The key to Iván Sándor’s art of writing is history. He does not write explicitly historical novels, although several of his works are indeed set in historical times and places, but he writes novels of history. In his epics he examines the way of life and the tectonics of times past – how one can […]

When I set out to write The Romeo And Juliet Killers I had no idea how to write a novel. I had written numerous theatre scripts and a couple of movies, but a script is a script, it is the foundation upon which to build a show, it is not the end product. I would […]

Glyn Jones died on Saturday 20 September 2014 from cancer. I had known Glyn since 1990 when I approached him about translating William Heinesen’s The Black Cauldron into English. Dedalus wanted to translate 2 books from the then 8 languages spoken in the European Union to celebrate the forthcoming single market as a cultural as […]

We do not choose the worlds we write about. Most often than not, we write about what is the temple of our familiar. We locate our stories in the world that we believe we have a rare understanding of. A world that we internalize to an extent that it seeps into our every breath and […]

Guest Blog from Comma Publishers on The Iraqi Christ Posted on August 18, 2014 by Eric Lane 1. How did Comma find Hassan Blasim? The short story is a very portable form, culturally. It translates well, and it’s an intrinsically international form – so translation was always going to be key to what Comma did. […]

A lot of people assume that once you’ve had a novel published, your life is forever changed and you’ll never again have to feel that existential void at the heart of our meaningless existence. Well, I’m here to tell you these people couldn’t be more wrong. Oh sure, certain things have changed. I was surprised […]

Not long ago, I put my own creative work aside and did a translation of a novel. The experience was more than I had bargained for. Translation means total emersion, it’s like wearing someone else’s skin . The writer was Jens Peter Jacobsen, a Danish nineteenth century novelist—no connection to Borgen or The Killing. Couldn’t […]

The Tour de France is a battle of champions. It’s also an archetypal journey, out to the limits of the world, fastest back, across burning plains, over huge mountain ranges where the snow still lies in summer, through great and ancient cities. It’s a complex story as it unfolds over three weeks and more than […]

The publication in 1871 of Georg Brandes’ book The Men of the Modern Breakthrough marked the beginning of realist fiction in Denmark, and the following 20 years saw the emergence of a generation of writers that included some of the most outstanding names in the Danish literary canon. In particular one thinks of Jens Peter […]

What a relief to hear the writer Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Treasure, exhort mothers to tell the truth, “even – no, especially – when the truth is difficult”. (Guardian, 19/04) Not only is motherhood not always what it’s cracked up to be, but women are left isolated and sometimes, children put at risk, […]