Michael Henry

Michael Henry’s translation of Diderot’s Jacques the Fatalist for Penguin Classics is still in print. He is currently in France searching for another book to fall in love with.

Diary: Trials of a Translator

Michael Henry, 19 August 2010

April 1993. In the bookstall at Nice airport I notice a paperback with the title Le Chercheur d’or. It seems to be about a love affair and a search for hidden treasure at the turn of the 20th century. I have never heard of the author, Jean-Marie Le Clézio, but I buy it anyway.

Two days later I put the book down. It is the story of the pursuit by the narrator, Alexis, of his late...

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