Tag: Translated

Posted on

Women in Translation: Five books published by Fitzcarraldo Editions

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.

Photo by Christopher Lowe on Unsplash

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.

  1. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead / Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych by Olga Tokarczuk (2009)
    Poland
  2. Minor Detail / تفصيل ثانوي – by Adania Shibli / عدنية شبلي from (2017)
    Palestine
  3. Strangers I Know / La straniera by Claudia Durastanti (2019)
    Italy
  4. Owlish / 鷹頭貓與音樂箱女孩 by Dorothy Tse / 謝曉虹 (2020)
    Hong Kong
  5. 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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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!

Posted on

The darkness closed in

Excerpt from Human Acts by Han Kang

Photo by Adrian Dascal on Unsplash

This is an excerpt from the book Human Acts by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith.

After they left, the darkness closed in around us. The faint afterglow that had lingered in the western sky dissolved slowly into the surrounding blackness. I moved quickly up to the top of the tower of bodies, anchoring myself to that final man to watch a pale light seep through wisps of grey cloud, a shroud for the half-moon. The leaves and branches of the thicket intersected that light, their shadows throwing patterns on the dead faces like ghastly tattoos.

It must have been about midnight when I felt it touch me; that breath-soft slip of incorporeal something, that faceless shadow, lacking even language, now, to give it body. I waited for a while in doubt and ignorance of who it was, of how to communicate with it. No one had ever taught me how to address a person’s soul.

And perhaps, or so it seemed, my companion was equally baffled. Without the familiar bulwark of language, still we sensed, as a physical force, our existence in the mind of the other. When, eventually, I felt him sigh away, his resignation, his abandonment, left me alone again.

The night deepened, became threaded through with a string of similar occurrences. My shadow’s edges became aware of a quiet touch; the presence of another soul. We would lose ourselves in wondering who the other was, without hands, feet, face, tongue, our shadows touching but never quite mingling. Sad flames licking up against a smooth wall of glass, only to wordlessly slide away, outdone by whatever barrier was there. Every time I felt a shadow slip from me, I looked up at the night sky. How I wanted to believe that cloud-wrapped half-moon was watching over me, an eye bright with intelligence. In reality nothing more than a huge, desolate lump of rock, utterly inert.

It was as that strange, vivid night was drawing to a close, as the faint blue light of dawn had begun to seep into the sky’s black ink, that I suddenly thought of you, Dong-ho. Yes, you’d been there with me, that day. Until something like a cold cudgel had suddenly slammed into my side. Until I collapsed like a rag doll. Until my arms flung themselves up in mute alarm, amid the cacophony of footsteps drumming against the tarmac, ear-splitting gunfire. Until I felt the warm spread of my own blood moving up over my shoulder, the back of my neck. Until then, you were with me.

The grasshoppers were chirring. Hidden birds began to trill their morning song. Gusts of wind grazed the leaves of dark trees. The pale sun trembled over the lip of the horizon, moving up to the sky’s centre inna violent, majestic advance. Piled up behind the thicket, our bodies now began to soften in the sun, with putrefaction setting in. Clouds of gadflies and mayflies alighted on those places that were clagged with dried black blood, rubbed their front legs, crawled about, flew up, then settled again. I pushed out to the edges of my body, wanting to check whether yours was also jammed into the tower somewhere, whether you had been one of those souls whose fleeting caress had swept over me the previous night. But I couldn’t, I was stuck, unable to detach myself from my body, which seemed to have acquired some kind of magnetic force. Unable to look away from my ghost-pale face.

Things went on like this until, with the sun almost at its zenith, I knew: you weren’t there.

Not just that you weren’t there, in that pile; you were still alive. For some reason, though the identities of the other souls who were clustered near at hand remained unknown, if I used all my power of concentration to picture a specific individual I’d known, I was able to tell whether or not they had died. And yet, at that moment, my discovery brought me no comfort. Instead, it frightened me to think that here by this strange thicket, surrounded by bodies gradually breaking down into their constituent parts, I was alone among strangers.

There was worse to come.

