"Pilar Orsini Oquendo has just lost the love of her life. Her fiancé, Gonzalo, has been wrenched from her grasp by his untimely passing. Left alone to grieve, she finds herself at their favorite place, on a secluded beach in Spain. It is here where Gonzalo's childhood friend finds Pilar and, in a fit of lust, rapes her. Distraught and betrayed, Pilar soon finds the rape has produced a pregnancy. Despite the difficulty, Pilar decides to keep the baby. She struggles to wade through her emotional turmoil and continue her ambitious career as a translator of American literature. While speaking at Columbia University, Pilar meets Gus Brubaker. Gus is a Spanish literature translator, and he is immediately taken in by Pilar's intellect and stunning beauty. Pilar is conflicted and still dealing with the aftermath of her rape as her attacker continues his harassment. She is also pregnant. How will she explain this to Gus, who, she believes, will surely leave her when she reveals her pregnancy? The Translators tells a story of troubled romance set in the world of linguistics and literature. As Pilar and Gus travel the world together, they also must travel beyond pains of the past. In the conquering of violence, there is a possibility of healing and perhaps, a possibility of endless love."

Throughout history, different cultural traditions, all of them with considerable linguistic diversity, have flourished and converged in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions. The International Conference of Junior Researchers in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures provided a transverse and interdisciplinary framework of discussion and reflection on the intellectual and cultural production of the Mediterranean and the Near East, from its earliest stages to the present. This book is the result of the analysis of the different political, religious and social trends of thought, material culture, and artistic, literary and linguistic expressions brought together in this geographical area, highlighting the scope of this blend of traditions within different space-time surroundings.