When I was very young, maybe nine or ten, I decided to read Huckleberry Finn. By the time I finished the first few pages, I had asked my mom what so many words meant that she suggested maybe I should put the book aside and save it until I was a little older. The book I’m reading now, in Swedish, Anna, Hanna och Johanna, makes me feel just like that, except that I despair of ever having the vocabulary to do more than muddle through with half an understanding.
In an interesting, but not altogether surprising coincidence (we have a history of this sort of thing, my mom and I), my mom bought the English translation of this book at a second-hand store on the very same day that I started reading it myself. I had never mentioned it to her, and I doubt she’d ever heard of the author before picking up the book. How weird is that?
I think I may ask her to send it to me when she’s finished, because even though I want to (and will) read it in the original Swedish, I’m curious about how they’ve translated it–the regional dialect, in particular–to English. Plus, a quick read-through in English could clue me in to all the important nuances I’m bound to miss.
It is such a good book. I hope you make your way all the way though it in one language or the other.
Would that be Hanna and Her Daughters in English? Or is it a series? Funnily enough, in the post today I received a copy of Simon & The Oaks, also by Marianne Frederiksson. I have borrowed ‘Röda Rummet’ from our local library, without any hope of reading it. I have managed to read a segment of a short story though, by Astrid Lindgren (Draken med de röda ögonen), so it’s something I guess. Good luck with your book 🙂
I’m still plugging away at it, and it is getting a little easier (though even my husband has some trouble with the dialect!). It does feel like it will be a good read (and yes, Rachel, it is that book — I think it’s called Hanna’s Daughters, though).