Lucy Fricke’s Töchter: A Translation Road Trip

Published to critical acclaim in Germany in 2018, Lucy Fricke’s bestselling novel Töchter (Daughters) tells the story of Betty and Martha, best friends staring down the barrel of middle age. Betty’s and Martha’s relationships with their parents are … well, let’s just say it’s complicated. When Martha’s terminally ill father, Kurt, persuades her to take him to a Swiss euthanasia clinic, our three protagonists embark on a darkly funny journey across Europe in Kurt’s battered Golf, a journey where nothing ever goes quite according to plan …

We – Sinéad Crowe, Isabelle Liber and María Tellechea– had the privilege of translating Lucy’s novel (into French, Spanish and English respectively) at roughly the same time and have collaborated on this multilingual issue of the TOLEDO-Journal. As we reflected on our experiences of translating this novel, it struck us that like Lucy’s protagonists, we had undertaken a journey of sorts, albeit one that unfolded mostly behind our PC screens.

In the map below, the rough outline of the route followed by Lucy’s characters symbolizes our “road trip” as translators. We invite you to come along for the ride, clicking on the pins to read about some of the translation breakthroughs and breakdowns we experienced along the way.

Ready? As Kurt says: “Right, let’s go!”