Martina Šimová participated in FILI’s translator residency this March. She is currently working on Katja Kallio’s novel This Transparent Heart. Being in Helsinki allowed Šimová not only to meet Katja Kallio, but also to visit the coastal town of Hanko, where the novel takes place. Hanko was already a familiar place for Martina, as she had worked there as an au pair while studying Finnish at Charles University in Prague.
This Transparent Heart will be published in the Czech Republic in autumn 2022. Martina is also working on Mia Kankimäki’s debut book, Things That Make One’s Heart Beat Faster. She has already translated Kankimäki’s The Women I Think About at Night into Czech, and the publisher now wants to publish Kankimäki’s earlier book as well; it will appear in Czech next spring.
Martina took advantage of the residency’s seaside location by ice-hole swimming and otherwise enjoyed her time in Helsinki, including at the Central Library Oodi.
