Scribe are excited to announce that we have acquired World English language rights to Jessica Gaitán Johannesson’s debut novel How We Are Translated, with a second book to follow.
Taking place over the course of a week, How We Are Translated is a tightly constructed exploration of language, culture, and identity. Swedish immigrant Kristin works at an immersive historical exhibition playing a Viking. She is not allowed to speak any English, even on her breaks. One day she returns to her home in Edinburgh to discover that her Brazilian-born Scottish boyfriend Ciaran has isolated himself in their flat to learn Swedish. He has covered all of their possessions with post-it notes in Swedish and refuses to speak any English to her. So now she is alone in her head, with nobody to talk to.
As this young couple are forced to reconcile with the thing that they are both avoiding talking about, they must also confront what it means to live both inside and outside a culture, to be on both sides and neither at the same time.
Growing up with two first languages and writing in a third, Jessica Gaitan Johannesson’s writing is permeated by questions of belonging. She’s interested in how we can find empathy across difference, be it between people or in relation to the non-human world.
In additional to selling books at Mr B’s in Bath, Jessica is an activist, working for urgent action on the climate and ecological crisis. In early 2019, having already finished How We Are Translated, Jessica and her partner joined the Birth Strike movement — a group of would-be parents who feel unable to have children due to government inaction in the face of ecological and climate collapse. The themes of motherhood and intimacy which sit at the core of How We Are Translated have since acquired new resonance. Like learning a new language, the choice of whether to become a parent requires a re-negotiation of the stories we create about our future.
Rights were acquired by Scribe UK’s Molly Slight. She said: ‘Jess is an innovative writer with serious literary ambitions, and her writing is like nothing I have read before. Her language is strange and sometimes even jarring; it forces you to pause and think more deeply about language itself, how it can be interpreted, misunderstood, or even weaponised. I am convinced that this book will be a serious contender for literary prizes, and am thrilled to be working with Jess on both this and on her next book.’
Slight acquired World English rights from Lisa Baker at Aitken Alexander.
Scribe will publish in the UK, Australia, and the US in February 2021. Enquiries about Scribe’s publication should be directed to molly[AT]scribepub.co.uk. Enquiries about translation rights should be directed to lisa[AT]aitkenalexander.co.uk.