Live, from Onomichi!

An interview with my Bulgarian translator, Abo

Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture

Hi there, everyone! As soon as I type this, I feel a sense of guilt. I haven’t written a Substack post in ages, and I’ve been meaning to for so long. I did an event at a bookshop a few weeks ago, and a reader asked me about my Substack, and it was a nice reminder that I probably should post a bit more. So thank you to that particular reader!

Another reason I’ve been feeling guilty is because I did a video interview with my Bulgarian translator, Abo, a month ago and forgot to post about it online. Abo is awesome, and he’s someone who I’ve known now for a number of years, because he worked on my first book The Cat and The City as well as my second. During the translation process of the first book, we struck up a friendship, and despite never having met in real life, we keep in touch online whenever we can.

Anyway, Abo did something really quite wonderful and touching. After he’d worked hard on translating my second book, Four Seasons in Japan (which is partly about a translator working on a book, who travels to Onomichi, where the book she is translating is set) he went all the way to Onomichi himself to video call me so we could chat about the book in time for its Bulgarian release. I was very moved.

It’s always a pleasure chatting with Abo, because he’s a deep thinker, and we’re both massive fans of literature, translation, and language. Anyway, I share this video now at the bottom of this post.

So many photos from Japan… Never sure which to share…

Also, apologies for being a bit silent with the Substack. I’m hard at work on a novel at the moment (amongst many other things), and it’s been hard to find time to write anything else. But rest assured, I’m still here, and I will continue to work on this from time to time. I also refuse to give into this online guilt. This Substack should bring me joy, not guilt!

Hope everyone is safe and well!