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Many of us complete reading challenges because we enjoy being exposed to books that we never would have picked up otherwise, and this week's prompt is a great way to stretch yourself outside of your normal reads. You're finding a book in translation. For those of you who don't typically read in English, this may be an easy task for you, but this is also a great week to explore books outside of your typical genres and publishing countries.

24 Must-Read 2022 Books in Translation:
77 New Books in Translation:
10 Best Translated Novels of the Decade:
NYPL Recommends World Literature in Translation:
20 Must-Read Classics in Translation:
Warwick Prize for Women in Translation:

ATY Listopia: /list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt? What was it's original language, and what was it translated to?

I've decided to read: Cancer Ward
Translated from Russian to English.

I found a copy of it while adding books to our new book sale room at the library and it sounded interesting.

Good choice Sunny! I read Cancer Ward a long time ago and thought it was really good. I feel like I should read it again. I want to read Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. My first choice for this prompt is The Magic Mountain by German author Thomas Mann.

Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andrei Makine translated from French to English.

Pam wrote: "Good choice Sunny! I read Cancer Ward a long time ago and thought it was really good. I feel like I should read it again. I want to read Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago. My first choice for th..."

There was a copy of The Gulag Archipelago, too.

I am trying to expand my list of Women in Translation books, so I am looking forward to this prompt.

There are some I would recommend:
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hira Arikawa - translated from Japanese
Roseanna by Maj Stowall and Per Wahloo - Nordic Noir translated from Swedish
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck - translated from German
Abigail by Magda Szabo - translated from Hungarian
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali - translated from Arabic
Betrayal by Lilja Sigurdardottir - translated from Icelandic

These are the books I am choosing from:
Snow White and Russian Red by Dorota Maslowska - Russian
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery - French
Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson - Swedish
The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg - Swedish
Sun Storm by Asa Larsson - Swedish
Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada - Japanese
The Years by Annie Ernaux - French
The Vegetarian by Han Kang - Korean

I've been seeing Before the Coffee Gets Cold popping up on recommendation lists, so I'm leaning towards that one for this prompt... if I don't end up with Fredrik Backman lol

I'm planning to read The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, which is translated from Icelandic to English.

I'm trying to read more translated books, so I've got another six in my plan for 2023 that would fit this prompt:

The Murmur of Bees
The Rabbit Factor
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Blackout
The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden
The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Oh, I have some recommendations I'm super excited about!

The Door or Katalin Street by Magda Szabó. Szabó is one of the most well known Hungarian authors and I loved both these books. Both are set post-WWII in Budapest, both have this slight oddness to them, like realistic fiction with just a brush of magical realism, and both have kind of experimental structures, though the strength of the character work keeps them from feeling too fussy. Katalin Street is about a family trying to piece itself back together after the war, with part of the story narrated by the ghost of a young girl who died, who exists in a strange kind of afterlife. The Door is an intense, almost claustrophobic account of the relationship between a female writer and her elderly housekeeper. Both fantastic.

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, an Argentinian crime novelist. I found this one because it was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, a great source for translated fiction recommendations. This is crime fiction on the surface (about an elderly woman investigating the death of her daughter), but really a very unique reflection on disability, bodily autonomy, and caretaking.

Have you read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante yet? I know a lot of people (including myself!) who were skeptical due to the intensely "chick lit" vibe of the covers of Ferrante's books. These books are not fluffy or romantic. They are often dark and violent, incredibly vivid, compellingly "meta". They're really like nothing else, so you should definitely give this series a chance.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish author. Following a distinctly odd protagonist, another one that seems like crime fiction on the surface but has a lot more going on underneath.

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde, a Norwegian author. This is "climate fiction," which in this case means that part of the story is distinctly historical, part distinctly contemporary, and part distinctly science fiction. I really loved this book and thought it was written and structured in a really lovely way.

I feel like a lot of people have already read Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, but it is great. Even though they're not similar at all in terms of plot, I thought that this had a similar reading experience to My Sister, the Serial Killer, so maybe if you liked that one, you might like this one.

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian author. This is quite short but very intense, about a woman in prison who has been convicted of murder. Very beautifully written.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. This is a very strangely structured, very experimental, very "meta" book that's a story within a story within a story for many layers. For sure like nothing you've ever read before.

And finally, maybe this is your chance to read a classic of Russian literature! Personally, I have to recommend Anna Karenina, which people often find intimidating because it's so long, but is really much easier to read in terms of prose than you might expect. It's a really compelling story with fascinating characters.

Oh, and one more! If you're in the mood for something different, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho would be a very unique choice for this prompt. The fragments are gorgeous and mysterious, definitely worth a read even if you're not usually into Ancient Greek literature.

Here are the top rated books on my to-be-read list of translated books.

Zuleikha Russia
The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood / Youth / Dependency Denmark
��Abigail Hungary 🎈Jan 15, I’m loving it so far
��To Live China
The Murmur of Bees Mexico
Small Country Rwanda
Disoriental Iran
Heaven and Hell Iceland
The Name of the Rose Italy
The Ardent Swarm Tunisia

Hannah wrote: "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish author. Following a distinctly odd protagonist, another one that seems like crime fiction on the surface but has a lot more going on underneath...."

