Chinese translation of “This Difficult Thing of Being Human”

It took a while to get a copy of this book from the Chinese publisher, not just because of the distance involved but because of the local post office temporarily losing the package it came in.

But here it is: the Chinese translation of my book on self-compassion, “This Difficult Thing of Being Human.”

Behind it you can see various copies of my other books in a variety of languages. I’m pleased to say that my work is now available in nine different languages. I’d love that to be in doubt figures, but that’s not something I can hurry.

The story behind this book is a little weird. I discovered that “This Difficult Thing of Being Human” had been translated into Romanian by stumbling upon in on Amazon. My publisher had never mentioned the translation.

While I was asking about the Romanian translation, my editor mentioned in passing that a Chinese translation was being discussed.

In trying to find out whether the Chinese translation had gone ahead (it had, two years before!) I found there was also a Korean translation, which I’ve never seen.

I suggested to my publisher that they might want to look at their procedures for translations, so that they kept authors in the loop. They took this on board and it seems like it’s going to happen in the future. So when my work is published in a tenth language, I shouldn’t have to discover that accidentally!

By the way, This Difficult Thing of Being Human has been very well received. Every single review on Amazon gives it five stars. (There are some people who have rated the book with less than five stars, but none of them have written a review.) Several people have told me it’s been life-changing for them or people they knew. One woman whose son is in rehab said that every person in the rehab facility had found it revelatory.