“Writers make national literature, while translators make universal literature.”
~ Jose Saramago
Let's start the year off with a trip around the world and embark on a fascinating journey through the pages of these seven recently translated works.
The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa
Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Seven cats weave their way through their owners’ lives, climbing, comforting, nestling, and sometimes just tripping everyone up in this uplifting collection of tales by international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa.
Kids Run the Show by Delphine de Vigan
Translated from French by Alison Anderson
Traversing the Big Brother generation, the social media influencer generation, and right up to the 2030s, Delphine de Vigan offers a bone-chilling exposé of a world where everything is broadcasted and monetized, even family happiness.
Cross Stitch by Jazmina Barrera
Translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney
“The novel evokes the awkward process of growing up, chronicling adolescence and the transition into adulthood vividly and frankly…a somber book about the formative, irreplicable experiences shared between friends and the agony and bewilderment of loss.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
My Work by Olga Ravn
Translated from Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell
My Work is a novel about the unique and fundamental experience of giving birth, mixing different literary forms--fiction, essay, poetry, memoir, and letters--to explore the relationship between motherhood, work, individuality, and literature.
Boys Alive by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Translated from Italian by Tim Parks
A daring novel, once widely censored, about the scrappy, harrowing, and inventive lives of Rome's unhoused youth by one of Italy's greatest film directors.
Shimmering Details by Péter Nádas
Translated from Hungarian by Judith Sollosy
In his memoir, the renowned author investigates what it might mean to reconstruct a life without recourse to the techniques and embellishments of traditional storytelling.
A Volga Tale by Guzel Yakhina
Translated from Russian by Polly Gannon
“A Volga Tale is a rich, fantastical, and often disquieting historical novel in which a man who’s obsessed with language inhabits a country that’s been devastated by war and corruption.”~ Michele Sharpe, Foreword Reviews