This week Little Island Books launched their most recent title for older children, Bartolomé: The Infanta’s Pet,by Rachel van Kooij. At an event hosted by the Austrian Ambassador Dr. Thomas Nader and Mrs. Ingrid Thorbjörnsrud in Dublin, a lively public interview of the author and the translator, Dr. Siobhan Parkinson, by Dr Marian Keyes of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown libraries, president of the Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature marked the Dutch Austrian writer launch the Irish-published English translation of her novel set in 17th-century Spain – a truly international event!
Little Island Books, which is supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, is a relative newcomer on the Irish publishing scene, and is the only company in Ireland exclusively publishing literature for children and teenagers. Little Island has a policy of publishing not only the work of new Irish authors for children but also novels in translation, which is most unusual even in adult fiction and almost unheard-of for children in this country. So far Little Island has published four titles translated from German (all translated by Dr Siobhán Parkinson and supported by ILE and the Goethe-Institut), one from Swedish, one from Brazilian Portuguese, and one from Irish. A short book for younger readers, translated from Finnish and co-published with a German publishing house, is due out in the New Year.
‘Although this novel is officially marketed for children and teenagers,’ the translator and publisher told the audience, ‘this powerful and meticulously researched piece of historical fiction, centring on the famous Velazquez painting of the Infanta and her retinue, Las Meninas, is also eminently readable by adults, especially those with an interest in art history.’
Bartolomé: The Infanta’s Pet by Rachel van Kooij is available (for €8.99) from Irish bookshops or direct from the publisher (www.littleisland.ie, phone 085 228 3060). The author will be signing copies at major Dublin bookstores on Wednesday afternoon, so limited stocks of signed copies will be available.
The publication of Bartolomé was supported by the Austrian Ministry of Culture, Ireland Literature Exchange and the Goethe-Institut, Dublin.