I saw she had a book longlisted for the Warwick Prize this year, but it's like 900 pages! The Books of Jacob

Ellie- I actually have that book, Books of Jacob, and may attempt it read it next year, despite its length! My daughter won a stack of books at one of our bookstores and this was one of them. She will never read it so its mine.

Ellie wrote: "Hannah wrote: "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, a Polish author. Following a distinctly odd protagonist, another one that seems like crime fiction on the surface but ha..."

I saw that, too! I think I'll probably try to tackle Flights before I give Books of Jacob a try.

Though I have to say, for those of you who liked Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, I really recommend Elena Knows. They had a lot in common!

I got on the waitlist for Books of Jacob early, but when I got it, I had no time or energy to even start it. Maybe someday. Pam, l hope you like it- let us know. I loved Drive Your Plow, so I’d like to read another of her books, maybe Flights, for when I’m in the mood for short stories.

Hanna- Elena Knows sounds good. Thanks for the recommendation.

Top choice:
Death in Venice - Thomas Mann (German-- English)
I read Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family by Mann last year and loved it.

Here are some of my other choices:
The Revolution of the Moon- Andrea Camilleri (Italian-English)
The House by the River - Lena Manta (Italian-English)
The Easy Life in Kamusari - Shion Miura (Japanese-English)
You, Me, and the Colors of Life - Noa C. Walker (German-English)
Mrs Mohr Goes Missing - Maryla Szymiczkowa (Polish-English)
Beartown - Fredrik Backman (Swedish-English)
Embers - Sandor Marai (Hungarian-English)
Agamemnon (Orsteia #1) - Aeschylus (Greek-English)

EDIT: I'm reading The Plain in Flames by Juan Rulfo.

The Most Beautiful Book in the World: Eight Novellas by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Confessions by Kanae Minato
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Vă place Brahms? by Françoise Sagan
Anything by Amelie Nothomb and others on my tbr.

I read The Red Address Book 10/01/2023
Translated by Alice Menzies

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read The Grand Banks Café by Georges Simenon

Translated from French to English by David Coward

For this prompt I read:
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky - 1/11/23 - 5* - My Review (translated from French)

I read We for this one. It was originally written in Russian and I read that version that was translated to English. It wasn't an easy read for me but I'm glad I read it. I really enjoyed the premise of it. I guess it is considered the first dystopian book.

I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa. It was originally written in Japanese and was translated to English. Funny thing & possible spoiler alert: The professor is a mathematician; math is a universal language that gets quite complex the more advanced you get.

I read A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast. It was translated from Danish.

I read The Lost Village by Camilla Sten, translated from Swedish to English.

I have been wanting to read Confessions so this was a perfect prompt for it.

I read The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

I read Billiards at the Hotel Dobray by Dušan Šarotar, translated from Slovene by Rawley Grau.

I'm assuming this is an excellent translation, because the writing was beautifully poetic. A sad book, set in a small town at the end of the Second World War, as the inhabitants await the arrival of the Red Army. It is told from various points of view - a businessman and benefactor, a returning Jewish survivor, a prostitute, a Hungarian soldier, a partisan and others, who look back at life before and during the war.

Tiffany wrote: "I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa. It was originally written in Japanese and was translated to English. Funny thing & possible spoiler alert: The ..."

I loved this book. I read it again this year for a Japan theme. I also read The Memory Police by the same author. It's very thought provoking, but dark.

Someone in my IRL book group chose this book, that I was luckily able to use for this prompt.

I read The Postcard by Anne Berest. It was translated from French.

This is a work of Biographical Historical Fiction. It is based on the story of the author's family just before, during, and after World War II. The author, and her mother, pieced together as much as they could of factual information about the family, and filled in with guesses (the fiction part) as best they could. The family was Jewish, so you can imagine how heart wrenching this would be.

I have read a LOT of WWII historical fiction, and yet again, I am surprised to learn that there are yet MORE points of view from which this story can be told. I think the details of the experience of Jewish families in this book is much more than I remember reading before.

I read Carnality by Lina Wolff, translated from Swedish by Frank Perry.

The story takes place in Madrid and is very dark, as it mainly revolves around a couple's relationship to each other, and their respective relationships with regard to sexuality, spirituality and criminality. It's well written and well translated and quite a gripping tale for these modern times -- I couldn't put it down.

Originally published in Catalan ...


The Violin of Auschwitz –Maria Àngels Anglada�� 2.5**
I really wanted to like this book �� no �� I wanted to love this book. But it missed the mark for me. The basic story line is engaging and what kept me reading, but there were huge gaps that left me hungry for more detail. So, while the author played the reader’s heartstrings like a violin virtuoso, I felt that the book was unfinished.
LINK to my full review

Old Man and His Sons by Heðin Brú, translated from Faroese by John F West.

Ketil and his wife are old people living in poverty on the Faroe Islands; their lifestyle has remained unchanged for centuries. Apart from their youngest, rather simple son, their other sons have embraced the modern living of the twentieth century. The book deals with Ketil's struggle to earn enough to repay a debt. Apart from one whale hunt, it is a gentle book; although living in very different circumstances, the attitudes of Ketil and his wife reminded me of my parents-in-law. I loved the little pen and ink drawings in the book.