THANK YOU to all my readers for keeping the book in the Top 50 best selling police procedurals on Amazon!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
New release of Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy
Sohlberg and the Missing Schoolboy has just been released on Amazon
Monday, January 9, 2012
Rules of translation
Rule # 1 about translation of a novel: don't assume that big publishing houses have the best or most perfect translations.
This rule came to mind when I spent the weekend reading THE SNOWMAN by my contemporary Jo Nesbø.
The translation refers to cell phones as "mobile phones". While that is a proper translation in England and Europe, it's not part of the general public's lexicon in the U.S. market.
There's also a section in Chapter 6 about Harry Hole running or jogging near the Ekeberg restaurant. The translation by Random House states that the restaurant has aged into a "peeling shack".
At first I thought it was a strip bar. Then I thought the phrase made reference to some sort of hunting or fishing shack. Finally I wondered if it was an oblique reference to a "love shack" where lovers stripped to consummate their passions. A friend later told me that "peeling shack" just refers to the peeling paint or a building's heavily weathered exterior.
Don't get me wrong. Don Bartlett does 100% superb translations. But he is British and not from the bigger U.S. market. Random House should at least pay for him to spend several months living in 5 or 6 major American cities (NY, LA, Houston, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta) to get a feeling for general American word usage.
This rule came to mind when I spent the weekend reading THE SNOWMAN by my contemporary Jo Nesbø.
The translation refers to cell phones as "mobile phones". While that is a proper translation in England and Europe, it's not part of the general public's lexicon in the U.S. market.
There's also a section in Chapter 6 about Harry Hole running or jogging near the Ekeberg restaurant. The translation by Random House states that the restaurant has aged into a "peeling shack".
At first I thought it was a strip bar. Then I thought the phrase made reference to some sort of hunting or fishing shack. Finally I wondered if it was an oblique reference to a "love shack" where lovers stripped to consummate their passions. A friend later told me that "peeling shack" just refers to the peeling paint or a building's heavily weathered exterior.
Don't get me wrong. Don Bartlett does 100% superb translations. But he is British and not from the bigger U.S. market. Random House should at least pay for him to spend several months living in 5 or 6 major American cities (NY, LA, Houston, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta) to get a feeling for general American word usage.
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