A weekend celebrating foreign fiction begins

The London Review of Books World Literature Weekend kicked off tonight with a get together in the bookshop in Bloomsbury.

Among the translators, journalists and bloggers were a couple of authors who will speaking over the weekend. One of the translators was asked to speak and she reminded the assembled audience of the importance of bringing foreign literature to a British audience.

She said that only around 2-3% of translated works were published in Britain each year compared to around 50% in France. We have a long way to go to catch up.

I'm attending two sessions on Sunday afternoon and will report back on those. Any fears that those sessions might end without spending some money on the relevant books was calmed by a member of staff who pointed out the LRB will be open for signed sales after the sessions.

Roll on WLW 2010.