#Fiction in Translation

[catedwrites]

Inspired by The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Mi Ye Lee

[elenichr]

Year of Lists

March Books

+ the last of Tournament of Books pre-tournament

The Guest by Emma Cline *3/5 - an anxiety trip that leaves you wanting more

American Mermaid by Julia Langbein *4/5 - a tad strange, funny, an enjoyable ride overall

Dune: The Graphic Novel, Book 1; Dune: The Graphic Novel, Book 2: Muad'Dib by Brian Herbert (Adapted by), Kevin J. Anderson (Adapted by), Frank Herbert, Raul Allen (Illustrations), Patricia Martín (Illustrations), Bill Sienkiewicz (Contributor) *4/5 - great for a drop back into the Dune world or a light introduction for those who want it but not the full book experience

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt *4/5 - hell yeah. A bit of a narrative struggle in the beginning but it pays off. Affecting body horror, and an accurate look at contemporary society and politics, especially in the UK

What You Are Looking for Is not in the Library by Michiko Aoyama and Alison Watts *2/5 - nah. As saccharine and boring as many people have said

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert *4/5 - it's interesting and the plot checks out but it's just not as good as Dune

a bit of a meh month. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend any of these

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: Fox Tales Author: Tomihiko Morimi (trans. Winifred Bird) Genre/s: horror, short stories Content/Trigger Warnings: body horror, alcoholism (implied), violence Summary (from publisher’s website): WHAT WAITS FOR US BEYOND THE LIGHT’S REACH…? A collection of four spooky tales for the modern era, all tied to a certain Kyoto curio shop. A basket wriggles, a masked man lingers in the shadows, and things are offered, lost, and forgotten. What mysteries lie hidden in the city’s winding streets? Tomihiko Morimi offers an eerie glimpse into the beguiling and mysterious darkness of the old capital. Buy Here: https://yenpress.com/9781975335465/fox-tales/ Spoiler-Free Review: Definitely a collection that will make you think a little differently about Kyoto - which isn’t all that difficult, since I’ve been to the city and wandered around some of the back streets at night in search of a chocolate shop that sells chocolate-flavored sake and I KNOW just how spooky those backroads can be. (In case you all think I’m making this up to be in line with the book: the shop exists. It’s called Dari K, and they have a genuinely wonderful mission supporting environmental protection and Indonesian cacao farmers - though I don’t think they’re selling their chocolate-flavored sake anymore, which SUCKS as I had high hopes of getting it if I went back to Japan again. Their site is here: https://www.dari-k.com/) Anyway: the collection isn’t out-and-out scary, so much as eerie, though there are moments in each individual story where I had to just stop reading and wait for daylight, which means that those moments are ones I find GENUINELY terrifying and therefore I need daylight to mitigate the effect a bit because I am a scaredy-cat. But apart from those individual scenes, what drives the eeriness of the stories in general is how they make the reader question whether or not what they’re reading is true. This is especially true when reading the first story (”Fox Tales”) and the second story (”The Dragon in the Fruit”) one after the other. There’s a bit of Rashomon Effect going on in the interplay between those two, which is a thought I find personally intriguing because of the place Akutagawa Ryunosuke occupies in Japanese literary history, and of course the influence of Kurosawa Akira’s film that gave us the term “Rashomon Effect” in the first place. The third and fourth stories aren’t as tightly connected as the first two, but do share the presence of water and the rivers and waterways of Kyoto. The blurb says the stories are tied to a curio shop, and while said curio shop DOES appear across all the stories, it only really plays a major role in the first two stories and then only a relatively minor role in the third and fourth. In terms of grouping, I think the first and second stories are a more or less coherent set, and the third and fourth stories are another more or less coherent set. Overall, a lovely collection of stories, with just the right notes of eerie and creepy to be enjoyable for someone who’s doesn’t like their horror to be gory and prefers the spookiness to linger instead. I can’t speak to the quality of the translation as I haven’t read the original, but I think Bird has done a pretty good job with it overall, since I didn’t get irritated with the stories at any point. Also: I think these stories would make absolutely scary manga or animated short films, because as I said, some of the scenes are TERRIFYING just reading them from the page, so I can only imagine how much scarier they’d be in the hands of a good mangaka or animation studio. Rating: Five balls of fox fire

[blog-i-carry-your-heart-with-me]

Review : Strange Pictures by Uketsu

Strange Pictures was... well... strange. A who-and-why-dunnit unlike anything else I have ever read, I was expecting a truly unsettling mystery, shot through with intrigue, racing inexorably toward a thrilling climax. Instead...

