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Helen Stevenson

Biography

Helen Stevenson

Helen Stevenson studied Modern Languages at the University of Oxford, and has been translating literary texts from French to English for 25 years. Her translations include BLACK MOSES by Alain Mabanckou (shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2017), THE MISSING PIECE by Antoine Bello and MY PHANTOM HUSBAND by Marie Darrieussecq. She is also a writer of novels, including MAD ELAINE, and the memoir LOVE LIKE SALT.

Helen Stevenson

Books by Helen Stevenson

Small Boat
written by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson - Fiction

In November 2021, an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsized in the English Channel, causing the deaths of 27 people on board. Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, nearly three hours later, all but two of the migrants had died, the worst single loss of life ever to occur in the Channel. SMALL BOAT is a fictional first-person account of the French navy officer who took the migrants’ calls --- and her attempts to justify the indefensible. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster, than the crises behind these tragedies.