In an attempt to batten down the rising tide of fear, I thought of my sister. Watching the blazing sun describing an arc further and further to the south, staring at my face as though trying to bore through those shuttered eyelids, I thought of my sister, only of her. And I felt an agony that almost broke me. She was dead; she had died even before I had. With neither tongue nor voice to carry it, my scream leaked out from me in a mess of blood and watery discharge. My soul-self had no eyes; where was the blood coming from, what nerve endings were sparking this pain? I stared at my unchanging face. My filthy hands were as still as ever. Over my fingernails, dyed a deep rust by watery blood, red ants were crawling, silent.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

Human Acts – Summary

Here is the book summary:

Gwangju, South Korea, 1980. In the wake of a viciously suppressed student uprising, a boy searches for his friend’s corpse, a consciousness searches for its abandoned body, and a brutalised country searches for a voice. In a sequence of interconnected chapters the victims and the bereaved encounter censorship, denial, forgiveness and the echoing agony of the original trauma.

Human Acts is a universal book, utterly modern and profoundly timeless. Already a controversial bestseller and award-winning book in Korea, it confirms Han Kang as a writer of immense importance.

Copyright © 2014 by Han Kang.

Translated by: Deborah Smith

You can find more details here on Goodreads and on StoryGraph.

Posted on

Infecting each other

This is a quote from the book Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

Quote by Sayaka Murata, “And I probably infect others with the way I speak too. Infecting each other like this is how we maintain ourselves as human is what I think.”

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

If you’re interested, you can read an excerpt from the book here.

Convenience Store Woman – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person.

However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis—but will it be for the better?

Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie.

Copyright © 2016 by Sayaka Murata.

Translated from the Japanese by: Ginny Tapley Takemori

You can find more details here on Goodreads and on StoryGraph.

Posted on

Women in Translation: Five books published by Charco Press

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 Charco Press.

Charco Press focuses on finding outstanding contemporary Latin American literature and bringing it to new readers in the English-speaking world.

Source: https://charcopress.com/about

Charco Press is an independent publishing house that is based in Edinburgh, UK, but that focuses on translating Latin American fiction into English. It was founded in 2016 to bring more diversity to the Latin American literature that is studied and available to the English speaking world.

Photo by Guille Álvarez on Unsplash

Charco means ‘puddle’ in Spanish. It is also a colloquialism used in some Latin American countries to refer to the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, cruzar el charco means ‘crossing the puddle’ and is a way of referring to when someone is going overseas, or travelling between continents.

Source: https://charcopress.com/about

Charco Press aims to make the best of contemporary Latin American literature more accessible to the English world. They actively seek out the best authors and works from Latin America, along with finding contemporary translators to bring talent from the margins into the spotlight.

I think all of this is fantastic. It’s so important to highlight the work being done around the world to make literature more accessible to others.

Personally, I haven’t read much Latin American literature. I want to read more, and I want to delve deeper into the nuances of the region.

At the moment, I’m based in Asia, so I’m more focused on reading and learning about work from this region. Plus it’s easier to access books from this region while I’m living here.

For now, I’m just starting to dabble in Latin American literature, and later I’m hoping to truly dive into the depths.

If you’re also starting to dabble or looking for more options within Latin American literature, I would greatly recommend checking out Charco Press, you can read more on their website or on wikipedia.

Five translated books written by women from Charco Press

Here’s a list of five translated books written by women from Charco Press

  1. Theatre of War / Escenario de guerra by Andrea Jeftanovic (2000)
    Chile
  2. Byobu / El abc de byobu by Ida Vitale (2004)
    Uruguay
  3. Elena Knows / Elena sabe by Claudia Piñeiro (2007)
    Argentina
  4. Of Cattle and Men / De Gados e Homens by Ana Paula Maia (2013)
    Brazil
  5. Salt Crystals / Los Cristales de la Sal by Cristina Bendek (2018)
    Columbia

Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.

Theatre of War / Escenario de guerra (2000) – Chile

by Andrea Jeftanovic,
Translated from the Spanish (Chile) by Frances Riddle

  • Year Published: 2000
    English version in 2020
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, literary, emotional, reflective, slow-paced

A powerful novel depicting the devastating psychological effects of war, political violence and domestic abuse. This is a story narrated from the point of view of a nine-year old girl, Tamara, who takes in the intricacies of the survival strategies of the world she inherits, marked by poverty, unspeakable trauma, trapped scenarios. Theatre of War takes us on a desolate journey into the reconstruction of memory – a universal question that here turns into a reflection on how giant historical events can affect the seemingly insignificant lives of nameless individuals. Tamara, protagonist and narrator, faces the ghosts of a very tangible past that includes her father’s war (an immigrant from former Yugoslavia), a very conflictive family life, suicides, lost landscapes, inherited trauma, absent siblings and a mother who, due to an undefined illness, has suffered from partial memory loss and cannot recognise her own daughter.

