The words used in English sounded different in Icelandic, dissolving the clue entirely. One memorable challenge came when I was translating Lord Edgware Dies, which took me 10 years because of one almost impossible hurdle: a particular two-word clue, which to me felt inextricably bound to the English language. I believe that reading a Christie novel should, in any language, be like stepping into a bygone age. There are particular challenges in translation, regardless of length, one being that it felt crucial to hold on to the period language, and avoid Icelandic words that felt too modern. Though I began with Endless Nights due to its modest length, I moved on to books such as Death on the Nile – all 90,000 words of it. The atmosphere of the small fishing town of Siglufjörður, where my Dark Iceland books are set, is vital to their tone, and its remoteness and tight-knit community shape the plots of Snowblind, Nightblind and Blackout. I have no doubt this has influenced my own writing. The books are never set in arbitrary locations: whether beginning in a snowbound country house, on a boat on the Nile, on a remote island or in a small village, the setting is always significant to the narrative and the tone – it feels almost like a character in itself. Read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, And Then There Were None or The Murder on the Orient Express to see the extent of this talent. Her twists so simple and elegant that the tricks are fair: the clues are all there. No other writer constructs plots so well. It is undeniable that she is a strong influence on my own writing – is there any crime writer that isn’t influenced by her in some way? But beyond the delight that the books can stir in any reader, translating them meant I was able to fully comprehend her exceptional technical skill. Christie was not just an inspiration for my writing, but a support. And translating her gave me the confidence to write a novel of my own. Each new title was another chance to immerse myself in her writing and to learn from her as much as I could. Through college, law school, and even when I had started full-time work as a lawyer, I never stopped translating her. I would never have guessed that 15 years later I would be writing myself, and have 14 translated Christie novels to my name. I was even more delighted when they agreed to let me start with Endless Night (little did they know that my suggestion was because it contained far fewer pages than any other Christie novel I had come across). I had been reading her books for years and had already translated a few of her short stories for Icelandic magazines, but I was astonished when her publishers offered me the opportunity to translate a whole novel. I was 17 when I started working on my first Icelandic translation of an Agatha Christie novel.
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