Fiction of the Week for July 13: Pieces of Me

I am thrilled to have a chance to have a chat with the translator of the book, Pieces of Me, Susan Ouriou. Susan has done an awesome job translating this emotionally-charged book.

Mirabelle is almost 15 and she is friendless. By chance, she meets Catherine, who is carefree, confident, and also a boy-magnet. With Catherine's encouragement, Mirabelle tries to come out of her shell and to fight against dark thoughts which surround her. But she finds that this new-found confidence is something more than she can handle.

Elsa (E): While you were translating this book, did you relate to some of Mira's sadness (e.g. losing a best friend or dealing with parent's divorce)?

Susan (S): I actually phoned author Charlotte Gingras (with whom I'd worked before) when I'd finished translating her book to tell her how much it meant she had written Mira's story. It just so happened that my mother has bipolar disorder, which seems to be the same illness that Mira's mother suffers from. However, where my mother had the support of my father, her own strength and wisdom and the help of medical professionals and medication- and so has had her illness under control for most of her life- Mira's mother- and Mira until she meets her best friend and her counsellor- seems to be totally alone in her fight against mental illness. I do believe that Mira's aloneness and her honesty, despair, and courage as well as the poetry of the telling itself are key to striking a chord with all kinds of readers. It takes writers like Charlotte Gingras and publishers like La Courte Echelle and Kids Can Press to bring these stories to the public and I am very proud to have been part of the process.

E: As the saying goes, somtimes, things get "lost in translation." Since Pieces of Me is a translated piece, how do you overcome this obstacle? Especially when mastering the descriptive imagery in the book.

S: I like to think that it's more a case of things being "found in translation." For me, translating is an act of exploring and mapping the country of another writer's making and finding a way of communicating the emotions, the places, the characters, the sights, the sounds, the tastes and the smells that make up that country. This involves getting away from the strange squiggles another language sets down on the page in order to discover the very contours of the story itself and then patiently leading the reader down the same paths to the same country in my own language with all its strange squiggles. I like to think of translation as going from being lost to being found.

As for how to render descriptive imagery in translation, a formula I learned studying translation in Paris has been very helpful. According to the formula, any translation or interpretation can be represented by a triangle shape. In the bottom left corner you have "Comprehension" of the original, from whence you travel to the apex of the triangle, to what's called "Deverbalization," and then return down the other side to "Re-expression," where you express what has been first understood then deverbalized. Deverbalization means erasing the words themselves in order to find the images, knowledge and emotions awakened by the reading.

For more of Susan's thoughts, another posting will be available this week. Don't miss out.

Elsa is a librarian at Toronto Public Library. She reads a lot of Canadian Young Adult fiction.

Comments

[Sakshi]

Wow =)
Thats REally Cool =)

[Kate]

Seems really interesting
Looking forward to reading it

[Devi]

Putting a hold on it!

[Elsa]

I am glad that you're all giving this book a chance. :)

This book placed 3rd at the Battle of the Books on July 6. But you may totally feel differently after reading it, eh?

[Sahiti]

Pieces of me is such a great book, you guys should really try it.

[Sravya]

I placed a hold on Pieces of Me, and I can't wait to read it. I heard it's awesome.

[christine]

i was at the battle of the books on july 6th and they were talking about this book. they made me really want to read it and now i have the book on hold. can't wait to read it!

[Iris]

Wow, it seems so emotional and hard for Mirabelle..

[Royale Lyons]

Pieces of Me dose sound like the type book I'ld read but it dose sound pretty interesting.I think I'll try to read it.

[Ayana]

This book was really good. It was deep and kind of sad, learning about how life is for Mira and ways you can relate to her. She's a complicated character, and i like how she learned from her experiences. A must read for all. I certainly enjoyed it. =)

[Elsa]

You're right, Ayana. The book is really deep considering that it's a short book. I mean, it's descriptive and not wordy. Now that takes some skills to master writing succintly. :) It's a wonder how a few words can say so much at the same time, eh?

[Mary]

It was a good book i just read it a few days ago. definately something people should check out

[Sarah]

This book was featured at North York's Battle of the Books. I've placed a hold on it already. I hope I can red it soon, it seems really interesting.

[Oshin]

I saw the title and description of the book on a bookmark...it seems like a must-read.It also sounds like something that can happen in real life-a shy person turning into someone too overconfident.Putting the book on hold!

[Simran]

hey! finally a book that caught my attention enough to divert me away from the Twilight series..for a while..at least;)

[Edmee]

Woah... you got to talk with the person who translated the book? That's really cool. :D
The book itself does seem like an interesting one, if not a little dark.

[Elsa]

Yes, Edmee. I did get to talk to Susan Ouriou, the translator for the book. She is really easy-going and I really enjoyed chatting with her. :D One of the best things I love about being a librarian is getting to meet authors/translators who are contributing to the world of writing.

The book is a bit dark but it also gives hope.

[Sravya]

Hey guys, i just got my Pieces of me book, and I read the first page. It's so interesting. You guys should try it. I can't wait to continue reading.

[Sravya]

The cover reminds me of this awesome book called "Caught it a lie", you guys should read it too.

[Sravya]

Caught in a lie is such a great book...it's about a girl who wants to become a model..and her parents don't agree..so she lies to them...and tries to find ways to make money..to apply for modeling...and it turns out that her the modelling agency is fake..and now her parents now..so Kim is stuck.

[Sahiti]

I'm almost done reading Pieces of Me and it's awesome. You guys should read it. It's like too good to be true.

[Sahiti]

And I read Caught in a Lie too..it's great. Try it.

[Sravya]

I heard about this great book called "Wringer", my friend recommended it to me. So try that one too.

[Sravya]

I heard about this great book called "Wringer", my friend recommended it to me. So try that one too.

[Julie]

I've often had doubts about translated books - after all, it seems as if someone else is writing over the original ideas of the author. But Susan Ouriou has changed my opionion so now I'm pretty excited about borrowing this book. Kudos to Susan for the translation and Elsa for the interview!