"Epitaph Of A Small Winner" and "Dom Casmurro" by Machado de Assis. He's written a great many other books besides those, but they're the best of the bunch. In Brazil he's a national hero, but while much of his work is available in English it's astoundingly under-appreciated.
Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
11–20 of 175 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#12Surprisingly, not only ethnoses have an age, but their growth, development and aging follows a fairly common trajectory.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#131984
Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#14Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#15"Epitaph Of A Small Winner" and "Dom Casmurro" by Machado de Assis. He's written a great many other books besides those, but they're the best of the bunch. In Brazil he's a national hero, but while much of his work is available in English it's astoundingly under-appreciated.
I love some foreign authors like Murakami, but I always wonder what I'm losing in the translation and how much is the translator impacting the writing.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#16Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love some foreign authors like Murakami, but I always wonder what I'm losing in the translation and how much is the translator impacting the writing.
Agreed. There are multiple translations of de Assis's major works into English, and they are remarkably dissimilar, so that is a hint right there as to how the translation process is itself an art form. (My tastes guide me to the earlier translations, which are slightly less forensically precise but far more readable and musical to the ear.)
Without question. I have also read books in several different translations and it is remarkable how different they can be from each other. In his notes, one translator said there is no such thing as "translating" a book from one language to another, what you are really doing is rewriting the book in another language.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#18Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#19"Epitaph Of A Small Winner" and "Dom Casmurro" by Machado de Assis. He's written a great many other books besides those, but they're the best of the bunch. In Brazil he's a national hero, but while much of his work is available in English it's astoundingly under-appreciated.
I love some foreign authors like Murakami, but I always wonder what I'm losing in the translation and how much is the translator impacting the writing.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?
#20Explains how taxing land instead of labour is the path to a far better world. Versus now where progress means higher land prices which means poverty for those excluded from land.
Once nearly got to be mayor of New York. Sold 6 million copies (at the time only the bible outsold it).
https://www.aier.org/article/amazing-influence-henry-george-...
As recommended by Albert Einstein and many others.