Translator’s Note: Katy Derbyshire on Sandra Hoffmann’s Paula

Our third translator’s note is by publisher-translator-blogmistress Katy Derbyshire, who enjoys referring to herself in the third person – another from our very first batch of books. Here, she asks the question: is anything really untranslatable? The story of Paula’s translation is a long one. I first came across Sandra Hoffmann’s book when it won

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Translator’s Note: Sinéad Crowe on Daughters

Next up in our series of translators’ notes is Sinéad Crowe, who translated Lucy Fricke’s great European road novel Daughters for our very first season. The joys and challenges of rendering humour are something many literary translators can relate to – along with anyone who’s ever tried to re-tell a joke to a new audience…

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Translator’s Note: Annie Rutherford on The Peacock

At V&Q Books, we’re proud of our translators and believe they should be seen and heard. So we’re sharing the notes they write for us, also published at the back of each book – as a resource for other translators, from aspiring to established, and to help non-translators understand the nature of their work. First

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Annie Rutherford on translating The Peacock

Translator Annie Rutherford tackled the impressive challenge of rendering Isabel Bogdan’s The Peacock – set in the Scottish Highlands but written in German – into English. Here, she talks to Gemma Craig-Sharples about how she went about it. How did you come to The Peacock? I was very lucky – V&Q’s publisher Katy Derbyshire actually

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The Blacksmith’s Daughter: Author and Translators in Conversation

with Selim Özdoğan, Katy Derbyshire Selim Özdoğan’s The Blacksmith’s Daughter was translated by Ayça Türkoğlu and Katy Derbyshire. The translation having been a collaborative process, we decided to conduct our interview in a similar way, in this case via Google Docs. This interview was first published in Jahrbuch Türkisch-Deutsche Studien. Selim: When did you two

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Sandra Hoffmann: Speaking Helps

Sandra Hoffman and her translator Katy Derbyshire on their book Paula, on music, the big wide world and the power of speaking. Katy: In Paula, you write about the time in your teenage years when you started listening to records. A lot of them were in English – Alan Parsons Project, Ralph McTell, Simon & Garfunkel –

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