One of those extracts was from Åsa Larsson’s first novel Sun Storm, and Random House USA then asked me to translate the whole book. Laurie Thompson, who edited Swedish Book Review for many years and was my tutor at Aberystwyth, put me in touch with the big Swedish literary agents, and on his recommendation they commissioned me to translate extracts from novels, non-fiction publications, catalogues, all kinds of things. When I turned 50 I decided I couldn’t face another ten or fifteen years telling teenagers to take their coats off and put their phones away, so I left and got a part-time job teaching IT to adults. I’d done some Swedish to English translation for Swedish Book Review, but never really thought of it as a possible career. I studied Swedish and German at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in the 1970s, and eventually taught German in secondary schools in the UK for almost twenty years. Marlaine Delargy: I’ve translated about 65 novels, mainly crime fiction, some literary fiction, plus eight of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s horror novels / short stories. Why did you first learn Swedish, and when did you decide to become a translator from that language? Rachel Cordasco: You have translated many Swedish texts, the majority of which are crime/horror/detective novels. She now lives in rural Shropshire with the obligatory collection of spoiled cats. Marlaine Delargy grew up in Manchester, England studied in Aberystwyth, Wales worked in Sweden and Finland and taught in Welshpool in Powys and Bewdley in Worcestershire until 2004.
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