On Thursday, August 23, writer and translator K.E. Semmel — who’s had the U.S. editions of two of his translations debut over this last week — will be speaking about Scandinavian crime fiction and the art of translation at One More Page Books in Arlington, VA. And each of those books has already earned high praise from the critics. This weekend, the New York Times review of Karin Fossum‘s The Caller called the novel “one of the darkest, most disturbing crime stories you’re likely to read this year” and praised Semmel in particular for rendering the suppleness of Fossum’s style. And Publisher’s Weekly put Semmel’s translation of Jussi Adler-Olsen‘s The Absent One at the top of its “PW Picks” list of the best books of the week. Semmel will read a sample from his translations, and then I’m pleased to be moderating a quick q&a about his work. Hope to see some friendly faces in the crowd! — Art Taylor