Andrea Jeftanovic’s debut novel, is an exploration of the empty theatre of operations her memory provides for the domestic war she was part of as a child. The Chilean novelist approaches the ruins of memory to source from them the love needed to build her identity as an adult. An impressive, sensitive, harrowing, widely praised first novel from one of the most important female novelists of Latin America.

Links:

Byobu / El abc de byobu (2004) – Uruguay

by Ida Vitale,
Translated from the Spanish (Uruguay) by Sean Manning

  • Year Published: 2004
    English version in 2021
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, contemporary, literary, challenging, reflective, medium-paced
  • Well-known poet in Uruguay
  • She just turned 100 years old in November 2023!

Byobu’s every interaction trembles with possibility and faint menace. A crack in the walls of his house, marring it forever, means he must burn it down. A stoplight asks what the value of obedience is, what hopefulness it contains, and what insensible anarchy it defies. In brief episodes, aphorisms, and moments of spiritual turbulence and gentle scrutiny, reside a wealth of habits, worries, curiosities, pleasures, peculiarities, and efforts to understand.

Representative of the modesty and complexity of Ida Vitale’s poetic universe, Byobu flushes the world with meaning and playfully offers another way of inhabiting the every day.

Links:

Elena Knows / Elena sabe (2007) – Argentina

by Claudia Piñeiro,
Translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Frances Riddle

  • Year Published: 2007
    English version in 2021
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, contemporary, crime, literary, mystery, emotional, reflective, sad, medium-paced
  • Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022

A unique tale that interweaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and search for individual freedom.

After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation,

Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.

Links:

Of Cattle and Men / De Gados e Homens (2013) – Brazil

by Ana Paula Maia,
Translated from the Portuguese (Brazil) by Zoë Perry

  • Year Published: 2013
    English version in 2023
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, literary, dark, mysterious, reflective, medium-paced

Animals go mad and men die (accidentally and not) at a slaughterhouse in an impoverished, isolated corner of Brazil.

In a landscape worthy of Cormac McCarthy, the river runs septic and sludgy with blood. Edgar Wilson makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of a cow, then stuns it with a mallet. He does this over and over and over again, the stun operator at Mr. Milo’s slaughterhouse: reliable, responsible, quietly dispatching cows and following orders, wherever that may take him. It’s important to calm the cows, especially now that they seem so unsettled. One runs headlong into the side of a barn, 22 more hurl themselves off the side of a cliff. Bronco Gil, their foreman, thinks it’s a jaguar or a wild boar, Edgar Wilson does not. But what is certain is that there is something in this desolate corner of Brazil driving men, and animals, to murder and madness.

Links:

Salt Crystals / Los Cristales de la Sal (2018) – Columbia

by Cristina Bendek,
Translated from the Spanish (Columbia) by Robin Myers

  • Year Published: 2018
    English version in 2022
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction contemporary challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Returning to the island of San Andrés, in the Caribbean Sea, after many years living in Mexico, forces Verónica Baruq, our main character, to question her relationship with her origins. An intriguing photograph of her great-grandparents and an eerie encounter with Maa Josephine, a Raizal old woman who she meets outside the First Baptiste Church, are only a couple of the triggers that begin to reveal the truth about her background. Her past not only puts the protagonist in contact with the island’s unknown history, but it also helps her understand the social movements which, between zouk and calypso, celebrate the Raizal identity, carry out ‘thinking rundowns’ and above all, resist.

A fascinating bildungsroman that brings to the fore the untold stories of the Afro-Caribbean population that inhabit this forgotten paradise.

Links:

Final thoughts

I hope you found something of interest in this list of books published by Charco Press.

Are you familiar with Charco Press? 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 Charco Press? I’d love to hear all about them in a comment below!

Posted on

My present self

Excerpt from Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Photo by Dovile Ramoskaite on Unsplash

This is an excerpt from the book Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori.

