Translated literature strengthens diversity: An interview with Ahmad Azzam

An important part of Swedish literature does not have Swedish as its original language, but has been translated. Translated literature has become a natural part of Swedish culture and of the Swedish language. Region Västra Götaland has a system of translation grants to uphold that tradition and to ensure that more works are translated into Swedish. These translation grants make it easier for publishers, magazines and periodicals to publish authors and journalists who write in other languages than Swedish, and increase the opportunities for writers who don’t have Swedish as their native language to reach a wider readership. Since Region Västra Götaland’s translation grants were first announced in 2015, more than 50 works have been translated.

One of them is the novel Svindel, written by the Palestinian-Syrian author and former City of Refuge artist Ahmad Azzam. We asked him three questions.

Tell us a little about yourself and your background

I am a Palestinian-Syrian scriptwriter and journalist. Earlier I lived under the authoritarian regime in Syria. I have a degree in sociology from the University of Damascus, and a brief period of my professional life was spent doing research in the social sciences. Nowadays I work as a writer, in film and drama. Certain contradictions and quite a lot of fear drove me to finish my first novel, Svindel.

What is the novel Svindel about?

By means of a flow of places, events and memories, I wanted to tell the story of a former prisoner in the Syrian intelligence service’s prison. He tries to cross the border with Turkey and make his way to the Greek islands in the hope of reaching one of the European countries. The novel revolves around the difficult situations that a refugee can be faced with during his flight. The main character of the novel is the vanquished hero who finds himself in a state of mental, physical, temporal and spatial vertigo, since he always returns to square one.

What have the translation grant and the opportunity to have your book translated into Swedish meant for you?

The support I received to translate my book into another language has given me a different book, with other readers’ perspectives. The Swedish reader is a transparent reader, who doesn’t read the book’s themes with preconceived notions. This has meant that I’ve received more pure feedback and also a new experience of working with a publisher who thinks beyond taboos.