Blog Archives

Grand Hotel

Posted on 1 January 2021 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — 2 Comments

“People in a hotel” would be a literal translation of Vicki Baum’s groundbreaking novel. It’s nearly a century old now, but when she wrote it, she invented a whole new genre. What sort of people are staying in the hotel?…

Tagged with: Basil Creighton, Berlin, book, Dussmann, German, Grand Hotel, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Margot Bettauer Dembo, Menschen im Hotel, Translation, Vicki Baum
Posted in books, film, history

And we came outside and saw the stars again

Posted on 4 December 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

Reading about a pandemic while living through it is not everyone’s idea of staying safe and well (as we’ve wished for each other so often this year). There was a patch in the summer, however, where things were looking up…

Tagged with: And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again, books, Covid-19, Restless Books, Translation
Posted in books

Fifty islands I have not visited and never will

Posted on 1 November 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

This is the subtitle to Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands. I discovered it eleven years late, because this year Marko Niemi translated it into Finnish. I ordered the German original straight away and despite the pandemic it arrived promptly…

Tagged with: Atlas of Remote Islands, books, Christine Lo, Finnish, German, Mare, Marko Niemi, Poesia, Translation
Posted in books, history, Illustration, translation

When death takes something from you give it back

Posted on 1 September 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

I read When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back on the train to the city where Naja Marie Aidt was raised, Copenhagen. She wrote it a long journey away from there, back in Brooklyn, where she now lives.…

Tagged with: books, Danish, death, Denise Newman, Naja Marie Aidt, Translation, When Death Takes Something from You Give it BacK
Posted in books, translation

The memory police

Posted on 1 August 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

They took the roses apart themselves, ripping them from their stems and casting the petals on the waters. Silently, purposefully. It was tragic, gardens shaped by decades of love and care destroyed in a moment, yet the people showed little…

Little eyes

Posted on 1 June 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

I have post-its over the camera on my laptop and my tablet – but not on my phone. Which seems silly as that’s the one that goes everywhere. Now I’m in more and more video meetings, the post-its fall off…

Tagged with: books, Little Eyes, Megan McDowell, Oneworld, Samanta Schweblin, Spanish, Translation
Posted in books, translation

Unquiet

Posted on 1 April 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

When you lose someone, you try to hold onto them. You might wear their old clothes (and they might be rather too big). You might read things they’ve written (even if it’s just underlining or marginal notes in books they’ve…

Tagged with: books, death, Ingmar Bergman, Ingrid Bergman, Linn Ullmann, Liv Ullmann, Norway, Norwegian, Thilo Reinhard, Translation
Posted in books, translation

Empty Hearts

Posted on 1 March 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

The year is not that far into the future, near enough that it could almost be now, but far away enough that it really couldn’t, at least one hopes not. A bit like Black Mirror, perhaps. But the location of…

Tagged with: books, Empty Hearts, German, John Cullen, Juli Zeh, Leere Herzen, Penguin, Translation
Posted in books, translation

Celestial Bodies

Posted on 1 February 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

The second novel by Omani author Jokhar Alharthi, Sayyidat al-Qamar, is translated into English by Marilyn Booth as Celestial Bodies. Which are what? The men around whom the world revolves? That would be the answer one might expect from an…

New snow, old words

Posted on 1 January 2020 by Kate Sotejeff-Wilson — Leave a comment

New year, fresh snow. Fresh snow, old words. I first came across Gwerful Mechain this time last year through her most famous poem of all, translated as ‘Ode to My Cunt’ by Zoë Brigley Thompson for Modern Poetry in Translation.…

Tagged with: books, Broadview, Broadview Press, Gwerful Mechain, Katie Gramich, New Year, Poetry, Translation, Welsh
Posted in books, history, literature, poetry, translation