“My present self is formed almost completely of the people around me. I am currently made up of 30 percent Mrs. Izumi, 30 percent Sugawara, 20 percent the manager, and the rest absorbed from past colleagues such as Sasaki, who left six months ago, and Okasaki, who was our supervisor until a year ago.

My speech is especially infected by everyone around me and is currently a mix of that of Mrs. Izumi and Sugawara. I think the same goes for most people. When some of Sugawara’s band members came into the store recently they all dressed and spoke just like her. After Mrs. Izumi came, Sasaki started sounding just like her when she said, “Good job, see you tomorrow!” Once a woman who had gotten on well with Mrs. Izumi at her previous store came to help out, and she dressed so much like Mrs. Izumi I almost mistook the two. And I probably infect others with the way I speak too. Infecting each other like this is how we maintain ourselves as human is what I think.

Outside work Mrs. Izumi is rather flashy, but she dresses the way normal women in their thirties do, so I take cues from the brand of shoes she wears and the label of the coats in her locker. Once she left her makeup bag lying around in the back room and I took a peek inside and made a note of the cosmetics she uses. People would notice if I copied her exactly, though, so what I do is read blogs by people who wear the same clothes she does and go for the other brands of clothes and kinds of shawls they talk about buying. Mrs. Izumi’s clothes, accessories, and hairstyles always strike me as the model of what a woman in her thirties should be wearing.

As we were chatting in the back room, her gaze suddenly fell on the ballet flats I was wearing. “Oh, those shoes are from that shop in Omotesando, aren’t they? I like that place too. I have some boots from there.” In the back room she speaks in a languid drawl, the end of her words slightly drawn out. I bought these flats after checking the brand name of the shoes she wears for work while she was in the toilet.

“Oh really? Wait do you mean those dark blue ones you wore to the shop before? Those were cute!” I answer, copying Sugawara’s speech pattern, but using a slightly more adult tone. Her speech is a rather excitable staccato, the exact opposite of Mrs. Izumi’s, but mixing the two styles works surprisingly well.

“We’ve got quite similar tastes, haven’t we? I like your bag too,” Mrs. Izumi said with a smile.

It’s only natural that my tastes would match hers since I’m copying her. I’m sure everyone must see me as someone with an age-appropriate bag and a manner of speech that has a perfect sense of distance without being reserved or rude.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

Convenience Store Woman – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person.

However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis—but will it be for the better?

Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie.

Copyright © 2016 by Sayaka Murata.

Translated from the Japanese by: Ginny Tapley Takemori

You can find more details here on Goodreads and on StoryGraph.

Posted on

Savoured the pleasure

This is a quote from the book Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, translated from the French by Irene Ash.

Quote by Françoise Sagan, “I sat on sunny café terraces, I savoured the pleasure of drifting along with the crowds, of having a drink, of being with someone who looks into your eyes, holds your hand, and then leads you far away from those same crowds. We would walk slowly home, there under a doorway he would draw me close and embrace me: I found out how pleasant it was to be kissed.”

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

If you’re interested, you can read an excerpt from the book here.

Bonjour Tristesse – Summary

Here is the book summary:

Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour Tristesse is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cecile, a seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her father’s love life leads to tragic consequences.

Endearing, self-absorbed, seventeen-year-old Cécile is the very essence of untroubled amorality. Freed from the stifling constraints of boarding school, she joins her father—a handsome, still-young widower with a wandering eye—for a carefree, two-month summer vacation in a beautiful villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own sexual adventures with a “tall and almost beautiful” law student. But the arrival of her late mother’s best friend intrudes upon a young girl’s pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them apart…with tragic, unexpected consequences.

The internationally beloved story of a precocious teenager’s attempts to understand and control the world around her, Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse is a beautifully composed, wonderfully ambiguous celebration of sexual liberation, at once sympathetic and powerfully unsparing.

Copyright © 1955 by Françoise Sagan

Translated from the French by: Irene Ash

You can find more details her

Posted on

Women in Translation: Five books published by Tilted Axis Press

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 Tilted Axis Press:

Tilted Axis Press is an independent publisher of contemporary literature by the Global Majority, translated into or written in a variety of Englishes. Founded in 2015, our practice is an ongoing exploration into alternatives – to the hierarchisation of certain languages and forms of translation, and the monoculture of globalisation.

