This month, August, is a chance to celebrate women in translation, specifically women authors who’s works have been translated. There’s so much good translated literature out there. For this month, I’ll be sharing some inspiration from women authors all around the world who have had their work translated into English.
I know a lot of people read works translated from English (or other languages) into their own language. There’s so much important translation work that needs to be done to make works more accessible to the world. But since I only read in English, I’m going to be highlighting works that have been translated into English.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be focusing on independent book publishers that focus on publishing works in translation.
For this week, we’ll be highlighting Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Fitzcarraldo Editions is an independent publisher specialising in contemporary fiction and long-form essays.
Source: https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/about/
Fitzcarraldo Editions is another independent British book publisher (similar to Charco Press and Tilted Axis Press). They don’t have a specific regional focus, they are just interested on little-known or neglected authors.
Currently, Fitzcarraldo Editions publishes about 22 titles each year, and you can sign up to a subscription to receive the books published that year. If you go here, you can sign up for a subscription and choose how many books you want to receive.
Fitzcarraldo Editions was founded in 2014, and has grown significantly in the past 10 years. Over the past decade, four of Fitzcarraldo’s authors have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, including:
- Svetlana Alexievich (2015)
- Olga Tokarczuk (2018)
- Annie Ernaux (2022)
- Jon Fosse (2023)
They’ve also done a really good job at branding their books. All books are published in their signature colour of deep blue for fiction, and white for any nonfiction/essays, making them easy to spot when browsing for books. Also, they use a custom serif typeface called Fitzcarraldo.
Personally, Fitzcarraldo Editions feels a lot more established than the other publishing houses I’ve highlighted. This makes them feel a little less personalized or focused on specific themes, but they’re still doing amazing work and helping to get works out into the world that might not otherwise exist.
If you want to learn more about Fitzcaraldo Editions, you can visit their website here or read about them here on Wikipedia.
Five translated books written by women from Fitzcarraldo Editions
Here’s a list of five translated books written by women from Fitzcarraldo Editions.
- Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead / Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych by Olga Tokarczuk (2009)
Poland - Minor Detail / تفصيل ثانوي – by Adania Shibli / عدنية شبلي from (2017)
Palestine - Strangers I Know / La straniera by Claudia Durastanti (2019)
Italy - Owlish / 鷹頭貓與音樂箱女孩 by Dorothy Tse / 謝曉虹 (2020)
Hong Kong - Paradais / Páradais by Fernanda Melchor (2021)
Mexico
Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead / Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych (2009) – Poland
by Olga Tokarczuk,
Translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
- Year Published: 2009
- Storygraph Categories:
fiction, contemporary, literary, thriller, dark, mysterious, reflective, medium-paced - Language: Polish
- Shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize
- Olga Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature
One of Poland’s most imaginative and lyrical writers, Olga Tokarczuk presents us with a detective story with a twist in DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD. After her two dogs go missing and members of the local hunting club are found murdered, teacher and animal rights activist Janina Duszejko becomes involved in the ensuing investigation. Part magic realism, part detective story, DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD is suspenseful and entertaining reimagining of the genre interwoven with poignant and insightful commentaries on our perceptions of madness, marginalised people and animal rights.
Links:
- You can find out more on:
- You can buy the book here on Amazon.
Minor Detail / تفصيل ثانوي – Palestine (2017)
by Adania Shibli / عدنية شبلي,
Translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
- Year Published: 2017
- Storygraph Categories:
fiction, contemporary, historical, literary, dark, sad, tense, medium-paced - Portrays the aftermath of the Nakba (aka the catastrophe) in Palestine
Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba – the catastrophe that led to the displacement and expulsion of more than 700,000 people – and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers capture and rape a young Palestinian woman, and kill and bury her in the sand. Many years later, a woman in Ramallah becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with this ‘minor detail’ of history. A haunting meditation on war, violence and memory, Minor Detail cuts to the heart of the Palestinian experience of dispossession, life under occupation, and the persistent difficulty of piecing together a narrative in the face of ongoing erasure and disempowerment.
Links:
- You can find out more on:
- You can buy the book here on Amazon.
Strangers I Know / La straniera (2019) – Italy
by Claudia Durastanti,
Translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris
- Year Published: 2019
- Storygraph Categories:
fiction, literary, emotional, reflective, medium-paced
Every family has its own mythology, but in this family none of the myths match up. Claudia’s mother says she met her husband when she stopped him from jumping off a bridge. Her father says it happened when he saved her from an attempted robbery. Both parents are deaf but couldn’t be more different; they can’t even agree on how they met, much less who needed saving.
Into this unlikely yet somehow inevitable union, our narrator is born. She comes of age with her brother in this strange, and increasingly estranged, household split between a small village in southern Italy and New York City. Without even sign language in common – their parents have not bothered to teach them – family communications are chaotic and rife with misinterpretations. An outsider in every way, she longs for a freedom she’s not even sure exists. Only books and punk rock – and a tumultuous relationship – begin to show her the way to create her own mythology, to construct her own version of the story of her life.
Kinetic, formally daring, and strikingly original, Strangers I Know is a funny and profound portrait of an unconventional family that makes us look anew at how language shapes our understanding of ourselves.
Links:
- You can find out more on:
- You can buy the book here on Amazon.
Owlish / 鷹頭貓與音樂箱女孩 (2020) – Hong Kong
by Dorothy Tse / 謝曉虹,
Translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce
- Year Published: 2020
- Storygraph Categories:
fiction, literary, magical realism, challenging, dark, mysterious, slow-paced
In the mountainous city of Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lacklustre career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a life-sized ballerina named Aliss who has tantalizingly sprung to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the sinister forces encroaching on his city and the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty. A deliciously dark subversion of the fairy-tale form set in an alternate Hong Kong, Dorothy Tse’s extraordinary debut novel is a boldly inventive exploration of life under oppressive regimes and an urgent warning against the insidious perils of apathy and indifference.
Links:
- You can find out more on:
- You can buy the book here on Amazon.
Paradais / Páradais (2021) – Mexico
by Fernanda Melchor,
Translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
- Year Published: 2021
- Storygraph Categories:
fiction, contemporary, crime, literary, challenging, dark, tense, fast-paced - Longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize
Inside a luxury housing complex, two misfit teenagers sneak around and get drunk. Franco Andrade, lonely, overweight, and addicted to porn, obsessively fantasizes about seducing his neighbor – an attractive married woman and mother – while Polo dreams about quitting his gruelling job as a gardener within the gated community and fleeing his overbearing mother and their narco-controlled village. Each facing the impossibility of getting what he thinks he deserves, Franco and Polo hatch a mindless and macabre scheme. Written in a chilling torrent of prose by one of our most thrilling new writers, Paradais explores the explosive fragility of Mexican society – with its racist, classist, hyperviolent tendencies – and how the myths, desires, and hardships of teenagers can tear life apart at the seams.
Links:
- You can find out more on:
- You can buy the book here on Amazon.
Final thoughts
I hope you found something of interest in this list of books published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Are you familiar with Fitzcarraldo Editions? If so, I’d love to hear which books you enjoyed from their collection or which books you are excited to read.
Do you know of any other independent publishers like Fitzcarraldo Editions? I’d love to hear all about them in a comment below!
