Translations
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from The Arab by Pooneh Rohi
With the two interwoven stories in her debut novel, Pooneh Rohi has joined a fray of new voices who chronicle the experience of trying to fit in in a country that fundamentally appears to reject you.
Translated by Kira Josefsson
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Mai Means Water by Kayo Mpoyi
Kayo Mpoyi's searing debut exploring shame, intergenerational cycles of trauma and abuse, sisterhood and the different narratives that shape us as humans, from the perspective of a young girl growing up in Dar es Salaam.
Translated by Alex Fleming
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from The Story of a Son by Joel Mauricio Isabel Ortiz
Joel Mauricio Isabel Ortiz's debut novel is a painful and at times brutal account of a tumultuous time in the life of its protagonist Angel, a young non-binary person spiralling in a world of alcohol, drugs, sex and loneliness.
Translated by Hanna Löfgren
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Mamma by Adrian Perera
Adrian Perera's Mamma is a genre-bending, multi-lingual, claustrophobic glimpse into the world of its protagonist, a young boy called Tony.
Translated by Kate Lambert.
TRANSLATED EXTRACT
from Event Horizon by Balsam Karam
Balsam Karam stresses that her debut novel is no dystopic fantasy. The deprivation experienced by the people of the Edges reflect the reality of refugees and displaced persons everywhere.
Translated by Fiona Graham
Articles
REPORT
Translators at Work
Catherine Venner reports on the author and translator events held by SELTA in Edinburgh in 2019.
FEATURE
Emerging Voices in Swedish Literature
The six authors in this issue have all recently published their first novel. Anja Tröger explores the way their literary voices add something different to the Swedish canon of literature.
Interviews
INTERVIEW
An Accidental Translator
In 2019 translator Tom Geddes was awarded the Swedish Academy prize for the promotion of Swedish literature abroad. Here he shares some of the highs and lows in his distinguished career.
Book reviews
compiled and edited by Fiona Graham
REVIEW
Mai betyder vatten
Kayo Mpoyi's debut novel is the story of family trauma and its impact through the ages, as seen through the eyes of Adi, a six-year-old diplomat’s daughter from Zaire.
REVIEW
Gul utanpå
Patrik Lundberg's riveting memoir is a meditation on belonging, exclusion, and the longing for community, connection, and culture.
REVIEW
Mitt hem är inte Copacabana
Toninho de Lima was plucked from poverty in Rio to play one of the street children in Swedish director Arne Sucksdorff’s award-winning 1965 film My Home is Copacabana. His daughter, journalist and editor Anna de Lima Fagerlind, tells the story of his journey.
REVIEW
Ett kilo socker
Journalist Helena Trus writes about her grandmother’s experiences during the Holocaust – a reflection on the trauma of persecution and war through the generations.
REVIEW
Herrarna satte oss hit
In her remarkable book, Elin Anna Labba gives multiple voices to those dispossessed during the forced displacement of Sámi reindeer herders in the 1920s and 1930s.
REVIEW
Ædnan
Linnea Axelsson’s prize-winning epic poem told from multiple perspectives involving two different families over the course of a century.
REVIEW
White Monkey
In this poetry collection Adrian Perera addresses structural racism and hegemonic whiteness, combining the power of poetry with the realism of a narrative.
REVIEW
Broderier
In Broderier, Burcu Sahin creates an uncompromising verbal tapestry that is both a record of her personal experience and memory but also a shared testimony.
REVIEW
Mamma
Adrian Perera's first novel is a claustrophobic story in four languages and plays with the reader’s assumptions from the word go.
REVIEW
Människan är den vackraste staden
An impressive novel by Sami Said that entertains, provokes and moves in equal measure.
REVIEW
Nora, eller brinn Oslo brinn
A love triangle between three people and three Scandinavian capitals is the subject of Johanna Frid's debut novel.
REVIEW
Kloaksajterna
Kolbjörn Guwallius’s debut novel is a timely tale that takes us into the world of hate sites and alternative media, set against the backdrop of the 2018 Swedish election.
REVIEW
Araben
Pooneh Rohi's melancholy, haunting novel affords a penetrating insight into what it means to have a composite identity formed by different, conflicting cultures, and how that condition can affect one’s life choices.
REVIEW
Stjärnorna ser likadana ut överallt
Author Svab and illustrator Bergebo explore the bewilderment and disorientation of life as a refugee from the perspective of five-year-old Hala.
REVIEW
Dyksommar
Sara Stridsberg's moving book for children echoes her award-winning adult novel, The Gravity of Love, and is gorgeously illustrated by Sara Lundberg.
REVIEW
Mizeria
Everyone carries misery with them. In her debut YA novel stand-up comedian Melody Farshin uses snappy imagery and inventive metaphor to make this book far from miserable.