This study critically analyses three English translations of Faiza Guène's ‘Du rêve pour les oufs'. In particular, it examines how characterisation has been affected in the translations, focusing on five key characterising aspects: fictive orality, sociolect, register, humour and realia. A series of representative passages are selected for each aspect, which are then closely analysed to examine how characterisation is affected in the translations. The passages are also analysed against a classification of translation strategies to determine whether translators adopt specific strategies to deal with these aspects and whether certain strategies can be said to affect characterisation in a particular way.