I could’ve written a sober post announcing that the book is out. This is not that article.
Here it is, at last! The first novel I’ve ever translated is released today. Which means you’ll be able to go to a real bookshop, to open a real book and to find my very own name on both the title page AND the back cover — and potentially buy it with real money, but that is up to you. It might not mean much to you, but I can’t stop being amazed at this having become my job. Almost two years ago to the day, Rivages Noir asked me to try my hand at translating this book I had read for them, and today… it actually exists, and has the beautiful cover you can see above.
But what is it all about? Le dernier grand train d’Amérique (original title: This Train) is the latest book by James Grady, the American author made famous in 1974 with Six Days of the Condor. In it, you’ll follow the intertwined fates of the passengers of the Empire Builder, a train going from Seattle to Chicago in only 47 hours. This trip is supposed to be dedicated to rest and to the contemplation of the magnificent landscapes of northwestern America, but it’ll end up being quite the opposite. Because everyone came onboard with their own secrets, doubts and more or less guilty plans.
This Train is a thriller on rails with many characters, and it tries to draw a picture of today’s America by showing it through the eyes of all these passengers who are so different, be it in terms of age, race, class, gender. Grady switches effortlessly from one to the other and gives each of them their own voice. But aside from being a snapshot of this country, it’s also a very well-paced thriller: Grady keeps you on your toes with his raw and rhythmic writing, which gave quite a hard time, and you’ll only find release once you close the book.
As you probably understood, I already loved this book when I read it in English. I hope you will find everything I described above in the French version. In a future post, I’ll go over some of the very interesting problems I had when translating it. Until then, happy reading!
James Grady, Le dernier grand train d’Amérique, (Édition Payot & Rivages, collection Rivages Noir), 400 pages.