★★★ Strange Pictures was… well… strange. A who-and-why-dunnit unlike anything else I have ever read, I was expecting a truly unsettling mystery, shot through with intrigue, racing inexorably toward a thrilling climax. Instead, I found an occasionally creepy mystery novel, which named its own frustrations, and shifted between narrators with a sometimes confusing rapidity. Whilst I suspect this…

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Black Storms by Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush

Today I'm delighted to join the blog tour for Black Storms, a Catalan set thriller by Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush. Review on the blog - link in bio #teresasolana @corylusbooks #books #bookreview #blackstorms #bookstagram #thriller

Today I am delighted to share my thoughts on a brand new thriller from Corylus Books, Black Storms by Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush. My thanks to the publisher for an early copy for review, and for the tour invite. Here’s what the book is all about: Source: Advance Reader CopyRelease Date: 25 October 2024 Publisher: Corylus Books Continue reading Black Storms by Teresa Solana,…

[bookblast]

Celebrating Translation at Hatchards, Piccadilly, season 2 News & Events

Following the success of the first season of the BookBlast® Translation Book Club at Hatchards, Piccadilly, hosted by Georgia de Chamberet, we are thrilled to announce the titles up for discussion this coming Autumn. We will meet as usual on the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. So for your calendars, the following meetings and books are as follows: Mon Sept 9 Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, Dubravka…

[willywaldo]

The best-selling French author of psychological suspense makes her U.S. debut with an intense and heartbreaking homage to an American literary classic, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

[emilyccannings]

Fiction in Translation Book Releases August 2023 PT 2

All Fiction in Translation book new releases for this August!

If you are like me and are worried you are missing out on all the new releases. I have decided to do a list of releases of all my favourite genres for this month. So here is the History book releases for August 2023. Let me know which books take your fancy in the comments below. 17th – Saha by Cho Nam-Joo Info:…

[egophiliac]

C'MON TO THE THEATER!

I love these guys so much. forget NRC, I want to attend their terrible disaster school for disaster children that might actually be plastered on top of the smoking remains of an actively sinking ship. I may or may not actually learn anything, but I will have the time of my life.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Lackadaisy Enrichment

[elenichr]

Year of Lists

January Books

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (ToB Read) *3/5 - there's an ease in the storytelling, it gives you time to luxuriate in the plot. I loved the back-and-forth, the exploration of the past and of characters who were not central to the main goings-on, but just like in life, you can trace their influence through time. Despite the writing talent, and the much promising setup and characters, I had trouble connecting to this novel; most of my joy in reading this came from the observation of McBride's craft in putting this together.

Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur *3.2/5 - for a minute there I really thought this would be the great Korean novel I've been looking for. Firstly: one for the great covers list. The marrying of science and folklore/superstition/oral inter-generational storytelling: chef's kiss. I wish it amounted to more than it actually did. The novel opens in dreamy language, otherworldly imagery, beautiful, beautiful world-building. It unfortunately loses its coherence and promise about 30% in. It fizzles into a concept that begs for a better storyline to hold it together. I wish the protagonist's personality amounted to more than self-wallowing in pity and self-othering. There are nuances that could have been explored so deeply; I wanted her to see herself as the wonder I saw her as. Nonetheless, there is magic here, there is familial complexity, and beauty.

Notable quote: “The first generation who come are grateful, certainly. They can endure much, swallow their pride. Their children want more—the freedom not to be grateful, indebted, and beholden.”

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake *3/5 - it hasn't even been long since I read this and I can't even remember the plot. Positives: Blake's writing gets better and better, clearly not in the general, book-making sense, but in the pleasant-to-read, I-love-spending-time-with-your-words way. I did enjoy the reading of this, I just don't think this was written because the story was there, but rather, because the trilogy needed to end. I love the characters and I love the illustrations and the elements that make Atlas so exciting: magic, ambition, a sentient, secret, ancient library full of the deepest, darkest knowledge of the world - the dark academia of it all. Better luck with the prequel. We're suckers for it either way.

The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto *5/5 - a perfect little dream - I LOVE BANANA / Mrs Caliban by Rachel Ingalls *5/5 - superb.

Both of these are 5 stars partially because they're novellas. They're dreamy and otherworldly, tackling their specific subject-matters with dexterity. Mrs Caliban is worth an afternoon, especially for fans of The Shape of Water.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke *4.7/5 - boy oh boy was this a surprise. I don't have much to say, THIS.IS.INCREDIBLE. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and perhaps wouldn't be mine if it was written by another author. I read this in a day.

The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (audiobook) *4/5 - this is a reread, first read-through was a physical copy; I'm listening to the series now because I'd missed that world. The narrator for this one is better than the first and his work is only improving. By the end of this one you can tell this is a narrator who truly understands King's writing, with all its humour and intricacies.

The Green Mile by Stephen King *4.7/5 - it's as good as you think it is, as good as everyone says it is. In case it wasn't clear I LOVE STEPHEN KING.

[nothing--good]

Polish Movie Posters

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Dark As Night by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, translated by Lorenza García

Today I am sharing my thoughts on book 4 in the Áróra Investigations series by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Dark As Night, translated by Lorenza García @sigurdardottirlilja @orendabooks #lorenzagarcia #books #bookreview #darkasnight #bookstagram Link in bio

Today I am sharing my thoughts on book four in the Áróra Investigations series by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Dark as Night. Translated into English by Lorenza Garcia, this book is set to answer some of our favourite financial investigators questions about her sister, Ísafold, but potentially leave her with many more. My thanks to publisher Orenda Books for the advance copy, and to Anne Cater of Random…