Fiction in translation
2023 translated fiction highlights
We've been spoiled for choice with translated fiction in 2023, so choosing highlights to spotlight was a near impossible task, but we managed it. Below explore what we consider to be some of the standout works of translated fiction for the year, including books from Japan, Spain, France and more.
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated from German by Michael Hofmann)
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and…
Our November 2023 bestsellers
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Women & Children by Tony Birch
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder
Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything by Julia Baird
Killing for Country: A Family Story by David Marr
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
Quarterly Essay 92: The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Mess and How…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from Korean, French, German, Portuguese & Albanian.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum (translated from Korean by Shanna Tan)
Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop.
In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from Japanese, French, Norwegian, Korean & Italian.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (translated from Japanese by Eric Ozawa)
Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle…
Jon Fosse wins The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 has been awarded to the Norwegian author Jon Fosse.
The Swedish Academy awarded Fosse the prize 'for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable'.
His immense oeuvre written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from Japanese, Korean, German and Chinese.
Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (translated from Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot)
Toshikazu Kawaguchi's poignant Before We Say Goodbye explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?
The regulars at the magical Cafe Funiculi Funicula are well acquainted with its famous legend and extraordinary, secret menu time…
Thoughts on translated fiction from a member of our Teen Advisory Board
by Scarlett, Teen Advisory Board memberScarlett from our Teen Advisory Board discusses (and recommends!) fiction in translation.
One of my favourite genres is translated literature! It provides fresh perspectives, from all around the world, on issues individuals and society are facing. This gives readers like me a more holistic view of the world they live in and expands our perspective of humanity.
As a child, I grew up learning from my Mum the struggles she had to endure from escaping an unsafe home country, but…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from German, Swedish, Japanese, Korean and Spanish!
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated from German by Michael Hofmann)
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading novels translated from Spanish, Danish and Japanese.
Cousins by Aurora Venturini (translated from Spanish by Kit Maude)
At the age of 85, Aurora Venturini stunned Argentine readers when her darkly funny and formally daring novel, Cousins, won Pagina/12’s New Novel Award. She had already written more than thirty books – but it was only then, in 2007, that she was widely recognized as a radical voice in Spanish-language literature.
Widely regarded as Venturini’s masterpiece, Cousins…
These books have something in common
It's satisying to find the common threads that tie books together, especially if they're not immediately apparent from the titles. This list of books has one thing in common – can you figure it out?
You'll find the answer at the bottom of the list.
Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda, Philip Gabriel (trans.)
In a small coastal town just a stone’s throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competiton is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading novels translated from German, Korean, Japanese and Bulgarian.
The Fire by Daniela Krien (translated from German by Jamie Bulloch)
How can two lovers find a way back to each other, when the pain of the past stands between them? With plans adrift after a fire burns down their rented holiday cabin, Rahel and Peter find themselves unexpectedly on an isolated farm where Rahel spent many a happy childhood summer. Suddenly, after years of navigating careers, demanding…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading novels translated from Japanese, Chinese, German and Italian.
Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda (translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)
In a small coastal town just a stone’s throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competiton is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three students will experience some of the most joyous – and painful – moments of their lives. Though they don’t know it yet, each will profoundly and unpredictably change the others…
The 2023 International Booker Prize shortlist
The International Booker Prize has revealed the shortlist of six novels in contention for the 2023 prize, which celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world.
The prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. It aims to encourage more publishing and reading of quality works of imagination from all over the world, and to give greater recognition to the role of translators.The contribution…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Dutch, Spanish, Korean and Hungarian.
What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma (translated from Dutch by Sarah Timmer Harvey)
What if one half of a pair of twins no longer wants to live? What if the other can’t live without them?
This question lies at the heart of Jente Posthuma’s deceptively simple What I’d Rather Not Think About. The narrator is a twin whose brother has recently taken his own…
Must-read Japanese crime and mystery novels
Translated from Japanese, below is a collection of both acclaimed works of mystery – more specifically, hongaku – as well as other recent, and celebrated, contemporary works of Japanese crime fiction. These translated works are all uniquely compelling and will keep you awake and guessing until their final pages.
Lady Joker (Volume 1) by Kaoru Takamura (translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida)
Tokyo, 1995. Five men meet at the racetrack every Sunday to bet on horses. They have…
A spotlight on translated fiction
Red Queen by Juan Gómez-Jurado (translated from Spanish by Nick Caistor)
You’ve never met anyone like her … Antonia Scott is special. Very special. She is not a policewoman or a lawyer. She has never wielded a weapon or carried a badge, and yet, she has solved dozens of crimes. But it’s been awhile since Antonia left her attic in Madrid. The things she has lost are much more important to her than the things awaiting her outside.
She also…
A spotlight on translated fiction
This month we’re reading novels translated from Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, and Norwegian.
Lady Joker: Volume 2 by Kaoru Takamura (translated from Japanese by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida)
This second half of Lady Joker by Kaoru Takamura, the Grand Dame of Japanese crime fiction, concludes the breathtaking saga introduced in Volume I.
