Karin Tidbeck is a Swedish fiction writer who writes in both Swedish and English, and does her own translations in both directions. In her afterword, she talks about both the challenges and the benefits--the concepts that can't really be translated, the ones that can't quite be translated, but don't add anything but an extra stumble for the reader who doesn't speak that language, the insights you can get by coming at a language from the outside.
She also talks about the experience of reading all of H. P. Lovecraft's work, more or less nonstop.
The stories here vary a lot, but overall have a touch of the surreal, as well as a perspective that's less familiar than that of writers who grew up in the English-speaking world. We see in this collection the impostor creature the pyret, and the vittra, a Scandinavian variety of the fae. We also meet intelligent machines that form close relationships with humans who care for them, and a far-future mechanical ark on a damaged Earth. There's variety, compelling characters, and fascinating stories, here,
Highly recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
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