Read Women in Translation!
August is Women in Translation month, so pick up one of these fabulous titles that demonstrate the important contributions of those who identify as female or non-binary.
Translated from the Spanish (Argentina).
This is amazing! Twenty perfect stories, each one weird and wonderful, disturbing and delightful! --Tony
Translated from the Japanese.
Translated from the French.
The best book I've read so far in 2023. --Elese
Translated from the Italian.
Translated from the Spanish (Argentina).
Translated from the Danish.
Haunting, poetic, sterile yet bursting with sensation, The Employees stayed with me long after I put it down. A series of intimate reflections on what it means to be human, to live in the face of death and spend that life working, disconnected from the natural world and from each other. Recommended especially for anyone who works, who is interested in the ethics of AI, or who has asked "is this all there is?" --Henry
Translated from the Polish.
Totally remarkable. Begin on page 964 and you will be entirely engaged and agog til you get to page 1. What a mind. If you liked Sebald (the great German), if you liked Milkman or Lincoln in the Bardo, this is for you." Was she dyslexic there with the page numbers? --Erica
Translated from the Japanese.
Shibata is feeling empty inside... After months of feeling under-appreciated by her male colleagues, Shibata decides to tell everyone at work about her pregnancy. Suddenly, she can go home early, doesn't have to clean up after everyone, and her coworkers actually care for once. The only thing is, Shibata is not pregnant at all. Diary of a Void is strange, funny, and perfect for people who love seeing delusional women succeeding. --Kat
Translated from the Spanish (Mexico).
Translated from the Japanese.
I spent a month of 2022 reading Lady Joker, Vols. 1 & 2. Ostensibly about the kidnapping of a beer company executive and the fallout thereafter, this book is an immersion into Japanese corporate, police, criminal, and journalistic culture. That Takamura is a woman and this book is almost entirely about men adds more intrigue, with its unmitigated devotion to details both obscure and obscurer. I can't entirely say who I would recommend this to, or why I liked it so much, but I devoured the 1,200 or so pages, and certainly nothing else I've read in 2022 approaches this literary experience. --Elese
Translated from the Danish.
Translated from the Russian.
A winding journey through time, grief, and the geographies of contemporary Russia. The narrator is a young woman, traveling from Moscow to Siberia to bury the ashes of her dead mother. As the landscapes of the taiga pass by, she reflects on who her mother was, the love she had for her, and the truths they never communicated. A meditation on queerness, femininity and gender, being a daughter, and being the daughter of a dead mother. Wonderfully written and translated, and a haunting work of literary non/fiction. --Jordan
Translated from the French.
Translated from the Spanish (Bolivia).
Translated from the French.
Translated from the German.
Translated from the Arabic (Oman).
Translated from the Spanish (Ecuador).
Such a wild ride! Centered on the practically conjoined BFFs Annelise and Fernanda and their super-obsessive teacher at an all-girls high school, Ojeda explores the horror of being a teenage girl in a masterful saturation of the senses. The book is layered with themes including the physical transformation of puberty, the growth and decay of nature, the duality of mother and daughter—giving birth and then devouring each other—pleasure and pain, fear and desire, intimacy and rejection. The body and language. Ojeda’s language is visceral and thrilling, and is wonderfully translated by Sarah Booker, who also provides an insightful essay following the text. --Tony
Translated from the Tamil.
Translated for the Hebrew.
Translated from the French.
Translated from the Swedish.
Translated from the Hungarian.
Translated from the Malayalam.
Translated from the Portuguese (Brazil).
Translated from the French.
Translated from the Korean.
Translated from the Spanish (Colombia).