Akira Otani's thriller earns Dagger Award for translation
'The Night of Baba Gaya,' translated by Sam Bett, was awarded the Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger by the Crime Writers' Association in Britain on July 3.
'Like a manga cartoon, this savage depiction of Japanese yakuza life is relentlessly violent if only to highlight the deep humanity of its fish out of water characters,' a CWA statement quoted judges as saying. 'Mean and lean, this saga sparkles with originality and delivers a splendid if bizarre love story.'
The story revolves around a violence-hungry woman who serves as bodyguard to the 'princess' daughter of a yakuza boss and the bond they develop.
The original novel was published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha in 2020. The English version has been well-received not only in Britain but also in the United States.
In a speech at the award ceremony, Otani, who was born in Tokyo in 1981, said being ambiguous is her theme as a writer.
'The protagonists in this work also obtain relationships and lives that cannot be clearly labeled,' she said in Japanese. 'That is the stuff that I wanted to read more than anything.'
Otani, who began focusing on novels after working as a freelance writer, gave special thanks to Bett for skillfully translating small details of Japanese elements in her story.
The Dagger Awards, founded in 1955, honor outstanding English-language crime and mystery novels published in Britain over the year.
They are the world's best-known prizes in the genre along with the Edgar Awards, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America.
While translated works were originally considered with other novels, a dedicated division was created in 2006.
'Butter,' written by Japanese author Asako Yuzuki and translated by Polly Barton, was also nominated in the division this year.
The CWA statement said Otani's novel 'pipped' Yuzuki's work 'to the post.'
In the past, books by Japanese writers Hideo Yokoyama, Keigo Higashino and Kotaro Isaka were shortlisted.
(This article was written by Rina Horikoshi and Gakushi Fujiwara.)
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