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The Seven Deadly Sins

January 2008

Vice and virtue clash daily round the world, and while the definition of sin may vary, its literary allure is universal. Perhaps that’s because no matter how easy we think moral failings are to finger, in actuality their elusiveness on the page is what makes for the stuff of great literature. “It’s so easy to forget . . . ” says a former student of an envious teacher; yet do moral failings arise because it’s easy to forget, or because it’s even easier to harbor and remember? Maya Arad, Roberto Bolaño, Lars Saabye Christensen, Doris Kareva, Danilo Kiš, Mathieu Lindon, Sérgio Rodrigues, Kjell Westo, and Yan Lianke put envy, greed, pride, sloth, gluttony, anger, and lust to thought-provoking ends for the New Year.

The Many Masks of Max Mirebelais

By Roberto Bolaño

His real name was probably Max Mirebalais, although we will never know for sure.

Translated from Spanish by Chris Andrews

From “Serve the People!”

The wheat pointed to the glorious future: of glorious harvests in the glorious times to come once Communism had been realized.

Translated from Chinese by Julia Lovell

The Man Who Killed the Writer

By Sérgio Rodrigues

First things first: I didn’t write the book everyone thinks I wrote, the one that has been showering me with fame and riches since its publication, just over one year go.

Translated from Portuguese by Fernanda Abreu

The Pig

By Lars Saabye Christensen

Asbjørn Hall didn’t argue….He’d never argued.

Translated from Norwegian by Kenneth Steven

The Robot

No one was surprised by his arrival.

Translated from Serbian by John K. Cox

From “Seven Moral Failings”

Now was the time to ask for a recommendation from David.

Translated from Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green

Multilingual

The Trial of Jean-Marie Le Pen

By Mathieu Lindon

Shouldn’t the leader of the National Front be held responsible for the murder committed by one of his brainwashed teenaged supporters?

Translated from French by Ann Smock

“Idleness Is Often Empowering . . . “

By Doris Kareva

Idleness is often empowering,

Translated from Estonian by Tiina Aleman

The Referee

By Kjell Westö

He had felt restless all autumn, but without understanding why.

Translated from Finland-Swedish by Roy Hodson

Calendar

By David Huerta

Twelve knots are losing patience around the eyebrows / of the year to come.

Translated from Spanish by John Oliver Simon

A farm in Vioolsdrift, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Photo by South African Tourism Flickr

From “Agaat”

By Marlene van Niekerk

The first time you slept with Jak was the day after he came to declare his intentions to your parents.

Translated from Afrikaans by Michiel Heyns

The Last Farm Novel?: An Interview with Michiel Heyns

“because Afrikaans literature is such a relatively small body of work that this will be a powerful addition to that body.”