If This Be Magic

Learned but cheerful and chatty … This is a book that forces any reader to think deeply about the building blocks of Shakespeare’s language … The tone is that of an enthusiastic professor inviting his students to continue the lecture in the pub – KATE MALTBY * * Financial Times * *
Brilliant … If This Be Magic takes its place among the liveliest examples of the wit that Shakespeare continues to spark – FINTAN O’TOOLE * * Observer * *
A deliciously fresh reading of Shakespeare … a stirring celebration of the plurality of languages * * Wall Street Journal * *
Hahn’s skilled and compelling chapters offer much to savour – MARGRETA DE GRAZIA * * Times Literary Supplement * *
Funny, learned and invigorating … endlessly erudite, never pedantic … both enormous fun and an intellectual treat … a witty and spirited dive … It succeeds as a workshop, a masterclass and a practical taster – BOYD TONKIN * * Spectator * *
Superbly diverting … delight and endless curiosity displayed in these pages … Hahn has amply demonstrated not only the treasures of other languages, but also the rich and strange inexhaustibility of Shakespeare himself * * Guardian Book of the Day * *
Hahn is exceptionally associative and alive to the quirks of his subject. His book is a bran tub of interesting topics … [Readers] will be fascinated and amused by [If This Be Magic], which is why it deserves to find shelf space well beyond those places where translation is studied – JEREMY TREGLOWN * * Literary Review * *
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read about translation, and also one of the best books I’ve read about Shakespeare. Hahn celebrates and expounds the diverse choices of Shakespearean translators into a vast array of the world’s languages, illuminating the almost magical alchemy required to translate ‘gold into gold.’ This very funny, wise, playfully erudite book will thrill and enlighten anyone with even a passing interest in language and literary style – EMILY WILSON, translator of THE ODYSSEY and THE ILIAD
The book is a kind of master class in translation, a chronicle of the author’s healthy obsession, and a great way to catch up with Shakespeare’s work * * New York Times * *
I’ve just finished, and loved, If this Be Magic. It’s a fresh and vivid way to think about Shakespeare; it’s so witty and knowledgeable, so alive to the ways in which language resists reduction. It feels like attending the most fascinating lecture of the term; like learning made swift and sharp and generous – KATHERINE RUNDELL

Daniel Hahn is an award-winning translator, author and editor. His translations include novels from a dozen countries, as well as short fiction, wide-ranging non-fiction, children’s books and plays. He is the author of Catching Fire: A Translation Diary, and editor of a new edition of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. He has been on the board of a number of organisations that work with literature, literacy and free speech. He is currently editing The Penguin Book of Brazilian Short Stories (with Padma Viswanathan) and translating a Mexican novel.

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