A Translation Event With Agnes Lidbeck and Nichola Smalley

In our irregular series of events in and about translation, we have pleasure in bringing the Swedish writer Agnes Lidbeck and her translator Nichola Smalley

Supporting Act (Peirene Press) is a novel about the lives of one woman – as lover, mother, and eventually as carer. About the roles we perform, which hide the true self. It’s certainly a book about female identity, but within the story, and through the emotionally distant tone of the narrator, it really asks bigger questions about empathy as a subject – a subject that Agnes herself has called her ‘writing project’ in fiction. The book has great cover quotes from Claire Messud and Katie Kitamura.

Agnes and Nichola will spark lots of discussion, also exploring translation as a subject. Agnes is a great speaker, and totally fluent in English. She has published five novels, this – her debut – is the first to be translated into English.

Nichola is a translator and lover of Swedish and Norwegian literature,  she is also publicist at And Other Stories, publisher of the current International Booker Prize winner Heart Lamp, and an escaped academic.

This event is supported by the Swedish Arts Council in collaboration with the Embassy of Sweden, UK as part of their Stories From Sweden programme

Refreshments included