It’s Women in Translation Month, a time to celebrate authors from around the world. It’s also a great way to discover books that are off the beaten path. Here are five recent books by women that we recommend to satisfy your globetrotting urges.
By Sheng Keyi, Translated from Chinese by Shelly Bryant
Banned in China for its taboo allusions to the Tiananmen Square massacre, Sheng Keyi's Death Fugue is a lyrical and explosive dystopian satire that imagines a world of manufactured existence, the erasure of personal freedom, and the perils of governmental control.
By Samira Sedira, Translated from French by Lara Vergnaud
A prizewinning, riveting psychological suspense novel inspired by a true story about a couple in an insular French village whose lives are upended when a family of outsiders moves in.
By Choi Eunyoung, Translated from Korean by Sung Ryu
In crisp, unembellished prose, Eun-young Choi paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in South Korea, balancing the personal with the political.
By Camilla Läckberg, Translated from Swedish by Ian Giles
From the internationally bestselling author of The Golden Cage comes a bold, mesmerizing thriller of seduction, deceit, and female power, in which a woman's secret cannot stay buried forever.
By Brenda Lozano, Translated from Spanish by Annie McDermott
An "ideal notebook" records the Proustian, allusive wanderings of a young writer in Mexico City awaiting her lover's return. This original reflection on relationships, solitude and the purpose of writing offers a glimpse of contemporary life in Mexico City, while asking what it really means to find our place in the world.
You can read more about Women in Translation Month here.