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David Bellos, 80, a renowned scholar of French fiction and celebrated translator, died on October 26.

Bellos was the author of 28 book-length translations and nine scholarly books about French writers and literature. His work grappled with the tricky nature of translating between languages and embraced the potential of language itself to help us understand the human condition. He was the first translator honored with a Man Booker International Prize for Translation in 2005.

Bellos is widely known for his book Is That A Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything (2011), an introduction to translation studies written for a general readership. The book was included on several best books of the year lists and translated into seven languages. It highlights the importance of translators in fields such as international security, scientific research, law enforcement, and computer engineering. It also charts the complex work of translators at the United Nations and explores the mental state involved in translating into and out of one’s native languages, among other topics.

The French government honored Bellos with the rank of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques for support and advocacy of French arts and language. He was also appointed an officer in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He received the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie, the most prestigious literary award in the French-speaking world, for his 1994 literary biography Georges Perec: A Life in Words.

Bellos joined the faculty at Princeton University in 1997 after teaching at the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, Southampton, and Manchester. In 2007, he became the first director of Princeton’s newly created undergraduate Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. Across disciplines, he said at the time, “We want to make tomorrow’s leaders more reflective about translation issues and better informed about how and why communication between cultures succeeds and also often fails in the modern world.”

“David was a totally brilliant translator and a leader in a field he saw as central not only to the academy but also to our everyday efforts to make meaning and understand one another,” said Sandra Bermann, a professor of comparative literature at Princeton and co-founder of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. “He brought translation to life in the classroom and in his weekly translation lunches, featuring translators of many languages and at all career stages.”

Michael Wood, professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at Princeton and co-founder of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication, said Bellos’ “subtle understanding of many kinds of difference was present in everything he did” and noted that Bellos makes it clear at the end of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? that translation should not be considered a problem to solve but rather an act of faith. “Bellos writes: ‘It is translation that provides incontrovertible evidence of the human capacity to think and to communicate thought. We should do more of it.’”

Princeton University (11/14/25) By Jamie Saxon