4. How has your work as a translator of literary fiction affected your own writing?
Translating forces you to be aware of every word, of the way language is put together, the dazzling variety, depth and wealth of words and expressions. When you translate, you can’t take language for granted, or rely on automatic assumptions about meaning and interpretation. It’s a thrill and a challenge, like piecing together a very difficult puzzle. It leaves you amazed at human ingenuity, and the infinite ways humans have found to express themselves.
In this book I’ve had fun incorporating some of my knowledge of foreign tongues into the story. Lucinda’s peregrinations take her around 17thC Europe, and I’ve tried to give the reader a feel for the sounds and linguistic structure of the various languages she encounters.
5. Did you incorporate any of your real world experience from living across Europe into the novel?
You’re always told to “write what you know”, and in this novel I have mined my experience of living in a number of different countries to achieve the authenticity I was after.
6. Why do you think that Charles Perrault is such an unknown figure?
I don’t really understand why Charles Perrault has been forgotten, whereas most people have heard of the brothers Grimm, La Fontaine and Hans Christian Anderson. Perrault’s name shows up in the fine print, but over the centuries there seems to have been very little interest in finding out more about him as a person. The explanation may be that he made enemies while he was alive who resented him for his influential position at the court of Louis XIV, and decided to discredit him as an unimportant scribbler of old wives’ tales. That judgment must simply have stuck. It may also be that the tales themselves have such primordial power that they’re assumed to have been handed down through the ages without an author’s input.
7. Do you have a technique to deal with writer’s block?
When I become frustrated with my own stories, I turn to translating, which is also a form of creative writing but does not require me to come up with original ideas. The act of sitting down at the computer and working with language is usually enough to kick-start my own writing.
8. Besides historical veracity, a strong plot and relatable characters, what other ingredients did the novel need to have for you?
Humor. No overt jokes, but just enough irony to keep you engaged and make you smile. I hope that the reader will understand that certain historical “facts” in this novel are tongue-in-cheek. For instance, the explanation for “born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth” is entirely made up. The implication that the story of the Emperor’s new clothes was based on King Louis XIV isn’t based on historical fact either. Writing fiction gives you permission to invent to your heart’s content!
9. What’s up next for you?
A novel about Holland’s 1944 Hunger Winter, and maybe a biography of Charles Perrault! A third book in the Whales series perhaps—I often receive requests from young readers to continue the story. I will also continue to translate fiction, because I believe in the importance of bridging borders by giving people a peek into other cultures.
10. Your novel takes place four centuries ago. Is there anything in it that you think is particularly relevant to our own day and age?
I found myself writing about a time when women were far less free than they are now. Yet in the #MeToo age, Lucinda’s struggles seem uncomfortably familiar. It makes me realize that even with all the strides we’ve made, we still have a long way to go.
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