August! It is that time of the year to celebrate ‘Women Writers in Translation’. This tag which has now become a movement in itself is created by Meytal Radzinski.
You can follow the updates from readers all around the world using the hashtags #WITMonth and #womenintranslation on Twitter and other social media. Here are a few releases of 2017 to add to your reading list.
1. Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Riverhead Books (January, 2017)
– A woman on her death bed tells her story.
– Shortlisted for Man Booker International prize 2017
2. Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami
Translated from the Japanese by Lucy North
Pushkin Press; January, 2017 (first published in 1996)
– Three stories, surreal in nature, about love, longing and disappearance.
– Won the Akutagawa Prize in 1996.
3. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg
Translated from the Polish by Eliza Marciniak
Portobello Books; Januray, 2017 (first published in 2014)
– Coming of age story set in rural Poland, with a tone of nostalgia sprinkled with gritty passages (Check review)
– Longlisted for Man Booker International Prize, 2017
4. The Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen
Translated from the Spanish by Andrea Rosenberg
Europa editions; January, 2017
-Story of migration from Mexico to the United States
5. Things we lost in the fire by Mariana Enríquez
Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Hogarth press; February, 2017 (first published in 2014)
-Stories of violence and macabre set in contemporary Argentina
6. The Poison of Love by K. R. Meera
Translated from the Malayalam by Ministhy. S.
Penguin India; February, 2017
– The story of Tulsi who elopes with a womanizer and later finds her comfort in a spiritual life (Check review)
-K. R. Meera is also included in my list of Contemporary Indian Women Writers who should be on your Reading List.
7. Mirror, Shoulder Signal by Dorthe Nors
Translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra
Pushkin press; February, 2017 (first published in 2016)
– One woman’s journey in search of herself.
8. The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yujoo
Translated by Janet Hong
Graywolf Press, March 2017
-Story of two girls with recurring themes of violence and death
9. Eve out of her ruins by Ananda Devi
Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Speaking Tiger; April, 2017
-Awarded the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie as the best book written in French outside of France.
-Shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award 2017
10. Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin
Translated by Bonnie Huie
NYRB; May, 2017 (first published in 1994)
Set in 1990s in Taiwan, this is the coming-of-age of a group of queer friends.
11. The Nakano Thrift shop by Hiromi Kawakami
Translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell
Europa editions; June, 2017 (first published in 2005)
– The four people associated with a quaint second hand store get close to each other in a matter of days. (Check review)
12. A Night with a Black Spider: Stories by Ambai
Translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan
Speaking Tiger books: June, 2017
-Stories that combine myth and tradition into real life.
13. The Girl who is getting Married by Aoko Matsuda
Translated from the Japanese by Angus Turvill
Strangers Press, 2017
-The narrator recalls her memories as she climbs each set of stairs to the apartment of her friend who is getting married.
Books released in 2017 by Women in Translation #WITMonth Share on X
Just read The Girl Who Is Getting Married and really enjoyed it! Also part of that series are several other Japanese women writers: Yoko Tawada, Kyoko Yoshida, Misumi Kubo and Nao-Cola Yamazaki.
Keeping these recommendations in mind!
I haven’t seen quite a few of these. But I will be adding them for sure. Thanks for sharing them.
You are welcome. I hope you will enjoy a few of these. Thank you for stopping by.
Thank you for writing this post! I do make an effort to read works in translation. However, I often struggle to find solid translations. I feel like character-based languages (as opposed to Latin-based) in translation always leave me questioning: What am I missing from this translation? Is the original text more beautiful? It makes me want to learn new languages, always.
I’ve added The Nakano Thrift Shop and The Poison of Love to my TBR. I’m super excited to read them both! I’ll have to look into more women in translation for this month, too.
You are welcome, Jackie. I can understand the yearning to learn new languages. The joy of reading in the original language is a wonderful one indeed. I hope you will love Kawakami and K. R. Meera if you pick them up one day.
I loved the Nors and both the Kawakamis, particularly The Nakano Thrift Shop. I have my eye on the Greg and I’d like to recommend Marie Sizun’s very powerful novella Her Father’s Daughter.
I loved The Nakano Thrift shop and I hope I will get to read the other Kawakami soon. I am going to check out Her Father’s daughter. Thank you for the recommendation.
Thank you for compiling this wonderful list Resh! I have added Fever Dream & The Poison of Love to my TBR & since I own a copy of Things We Lost in the Fire, I made a note to get a move on with actually reading it lol. The Posion of Love looks like one I’d really enjoy! *excited emoji*
I am excited that you are excited. 😀 I hope you will love the books that you pick up.
