Do I have a diverse bookshelf? Pt 14: Translations
To expand our worldview, we must dip our toes into the literature of other countries. I’m not looking at works that use an outsider to access another place, i.e. Shogun with Blackthorne or Memoirs of a Geisha as written by an American author. These books are by the people of the other place in question.
Translators are the superheroes that open the possibilities of these worlds to us. Here are some of my favorite translated books that still are on my shelf.
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of World by Haruki Murakami
A international literary rockstar, Murakami is Japanese. His books cover a whole gauntlet of genres. This is my favorite. It is very very disorienting and weird. I remember there’s a mad scientist who lives in the Tokyo subways.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
While reading this, I remember thinking only a repressed artist living in Russia during Stalin’s regime could write this story. The devil comes to Moscow to make mischief. There’s a character called the Master who is writing a novel about Pontius Pilate and his lover Margarita. There are also demons, witches and other really strange sights. Try it out.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Another Nobel Laureate this time from Latin America. Garcia Marquez is pretty much the standard of magic realism for us today. This is a family epic about the Buendía family how they come to the jungle, settle it, raise generations and how memory erases fact and fiction becomes real.
Art by Yasmina Reza
This play is about a friendship. A character has bought a white painting with white stripes that cost a fortune. And his friends can’t figure out why! It’s also about how and why we put a value on art. The play is translated from French.
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Anything Nabokov is worth reading. Nabokov himself fluently spoke and wrote in Russian (his native language), French and English. His most famous work, Lolita, was written originally in English. This book was originally written in Russian. It’s a weird book, too. (See a theme in what I like?). Cincinnatus C is in prison and scheduled to be beheaded. But his guards won’t tell him when! Nabokov plays with perception and reality, which also makes sense of another Russian artist who had to flee his homeland.
Translators are the superheroes that open the possibilities of these worlds to us. Here are some of my favorite translated books that still are on my shelf.
Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of World by Haruki Murakami
A international literary rockstar, Murakami is Japanese. His books cover a whole gauntlet of genres. This is my favorite. It is very very disorienting and weird. I remember there’s a mad scientist who lives in the Tokyo subways.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
While reading this, I remember thinking only a repressed artist living in Russia during Stalin’s regime could write this story. The devil comes to Moscow to make mischief. There’s a character called the Master who is writing a novel about Pontius Pilate and his lover Margarita. There are also demons, witches and other really strange sights. Try it out.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Another Nobel Laureate this time from Latin America. Garcia Marquez is pretty much the standard of magic realism for us today. This is a family epic about the Buendía family how they come to the jungle, settle it, raise generations and how memory erases fact and fiction becomes real.
Art by Yasmina Reza
This play is about a friendship. A character has bought a white painting with white stripes that cost a fortune. And his friends can’t figure out why! It’s also about how and why we put a value on art. The play is translated from French.
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Anything Nabokov is worth reading. Nabokov himself fluently spoke and wrote in Russian (his native language), French and English. His most famous work, Lolita, was written originally in English. This book was originally written in Russian. It’s a weird book, too. (See a theme in what I like?). Cincinnatus C is in prison and scheduled to be beheaded. But his guards won’t tell him when! Nabokov plays with perception and reality, which also makes sense of another Russian artist who had to flee his homeland.
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