Micro Review 10 (Women in Translation month)

 

Diary of an Apprenticeship - Samantha Cristoforetti (trans. Jill Foulston)

August was women in translation month and this book was published (and delivered) just in time for me to be able to read it in August, even if the review is being published in September.

Regular readers will know that I am a bit (!) of a space nut and I've been waiting to read this for ages - it has been out in Italian for a while. As of December 2019 there have been 565 astro/cosmonauts and of these only 65 have been female. Of these 65 I think I can count on the fingers of one hand those that have written autobiographies - although there may be a few more biographies.

This book was a great read, most of the book was about the training regime for a European astronaut and just coordinating this sounded exhausting even before the technical and practical training actually started! The format was nice too - the first part of each chapter was written like a diary/blog entry and then there was some deeper thought/exploration about this to fill in details.

Despite not too much of the book being focussed on her actual time in space (mainly because Cristoforetti blogged extensively about her stay on ISS which can be read here) it captures both the excitement and repetitiveness of space training and space flight as well as a lot of her personality. 

Unlike some astronaut autobiographies Cristoforetti manages a perfect balance between honesty and enthusiasm - disappointments, problems and stresses are talked about but not dwelt upon, and at the same time it is clear that there are difficulties to overcome.

I'd never have known that this book was in translation, it read smoothly throughout and I guess that the publisher felt the same as nowhere on their website or the cover is Foulston mentioned, which is a real shame - although I know that Cristoforetti's English would have been good enough for her to write the book in English or translate it herself.

I'm always going to be an @astrosam fangirl as she is a Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy & Star Trek fan - plus she tweeted me from space!

Cristoforetti is an astronaut classmate of Tim Peake and his autobiography is due in a few weeks, as you can image I have that on pre-order already. It will be interesting to read his take on the training process...