Lucia Graves (born 21 July 1943) is a writer and translator. Born in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England, she is the daughter of writer

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celt ...

, and his second wife, Beryl Pritchard (1915–2003).

Biography

Lucia is a translator working in English and Spanish/Catalan. Her translations include the worldwide bestsellers ''

The Shadow of the Wind ''The Shadow of the Wind'' ( es, La sombra del viento) is a 2001 novel by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón and a worldwide bestseller. The book was translated into English in 2004 by Lucia Graves and sold over a million copies in the UK af ...

'', '' The Angel's Game'', '' The Prisoner of Heaven'', and "The Labyrinth of the Spirits", by

Carlos Ruiz Zafón Carlos Ruiz Zafón (; 25 September 1964 – 19 June 2020) was a Spanish novelist known for his 2001 novel ''La sombra del viento'' (''The Shadow of the Wind''). Biography Ruiz Zafón was born in Barcelona. His grandparents had worked in a fa ...

, and ''The Columbus Papers''. She has translated over 30 volumes. She has also published a novel, ''The Memory House'', and a memoir entitled ''A Woman Unknown''. These were both originally written in English, but Graves herself did the translations into Spanish. She said "I find self-translation a rather strange, slightly uncomfortable experience; the line between author and translator becomes blurred". She grew up on

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...

from the age of three, speaking English at home, Catalan with locals, and Spanish at school. "I slipped in and out of my three languages as one enters and exits different-coloured rooms in a house," she writes in her memoir. As a teenager she attended the

International School of Geneva The International School of Geneva (in French: ''Ecole Internationale de Genève''), also known as "Ecolint" or "The International School", is a private, non-profit international school based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1924 in the servic ...

, Switzerland, and subsequently university at Oxford. In 1967 she married a Catalan musician and settled in Spain, living mainly in Barcelona. They had three daughters. Her professional translation work began in 1971 with her father’s novel '' Seven Days in New Crete''. In 1991 she moved from Spain to London where she currently lives with her second husband. There she has continued to do translation, mostly into English, and also wrote her memoir and novel.

Awards and honors

*2012 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards, finalist, translation of ''Midnight Palace'' by

Sources

External links

Lucia Graves
at Florin.com 1943 births Living people Catalan–English translators Spanish–English translators English translators English women novelists People from Mallorca 20th-century British translators 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers 21st-century British translators 21st-century English women writers 20th-century British writers 21st-century British writers English women non-fiction writers Graves family {{UK-translator-stub