Episode
Polly Barton & Chal Ravens: What Am I, A Deer?
- Published
- Jul 11, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3819
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Summary
What Am I, A Deer?, Polly Barton’s debut novel, takes on the vagaries of translation – linguistic translation, self-translation, and reinvention – which she’s previously explored in the much-loved Fifty Sounds, also published by Fitzcarraldo. ‘The protagonist of What Am I, A Deer? finds herself both Schrödinger and his cat on entering the Frankfurt tram, the office, and the ‘black box’ of the karaoke booth; inside and outside simultaneously, trying to figure out whether she exists and in a state of tingling oscillation’, writes Jen Calleja. ‘Polly Barton is the maestra of controlled dissolution.’ You can buy a copy of What Am I, A Deer? from the London Review Bookshop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices