who comes back to life. The result is an exhausting epic that is at once more absorbing than it deserves to be and less profound than the author intended. 

Later this week or next week, we will get the French translation by Hélène Morita (both volumes) from Belfond (October 11), the Italian translation of volume one by Antonietta Pastore from Einaudi (October 16), and the Polish translation of volume one by Anna Zielinska-Elliott from Muza (October 15). Volume two of the Polish translation will be published in November.