Bussey holds a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. She is an independent writer specializing in literature. In the following essay, she explores the theme of translation in James Salter’s “Last Night.”

“Walter Such was a translator.” This opening line of James Salter’s “Last Night” establishes that translation is going to be an undercurrent in this winding and emotional story. It is the story of a man whose wife, Marit, is terminally ill with cancer. The couple and another woman, a friend, go for one last dinner before Walter assists in his wife’s suicide. As soon as he has injected her with the necessary poison and she drops to her pillow, the reader learns that the other woman, a twenty-nine-year-old named Susanna, is actually Walter...