How We Are Translated

Name: How We Are Translated
Brand: Penguin Random House NZ
SKU: 9781925849950
Price: 34.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Jessica Johannesson

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3.06

( 326 ratings, 67 reviews)

Summary

How We Are Translated by Jessica Johannesson is a thought-provoking and immersive novel exploring the complexities of identity and communication. The story follows Kristin, a Swedish immigrant in Scotland, and her Brazilian partner, Ciaran. Their life is punctuated by linguistic challenges and cultural clashes, capturing the tensions of navigating belonging in a foreign land. It interweaves personal and cultural narratives, offering a deeply introspective examination of the immigrant experience.
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Format: Hardback

$34⁰⁰

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How We Are Translated

$34⁰⁰

Elsewhere:

~~$37⁰⁰~~

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're intrigued by stories that navigate language, identity, and living between cultures. It explores the nuances of multicultural relationships with a keen, empathetic eye and offers a fresh perspective on the immigrant experience. Readers who appreciate a blend of humour and poignancy in understanding personal and cultural dislocation may find this narrative particularly engaging.

Description

Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize

People say 'I'm sorry' all the time when it can mean both 'I'm sorry I hurt you' and 'I'm sorry someone else did something I have nothing to do with'. It's like the English language gave up on trying to find a word for sympathy which wasn't also the word for guilt.

Swedish immigrant Kristin won't talk about the Project growing inside her. Her Brazilian-born Scottish boyfriend Ciaran won't speak English at all; he is trying to immerse himself in a Swedish språkbad language bath, to prepare for their future, whatever the fick that means. Their Edinburgh flat is starting to feel very small.

As this young couple is forced to confront the thing that they are both avoiding, they must reckon with the bigger questions of the world outside, and their places in it.

How We Are Translated is the most contemporary of novels; set somehow both in the now and in the distant past; in one city that could be many cities, and in two different languages, though also in defiance of language, with as much focus on the silences between words as the words themselves. It's a novel that maintains just the right balance of oddity, intimacy and illumination. It's a novel that anyone interested in the future of the English novel needs to read!
—Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

One of the gentlest and most patient, humane, and quirky things I have read in a long time ... Hugely original.
—Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy

How We Are Translated is a layered work about home, language, barriers, and belonging. Johannesson's unusual and refreshing prose crackles with truth—burning along beautifully.
—Alice Bishop, author of A Constant Hum

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781925849950

Publisher: Scribe Publications

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 02 February 2021

Country: Australia

Imprint: Scribe Publications

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 136.0mm

Height: 204.0mm

Weight: 296g

Pages: 240

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Jessica Johannesson Literary Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

Jessica Gaitan Johannesson grew up with two first languages and now writes primarily in a third. She's an activist working for climate justice and lives in Bath, England. How We Are Translated is her first novel.