March 19, 2024

Gaines Translation “Locusts!” Published in Eerie Digest

The most recent translation by Jim Gaines (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures) has been published in the April edition of the online journal Eerie Digest.  The short story “Locusts!” takes place in colonial Algeria in the late 19th century and concerns the descent of a plague of locusts on a farmstead.  The reaction of the local inhabitants and the gut-wrenching devastation that follows are vividly described.  The story forms part of Daudet’s collection, Letters From My Mill, that Gaines has been translating over the past couple of years, especially some of the sections that deal with the interactions of French settlers and travelers in the larger Mediterranean world.