The great books you read in translation—from classics like Madame Bovary and Don Quixote to contemporary sensations like Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle (the fifth volume is out this month)—are not only the work of their famous authors. They are also the creation of the multilingual wordsmiths who bring them to you in English. Here, six of the world’s most esteemed translators take center stage.

Specialty: Norwegian

# of Books Translated: “Between 50 and 60.”

First Notable Translation: The Golden Section, by Pernille Rygg

Noteworthy Authors: Jo Nesbø, Per Petterson, Karl Ove Knausgaard

Known for: My Struggle, by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Process: “I put down one draft and that kind of takes away my nerves, then I feel more comfortable taking risks with what I’m doing, and then I improve it and improve it.”

Next Up: Home and Away, by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Fredrik Ekelund

Jamey Gambrell

Specialty: Russian

# of Books Translated: “More than a dozen.”

First Notable Translation: Sleepwalker in a Fog, by Tatyana Tolstaya

Noteworthy Authors: Joseph Brodsky, Tatyana Tolstaya, Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladimir Sorokin, Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Shishkin

Known for: The Blizzard, by Vladimir Sorokin

Process: “I like to read the thing first, so that I have a picture of the whole story in my head, and then start.”

Next Up: Brodsky/Baryshnikov, poetry for performance

Ann Goldstein

Specialty: Italian

# of Books Translated: “Like 35 books, since 1992.”

First Notable Translation: Journey to the Land of the Flies, by Aldo Buzzi

Noteworthy Authors: Elena Ferrante, Primo Levi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giacomo Leopardi, Jhumpa Lahiri

Known for: My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante

Process: “I sit down at the desk and I type. I do the first draft fast, then I do the second draft and another draft and then the fourth. I do a lot of drafts.”

Next Up: The Young Bride, by Alessandro Baricco

Edith Grossman

Specialty: Spanish

# of Books Translated: “Somebody told me the other day it was 60. I don’t know if that’s true.”

First Notable Translation: Drums for Rancas, by Manuel Scorza

Noteworthy Authors: Miguel de Cervantes, Macedonio Fernández, Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Mayra Montero

Known for: Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes

Process: “I translate as carefully as I can for the first draft, because the more care I take in the beginning, the less time I have to spend at the end doing revisions.”

Next Up: Exemplary Novels, by Miguel de Cervantes

Lydia Davis

Specialty: French

# of Books Translated: “About 35.”

First Notable Translation: Death Sentence, by Maurice Blanchot

Noteworthy Authors: Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, Michel Leiris, Michel Butor, Maurice Blanchot, Georges Simenon

Known for: Swann’s Way, by Marcel Proust

Process: “When I was translating novels, I would not read the text first, and that was very important to me because it let me retain the excitement of the unknown.”

Next Up: VssZkv, very short stories by A.L. Snijders

Michael Hofmann

Specialty: German

# of Books Translated: “I think I’ve translated 80-odd books.”

First Notable Translation: Castle Gripsholm, by Kurt Tucholsky

Noteworthy Authors: Hans Fallada, Jakob Wassermann, Joseph Roth, Peter Stamm, Franz Kafka

Known for: Every Man Dies Alone, by Hans Fallada

Process: “I do it as quickly as I can; then I put it away. I let it sit for three months or six months; then I go back to it and revise it five, 10, 15, 20 times.”

Next Up: Berlin Alexanderplatz, by Alfred Döblin