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A review by kats05
Homesick by Jennifer Croft
4.0
This book came to my attention thanks to it being nominated for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction, but I found myself somewhat confused because it's a) a memoir and b) it was published in 2019.
There is an explanation for that, and to get the details you can go down the google rabbit hole, but from what I understand, Jennifer Croft originally wrote this as a novel in Spanish (published in Argentina) called Serpientes y escaleras (Snakes and ladders), and then either translated it into English in 2019, but by doing so she kind of rewrote it as a memoir for her sister (not sure where I read that), published as "Homesick". It then might have got rewritten again as a work of (auto-)fiction work which is is possibly how it qualified for a fiction prize?
Okay, so clearly I should go down that rabbit hole myself before sharing my half-baked background knowledge here... I had an audio edition from the library which I found to be quite wonderful, so much so that I almost bought the print copy of the novel while in Edinburgh but didn't like the cover (yes, I'm one of those people) even though I am very fond of that particular (Scottish) publisher (specialised in translations from Spanish), and have now ordered the American edition of the memoir (not the novel) because I want the photos and the beautiful, beautiful cover. I am truly looking forward to rereading it as soon as it arrives.
So, depending on your (English language) edition, it's either a memoir with some fictionalised elements (other than changing the protagonists' names, I don't know which parts are fictionalised, though), or a novel, but either way it's about the author's childhood, teenage and university years, her close relationship to her younger sister as well as her learning Russian to begin with, and later Polish and Spanish (the languages from which Jennifer Croft translates most frequently). I won't comment on the memoir itself as it's a short read, and I don't want to spoil any of the "plot", but it was beautifully written and a compelling coming-of-age story.
Not only is the author incredibly gifted when it comes to learning foreign languages, she is also a wordsmith in English, and I look forward to reading works that have been translated by her. I'll be surprised if Homesick wins the Women's Prize for Fiction, but I am certain that there will be many other prizes in Croft's future (plus she already won the International Man Booker Prize for her translation of Olga Tokarczuk's novel "Flights" back in 2018).
There is an explanation for that, and to get the details you can go down the google rabbit hole, but from what I understand, Jennifer Croft originally wrote this as a novel in Spanish (published in Argentina) called Serpientes y escaleras (Snakes and ladders), and then either translated it into English in 2019, but by doing so she kind of rewrote it as a memoir for her sister (not sure where I read that), published as "Homesick". It then might have got rewritten again as a work of (auto-)fiction work which is is possibly how it qualified for a fiction prize?
Okay, so clearly I should go down that rabbit hole myself before sharing my half-baked background knowledge here... I had an audio edition from the library which I found to be quite wonderful, so much so that I almost bought the print copy of the novel while in Edinburgh but didn't like the cover (yes, I'm one of those people) even though I am very fond of that particular (Scottish) publisher (specialised in translations from Spanish), and have now ordered the American edition of the memoir (not the novel) because I want the photos and the beautiful, beautiful cover. I am truly looking forward to rereading it as soon as it arrives.
So, depending on your (English language) edition, it's either a memoir with some fictionalised elements (other than changing the protagonists' names, I don't know which parts are fictionalised, though), or a novel, but either way it's about the author's childhood, teenage and university years, her close relationship to her younger sister as well as her learning Russian to begin with, and later Polish and Spanish (the languages from which Jennifer Croft translates most frequently). I won't comment on the memoir itself as it's a short read, and I don't want to spoil any of the "plot", but it was beautifully written and a compelling coming-of-age story.
Not only is the author incredibly gifted when it comes to learning foreign languages, she is also a wordsmith in English, and I look forward to reading works that have been translated by her. I'll be surprised if Homesick wins the Women's Prize for Fiction, but I am certain that there will be many other prizes in Croft's future (plus she already won the International Man Booker Prize for her translation of Olga Tokarczuk's novel "Flights" back in 2018).