The fourth panel I moderated during the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair was a session co-organized by the Goethe-Institut Ukraine and the Ukrainian Book Institute, on Saturday, October 19. My paternal grandfather's birthday was the following day, he was born in Lviv on October 20, 1898, so I opened the session with that personal connection. (My paternal grandmother was also born in Lviv, on May 15, 1901.)
The panel was organized around the recent publication in German of a middle grade book by Ukrainian author Halyna Vdovychenko, 36 і 6 котів (36 & 6 Cats), which has sold over 130,000 copies.
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| Photos of the Ukrainian publishing panel on 36 & 6 Cats and panelists by Akim Parpach |
The session featured the author, together with her translator into German, Kati Brunner, as well as Yuliia Kozlovets, the coordinator of the International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv and a former independent bookseller. Unlike the previous days, the Book Fair is open to the general public, not just trade visitors, over the weekend, and was held in Ukrainian and English, with translation in both directions done by my dear friend Kateryna Mikhalitsyna, herself an award-winning children's author (we are working together right now to co-translate into Spanish 3 of her own books).
While the conversation was a free flowing dialogue among all the participants, for this summary, I will condense the conversations and comments from each of the three panelists.
Halyna writes for both children and adults, and was on tour with her most recent adult novel when we were trying to arrange a time to meet before the Book Fair to discuss the session. So we began by discussing the differences between writing for adults and for younger readers, and also how her writing has changed in the wake of the ongoing invasion by Russia. The book which has just been published in German translation was first published in 2015, but has extra resonance today in that it features not a single hero or heroine, but a collective: the 42 cats of the title, who used to live in the basement of an abandoned building until they find themselves homeless when the new landlord puts a lock on the door and they have to use their wiles to find a new place to live and how to help one another and stay together.
One thing Halyna spoke about was how a large part of her audience are refugees right now, Ukrainian children who have fled the ongoing Russian invasion. And the importance of a book like hers that shows characters that are not perfect, but never lose faith in their strength and manage to find their way out of difficult situations.
This was something Kati spoke about as well, as the translator of the book: conveying Ukrainian culture, not just translating the words. She spoke about needing to sometimes explain for German-speaking readers cultural details about Ukrainian society that might be unknown for them. She also talked about how as a translator she is also an ambassador of Ukrainian culture to German publishers, as very often editors are not able to read the original and need to rely on a reader's report from them. And the importance of making sure that Ukrainian culture is promoted and published around the world, so that Ukraine is known as more than just a victim of Russia's ongoing invasion.
We also talked about some translation issues, like how to handle the names of the 42 cats: not just using the literal translations of the Ukrainian names in many cases, but recreating the names in German. And likewise, how to convey the book's humor.
Yuliia talked about how Halyna's events at the Arsenal Book Festival and other events have always been major draws, but how these days those parents who are still in the Ukraine very often are afraid to let their kids go to crowded public places due to a very real fear of said events become targets for Russian attacks. She also talked about the importance of books and culture, and how Russia understands this and is actively trying to undermine Ukrainian culture, citing the destruction of the Faktor-Druk printing house in Kharkiv, which printed a majority of the country's books.
The importance of Ukrainian culture is why the Festival continues to operate even under duress and threat, and also why the country's publishing industry continues to operate, despite blackouts and missiles: to provide books for readers of all ages, and so that they have a life and a culture to return to after the invasion is over.
Halyna's popular book has inspired many sequels, including 36 & 6 Detective Cats and 36 & 6 Companion Cats, and now even a new spinoff series: 36 & 6 Dogs.
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| Lawrence Schimel |
Lawrence Schimel is a multilingual author and literary translator, working primarily in and between Spanish and English. He has published over 130 books as an author, and has translated over 190 books. He has won a Crystal Kite twice, for his picture books Lucky Me, illustrated by Juan Camilo Mayorga (Orca) and Read a Book With Me, illustrated by Thiago Lopes (US: Beaming Books, Singapore: Epigram). His most recent children's book is HaiCuba/HaiKuba: Haikus about Cuba in Spanish and English, co-authored with Carlos Pintado, illustrated by Juan José Colsa (NorthSouth Books) which won a Eureka Honor from the California Reading Association and was chosen by the NYPL as a Best Books for Kids 2024.
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