Tag Archives: books

September is World Kid Lit Month

Following on from August as Women in Translation Month comes September, now World Kid Lit Month, so here again is a list of 10 recommendations from me. I thought this list would be easy to write as I’ve written a … Continue reading

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February Reads

So I didn’t read as much as I’d have liked in February, but there were some exciting things all the same. I got to read Simone Buchholz’s Mexikoring, on which more later… Watch this space! Likewise, Zugmaus by Uwe Timm, illustrated by … Continue reading

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January 2019 Reads

I don’t know quite how it got to be 2019 when I wasn’t looking, and I don’t seem to manage regularly reviews any more, but I’m hopeful that semi-regularly round-ups of what I’ve been reading lately might be more doable… … Continue reading

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Attend by West Camel

First of all, full disclosure: West Camel is the editor of my translations of Beton Rouge and Blue Night at Orenda Books, who also publish Attend, and I was sent a PDF proof copy of by the publisher Karen a for review. … Continue reading

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#WITMonth: Soft in the Head by Marie-Sabine Roger

August is Women in Translation Month, the reasons for which are discussed by Katy Derbyshire here on the Freeword Centre site, and elsewhere. So it is a fitting moment to write about Marie-Sabine Roger‘s joyful novel Soft in the Head, … Continue reading

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Apple Cake and Baklava

I was sent a copy of Apple Cake and Baklava by Kathrin Rohmann, translated by my friend and colleague Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Darf Publishers, 2018) for review. As I read it with Son2, it seemed to make sense to share … Continue reading

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On Reviewing – Translations and Other Things

There are several controversies/discussions/debates swirling around my Twitter at the moment which are at least partly related. There are issues about how to review translations, what to do if you think a translation is flawed or poor, and about whether … Continue reading

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On the Improbability of Butterflies

I don’t know whether the similarities between Hanni Münzer’s Solange es Schmetterlinge gibt and Hannah Rothschild’s The Improbability of Love (Bloomsbury, 2015) would have struck me so clearly if I hadn’t read them one after the other. Both feature a … Continue reading

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Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure, by Alex T. Smith

Son2 has been reading more independently lately, particularly Enid Blyton and the Beano, so I haven’t had so many children’s books to write about. We’ve managed to break that streak recently though (variety being the spice of life, and all … Continue reading

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This Little Art

Like much of the rest of the (literary) translation world, I have been reading and enjoying Kate Briggs’ essay This Little Art, recently published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. It is her obviously, unambiguously and unashamedly personal and subjective thinking on translation … Continue reading

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