When Literature Takes a Strange Turn…

Some books do not follow common sense. A pangolin may talk or a dolphin get bullied. Perhaps there’s a settlement of people in outer space who live according to new myths, in an invented language, by unfamiliar rules. Or maybe a tree suffers from depression and a pick-up truck waxes sweet and nostalgic. As readers, we can let the experience wash over us. But how do we, as translators, approach a text that seeks to estrange us, when translation is the most intimate act of reading? Julia Sanches will explore this question through recent translations of contemporary literature from Spain and Brazil.