The Snake in Sydney
ABOUT
THE BOOK
When a young woman is rushed to a Sydney hospital suffering from a snakebite, she’s lucky to be treated by Annika Niebuhr, a doctor whose fascination with serpents began with the Norse myths of her Danish childhood. Annika recognises the bite of a taipan, the world’s most poisonous snake, but not one native to Sydney and realises it can only have been planted. Inadvertently, or so she believes, Annika is drawn into an investigation that becomes increasingly outlandish. A miraculous recovery, a clairvoyant schizophrenic, the apparent suicide of a close friend, none makes sense to a rational medic. Yet for all her scepticism, Annika begins to realise that she must use her instincts and imagination if she is to survive.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Anne
Born
Anne Rosemary Cookes was born in south London on 9 July 1924. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during the Second World War, and taught Morse code at the SOE at Grendon Underwood, Bucks, where she met Povl Born, a Danish air force pilot. In 1946 they married and moved to Copenhagen, where she studied English literature at the university. She became fluent in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
She began writing poetry and, at the same time, began translating Scandinavian writers into English, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Karen Blixen, Jens Christian Grøndahl, Per Petterson, Michael Larsen, Janne Teller, Stig Holmas, Carsten Jensen, Sissel Lie, Henrik Stangerup, and Knud Hjortø.
In the 1980s, she moved to Salcombe, Devon, where she wrote books on local history. She founded the poetry publisher Overstep Books in 1992, and ran it until 2008.
Anne Rosemary Cookes was born in south London on 9 July 1924. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry during the Second World War, and taught Morse code at the SOE at Grendon Underwood, Bucks, where she met Povl Born, a Danish air force pilot. In 1946 they married and moved to Copenhagen, where she studied English literature at the university. She became fluent in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
She began writing poetry and, at the same time, began translating Scandinavian writers into English, such as Hans Christian Andersen, Karen Blixen, Jens Christian Grøndahl, Per Petterson, Michael Larsen, Janne Teller, Stig Holmas, Carsten Jensen, Sissel Lie, Henrik Stangerup, and Knud Hjortø.
In the 1980s, she moved to Salcombe, Devon, where she wrote books on local history. She founded the poetry publisher Overstep Books in 1992, and ran it until 2008.