“The collaborative translation between Ahmedzai Kemp and Copeland is admirable: in particular, the dialogue reads very well – there were times when I could visualise the characters’ interchange so clearly, it read almost like a playscript.”
Helen Vassallo, Translating Women blog, on Trees for the Absentees
“Raulff’s prose – or Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp’s translation – is lyrical and lucid”
Joe Culley, The Irish Times, of Farewell to the Horse
“While the plot has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, it is the novel’s dark and menacing atmosphere, built up through telling detail, that is the strongest source of suspense. Punishment of a Hunter is as bone-chilling as a freezing winter fog over Leningrad.”
Fiona Graham, European Literature Network, of Punishment of a Hunter
“Beautifully translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp and billed as the first in a ‘Leningrad Confidential’ series of detective novels, Punishment of a Hunter establishes Yulia Yakovleva as a talent to watch.”
Martin Doyle, The Irish Times, of Punishment of a Hunter
“Yakovleva and this translation by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp has produced a startlingly clear portrait of the era laced with bite and a grim, satirical humour.”
Marina Sofia, Finding Time to Write, of Punishment of a Hunter
“Extraordinarily powerful, poignant and affecting. I was greatly moved”
Michael Palin, of The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria
Online samples of my work
Translations from Arabic
- Rania Mamoun, ‘Bird of Paradise‘ (Literary Hub, March 2018, from Banthology, published by Comma Press UK and Deep Vellum USA)
- Abbad Yahya, Crime in Ramallah (Words Without Borders, Divided Countries issue, July 2017)
- Extract from The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria by Samar Yazbek (The Guardian, 2015; translated with Nashwa Gowanlock)
- Minouche, a short story by Anis Arafai (The Common, 2016)
- The turmoil of today’s world: leading writers respond to the refugee crisis. Contribution by Samar Yazbek (The Guardian, 2015)
- Extract from The Amman Bride by Fadi Zaghmout (here in Words Without Borders, subsequently published as The Bride of Amman by Signal 8 Press, 2015)
- Book review in The New Arab: Edward Said: The late author was just in time by Ziad Abdullah (2015)
- Two scenes from Will it Pass or Not? – a play by Lucien Bourjeilly (Index on Censorship, 2014)
- The novelist vs. the revolutionary: my own Syrian debate by Samar Yazbak (The Washington Post, 2013)
- I write with blind eyes and forty fingers by Samar Yazbek (Index on Censorship, 2013)
Translations from German
- A rather disproportionate intervention: an excerpt of The German Crocodile (European Review of Books, June 2021)
- How nature can help you predict the weather – an extract of The Weather Detective, by Peter Wohlleben, in BBC Focus Magazine
- The Not-so-secret Life of the Stars – an extract of The Weather Detective, by Peter Wohlleben, on LitHub.com
- How to tell the time using the sun – an extract of The Weather Detective, by Peter Wohlleben, on the Penguin Random House website
- Excerpt from Farewell to the Horse, by Ulrich Raulff, on LitHub.com
- Farewell to the Horse – Book of the Week, Radio 4, broadcast from 29 May 2017 (read by Iain Glen, abridged and produced by Jill Waters)
- First 5 pages of Sacrifice, a crime thriller by Hanna Winter (Manilla/Bonnier Zaffre, 2016)
- Essay ‘The New Divide: Why the world didn’t get better‘ by Thomas Rothschild (Index on Censorship, 2014)
- ‘Should Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” be republished?’ a debate between Sascha Feuchert and Charlotte Knobloch (Index on Censorship, 2014)
- Extract from The Thankless Stranger, by Irena Brežná (New Books in German, 2012)
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp 