“How We Are Translated is the most contemporary of novels; set somehow both in the now and in the distant past; in one city that could be many cities, and in two different languages, though also in defiance of language, with as much focus on the silences between words as the words themselves. It’s a novel that maintains just the right balance of oddity, intimacy and illumination. It’s a novel that anyone interested in the future of the English novel needs to read!”
—Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither
“One of the gentlest and most patient, humane, and quirky things I have read in a long time … Hugely original.”
—Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy
“How We Are Translated is a layered work about home, language, barriers, and belonging. Johannesson’s unusual and refreshing prose crackles with truth—burning along beautifully.”
—Alice Bishop, author of A Constant Hum
“Our bodies and languages are made new to us again through Jessica Gaitán Johannesson’s wild and playful novel. Laying bare the absurdity of the idea of a common tongue, she takes us on an adventure through private and public languages—those which ebb and flow between lovers or arise out of necessity in a workplace obsessed with authenticity. How We Are Translated gets at the heart of how language holds us, tears at us, and can bring us close in spite of, or because of, its inevitable imperfections.”
—Saskia Vogel, author of Permission
“With echoes of Ali Smith and George Saunders, How We Are Translated explores themes of identity and intimacy with admirable sensitivity and wit.”
—Julianne Pachico, author of The Anthill
“These lyrical essays by bookseller Johannesson (How We Are Translated) contemplate the consequences of impending climate collapse … Johannesson’s prose has a quiet, entrancing pull, and she cleverly structures her pieces to highlight unexpected connections, driving home her vision of interconnectedness. Understated and moving, this ruminative outing resonates.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Eccentric, but likeable ... In Gaitán Johannesson’s novel, Swedish words and phrases appear in one column with their English translation in another ... The innovation is effective. The way a foreign word looks, together with its literal translation, seems to tell us something specific, not only about another culture but about humanity generally.”
—Miranda France, TLS
“Well-written..”
—Alastair Mabbott, The Herald
“A novel brimming with ideas and promise.”
—Lucy Knight, The Sunday Times
“Concepts of ethnicity, intimacy, and identity are woven into Jessica Gaitán Johannesson’s quirky, contemplative novel … Poignant, perceptive, and clever, How We Are Translated is a novel about the human beings who exist beyond ideals of diversity, and about the emotional implications of language.”
—Foreword, starred review
“Johannesson's tender and madcap debut explores themes of family, history, and language [with] a spiritedness reminiscent of the work of Elizabeth McKenzie … a delightful romp.”
—Publishers Weekly
“How We Are Translated is a gentle and meditative look at relationships—romantic, cultural, familial. Gaitán Johannesson creates a soft world populated by simultaneously mundane and quirky characters. This is a tender story handled with soft, deft hands.”
—Laura Graveline, Brazos Bookstore
“Fans of Anne Carson and Maggie Nelson will like How We Are Translated. This is a beautiful book, both inside and out … a meditation on self: how a self is both lost and found in language and translation, and how a self is both lost and found in the body and all the body, especially the female body, can and can’t do.”
—Samantha, Bear Pond Books
“This is an excellent book for those who love Edinburgh, the oddities of language, and other people’s drama. One of the best books that I have read recently. It is full of moments which would be pivotal in anyone’s life and they are described with the kind of dry self-deprecation I can't help but adore.”
—Cecilie, The Portobello Bookshop
“I really really loved How We Are Translated ... so brilliant on language, communication, distance, the ways we speak past/around/beyond each other.”
—Nell Stevens
“Jessica Gaitán Johannesson has a very fresh voice that packs everything with so much new meaning that you won’t think about language or communication the same way again … I’ve never read anything quite like How We Are Translated before, but I very much hope that Gaitán Johannesson will follow her debut with more of the same”
—Shiny New Books
“A novel that you might end up reading in one sitting … this is writing with breathing space, with room for the ever-shifting spectrum of life”
—Saskia Hayward and Matthew Leigh, Bath Magazine
“A novel that you might end up reading in one sitting … this is writing with breathing space, with room for the ever-shifting spectrum of life”
—Nic Bottomley, Bath Life
