Bernhard Schlink - Self's Deception

If it’s unusual for me to read a James Bond-style novel, translated novels are even more scarce in my household.  But here we have a pretty respectable German to English translation, about a detective who wanders aimlessly around for a bit, is nosy to the point of getting something bitten (or shot) off, pisses a few people off and solves the crime.  That's the abridged version.

Some translations try and translate everything, even down to anglicising street names and even the characters' names for goodness sake.  This can be suitable for a story that could be set anywhere in the world, but as German politics are involved in the plot, this would have been distinctly odd.  Add the fact that Herr Self also has trouble with speaking English (discovered later in the plot) it would have been ridiculous.  If you can get your head round a book translated into English from German, and it is obvious they are in Germany, speaking German, then you can take the book as it is - an enjoyable read, and it even contains a little - gasp - humour in there as well.  Actually, I'm not one of those who think Germans lack the SOH gene.  You also learn some weird and wonderful facts (which I love to store) such as the root of the word interpreter.  (Inter - to split in two, pretius - extract a price - although I think that the speaker takes a bit of liberty with this)

One problem with translations, and this one is no exception, is vernacular.  You can't "literally" translate something as it would be unintelligible, so you find a phrase that is the most understandable.  This can make you think that some phrases "mean more in the original language", and when Herr Self waxes lyrical, I reckon that the original German probably meant more.

All the same, rating 7/10

Next: Simon Brett: Mrs, Presumed Dead.  Good title, but I'm not sure if I'm going to get through this one, short as it is.