Source: https://www.tiltedaxispress.com/about
Photo by Jason W on Unsplash

Tilted Axis Press was founded in 2015 by Deborah Smith, the translator of The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Her English translation of the work (from the Korean), won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize and was very well received internationally. She used the funds and success from this work to create Tilted Axis Press.

Tomb of Sand by Geentanjali Shree (translated into English from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell) was published by Tilted Axis Press, and won the International Booker Prize in 2022. Tilted Axis Press received a lot of attention for this award and increased their international recognition.

After winning the International Booker Prize in 2022, Deborah Smith decided to step down as Publisher and Managing Director of Tilted Axis Press. Kristen Vida Alfaro is Deborah’s successor and currently leads the publishing company.

Tilted Axis Press publishes a handful of books throughout the year (~6-9), focusing on contemporary translated fiction, with some poetry and non-fiction too.

Each year you can buy a yearly subscription, to receive all the book published that year. They send you the books throughout the year as they get published. You can still buy the bundle for 2024, either to receive the print/physical books or as e-books.

I find that Tilted Axis Press currently fills a pretty unique gap in the publishing industry by helping to get modern Southeast Asian books translated into English. They publish books from all over the region, including Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which rarely get the attention of big publishers.

If you’re interested, you can learn more at their website or on wikipedia. Or you can read one of the books listed below that have been published by Tilted Axis Press.

Five translated books written by women from Tilted Axis Press

Here’s a list of five translated books written by women from Tilted Axis Press

  1. Chinatown by Thuận (2005)
    Vietnam
  2. Strange Beasts of China/异兽志 by Yan Ge (颜歌) (2006)
    China
  3. Every Fire You Tend / Yüzünde Bir Yer by Sema Kaygusuz (2009)
    Turkey
  4. Tomb of Sand / रेत समाधि by Geetanjali Shree / गीतांजलि श्री (2018)
    India
  5. Arid Dreams / ฝันแห้งและเรื่องอื่นๆ by Duanwad Pimwana / เดือนวาด พิมวนา (2019)
    Thailand

Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.

Chinatown (2005) – Vietnam

by Thuận,
Translated from the Vietnamese by An Lý Nguyễn

  • Year Published: 2005
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, literary, emotional, reflective, sad, medium-paced
  • Winner of the 2023 ALTA National Translation Award

An abandoned package is discovered in the Paris Metro: the subway workers suspect it’s a terrorist bomb. A Vietnamese woman sitting nearby, her son asleep on her shoulder, waits and begins to reflect on her life, from her constrained childhood in communist Hanoi, to a long period of study in Leningrad during the Gorbachev period, and finally to the Parisian suburbs where she now teaches English. Through everything runs her passion for Thuy, the father of her son, a writer who lives in Saigon’s Chinatown, and who, with the shadow of the China-Vietnam border war falling darkly between them, she has not seen for eleven years.

Through her breathless, vertiginous, and deeply moving monologue from beside the subway tracks, the narrator attempts to once and for all face the past and exorcize the passion that haunts her.

Links:

Strange Beasts of China/异兽志 (2006) – China

by Yan Ge (颜歌),
Translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Jeremy Tiang

  • Year Published: 2006
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, contemporary, fantasy, literary, dark, mysterious, reflective, medium-paced
  • Translated version published in 2021 through Tilted Axis press

From one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Chinese literature, an uncanny and playful novel that blurs the line between human and beast …

In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. These creatures live alongside humans in near-inconspicuousness—save their greenish skin, serrated earlobes, and strange birthmarks.

Aided by her elusive former professor and his enigmatic assistant, our narrator sets off to document each beast, and is slowly drawn deeper into a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.

Part detective story, part metaphysical enquiry, Strange Beasts of China engages existential questions of identity, humanity, love and morality with whimsy and stylistic verve.

Links:

Every Fire You Tend / Yüzünde Bir Yer (2009) – Turkey

by Sema Kaygusuz,
Translated from the Turkish by Nicholas Glastonbury

  • Year Published: 2009
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, historical, literary, emotional, reflective, medium-paced

In 1938, in the remote Dersim region of Eastern Anatolia, the Turkish Republic launched an operation to erase an entire community of Zaza-speaking Alevi Kurds. Inspired by those brutal events, and the survival of Kaygusuz’s own grandmother, this densely lyrical and allusive novel grapples with the various inheritances of genocide, gendered violence and historical memory as they reverberate across time and place from within the unnamed protagonist’s home in contemporary Istanbul.

