August is Women in Translation Month! Celebrate by picking up one of these fabulous titles that demonstrate the importance of women's representation in the world of books and publishing.
Translated from Chinese (Malaysia).
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 German.
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 (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 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 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 Farsi (Iran/Australia).
Translated from Spanish (Mexico).
Translated from French.
Translated from Japanese.
Translated from Spanish (Mexico).
Translated from Portuguese (Brazil).
Translated from Spanish (Argentina).
Reading Schweblin’s work is like staring through a viewfinder into another’s nightmares. Gorgeously written and endlessly disturbing, these stories will have you triple-checking your locks at night even though you won’t be able to say exactly why. I have never stories as unique and unsettling as these, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough. --Zach
Translated from Russian.
Translated from Dutch.
Translated from German.
Translated from Spanish (Chile).
Translated from Spanish (Mexico).
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 Japanese.
Translated from French.
Translated from Catalan.
Translated from Spanish (Argentina).
Translated from Hungarian.
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 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 Thai.
An elegant, pointillistic portrait of an abandoned six-year-old boy and the village in which he finds shelter and community. Throughout the many brief yet evocative vignettes that form Duanwad Pimwana's BRIGHT, we witness a writer whose graceful pen gives dignity and urgency to everything and everyone it touches—be it an adult or child, cricket or dog, poinciana tree or discarded coin. Pimwana possesses the rare insight and skill to reveal the grim humor underlying even our darkest moments, along with the buoyant, enlivening beauty contained in the most rote and ordinary. --Ben