I've just finished reading Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, and I can say it is my top 5 books ever read. I can see online that it was published in Russian in 2007 and that there are two more novels in the series.
When (or if) will they be translated and published in the English-speaking world?
According to a tweet from the translator, Julia Meitov Hersey, the third book in the series has already been translated.
Q. Have you started translating Vita Nostra books 2+3 yet?
@JuliaMeiHersey: Book 3, The Migrant, is done :).
There's no word on a publication date (yet) from the writers.
Q. Is there any sign of a publication date for Vita Nostra books 2+3?
@DyachenkoW: Not yet — but we’re super excited you’re interested! :)
There are, it seems, no immediate plans in place. The translator, Julia Meitov Hersey is working on another novel (not in the same series) by the same authors, due for release in 2020.
Are you involved in any more translation projects right now, whether from these authors or others? Is there a “dream project” you’d love to work on?
I have translated four more novels by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko: The Cave, The Valley of Conscience, The Ritual, and Alyona and Aspirin.
Alyona and Aspirin has also been purchased by Harper Voyager and will be published in the fall of 2020. It is, according to Publishers Marketplace, set in “an unnamed city where a well-known journalist and DJ saves a young girl and her teddy bear (who are NOT what—or from where—they seem) from a bunch of toughs—and sets in motion events that force him to confront his formerly stable and enjoyable existence and glimpse the girl’s perspective—full of death and fear—leading to confrontation and possible revelation of her true nature.”
Opening Up New Worlds: A Conversation About Fantasy in Translation
She hopes to work on the other novels in the Vita Nostra series in future.
Currently, I am working on a few screenplays and synopses for StoryWorld, a production company based in California. I am also in the middle of translating The Beam, a new YA novel by Marina and Sergey, and a collection of fairy-tales they wrote for their daughter Anastasia.
My dream project? I have a long list of Dyachenko novels I need to get to. I would love to translate Narine Abgaryan’s lovely music box of a novel called Manyunya, Yana Wagner’s Vongozero, or Dmitry Bykov’s In Charge of Evacuation. I wish I could work on some Strugatsky novels, but Olena Bormashenko is just too damn good at it.
I also want to continue working on the the Metamorphoses cycle, of which Vita Nostra is the first part. The other two novels in the cycle are loosely connected to Vita Nostra thematically, but are very different in style and concept.
Opening Up New Worlds: A Conversation About Fantasy in Translation
It seems unlikely that the publisher would use a different translator (albeit it's possible) so you may have to wait until after 2020 for her to get to them.
Tags vita-nostra