Pick up one of these fabulous titles that demonstrate the importance of women's representation in the world of books and publishing.
Translated from Spanish.
A gloriously unsettling collection of the weird and macabre, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is as enthralling as it is disturbing and will envelope readers in a loving and nightmarish embrace. Perfect for fans of Samanta Schweblin, Carmen Maria Machado, and Abbey Mei Otis.
Translated from Japanese.
Since moving to rural Japan, Asa spends her long summer days waiting for her husband to come home from work. In his absence she naps, cleans, cooks, and listens to the cicadas. Succumbing to restlessness, she decides to explore the town and is faced with an assortment of surreal goings-on. A wonderfully bizarre tale of the insanity of daily life, The Hole is both unbelievable and relatable. --Elese
Translated from French.
An stunning, epic sweep through the history of modern Iran. --Elese
Translated from Russian.
Translated from Korean.
An unsettling, dystopian journey in a world where tourists' ever-increasing voyeuristic needs to witness "authentic" suffering require capitalistic interventions and the creation of unthinkable new disasters. --Elese
Translated from French.
Translated from Polish.
Yeah, I guess it's a mystery and all, but it's more than that, for sure. Here's the stew: Jonathan Lethem's animal rights plus Margaret Atwood's invisible pissed-off woman plus Annie Proulx's linguistic hijinks seasoned by a bunch of William Blake; the art of translation; a comic view of a broken-ass world. This book reminded me of City of Thieves. And the mystery? Well, here? The plot most definitely ain't the thing, folks. --Erica
Translated from Spanish (Spain).
We are undoubtedly experiencing a golden age of surreal fiction, much of it translated, and the best of it written by women. For short story junkies like myself it is a particularly good time to be stuck at home avoiding other humans. Each story in this amazing collection connects with me viscerally, yet each one connects differently, like a smell, a taste, or a texture. Some are mysterious and subtle while others are brazen and bold, grotesque even. Each one is exquisitely crafted and exhilarating to read! --Tony
Translated from Japanese.
Kawakami is a master at bizarre and tender. Tsukiko's Sensei asks for a story and she delivers one of her past. A folktale of children followed by mystic beings and the effect those children have on those beings. Like the author herself, I can't help but wonder how Tsukiko and Sensei live outside the window of the story. This is the feeling of Parade, like peaking into another world. An odd and quiet world. --Lucia
Translated from Spanish (Dominican Republic).
Let Rita Indiana blast apart your concept of time, the self gender, what the world is and could be in, uh, under 200 pages. There is a hurricane and there is the eye where Indiana calmly controls the narratives of timelines converging. With elements of prophecy, science fiction, punk overtones, pulsating prose, and romance, this novella effortlessly pirouettes between genres. --ani
Translated from Italian.
Intrigue and contrast dominate Giovanna's existence. Readers are pulled along her journey and it's an entirely delightful and thoughtful experience. Enjoy! -- Jamie
Translated from Japanese.
Translated from Spanish (Argentina).
Mara, a former interpreter, starts a job as a security guard in a local museum with one goal: to be silent for a year. As events at the museum require her involvement, her goal is reimagined into something disruptive. Include Me Out is an extremely unique story about the power of silence, passivity, and redemption. --Lucia
Translated from Swedish.
What a treasure. This wonderful book -- about a child and her grandmother who summer on a remote Finnish island -- is an unsaccharine look at aging; the frustrations of childhood; the beauty of the natural world. The Summer Book expands to encompass everyman from its quiet setting. --Erica.
Translated from Spanish (Argentina).
Exceedingly bizarre and beautifully unsettling, Little Eyes will crawl into your thoughts and under your skin. Existing somewhere between horror, literary fiction, and sci-fi, this novel pulls readers into a paranoid, yet heartfelt, contemplation of the relationships we establish through technology—and the anonymity it provides us. --Zach
Translated from Dutch.
The winner of the International Booker Prize is the harrowing story of a young girl who explores the outer limits of grief. Jas’s world on her family’s dairy farm is shattered when her older brother falls through the ice and dies. The three remaining children seem to be the only ones who acknowledge the loss, while their parents grow increasingly numb and distant. Jas and her siblings spiral downward into increasingly bizarre rituals and fantasies. While often disturbing, the author writes beautifully of a broken childhood. --Tony
Translated from Portuguese (Brazil).
Translated from Japanese.
A funny and moving coming-of-age story by the author of Breasts and Eggs, a young boy becomes obsessed with a woman working at the supermarket who always wears bright blue eyeshadow. Quirky, weird, and utterly delightful, this short novella is absolutely worth a read. --Jen
Translated from Japanese.
A beautifully packaged (in all ways) novella which will stay with you much longer than the time spent reading. Timeless and yet perfect for right now with themes of happiness, cultural definitions of success and a woman's role and rights in society. --Jamie
Translated from Spanish (Chile).
An enthralling fever dream that examines the vexed intersection of childhood innocence and sweeping political crisis. As the childhood friends of Estrella González Jepsen realize—in adulthood—that her father participated in the violence and terror of the Pinochet regime, they find themselves haunted by the nature of her disappearance, and by their own powerlessness in the fraught social climate of their youth. With writing that spirals and twirls and stabs, that alternately floats and heels hard into the ground, Space Invaders infiltrates the often ambiguous space between culpability and innocence—and the persistent, chilling specters that are born there. --Ben
Translated from Russian.
Translated from French.
This might be one of the best novels in translation that you’ve never read. Written as a letter Hadrian’s successor Marcus Aurelius, Yourcenar captures with incredible, authentic depth the likely thoughts and experiences of a 2nd century emperor’s life – a time when the Roman gods were waning but before Christianity was widely established. Is it a novel? A biography? With writing this gorgeous does it matter? -Elese
*Don’t miss the author’s reflections on composition at the end!!
Translated from Arabic (Oman).
A multi-generational family saga, a Booker International winner and the first novel written by an Omani author to be translated into English? Yes, please. --Elese
Translated from Spanish (Mexico).
Translated from Korean.
The Vegetarian is one of the most arresting books I've ever read, one that will keep you reading late into the night, shivering under the covers. You will find yourself rooting for Yeong-hye even as she slips deeper and deeper into her obsession and becomes increasingly deranged. Frequently horrifying and always unsettling, The Vegetarian will linger with you long after you've turned the last page. --Ellie
Translated from Norwegian.
Written by Nobel Prize-winning author Sigrid Undset, this trilogy is a MASTERPIECE, with each book in the series better than the last. (This edition includes all three books.) Set int he 14th century and reveling in the every-day details of medieval life in Norway, the saga follows one woman through childhood, young love, married life, motherhood and into old age. The Wreath (book 1) is Kristin's coming-of-age story -- she recklessly enters a relationship with an older man that puts her at odds with her father and the Church she was raised in .. perservere past the unfamiliar names and places and you will be rewarded with a richly immersive literary experience. --Elese
Translated from Japanese.