Jon McGregor and the team from Asteroide. From Left to Right: Felix Herrero, Arantxa Bao, Luis Solano, Jon McGregor, and Fatima Escribano.
Jon McGregor recently visited Barcelona, to mark the publication in both Spanish and Catalonian of his novel, Reservoir 13. El Embalse 13 is published in Spanish by Asteroide, and Embassament 13 is published in Catalan by Angle. As well as meetings with his editors at both publishing houses, he met the Catalonian translator and discussed the complications of translating idioms and customs where there is no local equivalent. (Well-dressing, which features in Reservoir 13, was a particular challenge, he said. Jon assured him that this Derbyshire custom was difficult to translate even for British readers in London.)
Jon also conducted a dozen interviews with print and television media, relying on the services of a skilled interpreter, and gave a reading and talk at a local bookshop.
Jon notes that it was interesting to see the mechanisms of publishing in a bilingual society; Catalan is an essential part of the Barcelona identity, but a very small market from a commercial point of view. The Spanish and Catalonian publishers appeared to be working closely together, despite effectively being commercial rivals.
Two things were notable about this visit: firstly, that most people spoke at least three languages (Catalan, Spanish, and English), and secondly that most people seemed to have spent time studying abroad through the Erasmus programme, and had children doing the same.
Posted on Friday 11th October 2019