Rights Information

Translation rights and other rights available, please contact the publisher.

Reviews

‘What Anthony Ferner does so well with this novel is to portray a community of translators with their ambitions, frustrations, arguments and petty jealousies.
Beautifully written, engaging and intelligent, I thoroughly enjoyed it.’ – Ali Hope on her blog HeavenAli

‘Life in Translation is beautifully written. I enjoyed following the narrator first in Peru and then through Europe, catching glimpses of life and the energy in various cities. His failures and fumbles evoke sympathy, and though he sometimes acts foolish, one can’t help but cheer for his success both romantically and professionally.’ – Elizabeth Jeager in The Literary Review

‘That this novel is well-written is beyond dispute and, though uncomfortable to read at times, I could still not put it down, even though I wanted to. I didn’t like the character portrayed and found him needy and patronising, especially towards women, but I had to find out more.’ – Jon Wilkins on Everybody’s Reviewing

‘This book expresses beautifully that translation is also an art — it enlightened me while also being fun, intellectual, and occasionally sexy.’ – Suanne Schafer on goodreads & Midwest Book Reviews June 2020 issue

‘I am a translator by trade myself, though currently unemployed, and as such I can identify with most things the author writes about. And liked almost everything about it. A must-read if you are a translator, literary or otherwise, interpreter, or such.’ – Covadonga on goodreads

‘A beautifully written account of a translator’s life from his beginnings as a postgraduate student in Lima to his (almost) settled status as a literary translator. Funny, deft, poignant.’ – Alan Beard on goodreads

‘A delectable journey chronicling the narrator’s insecurities and flaws, his drive for perfection and his inability, and finally, acceptance that he is, after all, only human.
Anthony has a good eye for detail and renders fully formed characters in a few lines.’ – Garrie Fletcher on Goodreads

‘Without reading this book, it would be hard to believe that a novel which is so imaginative, clever, and technically well-observed on the craft and intellectual skills needed for translation could be such fun.’ – Davy Crockett on Amazon

‘As with so much of Anthony Ferner’s work it’s a thought provoking good read – an honest, not always pretty, delve into the male condition as it stands – I came away with the satisfying sense I’d experienced the sweep of a life.’ – Helen K on Amazon

Author Biography

Anthony Ferner was professor of international human resource management at De Montfort University and he retired in 2014.

His short story ‘The Cat It Is That Dies’ appeared in the anthology The Sea In Birmingham, edited by Gaynor Arnold and Julia Bell and published by Tindal Street Fiction Group in 2013. This story became the basis of his novella Winegarden, published in 2015 by Holland Park Press.

Another of Anthony Ferner’s short stories, ‘The tanks’, was shortlisted for the Irish Times summer short story competition in 2014. His second novella, Inside the Bone Box, was published by Fairlight Books in 2018.

He has been a member of the Tindal Street Fiction Group, based in Birmingham, since 2010.