Confessions

“[Sarah Ruden] has clearly thought deeply about what Augustine was trying to say.”—The Wall Street Journal“A translation of [Augustine’s] masterwork that does justice both to him and to his God … Repeated small acts of attention to the humble, human roots of Augustine’s imagery of his relations to God enable Ruden to convey a living sense of the Being before Whom we find him transfixed in prayer: ‘Silent, long-suffering and with so much mercy in your heart.’”—The New York Review of Books“Delightfully readable … In this lively translation filled with vivid, personal prose, Ruden introduces readers to a saint whom many will realize they only thought they knew… . Approaching her subject with deep religious and historical knowledge, [Ruden] chooses to translate Augustine as a performative, engaging storyteller rather than a systematic theologian.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Ruden’s translation makes Augustine’s ancient text accessible to a new generation of readers with a real taste of the original Latin.”—Library Journal“[Ruden’s] record as a translator of ancient texts … clearly establishes her considerable talent.”—Christianity TodayPraise for Sarah Ruden “Ruden’s work emphasizes the complexity inherent in translation; she lingers on some of the most challenging concepts and explicates the historical and linguistic context for her work, debunking both myths and poor prior interpretations.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review), on The Face of Water “The best translation yet, certainly the best of our time.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, on The Aeneid “An Aeneid more intimate in tone and soberer in measure than we are used to—a gift for which many will be grateful.”—J. M. Coetzee, on The Aeneid

Sarah Ruden was educated at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard, from which she graduated with a Ph.D. in classical philology. She has translated six books of classical literature, including Lysistrata, The Golden Ass, and The Aeneid, and has also translated Aeschylus’s Oresteia for the Modern Library collection The Greek Plays. Her translation of Augustine’s Confessions is her first book-length translation of sacred literature. Her articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Books & Culture, and other magazines. She is a winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, and is the author of Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time and The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible, as well as a book of poetry, Other Places. Ruden is a visiting scholar at Brown University and lives in Hamden, Connecticut.

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