Translation

#LBB2 book is The Missing Shade of Blue by Jennie Erdal. It fitted the bill because it was inspired by a friend of mine Gilles, who then went on to translate it into French. I spent ages reading it and part of it was because I was constantly noticing how hard it would be to translate and thinking of how I would go about it. The book is about a young French translator who comes to Edinburgh to work on Hume's Essays. That bit is true about Gilles, his PhD is an annotated translation of Hume's Essays but the similarities stop there. He meets a philosopher and his wife.....

The book asks many questions - the missing shade of blue being a metaphor for love and happiness. Is it possible to love if you have never experienced it? Can you be happy if you don't know what happiness is? It also examines the art of translation - Jennie Erdal herself was primarily a translator - which I found really interesting. 

It is not for everyone - it is a bit slow - but I enjoyed it.