The dearth of translations-into-English of literary works remains a huge issue; here's one unlikely/desperate example of trying to overcome that: Antti Tuuri is a popular and prolific Finnish author -- see his publisher's foreign rights information page -- but not much of his work is available in English translation.
(In fact, The Winter War seems the only more or less readily available title -- get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.)
What's a true fan who can't read Finnish to do ? Why commission a personal translation, of course. For the bargain price of €10,000 Jill Timbers translated Taivaanraapijat ('Skywalkers') for the well-heeled reader (who admirably notes: "On the other hand you could spend the money on something silly like clothes. This way I would have something splendid").
Hildi Hawkins has the story (and an excerpt from the work) at Books from Finland, in For your eyes only -- and publisher Otava also reprint a Helsingin Sanomat story about it, A Portuguese fan of Antti Tuuri's had his major novel translated into English
Maybe this personalized translating -- and writing -- is the way of the future ? In Bestseller, Auflage: 1 Volker Weidermann reported in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung last month on Wolf Wondratschek's limited-edition(-of-one) of his latest novel Selbstbild mit Ratte, written for a single reader, Helmut Meier (a Booz Allen Hamilton VP). (Wondratschek's last work, the poetry collection For a Life without a Dentist. Raoulito-Gedichte, appeared in a slightly less limited edition -- 444 copies, from Edition Ornament; see their publicity page; as the article notes, he's had issues -- especially about how much he gets for his books -- with publishers previously, leading him to seek out ... alternatives.)
What's a true fan who can't read Finnish to do ? Why commission a personal translation, of course. For the bargain price of €10,000 Jill Timbers translated Taivaanraapijat ('Skywalkers') for the well-heeled reader (who admirably notes: "On the other hand you could spend the money on something silly like clothes. This way I would have something splendid").
Hildi Hawkins has the story (and an excerpt from the work) at Books from Finland, in For your eyes only -- and publisher Otava also reprint a Helsingin Sanomat story about it, A Portuguese fan of Antti Tuuri's had his major novel translated into English
Maybe this personalized translating -- and writing -- is the way of the future ? In Bestseller, Auflage: 1 Volker Weidermann reported in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung last month on Wolf Wondratschek's limited-edition(-of-one) of his latest novel Selbstbild mit Ratte, written for a single reader, Helmut Meier (a Booz Allen Hamilton VP). (Wondratschek's last work, the poetry collection For a Life without a Dentist. Raoulito-Gedichte, appeared in a slightly less limited edition -- 444 copies, from Edition Ornament; see their publicity page; as the article notes, he's had issues -- especially about how much he gets for his books -- with publishers previously, leading him to seek out ... alternatives.)