#Translated books

[figcatlists]

International fiction, 1940–2000

Choosing the final entries for this chart felt like an impossible task. Fortunately, my full web list currently features 170 notable works of literature originally written in languages other than English, leaving a little less room for second-guessing (and complaints).

[whilereadingandwalking]

The Dark Library by Cyrille Martinez, translated from the French by Joseph Patrick Stancil, is an interesting and funny satire of how capitalism and corporate interests risk destroying the use of reading and public libraries. The beginning was too long, and almost lost me (was the narrator of that part really all that necessary?), but it turned back around to dive into an ironic satire as a corporate approach to the library begins to lose it readers, and then in turn, they hire readers to make the whole thing digital, only for the hired readers to become enchanted with books. It's a small parable about the power of reading and the true nature of good libraries; despite it being a bit too long, bookworms, especially library lovers/workers, will enjoy this one and find it highly quotable.

[gregorsamsaisliterallyme]

i've been so into kafka after reading the metamorphosis it's actually insane, i am going to read everything this man wrote because he captured emotion so well and made me feel so much in 73 pages 🗣️🗣️

the sad thing about translated books is you can never fully grasp an authors work in the way it was intended to be read, and that will always plague my life

[words-and-coffee]

It takes courage to say what has to be said.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot)

[solreads]

Bad Habit - Review

Title: Bad Habit

Author: Alana S. Portero

Translator: Mara Faye Lethem

Genre: Contemporary

Audience: Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans woman POV character

      Trans women side characters

Summary: In a working-class neighborhood of Madrid blighted by poverty and a heroin epidemic, a trans girl grows into herself in fits and spurts. She struggles, in childhood, with a community she doesn’t know how to find a place within, caught between the masculine spaces and expectations that already knows do not fit her and the feminine which she can only stand on the edge of, not knowing how to be accepted in.

As she grows older, she finds her first love and her first taste of a queer community. Soon she takes to the nightlife of downtown Madrid where she can present as feminine and find guidance from other trans women. But her journey is an ebb and flow with a disconnect from herself, an unclear future, and violence besetting her. 

Reflections: The writing and the translation were lovely; poetic, but grounded. The narrator’s bonds to the women and queer people in her community were written beautifully. Her reconnection with Margarita, an older trans woman in her neighborhood, was especially heart-wrenching. At times when she was young the narrator disdained or avoided her out of deeply internalized transmisogyny, fear of who she was, and fear of what association with Margarita could reveal about herself. But after a transphobic attack and a subsequent retreat from her burgeoning identity, the narrator begins to care for the aging Margarita with such tenderness and in doing so soothes something hurting not just from the attack but from her whole life. That instance stands out, but the book is full of a million simple, little moments of community, kinship, and shelter in other people. The mix of sorrow and love was achingly beautiful.

There’s violence and there’s pain, but this was so much more about community and support. I love the focus put on the older women (especially the older trans women) in the narrator’s life who show her a future she can have. I love the queer community that gives sanctuary and space without question and the moments other people in her neighborhood step up for her or for Margarita.

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering, deadnaming, dysphoria, transphobic hate crimes (physical and sexual assault)

Notes on Rep: Explicit on-page representation

[rachel-sylvan-author]

Happy Women in Translation Month! ❤️ “I Who Have Never Known Men” by Jacqueline Harpman (French) “Drive your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” by Olga Tokarczuk (Polish) “The Wall” by Marlen Haushofer (Austrian) “An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good” by Helene Tursten (Swedish) “Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata (Japanese) “The Traveling Cat Chronicles” by Hiro Arikawa (Japanese) “A Woman’s Story” by Annie Ernaux (French) “Childhood, Youth, Dependency” by Tove Ditlevsen (Danish) “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante (Italian) “The Forbidden Notebook” by Alba de Céspedes (Cuban-Italian) “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir (French)

QOTD: Who is your favorite translated woman author, and your favorite book by them?

[fourthemarauders]

Idk I feel like maybe more ppl will relate to that (unrelated to anything I usually post about here)

The struggle of not having English as your first language,you read perfectly, but it's nothing like reading in your native language. And then, in the middle of the series, the publishers decide to stop translating it? Like wtf at least post some explanation!