Kaygusuz imagines a narrative anchored by the weight of anguish and silence, fuelled by mysticism, wisdom and beauty. This is a powerful exploration of a still-taboo subject, deeply significant to the fault lines of modern-day Turkey.

Links:

Tomb of Sand / रेत समाधि (2018) – India

by Geetanjali Shree / गीतांजलि श्री,
Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

  • Year Published: 2018
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, literary, emotional, mysterious, reflective, medium-paced
  • Language: Hindi
  • Winner of International Book Prize in 2022

An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more ‘modern’ of the two.

At the older woman’s insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.

Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree’s playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

Links:

Arid Dreams / ฝันแห้งและเรื่องอื่นๆ (2019) – Thailand

by Duanwad Pimwana / เดือนวาด พิมวนา,
Translated from the Thai by Mui Poopoksakul

  • Year Published: 2019
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, literary, short stories, challenging, reflective, sad, slow-paced
  • Duanwad Pimwana won the 2003 S.E.A Write Award for her novel Changsamran

In thirteen stories that investigate ordinary and working-class Thailand, characters aspire for more but remain suspended in routine. They bide their time, waiting for an extraordinary event to end their stasis. A politician’s wife imagines her life had her husband’s accident been fatal, a man on death row requests that a friend clear up a misunderstanding with a prostitute, and an elevator attendant feels himself wasting away while trapped, immobile, at his station all day.

With curious wit, this collection offers revelatory insight and subtle critique, exploring class, gender, and disenchantment in a changing country.

Links:

Final thoughts

I hope you found something of interest in this list of books published by Tilted Axis Press.

Are you familiar with Tilted Axis Press? 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 Tilted Axis Press? I’d love to hear all about them in a comment below!

Posted on

Certain phrases fascinate me

Excerpt from Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Photo by Tim Alex on Unsplash

This is an excerpt from the book Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, translated from the French by Irene Ash.

The first dinner was very gay. My father and Anne talked of the friends they had in common, who were few, but highly colourful. I was enjoying myself up to the moment when Anne declared that my father’s business partner was an idiot. He was a man who drank a lot, but I liked him very much, and my father and I had memorable meals in his company.

“But Anne,” I protested. “Lombard is most amusing; he can even be very funny.”

“All the same, you must admit that he’s somewhat lacking, and as for his brand of humour…”

“He has perhaps not a very brilliant form of intelligence, but…”

She interrupted me with an air of condescension:

“What you call ‘forms’ of intelligence are only degrees.”

I was delighted with her clear-cut definition. Certain phrases fascinate me with their subtle implications, even though I may not always understand their meaning. I told Anne that I wished I could have written it down in my notebook. My father burst out laughing:

“At least you bear no resentment!”

How could I when Anne was not malevolent? I felt that she was too completely indifferent, her judgements had not the precision, the sharp edge of spite, and so were all the more effective.

The first evening Anne did not seem to notice that Elsa went quite openly into my father’s bedroom. She had brought me a jersey from her collection, but would not accept any thanks; it only bored her to be thanked, she said, and as I was anyhow shy of expressing enthusiasm, I was most relieved.

“I think Elsa is very nice,” she remarked as I was about to leave the room.

She looked straight at me without a smile, seeking something in me which at all cost she wished to eradicate: I was to forget her earlier reaction.

“Oh yes, she’s a charming girl…very sympathique,” I stammered.

She began to laugh, and I went up to bed, most upset. I fell asleep thinking of Cyril, probably dancing in Cannes with girls.

