My son Stephen has recently completed a fascinating, and at times daunting project. It’s a translation, with an Introduction to a work by Alexander Veltman, The Wanderer: A Novel, written in 1831-32. Northwestern University Press is the publisher.

As Stephen says, Veltman aims at a kind of truth, “about how we tell stories, understand history, and perceive the world through our imagination.”

The book is “striking in its use of intertextuality and fictional devices that are more familiar to readers of postmodernist fiction today. He mixes prose, poetry, and drama.” It uses multiple languages, making it a challenge for any translator. That may partly explain why it has not been translated into English for nearly two centuries.

Stephen ends it’s his introduction with a recommendation for the modern reader:

Emulating Veltman, I will end this introduction by addressing the reader directly. I encourage you to jump into Veltman’s narrative. Navigate the text as you wish, moving forward or backward, as seems to have been the authors intent. This work is a call to active and inquisitive readers, inviting you to join Veltman on his imaginative odyssey and engage, even if fictionally, in a dialogue with the author. Through my translation and commentary I have inevitably added my own layer of interpretation. Now it is your turn to explore this rich and complex work,