Women in Translation Month
Some of my favourite female international authors for you to explore this month
August is Women in Translation month and oh boy, do I have lots to tell you about. As an old student of French and Spanish literature, there are loads of authors I adore who write in these languages, from Annie Ernaux and Virginie Despentes to Isabelle Allende and Valeria Luiselli. If you haven’t read any of these already, I highly recommend you pick up some translations of their brilliant books. When it comes to languages I don’t read, I love Sayaka Murata’s bestselling Convenience Store Women (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori), Han Kang’s unforgettable The Vegetarian (trans. Jennifer Croft) and Elena Ferrante’s much-acclaimed Neapolitan Quartet (trans. Ann Goldstein).
In terms of recent publications, you won’t have missed Asako Yuzuki’s cult bestseller, Butter (trans. Polly Barton) whose yellow cover is everywhere. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, get down to your local bookshop. Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos (trans. Michael Hoffman) recently won the International Booker Prize, although I haven’t read it yet so can’t comment. Veronica Raimo’s Lost on Me is a memorable, character-led novel about a young woman growing up in Rome, which was entertaining and easy to read. Finally, Selva Almada’s Not a River tells the story of three friends on a fishing trip and a river in Argentina.
I’ve got a reasonable collection of books by women in translation, and here are some of my favourites:
Of these, I think my favourite is probably Annie Ernaux’s The Years (trans. Alison L. Strayer), a work of autofiction which describes the author’s experiences during years from 1941 to 2006, including a backstreet abortion. I’m going to see the theatre adaptation at The Almeida at the end of the month, and I can’t wait to see how they translate this formally inventive book to the stage. I love the writing of Fernanda Melchor; I’ve read Hurricane Season (trans. Sophie Hughes) at least three times and take something new from Melchor’s hurricane-like prose with every reading. I remember reading Angie Cruz’s Dominicana at the very start of the pandemic (before the inertia kicked in…) and being struck by this moving portrait of the immigrant expierence in New York City. I could go on and on, but I’ll save my other recommendations for a future post.
You may notice that several of these translated books are from the same publishing houses, and I want to quickly shout out two publishers which are leading the way in translated fiction in the UK, Fizcarraldo Editions and Charco Press. Fitzcarraldo is known for its distinctive blue and white covers, the former for fiction and the latter for non fiction. Founded in 2014, it publishes authors from all over the world, focusing on innovative writing. The special collection to commemorate 10 years of the press will be published in the autumn. Charco exclusively publishes contemporary Latin American fiction in translation, and it also has a very distinctive look.
There are so many books to read in the world, and that can sometimes feel a little overwhelming for literary lovers like me. However, we’d all be much better off if we added a few translated titles to our TBR - on my wish list are Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa (trans. Stephen Snyder), which I mentioned in this post, Time of the Flies by Claudia Piñeiro (trans. Frances Riddle) and Lucas Rijneveld's My Heavenly Favorite (trans. Michele Hutchison).
What’s on your reading list for Women in Translation Month? Let me know if you’d like any more tips or if you have any other recommendations for me to add to my list!