A letter from the translator of Giraffe Island

Gecko Press

3 months ago

Julia Marshall is the former publisher of Gecko Press and still our number one translator from Swedish. We asked her to write about translating Giraffe Island by Sofia Chanfreau and Amanda Chanfreau.

Giraffe Island is a magical realist mystery adventure for 8- to 12-year-olds. It is a playful, fresh and beautifully written story about a search for family and keeping our curiosity and imagination alive.

Every now and again there is a book that takes you back to your childhood, and you remember the child you were.

I didn’t see imaginary animals as a child, but Giraffe Island makes me think I might have, if I had read this book when I was ten or so. Certainly, I have no trouble seeing them now.
Giraffe Island also had me remember the feeling of child vs adult—those pitiful beings who have given up on magic and adventure, and instead worrying about jobs, numbers and proper dinners and making sure everyone does what is expected of them.

Every child should have at least one adult who understands their world, and Vega’s grandfather Hector, with his garage Paraphernalium full of magic and magical things, including the Muffinmobile, sees the animals that Vega can see and is a bridge and comfort to her as she grows further apart from her father.

… no matter how often Vega tried to explain that the animals meant her no harm, and that she was fond of them all, her dad didn’t seem to understand. It’s quite hard to explain to someone who’s never met a mammoth that the little woolly mammoth living in the wardrobe is actually quite friendly and lets Vega hang her clothes on its tusks. And if Vega ever woke from a nightmare, she could creep into the wardrobe and cuddle up to it. Dad didn’t think the mammoth was friendly and soft, he thought it wasn’t there.

Vega learns that even dads have big hearts, and that of course everyone sees things in different ways.

Translating Giraffe Island was a chance to put aside the real world and join the magical world of Vega and Nelson, and Hector, and Vega’s father, on the island shaped like a giraffe, with an enormous, cool and sweet-tasting lake at its heart.

A giraffe’s heart is unusually large, and this book has a very big heart.

For children and adults, Giraffe Island is a chance to experience a magical, humanistic world, where normal boundaries stretch and flex, and anything is possible.

Just as we would have it.

Far away in the middle of the sea there is an island shaped like a giraffe. Nine-year-old Vega lives there with her father and grandfather—a gardener and former ringmaster. Their shed—the Paraphenalium—is filled with every possible thing you didn’t know you needed. Vega’s bathroom is home to a gray bear with shampoo-lathered fur, and every day she talks with the asphalt beaver and crosswalk zebra on the way to school. Her best friend is Nelson, who observes things others don’t notice and keeps a notebook of mysteries and facts.

Vega and Nelson set out to save Vega’s father and find her mother in a search that leads them to a unique circus and unexpected answers.

Giraffe Island is a magical realist mystery adventure driven by longing to be part of a family. It is playful, fresh and beautifully written.