I realise that I have forgotten an important factor—the presence of the sea with its incessant rhythm. Neither have I remembered the four lime trees in the courtyard of a school in Provence, and their scent; and my father’s smile on the station platform three years ago when I left school, his embarrassed smile because I had plaits and wore and ugly dark dress. And then in the car his sudden triumphant joy because I had his eyes, his mouth, and I was going to be for him the dearest, most marvellous of toys. I knew nothing; he was going to show me Paris, luxury, the easy life. I dare say I owed most of my pleasure of that time to money; the pleasure of driving fast, of having a new dress, buying records, books, flowers. Even now I am not ashamed of indulging in these pleasures, in fact I just take them for granted. I would rather deny myself my moods of mysticism or despair than give them up. My love of pleasure seems to be the only coherent side of my character. Perhaps it is because I have not read enough? At school one only reads edifying works. In Paris there was no time for reading: after lectures my friends hurried me off to cinemas; they were surprised to find that I did not even know the actors’ names. I sat on sunny café terraces, I savoured the pleasure of drifting along with the crowds, of having a drink, of being with someone who looks into your eyes, holds your hand, and then leads you far away from those same crowds. We would walk slowly home, there under a doorway he would draw me close and embrace me: I found out how pleasant it was to be kissed. In the evenings I grew older: I went to parties with my father. They were very mixed parties, and I was rather out of place, but I enjoyed myself, and the fact that Iw as so young seemed to amuse everyone. When we left, my father would drop me at our flat, and then see his friend home. I never heard him come in.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

Bonjour Tristesse – Summary

Here is the book summary:

Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour Tristesse is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cecile, a seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her father’s love life leads to tragic consequences.

Endearing, self-absorbed, seventeen-year-old Cécile is the very essence of untroubled amorality. Freed from the stifling constraints of boarding school, she joins her father—a handsome, still-young widower with a wandering eye—for a carefree, two-month summer vacation in a beautiful villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own sexual adventures with a “tall and almost beautiful” law student. But the arrival of her late mother’s best friend intrudes upon a young girl’s pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them apart…with tragic, unexpected consequences.

The internationally beloved story of a precocious teenager’s attempts to understand and control the world around her, Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse is a beautifully composed, wonderfully ambiguous celebration of sexual liberation, at once sympathetic and powerfully unsparing.

Copyright © 1955 by Françoise Sagan

Translated from the French by: Irene Ash

You can find more details here on Goodreads and on StoryGraph.

Posted on

They argued

This is a quote from the book Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle.

Quote by Claudia Piñeiro, “They argued. Always, every afternoon. About anything. The topic was unimportant, what mattered was their chosen mode of communicating. Arguments layered on top of each other, one hidden beneath another, lying in wait and ready to leap forth, no matter how unrelated to the topic at hand. They fought as if each word thrown out were the crack of a whip, leather in motion, one of them lashed out, then the other. Blistering the rival’s body with words. Neither let on that she was hurt.”

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

If you’re interested, you can read an excerpt from the book here.

Elena Knows- Summary

A unique tale that interweaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and search for individual freedom.

After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.

Copyright © 2007 by Claudia Piñeiro.

Translated from the Spanish by: Frances Riddle

You can find more details here on Goodreads and on StoryGraph

Posted on

Five translated modern classic books by women around the world

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.

For two weeks, this and last, I want to highlight classic works of literature from around the world that have been translated into English. I’m breaking it into two parts, the first (last week) was from European authors, and this week will be from all around the world.

When I was doing research for these posts, there were far more classics translated from European authors. I guess it’s not much of a surprise, especially with the English-speaking world’s connection with Europe, but it does show a discrepancy in the availability of classics from all areas of the world.

There are numerous reasons why there are far fewer translations from outside of Europe. From colonial impacts encouraged by the delusional belief of Western supremacy, to local cultures or traditions that might have leaned more towards oral storytelling instead of written.

Photo by Jan Mellström on Unsplash

Art lost to history

Whenever I think about the stories and literature lost to time, I’m so saddened by the understanding that there’s so much we’re missing out on. There are so many individuals who had stories to tell or could’ve created incredible works of art that never got the chance due to lack of funds or opportunities. Maybe they were able to create for those around them, those they loved or just for themselves, and maybe that’s enough.

I guess what breaks my heart is that we’ll never have a clear understanding of all people at that time, only those with privilege or power have remained. There are so many perspectives, thoughts, and understandings throughout history that have been lost and now we can only imagine what they might be.

That’s why I think it’s important to seek out different perspectives. There may not be as many translated works from certain areas of the world, but those that exist are valuable and important.

I’ve selected books from all over the world covering Asia, Latin America, and Africa. But this is only a list of five books, so it’s just a tiny selection of all the books out there.

Think of this as a jumping off point, or a source of inspiration to look for more modern classic books in translation from around the world.

