13 Books by Women in Translation in 2020

Come August and it is time for reading Women in Translation in 2020. Not that reading translations or books by women should be limited to a single month. I love that this initiative to read more books by women exists. It helps readers across the globe to be introduced to books in translation. It also helps in knowing about books that do not feature in mainstream listicles that are heavily English-biased. This list features books from Japan, Korea, India and also books that are set in different countries (like Little Eyes and The Wandering). Read for a ghost who runs a patriarchial household, women thinking about breasts and babies, aliens who feel out-of-place on Earth, women in love who fear they have become a muse for their lovers, women in a lustful, intoxicating relationships and more. Don’t forget to check #WITMonth hashtags on social media to add more books to your reading piles. Also this extensive list of titles is very useful to widen your literary exposure.

Books by Women in Translation in 2020

This list is focussed on fiction and includes both novels and short stories written by women.

1. Breasts and Eggs by Meiko Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd

Breasts and Eggs stopped me in my tracks from the first sentence, ‘If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had.’ The other two reasons that piqued my interest is this interview of Haruki Murakami where Meiko Kawakami puts forward several thought provoking questions about depiction of women in books. Second reason— I thought a book about women by a woman is really the perspective I needed in 2020.

Breasts and Eggs delivers on its promises beautifully. This is a portrait of women in Japan, unapolegetically talking about their bodies, beauty standards, insecurities and secretions through three women—the sisters, Natusko and Makiko, and Makoko’s teenage daughter, Midoriko. Midoriko is at the brink of puberty and trying to understand her body and why a girl is supposed to be overjoyed when she gets her first periods. Makiko, a woman in her almost-forties—wants to have a breast enhancement surgery. In Book 2, we see Natsuko as a single woman in her early thirties in a conservative country (Japan) trying to have a child and exploring the options of artificial insemination. Breasts and Eggs is a thick book with ample thoughts to chew on while also being wonderfully steeped in the culture and landscapes of Japan.

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2. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the story of a woman living in a sexist, conservative society. Jiyoung is one of the most common names of the 1980s in Korea which further alludes that this is the story of everywoman. From her childhood, Jiyoung is asked to make sacrifices and exist on the sidelines so men—father, brother, class boys, husband—can have more fulfilling lives. Her problems like men eve teasing her at night often find a solution—according to the men—in her becoming smaller or invisible so as not to attract attention. Mean behaviour of boys in her school are brushed aside by normalizing their actions to their immaturity or asserting ‘it is because they like her’. As a woman, she is expected to give up her job for child-care, ultimately ending in her having psychic episodes. Men never have to face the consequences of their irresponsible and harmful actions, while women are repeatedly reprimanded. The slim novel, told in a detached tone—which I thought was a clever choice—makes us think about pay gaps, gender roles and also women who further propagate misogyny. It is a quick read—I listened to an audiobook—so if you are short of time, this is a good choice to read and explore women in translation in 2020.

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3. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

My goodness! This book completely blew my mind. Fans of The Convenience Store Woman—about an eccentric young woman trying to fit in, and live her life while keeping others around her happy as well—are in for a big surprise. Earthlings is much darker, unexpected, and delicious. Here, two cousins believe they are not from Earth, but aliens. Natsuki, the heroine, has a wand and a magic mirror, and she receives messages from Planet Popinpobopia via her plushie. As they grow into adults, their childhood fancies of escaping from the earth to another planet undergo changes. Natsuki is now in a marriage of convenience and she, her husband and Cousin Yuu try to discover their true selves. The novel dives into our ‘Factory’ society, expectations from women (baby making, and strong commentary on sex lives), hikikomori, and disregard of elders towards young children. Towards the end, I kept saying ‘What’ ‘No’ ‘WHAT’ and that is the most clarity I can give about the book. It is a wild ride and unlike other books you’ve read this year. This is set to be released in September, keep an eye out.
Trigger warning : Child abuse, Cannibalism

