Married couple is a powerhouse of Russian literary translation

Two powerhouse translators of Russian literature, Richard Perear and his wife Larissa Volokhonsky, bicker like any couple — but never about word choices. It could be the secret to their four-decade-long working relationship, with Volokhonsky, 78, and Perear, 81, publishing their latest project, a translation of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin’s Foolsburg: The History of a Town, earlier this month.

Their marriage is passionately literary: When they first translated Fyodor Dostoevsky’s masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov, the Russian giant dominated their lives to the point where “it was a marriage a trois,” Volokhonsky told The New York Times. Admirers say their work is more faithful to the original Russian, but they have also attracted fierce condemnation from critics who prefer older translations.