Five translated modern classic books by women around the world

Here’s a list of five translated classic books with women authors from around the world.

  1. A Riot of Goldfish / 金魚撩乱 by Kanoko Okamoto / 岡本かの子 (1937)
    Japan
  2. Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral by Gabriela Mistral (1941)
    Chile
  3. Love in a Fallen City / 傾城之戀 by Eileen Chang / 張愛玲 (1946)
    China
  4. Pinjar: The Skeleton and Other Stories / ਪਿੰਜਰ by Amrita Pritam (1950) 
    India
  5. So Long a Letter / Une si longue lettre by Mariama Bâ (1979)
    Senegal

Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.

A Riot of Goldfish / 金魚撩乱, Kingyo ryōran (1937) – Japan

by Kanoko Okamoto / 岡本かの子,
Translated from the Japanese by J. Keith Vincent

  • Year Published: 1937
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, short stories, lighthearted, reflective, slow-paced
  • Okamoto was an active member of the feminist group Bluestockings (青踏社, Seitōsha)

In early 20th-century Japan, the son of lower-class goldfish sellers falls in love with the beautiful daughter of his rich patron. After he is sent away to study the science of goldfish breeding, with strict orders to return and make his patron’s fortune, he vows to devote his life to producing one ideal, perfect goldfish specimen to reflect his loved-one’s beauty. This poignant and deft tale is presented along with the story of a pauper from Kyoto who teaches himself to be an accomplished chef.

Links:

Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral (1941) – Chile

by Gabriela Mistral,
Translated from the Spanish (Chile) by Doris Dana, alternative translations done by Langston Hughes and Ursula Le Guin

  • Year Published: 1941
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, poetry, challenging, emotional, reflective, fast-paced
  • Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature
  • Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila Godoy Alcayaga

Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, and her works are among the finest in all contemporary poetry. She is loved and honored throughout the world as one of the great humanistic voices of our time.

This bilingual edition of selected poems was translated and edited by Doris Dana, a close personal friend with whom Gabriela lived and worked with prior to her death in 1957. These translations give a profound insight into the original poetry of this greatest of contemporary Latin American women. They were selected from her four major works ‘Desolación’, ‘Ternura’, ‘Tala’, and ‘Lagar’.

Links:

Love in a Fallen City / 傾城之戀 (1946) – China

by Eileen Chang / 張愛玲,
Translated from the Chinese by Karen S. Kingsbury

  • Year Published: 1946
    English version in 2006
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, short stories, emotional, mysterious, reflective, slow-paced

Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang’s achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this dazzling body of work, introduces American readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.

Links:

Pinjar: The Skeleton and Other Stories / ਪਿੰਜਰ (1950) – India

by Amrita Pritam
Translated from the Punjabi by Khushwant Singh

  • Year Published: 1950
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, challenging, reflective, slow-paced

Brought together in this volume are two of the most moving novels by one of India’s greatest women writers The Skeleton and The Man. The Skeleton, translated from Punjabi into English by Khushwant Singh, is memorable for its lyrical style and depth in her writing. Amrita Pritam portrays the most inmost being of the novel s complex characters. The Man is a compelling account of a young man born under strange circumstances and abandoned at the altar of God.

Links:

So Long a Letter / Une si longue lettre (1979) – Senegal

by Mariama Bâ,
Translated from the French (Senegal) by Modupé Bodé-Thomas

  • Year Published: 1979
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, literary, emotional, reflective, slow-paced
  • Focuses on the condition of women in Western African society (post-colonial times)
  • Won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1980

So Long a Letter is a sequence of reminiscences, some wistful, some bitter, recounted by Senegalese school teacher Ramatoulaye, who has recently been widowed. The letter, addressed to her old friend Aissatou, is a record of her emotional struggle for survival after her husband’s abrupt decision to take a second wife. Although sanctioned by Islam, his action is a calculated betrayal of her trust and a brutal rejection of their life together. The novel is a perceptive testimony to the plight of those articulate women who live in social milieux dominated by attitudes and values that deny them their proper place.

Links:

Final thoughts

I hope you found something of interest in this list of classic translated books written by women from around the world.

I’m always looking for more suggestions of books to read. If you have a favourite translated classic book written by a woman, please feel free to share it in a comment below!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of the book?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below.

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress