\New Swedish Books, spring 2019 1
35 Spring 2019 TRANSLATOR'S CHOICE Miho Hellén-Ha
lme What books from contemporary literature deserve to be re-discovered? New Swedish Books asks three translators what they think. Could you tell us about a translation that’s particularly close to your heart? – Jenny Jägerfeld’s YA novel Me on the Floor, Bleeding is not only a page turner with a mystery to solve, but also a road movie-like story about a mother and daughter in search of their identities. Maja is 16 years old, lives with her father and visits her mother every other weekend. One day, however, her mother is not there when Maja arrives. Where has she gone? What happened to her? Maja’s search for her mother is intertwined with other turbulent events, both physical and emotional, such as accidentally cutting off her fingertip in art class and meeting a 20-year-old car mechanic living next door to her mother. – Jägerfeld’s amazing sense of humor somehow makes this emotionally heavy story surprisingly funny and warm; this is a book that makes readers laugh and cry at the same time. Humor is said to be difficult to translate, but this book was definitely worth the effort. Which book would you love to translate? – The Expedition – A Love Story: It is summer 1897. Three men die on an island in the Arctic. Engineer S. A. Andrée and two other men have set out on a balloon expedition over the North Pole, an attempt destined to fail. They end up adrift on ice. They had searched for solid ground, wandered several hundred kilometers on ice in the Arctic dragging heavy sledges with supplies, and finally made it to a deserted island after more than two months. Soon after, however, all entries in their diaries cease. Their bodies will be found by accident thirty-three years later. – Bea Uusma tries to solve the mystery of the explorers’ last days with an admirable tenacity, and guides readers through this fatal expedition with her compelling and poetic language. Readers are ultimately led to see the landscape that was probably Andrée’s last sight, and that scene is powerful, unforgettable. A captivating book. Miho Hellén-Halme Translates from Swedish to Japanese, lives in Malmö, Sweden. Jenny Jägerfeld (b. 1974) Me on the Floor, Bleeding, YA Novel, 2010, 251 p. Publisher Gilla Böcker, part of Lilla Piratförlaget as of 2015 Rights Grand Agency, Japanese Edition Iwanami Shoten, 2013 Bea Uusma (b. 1966) The Expedition – A Love Story, Non-fiction, 2013, 313 p. Publisher Norstedts Rights Norstedts Agency