Episode 4: Found in Translation
What goes into translating a book from one language to another? How do you preserve something when your task is to change everything? What do translation and travel have in common? And why is translation, like travel, such an elusive concept?
In this episode, we speak with Jennifer Croft, the English translator of Flights, about the craft of translation and her work as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction. For her work on Flights, Jennifer Croft won The Man Booker International Prize with Olga Tokarczuk in 2018.
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This week’s discussion question / invitation
As we’re preparing for the final event, we’d like to put together a special collection of digital postcards to mark our shared journey as a book club.
We’d like for you to send in a travel photo and a couple lines about where this book, and our time together, has taken you.
You can think of this as a chance to send a postcard to yourself about your personal journey over the course of the book club. Or, think of it as a chance to send a postcard to your fellow book club members about the journey we've been on together. And you might take inspiration from our traveler's questions with a twist: Where did you begin? Where has our journey taken you? And where does it make you want to go next?
We’ll use your postcards to map out our journey through Flights at our final event.
A selection of postcards from Jennifer Croft’s forthcoming memoir, Notes on Postcards
Left: A postcard that can predict the future?
Right: An example of how postcards in the past announced the arrival of twins in a humorous (?) way.
Above: “Dear Ones: — In my letter I forgot to tell you to send my seal and a pair of pointed scissors for cutting ingrowing nails with. Please send them with love as soon as possible. L.I.Z.”
Above (front and back): “Dear Olmy - I certainly am sorry but a picture (of me) which I was sending (you) burnt up here (Sunlight Ranch, Cody, / Wyoming) together with our cabin + all our clothes. So much as I’d like to, I’m afraid I can’t give you one—Have a super summer. Much love Daphne.” [Evan note: Has anyone ever so nonchalantly mentioned their house burned down with all their stuff?]
Above: There is no transcription of the text, which you can begin to make out if you zoom in, but here is Croft's reflection: “On these postcards without room for messages, language can sometimes loom so large over landscapes, cityscapes, and even portraits that it steals the scene completely.”
Above (front and back): “Did you go up in the tower. I went up to the first landing. Alice and Mother went to the top. The view from the tower is wonderful. Today went to the Palace of Versailles. Is it not a wonderful place. Love Mother.”
More about Jennifer Croft and her work
- Jennifer Croft’s website
- Notes on Postcards (memoir forthcoming November 2026)
- The Extinction of Irena Rey (novel)
- Serpientes y Escaleras and Homesick (first a novel in Spanish and then crafted into a memoir in English)
- The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Jennifer Croft)
- Who Will Make the Snow? by Taras Prokhasko (author) and Marjana Prokhasko (illustrator) (translated by Jennifer Croft and her husband Boris Dralyuk)
Jennifer Croft’s recommendations
- Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes (translated by Frank Wynne)
- A Perfect Cemetery by Federico Falco (translated by Jennifer Croft)
Authors and writing mentioned by Jennifer Croft in the episode
- In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means Edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky
- Witold Gombrowicz (Polish author who accidentally immigrated to Argentina)
- The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation)
Other authors, translators, and books mentioned in the episode
- Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang
- Leo Tolstoy, Milan Kundera, José Saramago, Pär Lagerkvist
- Giovanni Pontiero (translator)
- Clarice Lispector (author)
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)
- Ken Liu (author and translator)
Our itinerary
For this week, aim to read through “Boarding” (Riverside: p. 403, Fitzcarraldo: p. 404—the end!).
What you can do this week
- Listen to episode 4
- Read through “Boarding” (Riverside: p. 403, Fitzcarraldo: p. 404—the end!)
- Create your digital postcard via this form
- And:
Episode 4 features translator and author Jennifer Croft. The episode was produced and edited by Evan Nesterak, and it was mixed by Stephanie Tam. Our theme music was composed by Nina Humphreys.
Thank you to the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy at Princeton University for sponsoring Behavioral Scientist Reads and helping to make the podcast possible.
