LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE

Do you ever feel like you're not speaking the same language?

Swedish immigrant Kristin won't talk about her pregnancy. Her Brazilian-born Scottish boyfriend Ciaran won't speak English at all; he is trying to immerse himself in a språkbad or 'language bath', covering their Edinburgh apartment in post-it notes to teach himself Swedish.

As this young couple is forced to confront the thing that they are both avoiding, they must reckon with the bigger questions of the world outside, and their places in it.

'Concepts of ethnicity, intimacy, and identity are woven into Jessica Gaitán Johannesson's quirky, contemplative novel... Poignant, perceptive, and clever, How We Are Translated is a novel about the human beings who exist beyond ideals of diversity, and about the emotional implications of language.'