Re-issuing an overlooked novel with a new title and one strategic alteration can breathe new life into a fine book, as happened with Antonio Tabucchi’s ‘Pereira Maintains’
NEW EDITIONS of classic books are published all the time, they are reliable earners. It is no secret, a proven great novel, or even a good one, will live forever and remain in demand – with or without the always lucrative movie tie-in. But a clever re-issue of a fine novel that didn’t quite receive the reception it merited first time round, under a slightly different title, is not only good publishing, it is an important contribution to the universal pleasure shared by all – reading. Most satisfying of all is to see a good sleeper finally triumph through word of mouth enthusiasm, rather than by empty hype.
One such novel of the moment is Pereira Maintainsby Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi, translated by Patrick Creagh, and recently re-published by Canongate, with an attractive predominately yellow cover, depicting a street washed in sunlight. It was originally published in Italy in 1994 and the first English language edition, in Creagh's translation, followed within a year from the Harvill Press. The new edition of Tabucchi's gracefully ironic thriller, still in Creagh's original translation, has a difference; that earlier edition was called Declares Pereira. A street scene also appears on the jacket of that earlier edition. But it is dark, painted in shades of grey; figures are running through the shadows. The new Canongate edition uses Creagh's original translation, copyright 1995, with one difference; the recurring phrase "declares Pereira" – almost a narrative mantra – has been changed throughout to " Pereira maintains."
This 'new' novel is not new. Nor is it a lost classic as it was published relatively recently, 16 years ago. The screen version was released in 1996. It also should be remembered, at least in Ireland, that in 1997 it featured on the second International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist, the year Spain's Javier Marias won with A Heart So White. Declares Pereira, as it was then known, impressed many readers but was not tipped to win as it was so short – only 136 pages in small print. The Canongate edition has used a larger typeface; the text now runs to 195 pages.
Antonio Tabucchi, author of more than 20 novels and short story collections, is an established European writer and essayist. To date nine of his books have been translated into English.
Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, he was a serious contender for that honour in 2009 when Alice Munro eventually won.
Every now and then, a novel from the past makes not just a storming return, it enjoys a rebirth. Alone in Berlin, the outstanding thriller by the German writer Hans Fallada (1893-1947), whose bizarre life makes most novels seem dull, enjoyed international success last year as the Penguin paperback sales soared.
Originally published in Germany in 1947, Alone in Berlin, based on a true story, had been successful in its German version. However when New York publishing company Melville House approached poet Michael Hofmann, acclaimed translator of Joseph Roth and Wolfgang Koeppen, it was obvious that Fallada's darkly humane masterpiece about German civilian objections to Nazism was destined to reach a vast international audience – but its belated success was even bigger than anticipated.
An invariably rewarding supply of European classics continue to keep gifted translators such as Hofmann busy and forgotten writers such as Wolfgang Koeppen (1906-1996) and Gert Ledig (1921-1999) have been reclaimed. Carol Brown Janeway's English translation in 2001 of Hungarian author Sándor Márai's elegiac mood piece Embers. Originally published in Hungary in 1942, it was finally reprinted in Budapest in 1990, while a German translation in 1999 marked the beginning of a renaissance which would culminate in the internationally best selling English translation. Further Márai titles have followed such as The Rebels(1930) in a 2007 English language translation by the Hungarian poet George Szirtes, and Esther's Inheritance(1939) in 2009, also translated by Szirtes.
Antonio Tabucchi, born in Pisa in 1943, is a career academic and specialist in Portuguese literature. He has translated the works of the enigmatic Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) who often features in Tabucchi's fiction. This interest in Portugal no doubt inspired the setting of Pereira Maintainsin Lisbon in 1938 as war and rumours abound. The eponymous hero is a former crime reporter now turned culture editor who appears to be remarkably out of touch with the political scene. Fat, depressed and lonely, Pereira consumes vast amounts of lemonade, speaks to the photograph of his dead wife and takes to supporting a young man with dangerous political beliefs. What appears to be a mild comedy becomes increasingly profound.
Another of Tabucchi's books, Requiem(1991) is also set in Lisbon and is written in Portuguese. It consists of a sequence of dream-like encounters experienced by the narrator. Tabucchi regards it as a requiem and it slowly adds up to scenes of a life. A similar episodic-like structure provides the frame for an earlier work, Indian Nocturne(1984) which was published in 1988 in an English translation by British writer Tim Parks. In it the narrator, urbane and likeable, goes in search of an old friend whose identity is ultimately more complex than might have been expected. It shares the sophisticated, almost playful intelligence that shapes his work. There is also a wistful element as in the quietly obsessive story, Vanishing Point(1986), also translated by Parks, in which a pathologist becomes far more interested in a victim's past than in finding out the reasons behind his murder.
Pereira Maintainswell deserves its current popularity. There is nothing more exciting in publishing and reading than to see an example of word of mouth recommendations generating enthusiasm. Readers, not hype or publicity stunts, are encouraging others to discover this terrific novel and beyond, deeper into the mysterious, often ambiguous terrain of Tabucchi's elegant irony.
Pereira Maintainsby Antonio Tabucchi is published by Canongate