Also Read : Three Excellent Books by Women from Japan

4. The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette

I adored The Frightened Ones. I admit this might be a hit or miss because of how realities blur in the novel but I am so glad to fall into the category of people who love the book. This is one of the books I’ve recommended widely this year and so far all who picked it up—note, ALL—have told me they loved it too. Here a woman falls in love with a writer-doctor in the waiting room of her therapist’s office. But as she comes across a novel that he has written, she wonders if she was only a muse or whether their pasts were entwined even before she noticed him at the therapist’s office. The Frightened Ones is maddening, dizzying and the only right way to read it is in one big gulp.
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5. All about Sarah by Pauline Delabroy-Allard, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter

I devoured the all-consuming love story in All About Sarah and loved it. A single mother and school teacher falls madly in love with a violinist. Though films, music, and the beautiful city of Paris have their moments in this sensual love story, it is the stormy relationship—lovemaking, stifling atmosphere, impromptu flights on dates, toxicity—that stand out. The school teacher is completely enchanted by the beautiful, mysterious Sarah—“her pebble eyes, green but no, not green, her unusual colored eyes, her snake eyes with their drooping lids.” All About Sarah is a fast read that sends you in a literary whirl of being in love and loved.
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All About Sarah by Pauline Delabroy-Allard

6. Moom by Bani Basu, translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha

Moom is the story of a Marwani family—the Agrawal family—who migrated from Jodhpur, Rajasthan to Kolkata, West Bengal. When the last woman in the family, daughter-in-law Savitri, dies, she reappears as a ghost and helps in running the house effectively. She cares for her father-in-law, and topples plans of servants trying to scam their way through the family’s wealth. But when a young bubbly girl, Moom, arrives, the family history tainted with a murderous attitude towards girls begin to resurface. A short book that initially begins as a funny story with appearances of ghosts and quickly spirals into a dark tale.

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7. The Wandering by Intan Paramaditha, translated from the Indonesian by Stephen. J. Epstein

Make a deal with the devil and roam the world. Pretty much sums up The Wandering, a choose-your-own-adventure novel from the Indonesian. Here a young woman is gifted red shoes by the devil and—as you might’ve guessed already—she goes wandering. You might be in Jakarta and then suddenly find yourself in New York for two pages and then frisked to Lima or Berlin or in a never-ending train. This book, mixed leisurely with fairytale elements and mythical beings, is perfect for the global nomad stuck indoors right now.

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8. Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin, translated From The Spanish By Megan McDowell

Samantha Schweblin amazed me last year with her Mouthful of Birds of which I wrote—stay for the impeccable first paragraphs. Little Eyes made me fall in love with Schweblin’s books even more. It is a wildly imaginative world where ‘dwellers’ can spy on ‘seekers’ through mechanical toys called ‘kentukis’. Yes, there’s consent, don’t worry. Little Eyes exposes the rawness in humans—the ugly side, the humane side, the concern typical of older people towards the young, the thrill of knowing you are watched all the time by a stranger, the fear of who might be watching you, and also the risk of how much you expose to the person watching you. There are crimes, nudity, dreams all embalmed into one book. And the best part is following the global success of the kentukis and reading through cities and countries—Tel Aviv, Antigua, Germany, Brazil, Peru, America, and more. At the end of the read you will find yourself wondering about your own Instagram-life and what might be (or not) at stake.

Short Stories by Women in Translation in 2020

If you are short of time, occupy yourself with short stories that need small bursts of attention only. Here are some short story collections to look out for, by women in translation in 2020.

