Spy Fiction In Translation
- John Fullerton
- Apr 27
- 4 min read
When I read any novel in translation, I’m conscious of the fact that how I respond has as much to do with the translator as it does the author. In effect, the translated novel has two authors.
Do you agree?
For example, I’m pretty certain the enormous success of Elena Ferrante’s novels in English has a great deal to do with the rapport between the author and her skilful friend and translator, Ann Goldstein. The same goes for Sapienza Goliarda’s superb novel, The Art of Joy, translated by Anne Milano Appel.
The opposite also seems to hold true. The first English translations of George Simenon’s novels were regarded with the benefit of hindsight as terrible, and bore little resemblance to the French text in terms of accuracy or style. Simenon didn’t know. Or maybe he knew but didn’t care. Why should he, as long as he’d been paid? He had better things to do (we can imagine) than read translations of his own books. I confess I have no idea if the French, Italian and Spanish translations of my books are any good, either. Maybe they‘re better than the original. It’s quite possible.
Personally, I love French, Italian and Spanish crime fiction, much less so English. I don’t know why. Would I enjoy the first three so much if I was able to read them in the original language? More so? Less? Who knows?
That said, here are my 10 interesting spy novels in translation and in no particular order:
The Zone, by Mathias Énard
French intelligence operative Francis Mirkovic travels by train from Milan to Rome. Handcuffed to the luggage rack above him is a briefcase containing a wealth of information about the war criminals, terrorists and arms dealers of the Zone — the Mediterranean region, from Barcelona to Beirut, from Algiers to Trieste, which has become his speciality — to sell to the Vatican. Exhausted by alcohol and amphetamines, he revisits the violent history of the Zone and his own participation in that violence, beginning as a mercenary fighting for a far-right Croatian militia in the 1990s.
The German Client: A Bacci Pagano investigation, by Bruno Morchio
Private investigator Bacci Pagano can’t resist taking the bait when his new client dangles a check with too many zeros. He should have known that where there’s bait, there’s always a hook…
Red Water, by Jurica Pavicic
The story begins in 1989 on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. The investigation into a young woman’s disappearance falters as Yugoslavia plunges into a fratricidal war. Another three decades will pass before the truth is revealed. Inspector Gorki Šain, haunted by his failure to unravel the case the first time, returns to solve the crime in 2017.
Foul Lady Fortune, by Chloe Gong
Four years ago, Rosalind Lang was saved from the brink of death. Now she doesn't sleep or age — and can heal from any wound. Desperate for redemption from her traitorous past, she works as an assassin for her country.
Bullet Train, by Kotara Isaka
Satoshi looks like an innocent schoolboy but he is really a viciously cunning psychopath. Kimura's young son is in a coma thanks to him, and Kimura has tracked him onto the bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge.
The Frenchman, by Jack Beaumont
Alec de Payns is an undercover operative in an elite division of France's famed intelligence service. When a routine mission goes fatally wrong, Alec is forced to confront the unthinkable: his team has been betrayed by one of their own.
Untraceable, by Sergei Lebedev
Professor Kalitin is a ruthless, narcissistic chemist who has developed an untraceable, extremely lethal poison called Neophyte while working in a secret city on an island in the Russian far east. When the Soviet Union collapses, he defects and is given a new identity in Germany. After an unrelated Russian is murdered with Kalitin's poison, his cover is blown and he's drawn into the German investigation of the death.
The Message, by Mai Jia
At the height of the Second World War, Japan rules over China. In Hangzhou, a puppet government propped up by the Japanese wages an underground war against the Communist resistance. Late one night, five intelligence officers, employed as codebreakers by the regime, are escorted to an isolated mansion outside the city. The secret police are certain that one of them is a Communist spy. None of them is leaving until the traitor is unmasked. It should be a straightforward case of sifting truth from lies. But as each codebreaker spins a story that proves their innocence, what really happened is called into question again and again.
Night Train to Lisbon, by Pascal Mercier
Night Train to Lisbon follows Raimund Gregorius, a 57-year-old Classics scholar, on a journey that takes him across Europe. Abandoning his job and travelling with a dusty old book as his talisman, he heads for Lisbon in search of clues to the life of the book's Portuguese author, Amadeu de Prado. As he gets swept up in his quest, he finds that the journey is also one of self-discovery, as he reencounters all the decisions he has made — and not made.
An Enigma By the Sea, by Caro Fruttero
On the wintry Tuscan coast, the wealthy elite retreat to their lavish holiday homes. But the season turns sinister when a couple vanishes from a locked villa, and the body of a dubious count washes ashore, bludgeoned to death.
John Fullerton
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