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'Full of lively stories ... leaves the reader with an awed respect for the translator's task' Economist
Would Hiroshima have been bombed if Japanese contained a phrase meaning 'no comment'? Is it alright for missionaries to replace the Bible's 'white as snow' with 'white as fungus' in places where snow never falls? Who, or what, is Kuzma's mother, and why was Nikita Khrushchev so threateningly obsessed with her (or it)?
The course of diplomacy rarely runs smooth; without an invisible army of translators and interpreters, it could hardly run at all. Join veteran translator Anna Aslanyan to explore hidden histories of cunning and ambition, heroism and incompetence. Meet the figures behind the notable events of history, from the Great Game to Brexit, and discover just how far a simple misunderstanding can go.
About the author
Anna Aslanyan is a journalist, translator and public service interpreter. She contributes to
the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and other UK-based publications, writing
about books and arts. Her translations from Russian include Post-Post Soviet? Art,
Politics and Society in Russia at the Turn of the Decade, a collection of essays edited by
Ekaterina Degot et al. (University of Chicago Press, 2013); contemporary short stories for
Best European Fiction (Dalkey Archive, 2013, 2018); and A Journey to Inner Africa, a
19th-century travelogue by Egor Kovalevsky (Amherst College Press, 2020). Her popular
history of translation, Dancing on Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History, was
published by Profile in May 2021.
Summary
Horizon-expanding tales of how translators altered the course of world events.
Report
Translation is a matter of life and death - and not only because it is poorly paid. That's the thrilling, rather chilling, message of this wonderful history by translator and interpreter Anna Aslanyan, who blesses jaw-dropping and entertaining tales with an insider's insight Rosie Goldsmith FT