9. The Loneliness of Hira Barua by Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated from the Assamese by Ranjita Biswas

Kalita’s stories, set in Assam, charm with small moments—the washing machine going bip-bip, checking for cockroaches in the meat-safe, and food—borpitha, rice meals with fish and mutton curry. The characters warm your heart—an old woman with a dog for company, a child who interrupts her mother’s stories with questions and take over the narration, a woman whose personal life is affected by her political ideologies and then make you worry about them. Women navigate spaces of agitation, protests, culture, violence and grief in this collection. Like Written in Tears, another short story collection and my introduction to the author, The Loneliness of Hira Barua shines with stories that speak to your soul. A must-read collection of the year.
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10. Lake like a Mirror by Ho Fok Song, translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce

The first thing you notice about this short story collection is Ho Fok Song’s clear, sharp sentences written with much precision. I fell in love with her prose first. Through dream-like narratives in her short stories, she explores cultural tensions, oppressive Muslim society, and the state of Chinese Malaysians. Those who crave for clear cut plots and reliable narrators might be disappointed by Ho Fok Song’s stories. She makes her characters exist in sluggish mundanities—at the hairdressers’, in the spotlight for reading a poem out loud, in a funeral. She often leaves with open endings, leaving room for thought. Personally, I feel Lake like a Mirror can be better appreciated with some additional background reading—like this interview which talks about the state of minorities in Malaysia, the trend of Islamization and censoring. Also note that in this very interview Ho Fok Song says “I don’t necessarily feel I need the stories to be “understood” through such lens. Because the stories’ threads of plot and vignettes are written in a sprawling, loose style, readers may make different discoveries if they read in other ways. There are no fixed answers in the stories.”—so you can read the book with no introduction at all.

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Books translated by women

Here are some books by men, translated by women this year. Add these to your list of  books by Women in Translation in 2020 or simply keep aside to read over the rest of the year.

11. Moustache by S. Hareesh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil

You wouldn’t be able to read my copy of Moustache because I have notes on nearly every page, many underlined sentences and the book is almost wholly dog-earred. Mostache was initially published in serialized format in Mathrubhumi in Malayalam and ran into controversy after Hindu organizations created a ruckus. The serialized version had to be stopped but both the author and publisher braved the unwelcome tides and published the novel.

Kalathil does a splendid job in her translation of Meesha. She is meticulous and unwavering (though I do hope one day I will read the original too, after hearing S. Hareesh read out a paragraph in Malayalam) and captures the melody of the language and the landscape of Kerala perfectly. I loved indulging in the myths that generously populate the pages. Caste discrimination, violence, environmental re-designs are as much a part of our history as the myths. The blurb might be slightly misleading because it tells you about Vavachan, a Pulayan, who grew a moustache much to the distaste of the upper castes in his locality. But the novel is much more than that. In Moustache, the landscape, and the wildlife come to life in beautiful descriptions. I was transported immediately to northern Kuttanadu and their farming and irrigation systems.

There are some unflattering bits about women in the book, to which I raised my eyebrows but after S. Hareesh’s introduction where he addresses this—“There are many characters in the novel who speak in ways that are anti-women and anti-human. There have been protests about this, and I agree that these characters should have shown more care and behaved more responsibly”, I was able to read the novel with more ease. Moustache is one of my favourite novels of 2020, and I urge you to pick it up as soon as you can.

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12. A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman

I had such a rush reading this slim novel. I finished it in a single sitting. A Luminous Republic is set in the fictional town, San Cristóbal in the remote jungle (home to the indigenous Ñeê people) in South America. Thirty-two feral children arrive in town. Nobody knows their history and they are seen as a nuisance. At first there are petty thefts and acts of vandalism but the gang quickly escalate into bigger violence and kill three people. The novel is narrated by a social worker entrusted with tracking down these children. I loved the buildup of the tense atmosphere and the chills it sent down my spine. There is a constant fight between duty and the question of where childhood innocence ends. Things get worse when the children of town start putting their ears to the ground to listen for messages from the feral gang—very Pied Piper-ish. A wonderful read.

13. Estuary by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Nandini Krishnan

I greatly enjoyed this novel set in a town unlike Murugan’s other novels set in villages. Estuary explores contemporary life while making a witty commentary on our education system, the race to get into a good college, private engineering colleges treating students as robots and not humans—no talking with students of opposite sex, concentration tips to study better. The book also paints an astute portrait of father-son relationship, explores the technological divide and fears that haunt the older generation and looks at bridging the generational gap.

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