2014:2

There are so many other demands on a translator’s working time these days, from social media to public speaking, blogging and writing. We have become more public-facing, which is good for the profile of the profession, but does not suit every temperament.This issue tries to cover multiple aspects of the translator’s trade, combining translated extracts with a cluster of articles.

The common thread in the articles is the interaction between translated fiction and the British publishing industry,both now and in the past. We learn that Swedish children’s books have had a cheerful if chequered career in the UK over the past sixty-five years, while the current vogue for ‘crossover’ fiction could also help Swedish writers into today’s English-speaking book market. In 1988 Joan Tate, translating the start of Göran Tunström’s TheThief, asked in SBR:‘How would YOU put it?’ Now, twenty-six years later, Ian Giles provides some suggestions, and ruminates on why success in Sweden is no guarantee of the same here.

Graphic novels across Europe have never been more diverse and innovative. European Literature Night in London this May featured its first graphic novelist event, to coincide with the start of a major British Library exhibition,‘Comics Unmasked’, and Swedish comics were showcased at the Angoulême International Comics Festival this spring. At a seminar entitled ‘Beyond Nordic Noir’ at the London Book Fair in April, representatives of Nordic cultural organisations tipped graphic novels as one of the current trends to watch out for, so what better time for SBR to present a range of Swedish examples of the art? They range from Lina Neidenstam’s ebullient and socially perceptive Zelda cartoons, via the intriguing crime-fiction miniatures of Per Thörn (abetted by artists Allan Haverholm and Jimmy Wallin) to Marcus Ivarsson’s subtle-toned take on a Swedish classic, Selma Lagerlöf’s Tale of a Manor.

Swedish fiction is also represented here by Jens Liljestrand’s blackly humorous observations of the perversities of modern life and Jesper Weithz’s contemporary thriller with environmental undertones. Karin Boye’s poem, meanwhile, transports us back to Linköping Cathedral in 1938.

The reviews section covers Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Young Adult Fiction and a new feature, ‘Lost Treasure’.