French-Malayalam: Cross-Cltural Exchange

DC Books has been instrumental in bringing authors from around the world to vernacular languages and has the largest number of translations into vernacular languages in India. Various titles by DC Books have been translated into French and many other international languages. Many internationally acclaimed authors such as Paulo Coelho, Gabriel García Márquez, Gunter Grass, Simone de Beauvoir, Orhan Pamuk, Kazuo Ishigoro etc have all had their works translated into Malayalam by DC Books.

From French to Malayalam…

“We have translated more then 40 books from French into Malayalam,” told Ravi Deecee, Publisher, DC Books. Of these, three of the most popular titles are The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, Anyan (Outsider) by Albert Camus and Vaakkukal (Words) by Jean Paul Sartre.

From Malayalam to French…

“We have also sold rights of few of our books to French publishers. Some of the popular ones include Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil (Malayalam) by M Mukundan. This book has been translated by Actes Sud into French (Sur les rives du fleuve Mahé). Another popular book is Njan Lyngikathozhilaliby Nalini Jameela, which has been translated by Actes Sud into Frenchas Autobiographie d’une ouvriere du sexe. Our Malayalam title Stories by Vaikom Mohammad Basheer has been translated by Zulma as Les murs et autres histoires (d’amour),” added Ravi.

Why translations are important?

“Translations are important because they bring bibliodiversity and give exposure to other cultures and to understand where the world is moving to. This cross cultural exchange of books with France is set to grow in next 10 years. We have bought the rights for 3 French Novels again in 2020 (up until now) and are in discussions for the fourth one,” concluded Ravi.