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Sports

July 2010

This month we’re putting down our books and heading outdoors with an issue devoted to sports. As the World Cup wraps up in South Africa, we catch soccer fever with Russia’s young Andrei Sen-Senkov. Dutch crime writer René Appel takes us on a road race with an unexpected course, while Germany’s Burkhard Spinnen tracks an Olympic mystery. On the Italian team, Fabio Stassi, winner of the CONI Prize for Sports Fiction, captures a king of chess, while the veteran Carmine Abate dives into an unorthodox swimming lesson. Noted English-to-Japanese translator Motoyuki Shibata takes his American author out to the ball game. And Spain’s Sergi Pàmies delivers the play-by-play on a game gone wrong.

Drawings on a Soccer Ball
By Andrei Sen-Senkov
the last name of the player / on the german team / translates into russian as / pig crawling up / a blond graceful creature
Translated from Russian by Peter Golub
From “The Revenge of Capablanca”
By Fabio Stassi
The match was held in an arena, semicircular in shape, behind the town hall.
Translated from Italian by Elizabeth Harris
Walking the Keihin Factory Belt with Stuart Dybek
By Motoyuki Shibata
As usual, the boy missed the fly ball that anyone else would have caught with his eyes closed, and it rolled into a thicket of reeds by the river.
Translated from Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
Learn
From “The All-Rounder”
By Burkhard Spinnen
At about three Farwick leaves the office building at one end of the market place. Just outside the door he stops. Is it warm or isn’t it?
Translated from German by Martin Chalmers
Dummy Run
By René Appel
Actually the thought of any kind of sport filled him with violent distaste
Translated from Dutch by the author
From “The Homecoming Party”
By Carmine Abate
After lunch, my grandmother always insisted we go take a nap.
Translated from Italian by Antony Shugaar
The Game
By Sergi Pàmies
It’s the son’s idea: he’ll hide in an armoire and, when his father walks by, he’ll jump out and scare him.
Translated from Catalan by Lisa M. Dillman