First Person
by Hélène Vandermeer
Her job is to say “I” while being somebody else. Once, she left three sentences out.
Salomé Brun is a sign language interpreter. Fidelity, neutrality, confidentiality: she has taught those three words to master's students for eleven years. On the fourteenth of March, in a bank office, an account manager leans towards her, lowers his voice, and says he has written “unfavourable” in his report — and that it should not be put quite like that. In four seconds, Salomé decides not to translate everything. Seven months later the same man will say, meaning well: “I warned you back in March.” And she will be the one who has to translate it.
Chapters
- 1 I
- 2 Eight Months
- 3 What Does Not Get Translated
- 4 The Fourteenth of March
- 5 Coda
- 6 What Is Not an Obstacle
- 7 The Wood
- 8 June
- 9 Forty-Six Years Side by Side
- 10 The Breakdown Premium
- 11 Maud Premium
- 12 What Is Heard on One Side Only Premium
- 13 Sami Premium
- 14 September Premium
- 15 We Do Not Protect Premium
- 16 What She Does Not Say Premium
- 17 What It Does to Be the Voice Premium
- 18 Sixteen Years Earlier Premium
- 19 Annie Premium
- 20 The Grain and the Against-Grain Premium
- 21 A Mistake Premium
- 22 Two Loans Premium
- 23 Momo Premium
- 24 I Warned You Back in March Premium
- 25 Four Lines Premium
- 26 What She Could Have Done Premium
- 27 The Committee Premium
- 28 The Half Premium
- 29 The Last Lecture Premium
- 30 Rouvière Premium
- 31 With Nobody Between Us Premium
- 32 Where to Put the Sideboard Premium
