An Anthropology of Literary Success: 'hits', 'near-misses' and 'failures' from ex-Yugoslavia

How does a foreign book travel from its original publisher to a British bookshop? To readers’ bedside tables? When we pick up an enticing title whose author’s name we can’t pronounce, how do we begin to trust these foreign stories? And are there others that get lost on the way and never reach us? This essay explores the notion of literary success and looks at how it is achieved in the context of translated fiction in the anglophone book market.1 Comparing several ex-Yugoslav authors and their UK reception, I discuss literary and contextual factors that contribute to their critical acclaim or lack thereof.