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This week, we are going for a book in translation (maybe!). For those of us who primarily read in English, this is a chance to look for books that were not originally published in the language. For those of us who read in other languages, here's a chance for you to take advantage of that fact!

ATY Listopia: /list/show/2...

What are you reading for this prompt, and how does it fit?

I don't generally read translated fiction (because I've mostly been disappointed in the ones I have read) but I do happen to have one or two on my Owned and Unread Piles to choose from for this prompt. Right now I have a Swedish crime novel - The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin - penciled in on my plan.

I read lots of translated books from all over the world. I've been leaning toward Japan recently, so I'm choosing a couple from other areas of the world for this challenge.
Roadside Picnic (Russia)
Travelling Light (Finland)

I read lots of translated books so this one will likely be a book that I can't fit somewhere elsewhere. Maybe Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke (Chinese) or The House on Via Gemito or Trick by Domenico Starnone (Italian).

Books in translation are my jam, so I've read a bunch of them. However, one of my goals for 2025 is to read more Nordic/Scandivian/Icelandic Noir and authors. This prompt will help that goal. I've chosen Reykjavík Nights: Murder in Reykjavík by Arnaldur Indriðason

My plan is to read The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras. The book is translated from the French and the author was born in French Indochina (Vietnam), so I will also use it as a Vietnam selection for my "reading the world" challenges.

I may look to the Warwick Prize for books for this prompt!

I'm planning Reputations and The Archipelago of Another Life. I read quite a few Japanese and Scandi-noir books, so these will be a bit different. Also either translated or published in 2016.

I’m planning to read Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin, translated from Russian.

Electra - Sophocles (Greek)
Spring Torrents - Ivan Turgenev (Russian)
Nada - Carmen Laforet (French)

I'm planning on reading Beartown by Fredrik Backman, translated from Swedish by Neil Smith.

So many choices, I could do a whole challenge with translated books (but I won't).

So many great classics of antiquity, literature from Russia, France, Germany/Austria, Scandinavia

Plus more recently Murakami, Milan Kundera, Elena Ferrante

And I love the proliferation of Japanese novellas

An easy choice for me as I'm in a Hispanic book club and we frequently read books originally written in Spanish.

The Time in Between
The Air You Breathe
The Murmur of Bees

And anything by Isabel Allende who always writes in Spanish (though she lives in the USA).

For this one, I read My Husband by Maud Ventura, which was originally published in French in 2021.

I loved it! Deeply unlikeable protagonist, but I love an unlikeable protag. 4.5 stars, missed out on the full 5 mainly just because I'm a hard grader. Maud Ventura has a new novel coming out in English this year (published in France in October 2024) & I am looking forward to it!

I am planning on reading The Absent One. It has been on my TBR since 2016 and planned frequently for challenges. This year will be the year I read it!

I started my reading year with The Gun by Fuminori Nakamura The first English edition was
released in 2016 which fitted the Anniversary List for that year (read Jan 1st; 4*)

I also read My Husband. It was fascinating and at time tedious to be in the head of the main character. The writing and translation were were wonderful and as a bonus the main character translates books.

For this prompt, I read:
Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende - 2* - My Review (written in Spanish originally)

I read Black Water Lilies, originally written in French by Michel Bussi and translated by Shaun Whitehead. A very clever, twisty mystery, with an end I did not see coming, and an evocative look at Giverny itself.

I also read Silence in the Age of Noise, originally written in Norwegian by Erling Kagge and translated by Becky L. Crook.
A beautifully produced book about the importance of silence, but perhaps a bit over-long.

Both book were either first published or translated in 2016.

I read Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, translated to English from the original Swedish.

This was an easy pick for me, and one of the first books I slotted in for the year. I knew that I really wanted to read something else by Jonas Karlsson. I ended up reading The Invoice due to availability.

I read The Easy Life by Marguerite Durass, written originally in French.

I read:
The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman

REJECT: A biography or memoir

Finished: 04/13/2025
Rating: 5 stars

From Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ:
This admirably robust translation by Anthea Bell is the first in the English language. There were 3,500,000 Jews in Poland before the Nazi occupation; after it there were 240,000. Wladyslaw Szpilman's extraordinary account of his own miraculous survival offers a voice across the years for the faceless millions who lost their lives. --David Vincent

This book was amazing. Originally published in 1946.

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)

I read Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Armenian author Narine Abgaryan.

Although the author is Armenian, she now lives in Russia and wrote this in Russian, Lisa C. Hayden - translator.