Angela Rodel - "The Case of Cem" - Susan Harris

Angela Rodel discusses The Case of Cem. She will be joined in conversation by Susan Harris. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

Presented in partnership with Third Coast Translators Collective. 

At the Co-op

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About the Book: It’s 1481, and as seen from the centers of power in Rome and Venice, the cultures of Europe are under threat from the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. When the exalted Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror dies, his eldest son, Bayezid, takes the throne. However, discontented factions within the Ottoman army urge Mehmed’s second son, Cem, a well-educated and experienced warrior, to oppose his brother’s ascension, igniting a ruthless power struggle and forcing Cem into long years of exile, a pawn for European rulers who are desperate to preserve the order they have imposed on the continent over the course of centuries.

The Case of Cem, Vera Mutafchieva’s celebrated novel of court intrigue, maintains lasting resonance for being a personal exploration of emigration and loss set in the historical era during which the politics of the East and West were sketched out with utter clarity. These early lines of demarcation, as voiced through Christian and Muslim emissaries, greedy leaders, unflinching soldiers, and lyrical poets, have indelibly influenced the world as we know it today.

About the Author: Angela Rodel is a literary translator who holds degrees from Yale and UCLA in linguistics and ethnomusicology. Eight Bulgarian novels in her translation have been published in the US and UK. She has received NEA and PEN translation grants, including an NEA grant for her translation of The Case of Cem. Her translation of Georgi Gospodinov’s Physics of Sorrow won the 2016 AATSEEL Prize for Literary Translation, and her translation of his novel Time Shelter won the 2023 International Booker Prize. A two-time Fulbright scholar, she now lives in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she serves as executive director of the Bulgarian-American Fulbright Commission.

About the Interlocutor: Susan Harris is the editorial director of Words Without Borders. With Ilya Kaminsky, she coedited The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.