And especially when they're translating every trash book bc "they're popular," are you in the book industry to make money? Just fucking translate better books and these will be popular.

God I hate it.

[yun-yunera]

01

"Mu Rulan was the research subject he has targetted. She was his prey. He had wasted a lot of time and effort on her, so naturally, she belonged to him."

Reincarnation- Lord is Extremely Hardcore (Hongkong-Chinese translated novel)

Criminal psychologist x his unsolvable psychopath

[godzilla-reads]

Between books at the moment, so I’m reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The City of Mist 😶‍🌫️ , a collection of 11 short stories.

[readbykolya]

Satoshi Yagisawa writes a charming take, detailing everyday life in Japan. His books are short, sweet and deal with themes of emotional health and navigating grief.

The characters learn lessons important for them to move forward and live within their circumstances with appreciation for the mundane.

Ultimately, Satoshi Yagisawa talks of hope, love and the mark we make but he does so in a way that's companionable rather than preachy; making his books nuanced and charming.

[thegirlwholovesliterature]

Nothing exists but you and I

And if we two be not

Then god is no more god

And down must fall the sky

- Angelus Silesius

[words-and-coffee]

It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

[solreads]

To Strip the Flesh - Review

Title: To Strip the Flesh

Author: Oto Toda

Translator: Emily Balistrieri

Genre: Contemporary

Audience: Adult

Format: Graphic Novel; Short Stories

Representation: Trans man POV character

Summary: To Strip the Flesh is a collection of short stories, the first half of the book consists of ‘To Strip the Flesh’ which follows Chiaki Ogawa, a trans man and YouTuber who livestreams himself butchering the animals his father hunts. Online, Chiaki faces the objectification of his body for the features he most wants to change. In real life, he bears the weight of his father's expectations for a daughter and his late mother’s last wish for him to marry and be a ‘beautiful bride’. Though he secretly starts HRT, he resolves not to seek surgery or transition socially while his father is alive. When his father announces he has cancer and is refusing chemotherapy, Chiaki’s attempts to reason with him begin to open cracks in his resolve. 

Reflections: ‘To Strip the Flesh’ captured the understated, tired sort of discontent that comes from telling yourself, ‘I just have to hold out until…’ ‘I just have to keep living like this until…’ waiting for that distant future to come to you. When Chiaki talked about holding off on further transitioning until his father has passed and when he was going through the motions of his job, I felt that resignation and disconnect, and it rang very true to me. It made it that much more satisfying when Chiaki broke out of that holding pattern and bloomed into someone vibrant and alive. I also loved the visuals of Chiaki holding his knife to his chest and the dream he has of his father laying him out on the butcher’s table and removing his breasts and reproductive organs. They conveyed his repressed feelings clearly and poignantly. 

The other short stories were more hit or miss and not really why I picked up the book. ‘I Just Love My Fave’, which shows the ghost of a famous idol’s grandmother supporting her grandson even after death, was sweet. ‘David in Love,’ which follows a doll replica of Michaelangelo’s David who falls in love with a little girl and tries to win her over, was… strange. It was kind of funny, but also what are we doing with this? ‘Hot Watermelon,’ in which a mother performs a ritual to allow her cruel son to feel her emotions, had some great body horror elements and a nice message. Of the Two-Page Mangas, there were one or two hits, but mostly they didn’t make much impression.

Warnings: Depictions of transphobia, misgendering, dysphoria.

Notes on Rep: MC is described as having ‘Gender Identity Disorder’.

[the-readingowl]

When you really treasure a photo, you put it on display or get it out and look at it all the time instead of simply storing it away - and as a result, those are the ones that end up faded and torn.

Well, it's the same with memories. The more important a memory, the more we find ourselves revisiting it. But in doing so, the details can begin to evade us...

- Sanaka Hiiragi, The Lantern of Lost Memories

[leahthebookworm]

Book 19 of 70

Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

105 pages, pub 2020

While working as a chef on a ship "Boulder" meets falls in love with Samsa, they move in together and Samsa wants to become a mother, will Boulder choose love or freedom.

Boulder make me think of all the things we do for the ones we love to make them happy at the expense of our own happiness.

[lookingforamandaa]

Beartown by Fredrik Backman