When it came to finding the best translators for a new Limited Edition of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Folio knew exactly where to turn.

For husband and wife team Nicolas and Maya Slater, Anna Karenina is not just a book: it is part of their family history.

‘Nicolas’s grandfather, the Russian Impressionist painter Leonid Pasternak, was a good friend and great admirer of Tolstoy, and collaborated with him to illustrate his last novel, Resurrection,’ explains Maya. ‘Leonid was much younger and knew Tolstoy many years after Anna Karenina was written – but Leonid was the artist invited by Countess Tolstoy to draw Tolstoy on his deathbed.’

So when Folio considered who might be able to do Tolstoy’s masterpiece justice with a new English translation, published in January 2026, the answer was obvious. ‘Nicolas and Maya are quite simply at the top of their game,’ says Head of Editorial James Rose. ‘Their technical knowledge and inherent desire to express the poetry of the text itself is so complete that it becomes less of a commission and more of a conversation between them and Folio.’

The Slaters were keen to explore a different approach to previous translations. ‘The translations of Anna Karenina that we looked at all go for a rather Victorian or 19th-century style,’ says Nicolas (who also happens to be the nephew of Boris Pasternak, the Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer and literary translator). ‘I think if we’re writing in 2025, we are writing for the 21st century in 21st-century language. That’s not to say we’re modern and trendy! Just pure, simple English.’

There is much to discuss:

Turning Russian into English is challenging as the translation options are infinite: it is up to the translator to find creative ways of doing so. Take, for example, the Russian use of diminutives – ‘little’ – which can be applied to almost any noun to express affection. In English, this results in some strange repetitions.

‘There is a passage where Kitty – who is often described as little – is in the bedroom getting ready for bed with her husband,’ says Maya. ‘She lays out little hairbrushes, little mirrors, little tablecloths, wearing a little jacket (for example, “kofta” is a jacket, “koftochka” is a little jacket). There are around six or more “littles” in half a dozen lines. You have to suppress the word “little” in English while still finding ways of conveying that sense of affection.’

Yet despite these labours, Nicolas and Maya say that the best translations are ones in which the translators’ art is invisible. ‘We’d like Folio readers to appreciate this amazing novel by a wonderful author and not think about the translators at all. We are a piece of glass – or as near as we can get – through which they can appreciate the novel itself.’

Words: Lucy Jolin | Photography: Angela Moore