Hester Velmans Literary TranslationAn award winning translator specializing in modern fiction, Hester has translated over a dozen Dutch and French novels into English. She won the Vondel Prize for Translation in 2001. |
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The Angelmaker IMPAC 2010 Longlist “The Angel Maker, first published in Dutch in 2005 and now available in a superb translation by Hester Velmans, is one of the most complex novels I have read in a long time, and also, not coincidentally, one of the most satisfying.” |
The Voyage IMPAC 2010 Longlist “Hester Velmans, the literary translator, has moved her translation forward to the creative illumination of a kind of co- authorship, jointly with the author. Reading the tale of the frozen wasteland of New Thule, with the French original book, Court Serpent, alongside, this suggestive, often insightful, translation fills the reader (and this critic) with nothing less than a great awe of Velmans`s magical professionalism." |
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Without Mercy “Even after only a few sentences, it's quite clear that Velmans writes well. There is a playful suppleness to her work, an engaging lightness of touch that moves in and out of everyday speech, advertisement cliche and literary prose. Her style shows all the deftness of a true writer.”
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The Lily Theater “Not every novel can hook you with a translator's note, but try this one: The novelty of a book written in Dutch by a young Chinese immigrant took the Netherlands by storm in 1997, catapulting The Lily Theater to an almost permanent place at the top of Holland's best-seller list.' …The note, by the gifted translator Hester Velmans, is an oddly relevant primer to Wang's novel, which turns out to be an honest, sprawling, sometimes frustrating, avowedly fictionalized account of the author's childhood during the Cultural Revolution.” – John Burnham Schwartz, NY Times Book Review |
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The Dream Merchant “Here's the evidence we should be publishing more books in translation. |
A Heart of Stone “Heartbreakingly unsentimental and rib-achingly hilarious by turns, this book is a double triumph, both for the author and for the translator, who has managed to translate memory into a vivid, continuous present.”
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My name is Anne, Anne Frank, she said by Jacqueline van Maarsen Arcadia 2007 “Simply written, but powerful.” |
A Crying Shame “...The pace and energy is compelling, owing to Hester Velmans's fine translation." |
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