Benoît Domis

A short story about a freelance translator who scores a gig that sounds too good to be true, and is.

The fun part is that this slim volume contains the original story, a translation into a French, and a translation from the French back into English which was made without any access to the original. I don't read French, but it's fascinating to me that the third version is literally correct, still enjoyable to read, and yet the protagonist's voice (this is told in first person) is noticeably show more different.

Three stars for the story, plus a bonus star for the idea and execution. show less

Goofy concept story where Michael Marshall Smith writes an original story, Benoît Domis translates it into french without consulting Smith, then Nicholas Royle translates it back into english without access to either the original english manuscript, Domis or Smith. Get it, The Gist?

My french is sketchy to non-existent which will make this not quite as much fun as it could be.