The Translators' House welcomes three translators of 'Will'

This month, the Translators’ House welcomes three translators working on the same book: the award-winning novel Will by Jeroen Olyslaegers. Gregor Seferens, the German translator of the book, already spent August in the Translators’ House and is staying there until the end of September. Gregor is a versatile Dutch to German translator. He has translated work by Harry Mulisch but also fiction, poetry and essays by Anna Enquist, Willem Elsschot, Stefan Hertmans, Yves Petry and many others.

In the second half of August, Gregor shared the house with Isabel Hessel, his co-translator for this book. When Isabel’s stay ended, her place was taken by Veronika ter Harmsel Havlíková, the Czech translator of ‘Will’. She stays in Antwerp for two weeks. In the second half of September, Gregor will be joined by Françoise Antoine, the French translator of ‘Will’. The Translators’ House is located in the neighbourhood where ‘Will’ takes place. It is a unique opportunity for the different translators to stay in this special location simultaneously, while working on the same book.

‘Will’ is set in Antwerp during the Second World War. Wilfried, the main character, is a police officer as well as an aspiring poet. He moves in two mutually exclusive social circles: among right-wing anti-Semites on the one hand and supporters of the resistance on the other. In this critically acclaimed novel, Jeroen Olyslaegers challenges the widely accepted boundaries between good and evil, thus giving the reader food for thought.