Thanks Resh, I’m sure I will 🙂
Love this list! I’m especially glad for the Indian author recs! How do you make decisions when reading translated works?
That is a difficult question. Usually I pick a book if the blurb intrigues me. I have a soft corner for books in Turkish and Japanese; so that is another factor. I also rely on reviews of the books to see if the book is something that I might enjoy.
I don’t know if you’ve read Kawakami’s earlier book, Strange Weather in Tokyo (also released as The Briefcase in some countries)? But if not, I would definitely recommend it. Her books always look so appealing too – I love the cover of Record of a Night Too Brief.
Thank you for your selection as usual, Resh.
Am I mistaken, or is there a wealth of modern Indian writers?
(Though how Ananda Devi is translated from french beats me)
We have no access to them whatsoever.
I think one most “modern” Indian writers I have on my shelves must be Kamala Markandaya. 🙂 (Well Roy too)
It must be very… enticing to see new writers emerge in India?
Actually Ananda Devi is from Mauritius and not from India. Only her origins are from India so she is definitely more comfortable writing in the languages she has used more. So I was not surprised at that fact. I have not read Kamala Markandaya. I hope you will enjoy the read.
Mauritius? There is a large Indian community I believe. JMG Le Clézio has a Mauritian passport. Have you read him?
You might want to try Markandaya. She is one of those Indian women who opened avenues. And her books are classics now. (I might actually re-read them) Have a lovely week-end Resh. (How would you say that in Malayalam?) 😉
Ah well, that is a difficult question because even though the greeting can be said in Malayalam, we don’t usually say it. If the need arises we would just say it in English. Just like how ‘hello’ is used when we meet a new person.
Interesting. “Hello” it is then. And a beautiful day to you. (Well, you’re about 11 hours ahead from me, so it really is: “Good night. Bonne nuit”. 🙂
Thanks for putting together this list. Fever Dream and The Poison of Love sound especially interesting.
I hope you will love both the reads if you pick them up, Suzanne
This is such a wonderful, wonderful list. I am bookmarking it, because I have not read many translated works, and I was looking for recommendations, so this is kind of perfect.
Thanks Shantala. I hope you will find a few good reads from the list along the way.
I am sure I will. Thank you so much!
I genuinely don’t think about it! I love your book lists because they force me to do just that. You are one my most trusted book recommendation makers!
Thanks Bex. You encourage me to make more of them.
What a lovely selection! I’ve heard of a couple and fancy the thrift shop one; thank you for sharing such an eclectic and exciting list!
Thanks for reading, Liz. I loved The Nakano Thrift shop. I need to read more Kawakami
Great picks! 😀
Thank you. I hope you will enjoy the reads if you pick any of them.
Thank you for creating a great list that is different from so many others!
I am glad you liked it, Leslie
I’m starting to make a more conscious effort to add diverse to my reading and YOUR BLOG HELPS SO MUCH. Especially since you include lovely lists like this with fascinating recommendations – I only wish my library carried more than 3 of these books. Thank you for the assistance:)
Great list! Seen some of these. Wanted to request the Japanese one, but decided not to for some reason… maybe should have requested after all 🙂
Maybe you will have the time to read them later in the year. Have a great weekend. 🙂
I haven’t read any of these which makes this list utterly perfect for me. Thank you so much for taking the time to put it together.
I am glad you found a few to add to your TBR
This is wonderful, thank you for sharing! I love reading translated books, it feels like a little glimpse of another culture or place that I might otherwise never visit or learn about. They seem to be hard to find though, or maybe I’m not looking properly? I’ve added The Nakano Thrift Shop to my list already.
I recently read The Great Passage by Shion Miura and translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. It’s about a group of people in a publishing company in Japan creating a dictionary. It’s a lovely book, with some really interesting discussions about the meaning of words.
Both Fever Dream and Things We Lost in the Fire excellent! I’ve also enjoyed Han Kang’s novels and of course Val Luiselli.
Oh wow. I love that you have read so many in the list, Elliott.
Just trying to keep up with the pros! Or, rather, “prose”
Haha. That’s a good one. 😀
So much diversity in this post! I haven’t heard about half of these, but a lot of these sound so interesting. I’ll definitely look into these. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I hope you will love the ones that you pick up.
All books added to my TBR! Thank you or this list. I have been looking for translated works or some time now!
I hope you will love the ones that you pick up