〖  Found in translation  〗 

We asked nine writers not what was lost but what was found in translation, as a text is given new surfaces and new depths. What’s the rightest or wrongest or closest or strangest thing that a reader of yours has found in a new language? What’s something you wish would be found?

My first novel, Finna sig, starts in a hospital with a new mother. The protagonist Anna and her husband Jens sort of ironically describe a little Swedish flag on the tray they receive with their hospital food. Their annoyance is focused on this banal symbol. At a literary festival in Germany, a moderator asked me why, in that idyllic space of the hospital, my main character couldn’t find any joy. When I traveled with my books to Serbia, readers responded with, « I can’t believe this is the way you bring children into the world in Sweden. It’s so luxurious! » They came up to me and told me they had been in a ward with fourteen or fifteen other people, and showed me pictures of their hospital food on their phones.

A question I get asked a lot in all the countries I’ve been translated in is: Why are you so cold-hearted? I’m not cold-hearted. I believe that the only way to feel real empathy for another human being is to accept their flaws. In one of my books I tried to make the reader feel very, very close to a father who ends up being abusive to his children.

In Sweden, I’m often read as quite a political writer, whether it’s as a feminist or a Marxist. But what I try to do is paint these very detailed portraits of people, like oil paintings. I would love for a translation to be received by an audience that exactly understands that. I think maybe all writers want someone to read them and be like « Ah, I see what you did here, paraphrasing Histoire d’O. — the influence of that French classic sadomasochistic masterpiece in your writing is quite obvious! » But so far I haven’t had anyone say that to me. Maybe if I was translated into French?

Agnes Lidbeck is a Swedish novelist and poet. Her work has been translated into Polish, Serbian, Danish, and Norwegian. In the fall of 2023, she’ll publish a dystopian thriller-slash-relationship novel set in a post-fascist Sweden.