Book Review: Translations, Brian Friel.


If you want to see my review on Goodreads, click here. ♡

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Preliminary Advice & Main Theme


This book has been recommended by my Irish literature teacher and let me tell you it has been a wonderful discovery. In order to enjoy this book about (among other things) the translation of names in a small Irish village into English names, I think you should have a small Irish History background. Nothing much, really, but I think knowing the basis of Anglo-Irish relationships might help a lot when it comes to the understanding of the different layers of meaning provided.

What I Enjoyed the Most


Moreover, I really enjoyed seeing Greek (translated into our alphabet in the Faber and Faber edition, do not worry) as it is rather rare in contemporary books and it reminded me of my Greek classes back in 2017.
I would particularly recommend this edition as there are all necessary information and translations in the end of the book in order to understand most of the content (you will face Greek, Latin, English and Gaelic).


I already wrote a lot and as the book is rather short, I do not want to spoil you, I will thus stop there, finishing on this note: it is a book that will make you understand the depth of Anglo-Irish relationships (and make you want to learn more about it) and the problems that come with translation. Here, you will have a great explanation of what I learnt in translation class: to translate is to betray.


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