David Warriner translates from French to English and nurtures a healthy passion for Franco, Nordic and British crime fiction. Growing up in Yorkshire, England, he developed incurable Francophilia at an early age. Emerging from Oxford with a modern languages degree, he narrowly escaped the graduate rat race by hopping on a plane to Canada... and never really looked back. More than a decade into a high-powered commercial translation career, he listened to his heart and turned his hand again to the delicate and creative art of literary translation. David has lived in France and Quebec, and now calls beautiful British Columbia home.  

David Warriner's translation of Nous étions le sel de la mer by French-Canadian author Roxanne Bouchard was published in 2018 by Orenda Books. We Were the Salt of the Sea is both a dark and consuming crime thriller and a lyrical, poetic ode to the sea, a stunning and page-turning novel, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction. Blood Song, David's translation of award-winning French crime writer Johana Gustawsson's Sång was published by Orenda Books in 2019.

Literary translation is a broad field, and it's important for translators to work on books they enjoy, right? As a professional literary translator, David Warriner has translated published titles in a variety of fields including short stories, non-fiction and children's books, though his true passion lies in crime fiction, literary mysteries and thrillers.

David Warriner's translation of Quebec author Roxanne Bouchard's literary mystery We Were the Salt of the Sea was published by Orenda Books in 2018 and shortlisted for the Society of Authors Scott Moncrieff Prize for French-English translation in 2019. His translation of French "Queen of Crime" writer Johana Gustawsson's Blood Song was published by Orenda Books in 2019 and longlisted for the 2020 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation. 

With a young daughter at home who is just as avid a reader as he is, David Warriner enjoys translating children's books as well as novels. His recent translations include Jaume Copons' Alex and the Monsters: Here Comes Mr. Flat! and Alex and the Monsters: Restaurant Rescue, two graphic novels for young readers illustrated by Liliana Fortuny and published by Montreal-based publisher Crackboom! Books. David's other children's book translations include a boxed set of remastered fairy tales and a number of board books and picture books for early readers.

In 2017, David was thrilled to translate a short story as part of an innovative project by Quebec-based publisher QC Fiction's I Never Talk About It,  a collection of 37 short stories written by Véronique Côté and Steve Gagnon and translated by 37 different translators from around the world to gives readers a flavour of the fresh new writing coming out of Quebec—and a reminder that there are at least 37 different ways to translate an author’s voice. 

It takes far more than knowing two languages to translate a text effectively and make sure that readers in the target experience the author's words the way they were intended. That's why a good translator will never simply translate the words on the page; rather the spirit and the essence of the author's voice. This is the magic that makes a translation flow and read, well, not like a translation at all. 

David Warriner takes his role as a professional literary and creative translator seriously. He is a member of the UK Society of Authors, Translators Association (SoA, TA), the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), and the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada (LTAC), as well as a certified translator and member of the Order of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters of Quebec. 

To many a professional translator working in, say,  business translation, the world of literary translation can seem terribly romantic and alluring. After all, there is something distinctly satisfying about seeing your name in black and white on the shelves of bookstores and the local library. And who wouldn’t want to spend their time talking about their work at book fairs and literary festivals? 

However, there are certain drawbacks to turning your back on a successful commercial translation career to dive into the sink-or-swim sea of publishing. David found this out the hard way yet has still stubbornly steered the balance of his work toward literary and other published translations. He has seen with his own four eyes how switching tracks from commercial to literary translation can bring significant challenges, and he now takes every opportunity to share the benefits of his experience (or hindsight) with emerging literary translators thinking of flirting with the sirens of literary translation to help them take the plunge with their eyes wide open. 

Truth lingers in murky waters… As Montrealer Catherine Day sets foot in a remote fishing village and starts asking around about her birth mother, the body of a woman dredges up in a fisherman’s nets. Not just any woman, though: Marie Garant, an elusive, nomadic sailor and unbridled beauty who once tied many a man’s heart in knots. Detective Sergeant Joaquin Moralès, newly drafted to the area from the suburbs of Montreal, barely has time to unpack his suitcase before he’s thrown into the deep end of the investigation.
On Quebec’s outlying Gaspé Peninsula, the truth can be slippery, especially down on the fishermen’s wharves. Interviews drift into idle chit-chat, evidence floats off with the tide and the truth lingers in murky waters. It’s enough to make DS Moralès reach straight for a large whisky… Both a dark and consuming crime thriller and a lyrical, poetic ode to the sea, We Were the Salt of the Sea is a stunning, page-turning novel, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction.

Cyrille said the sea was like a patchwork quilt. Fragments of waves joined together by strands of sunlight. He said the sea would swallow the stories of the world and digest them at its leisure in its cobalt belly before regurgitating only distorted reflections. He said the events of the last few weeks would sink into the darkness of memory.

*

Today, the swell rolls like a watery carpet, lapping against the hull of the sailboat, flickering in the slivers cast by the rising sun. The wind fills the sails as the horizon glows red, dawn washing the sea with colour and transforming this story into a scarlet fresco. The sky turns blue, with just enough of a hint of pink to pave the way for the sun. One last time, I turn my light-flooded pupils towards the rugged coastline of the Baie-des-Chaleurs, which, already far behind, fades into the stubborn mist of sunrise.

Spain, 1938: The country is wracked by civil war, and as Valencia falls to Franco’s brutal dictatorship, Republican Teresa witnesses the murders of her family. Captured and sent to the notorious Las Ventas women’s prison, Teresa gives birth to a daughter who is forcibly taken from her. 

Falkenberg, Sweden, 2016: A wealthy family is found savagely murdered in their luxurious home. Discovering that her parents have been slaughtered, Aliénor Lindbergh, a new recruit to the UK’s Scotland Yard, rushes back to Sweden and finds her hometown rocked by the massacre. 

Profiler Emily Roy joins forces with Aliénor and soon finds herself on the trail of a monstrous and prolific killer. Little does she realise that this killer is about to change the life of her colleague, true-crime writer Alexis Castells. Joining forces once again, Roy and Castells’ investigation takes them from the Swedish fertility clinics of the present day back to the terror of Franco’s rule, and the horrifying events that took place in Spanish orphanages under its rule.

Terrifying, vivid and recounted at breakneck speed, Blood Song is not only a riveting thriller and an examination of corruption in the fertility industry, but a shocking reminder of the atrocities of Spain’s dictatorship, in the latest, stunning installment in the award-winning Roy & Castells series.

Under a dusting of fresh snow, the contours of the Skrea Strand beach took on a watercolour quality, the sand and pebbles streaked with white and the jetty lying still beneath its icy blanket. Snowflakes shimmered like sequins, rounding every angle, smoothing each imperfection and spreading a sweet, calming beauty that lent the wintry scene a fairy-tale quality.