People who translate between languages make books accessible to those of us who might otherwise never be able to enjoy the literature of the whole world. Many of us, probably way too many of us, don’t speak, let alone read, a language other than the one we were born into.

Nancy Pearl talks about a translator who has done award-winning translation. Carol Brown Janeway translates almost exclusively from German to English and Nancy Pearl says you could do well just reading her translations.

We discuss other books we can enjoy in translation and ponder the translators relationship to the author.

A few of the books discussed:

Lost, Hans Ulrich Treichel (Author) Carol Brown Janeway (Translator)

Rue , Kim Thuy (Author), Sheila Fischman (Translator)

The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad(Author) and Ingrid Christophersen (Translator)

Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Author), Lucia Graves (Translator)

The President, Miguel Angel Asturias (Author) and Frances Partridge (Translator)

Snow, Orhan Pamuk (Author) Maureen Freely