Dark Nights of the Soul: Mental Health in Translation

The translated works of this poignant panel explore the depths of young adulthood, fraught with fragility and complexity, sincerity and secrets. Night Train by Xu Zechen, translated by Jeremy Tiang, is about an incoming PhD student who tries to swindle money from his father by making up a story about killing someone and needing to flee. But now that lie has taken on a life of its own and everyone—the university, the police, the sprawling campus community—is convinced he’s a murderer, and his life begins to spiral out of his control. In Moldovan writer Tatiana Țîbuleac’s The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes, after his mother tells him she is dying, Aleksy returns to the small French village that he left at eighteen years old, where memories of his family’s grief following the death of his sister still remain. He spends three months with his mother, reliving the memory of the summer when everything changed and learning to finally lay down their weapons to make peace with each other and with themselves. Living on the precipice, the characters of this panel moderated by award winning author Rita Bullwinkel unravel the complicated, redemptive, and devastating consequences of past mistakes.

Sponsored by the Center for the art of Translation

This event took place in Downtown Berkeley, at the Bay Area Book Festival, May 29-31 2026. 

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