Hello and welcome. It's our bonus Q&A episode of Books of the Year. We have best-selling author, booker winner Jan Martel. Here we go, Jan. This is how we always start this Q&A. What is the last book that you really, really enjoyed reading? Emphasis on the second, really, because this is not just like, that was pretty good. This is like, wow. Oh, I liked The Vegetarian by Han Kang, which I'd never read. Also, you know what? I read it. Oh, one that I really liked was, I've forgotten the title, a book on translation. It was a British book. What was his name? He's a venerable professor of translation. He wrote a fascinating book on translation. Oh, is there a fish in your ear? That's what it was called. Oh, that's a mistranslation. a mistranslation. That's a Douglas Adams reference. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, is it? No, I didn't realize that.

Douglas Adams conceived of the babel fish, which you put a small fish in your ear and it translated automatically. Oh, that word's coming. It's never explained in the book. Oh, and it's a book about translation, the art and science of translation and the history of it. It's amazing, quite dense book about...

A fish in your ear. A fish in your ear by... We'd have to look it up. And it was really interesting. It was very arcane, many, many chapters, and it was all about translation, the misconceptions about it, how it works, the history of it. Fascinating history, for example, translations of the Bible.

How for centuries there are very few translations of Bibles and suddenly there's an explosion.

And now you have missionaries who translate into languages spoken by 10 people and what does that mean?

And how do you translate a story that was set in one climate and geography to one to another?

So when Jesus refers to fig trees, what if you're translating to people who don't know fig trees? How do you translate that metaphor? Would you take rubber trees? You know, it was just a really interesting book about how we translate things to different languages and to different understandings. David Bellos? Yes, there we go. That's the name. David Bellos, yeah. That's a wonderful book. All right. And it's called A Fish in Your Ear. Yes. Okay, great. Do you have a favorite place to write?

Yes, I have my little studio in my backyard. It's 10 feet by 12. I like cozy spaces. So I had myself built a little tiny studio in my backyard where I can be away from my children.

Even though you miss them. I miss them. I'm within sight. And I have a treadmill desk. So I walk as I'm writing. I've written three books on my treadmill desk. Explain that sounds weird. It's like a treadmill, like when you might jog, but you only walk. And I have a desk right in front of me at the level of my elbows. And I can type. You can't quite use a mouse. You have to use a track pad. But I walk as I'm typing. It's a slow walk, 1.3 miles an hour roughly, and you get into it. So you're not always sitting. How are not? I've never heard. So, I mean, how are you typing whilst? Did you, were you able to do that straight away? I think it's walking and typing at the same time.

Yeah, you do, you did a gentle walk. It's a steady pace and yeah, I've written three books on it. It's a way of avoiding sitting all the time. It doesn't replace excesses. so the treadmill is pulling your feet a bit, but you are walking at 1.3 miles an hour,

and I've written three books.

In fact, I've used that treadmill so often I have to replace the treadmill.

It was worn right through, and the are walking at 1.3 miles an hour, and I've written three books. In fact, I've used that treadmill so often I had to replace the treadmill. It was worn right through. And the

desk is at the right hide, and your computer's right in front of you, and you're nice and straight, and you type. Would you find it quite difficult to write, like, here? Well, no, I can do that. In fact, when I'm doing corrections of proof or something, I will be sitting down.

But there's something nice about being in motion.

I mean, when you're writing with's something nice about being in motion.

I mean, when you're writing with your words, you're exploring worlds,

to be doing that while you're physically writing is a nice symbiosis.

Okay, that's absolutely fascinating.

Is there an ending that you would change in any book that you have read

where you've got to the end of a book and thought, I'm not sure that worked. Oh, you know, yes. The very, very famous poem, is it Samuel Coleridge? Ancient Mariner? No, no, the one about he's writing a poem and he's interrupted. Yeah, Kubla Khan. Yes, that one.

Yeah.

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