Translator's Choice 2020 1
17 Translator’s choice Why does this book deserve
to be translated? Jan-Henrik Swahn’s twelfth novel, Nekob (‘the book’ in Swedish, written backwards), is both fiction and real life. Swahn is an experienced writer and translator, whose translations from Polish to Swedish of the Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s work received magnificent reviews. The central character in Nekob is a young boy who dreams of medals and literary prizes as a way of enduring his boring and monotonous life in the countryside. The character of Gunnar Mellberg (a real life foreign correspondent and sportsman) is established throughout the novel in the style of the German Bildungsroman – we see him grow, practise sport, run, win competitions, fail, travel, fall in love with the Lebanese-Greek Anna, dream about writing the book –Nekob, the book of life. The real Mellberg moved to Alexandria and became a coach to the Egyptian Olympic athletics team. At the same time he also wrote engaging newspaper features from inside the Greek military junta, and about the Middle East. Like a modern Lawrence of Arabia he even became a consultant to the Saudi king and was received by shepherds and farmers, princes and magnates. Nekob is a book about a utopia. Swahn brilliantly describes Mellberg’s pursuit of meaning. The text can be read as an adventure and as a novel about the lust for life. It is colourful, surrealistic and contains the keys to answering some of life’s great questions: what is home, what is success and triumph worth, where is true love? The language is rich and musical; the reader hears Mellberg’s footsteps as he runs, barefoot or in brand new trainers, across a metaphorical bridge from childhood to an adulthood filled with unaccomplished dreams and broken expectations, but also one of tenacity and a zest for life. “The text can be read as an adventure and as a novel about the lust for life” Ana Valdés Ana L. Valdés translates into Spanish, lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. Two other favourites amongst books she has previously translated are: Agneta Pleijel Hundstjärnan, novel, 1989 La estrella del perro, Nordan/Montesinos, 1992 Swedish publisher: Norstedts Rights: Norstedts Agency Lars Andersson Pestkungens legend, novel, 1988 La layenda del rey de la Peste, Nordan/Montesinos, 1992 Swedish publisher: Norstedts Rights: Albert Bonniers Förlag