Anna Paterson

Anna Paterson

Summary

Translator from Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and German into English; editor. I also write in English and Swedish on literary and political topics

Contact Details

House of Glack
Daviot
Aberdeenshire
AB51 0JE

Phone: +447808712347; +441467671426

Fax: +441467671426

E-Mail: patersonanna@hotmail.com

Twitter: @atglack

Biography

I used to work as a medical academic, specialising in experimental and clinical neuroscience*, but found that I also enjoyed translating into English, at first from Swedish and later also from Norwegian, Danish and German.
Once retired, translation became my (nearly) full-time occupation: to date, I have completed 21 books – a mixture of literary fiction and non-fiction – published in the UK, the USA and Australia and in Norway (2 historical works).
Between 2010 and 2015 , I was responsible for Bookshelf, the review section of Swedish Book Review, i.e. I commissioned and edited reviews in English of new Swedish books.
Below (Publications): two forthcoming translations and three already published volumes.
Most of my non-medical writing has taken the form of articles on literary topics, but I have also published a book about landscape, identity and environmental awareness in Scotland; I am married to a Scot and live in the Scottish countryside.
*Dr Anna Paterson has degrees in medicine and medical sciences from Lund (Sweden) and London.

Selected Publications

Sem-Sandberg, Steve. The Chosen Ones .

Faber & Faber, 2016. ISBN n/a.

A passionately serious and meticulously researched case study of racial oppression and injustice, lightened by Sem-Sandberg’s sharp sense of the absurd, The Chosen Ones is also an absorbing and beautifully written novel. It is set in Vienna during a few decades around the middle of 20th century when the city went from being a post-imperial oddity to a satellite of Berlin under Nazi control, followed by a slow recovery to central European normality.

The KeyElfgren & Strandberg , Sara & Mats . The Key.

Hammer Books, 2015. ISBN 978 009956 85.

The third and last volume of The Circle, a very successful series of novels for young adults about a group of unusual teenagers: they are witches – most of them ‘white’. They are sensitively and intelligently described, ordinary characters leading ordinary lives, even as they use their supernatural talents to fight invading demons in extraordinary adventures. I also translated the second volume of The Circle, Fire (Eld)

The Strange Case of Thomas Quick Josefsson , Dan . The Strange Case of Thomas Quick .

Granta/ Portobello Books, 2015. ISBN 978 184627 57.

Investigative reportage of a very high order, focusing on the legal and psycho-social issues raised by the miscarriages of justice that, over several years, lead Swedish courts to convict an innocent man on eight counts of murder.

Stillness of the Sea Ljubić , Nicol . Stillness of the Sea .

Vagabond Voices, 2011. ISBN 978 190825 10.

Set in The Hague and, in particular, in the International Criminal Court and its tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this fine book follows a young historian who loves the daughter of a Serb defendant, accused of deliberately incinerating a Muslim family. As he listens to the cross-examination of the witnesses, he grows increasingly uncertain about the guilt of would-be killer in the dock.