Australia, and has worked as a bookseller, university administrator, and playwright there and in the UK. She started writing The Interpreter, her first novel, when the pandemic ground the theatre world to a halt, and is currently working on her second novel.
Robinson applied the Page 69 Test to The Interpreter and reported the following:
On page 69 of The Interpreter, my protagonist, Revelle, is accompanying a police officer to a nail salon where he's investigating a reported instance of modern slavery. Speaking through Revelle as the interpreter, the nail salon workers won't give up any incriminating evidence about their employer but Revelle suspects this is out of fear and that the women are working under illegal conditions. She toys with the idea of misinterpreting, of giving the police officer the evidence he needs to investigate the situation further. On this page, Revelle is going back and forth about what it is she should do. If she did mistranslate the salon worker's words, would she be helping them or merely interfering? She has the power to make a difference here but can't decide what is the right thing to do. As Revelle says to herself on this page: While at work, I shouldn’t ever be uttering a single word that wasn’t fed to me by someone else.Visit Brooke Robinson's website.
The interpreter's role is remain neutral, to repeat the words and mimic the emotions of the person they're speaking for, but they must not have a personal opinion, and they certainly shouldn't be judging the guilt or innocence anyone they come into contact with.
The Page 69 Test works exceptionally well for my book. Revelle's inner conflict on this page is indicative of what's to come - soon she will deliberately misinterpret with grave consequences. In a lot of ways, this is a book about doing the wrong thing for the right reason and page 69 really captures that.
Q&A with Brooke Robinson.
--Marshal Zeringue
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