Review
Review: a novel about a translator who stops translating
A quiet, funny and devastating book about language, grief and the words we choose not to pass on.
Editor-in-chief
5 min read
The novel is the author’s third and first to appear in English.
Halfway through translating her late mother’s letters, the narrator of this remarkable novel simply stops. The rest of the book is about why.
It is one of the best novels I have read in years.
Between languages
The book moves between two languages, and the translation into English, itself a small miracle, leaves some words untranslated on purpose. You feel the gaps.
A book that makes you want to call your mother, and then makes you understand why you might not.
Verdict: five stars.
Topics
Clara Lindqvist
Editor-in-chief
Clara has led Pressio since its founding in 2019. Before that she edited the foreign desk of a Nordic daily for a decade.