Inspired by the real-life Glico-Morinaga kidnapping, an unsolved case that terrorized Japan for two years, Lady Joker reimagines the circumstances of this watershed episode in modern…
The 100 bestselling books of 2022
We’ve run the reports and done the math. Here are our 100 bestselling books from the past year.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (trans.)
Bulldozed by Niki Savva
Exiles by Jane Harper
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960-1990 by Chris Macheras
Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Love & Virtue by…
2022 Translated fiction highlights
We've been spoiled for choice with translated fiction in 2022, so choosing our favourites was a near impossible task, but we managed it. Our favourite works of translated fiction for the year (limiting ourselves to just twenty) include books from Japan, Catalonia, India and more.
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
Geetanjali Shree became the first Hindi writer to win the International Booker Prize with Tomb of Sand, a lively, garrulous epic centred…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Spanish, German, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese.
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez (translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell)
Gaspar is in danger. Only six-years-old, he is frightened he may have inherited the same strange abilities as his father, Juan; a powerful medium who can open locked doors, commune with the dead, and possess the ancient forces of the Darkness.
Now father and son are in flight, hunted by the Order, a…
Annie Ernaux wins the Nobel Prize for literature in 2022
The 2022 Nobel prize for literature has been awarded to French novelist Annie Ernaux.
The Swedish Academy awarded Ernaux the prize 'for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory'.
'In her writing, Ernaux consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class. Her path to authorship was long and arduous.'
Listen to an English subtitled interview with Ernaux – recorded the…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian and Turkish.
The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents.
The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Italian, Swedish, French and Hindi.
The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti (translated from Italian by Stash Luczkiw)
The Lovers is a love story set in a tiny village high in the Italian Alps. Its protagonists, Fausto and Silvia, meet in winter, their relationship becoming a refuge in all senses, and the seasons, as well as the mountains, an integral part of their story together. It has a classic, enduring appeal, a cinematic feel, a…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Finnish, and Arabic.
The Old Woman and the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo (translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim)
Hornclaw is a sixty-five-year-old female contract killer who is considering retirement. A fighter who has experienced loss and grief early on in life, she lives in a state of self-imposed isolation, with just her dog, Deadweight, for company. While on an assassination job for the ‘disease control’ company she works for, Hornclaw…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Dutch, Italian, Bulgarian and Catalan.
Grand Hotel Europa by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison)
A writer takes residence in the illustrious but decaying Grand Hotel Europa, to think about where things went wrong with Clio, with whom he fell in love in Genoa and moved to Venice. He reconstructs a compelling story of love in times of mass tourism, about their trips to Malta, Palmaria, Portovenere and the Cinque…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Danish. The works themselves are diverse in content – from thrilling crime, to science fiction, to historical epic, and some incisive social commentary to boot!
Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada (translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani)
Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as the land of sushi. Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee…
A spotlight on works in translation
This month’s translated works include a debut fiction collection from an Indonesian poet, an award-winning classic of Japanese crime fiction, and the latest work from the secret Italian superstar, Elena Ferrante.
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (tranlated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao)
A playful, charged and tender collection of twelve stories – a blend of speculative fiction and dark absurdism, often drawing on Norman Erikson Pasaribu’s Batak and Christian cultures. Pasaribu’s stories ask what it means to be…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
February signals promising start to the year with a wonderful collection of new novels in translation. Below are six stories for readers looking to discover voices from beyond our shores.
Strangers I Know by Claudia Durastanti (translated from Italian by Elizabeth Harris)
Every family has its own mythology, but in this family none of the myths match up. Claudia’s mother says she met her husband when she stopped him from jumping off a bridge. Her father says it happened when…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
It’s another exciting month of releases in translated fiction. Below are five highlights from our collection of recently translated novels, including the long awaited conclusion to the best selling Mirror Visitor series!
Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun (translated by Janet Hong)
In the summer of 2002, nineteen-year-old Kim Hae-on was murdered in what became known as the High School Beauty Murder. There were two suspects: Shin Jeongjun, who had a rock-solid alibi, and Han Manu, to whom no evidence could be…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
If you’re looking to read more works in translation this year, we’ve compiled a list of seven new works of fiction that bring you voices from around the world.
I’m Waiting For You by Kim Bo-Young (translated by Sophie Bowman)
A stunning collection of short fiction by a South Korean writer who counts film director Bong Joon-ho among her many fans! In the title story, an engaged couple working in distant corners of the galaxy plan to arrive on Earth…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
We’re recommending seven recently released books in our May round-up of new fiction in translation. Fiction in translation continues to be the perfect way to explore our world, while staying in place.
Love In Five Acts by Daniela Krien (translated by Jamie Bulloch)
Five women attempt the impossible - to love, to be strong, and to stay true to themselves. Bookseller Paula has lost a child, and a husband. Where will she find her happiness? Fiercely independent Judith thinks more…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
We’re recommending some recently released fiction in translation. Fiction in translation is a wonderful gateway into storytelling the world over and we’re increasingly excited by the quality and breadth of what is available to us; this month is no exception.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura (translated by Philip Gabriel)
How can you save your friend’s life if she doesn’t want to be rescued? In a tranquil neighbourhood of Tokyo, seven teenagers wake to find their bedroom mirrors…
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