Task #10: A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman

[Madge]

I think I'm going to read Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende for this one, but I have a few options, so I'm not sure yet.

[Lesley]

I just completed The Perfect Nanny which is written by a woman and translated from French. It’s a quick read and I recommend it for those who like thrillers.

[Lauren]

The Vegetarian by Han King - I've been wanting to read this since I first heard about out as well. I'm glad this is finally giving me an excuse to read it.

[Suzanne]

The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser is my pick for this. (And the ebook is currently on sale!)

[Maggie]

I read The Three Evangelists for the work of genre fiction in translation for last year's challenge, and i really enjoyed it. It is written by a woman (Fred Vargas is a pseudonym), and translated by a woman.

[Megan]

I read Hunting Game by Helene Tursten for this prompt.

[Stephanie]

I read Last Night in Nuuk for this challenge. Written by a woman and translated by a woman. It's a very inventive novel about 20-somethings in Greenland.

[Sk888888]

Kate wrote: "For thriller junkies, I'd recommend Kanae Minato. I read Confessions a couple of years ago. This year, I will fill this category with another book of hers, Penance."

Both books were insane. I loved, loved, loved Confessions.

[Judith]

Stephanie wrote: "I read Last Night in Nuuk for this challenge. Written by a woman and translated by a woman. It's a very inventive novel about 20-somethings in Greenland."

That looks really interesting! Going to see if I can get it now, even though I've completed this particular task. And I could finally get to colour in Greenland on my "Read The World" challenge started in 2008 (if anyone can point me in the direction of authors from Honduras or the Central African Republic I'd be delighted).

[Trina]

I got the Kindle version of The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. The English translator's first name is Cathy (I don't have my Kindle with me now), so it satisfied both parameters. But it isn't a proper manga, in that it goes from front to back and left to right, like traditional Western books. I realize it says "Manga" in the title, but I'm choosing to use this book for this category, rather then the manga category.

Another suggestion is a translation of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. This has an introduction by Mona Simpson. The original translator was Constance Garnett, and one person who is listed under "Translation Revised By" is Nina Berberova. If anyone is thinking of tackling a major classic this year, this is a good one. The most recent revision has brought it into contemporary English, so it's more accessible to English-language readers now than a version that was translated when it was first published.

I highly recommend The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, translated into English by Alison Anderson. It is set in Paris and was originally written in French. It is an exquisite book of the characters' inner worlds and how it affects their everyday lives. It moves me every time I read it.

[Bryce]

I just found out the book I planned to read for this is in the public domain, woo! I'll try and get through this one before Kartini Day (April 21)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34647/...

Letters of a Javanese Princess
By
RADEN ADJENG KARTINI
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL DUTCH
By
AGNES LOUISE SYMMERS

This is my "#1. an epistolary novel or collection of letters" as well... and could be "#8. an #ownvoices book set in Oceania" if you count Indonesia as Oceania, which can be argued but I don't (as an Oceanian myself, I think the term Oceania is stupid and barely useful).

[Judith]

Would poetry count? Because I would like to recommend anything by Anna Swirszczynska aka Anna Swir (because her work is awesome and not enough people have heard of her). This is my favourite and is also translated by women https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Also I don't think Banana Yoshimoto has yet been mentioned?

I've added both to Lucia's Listopia for this task.

[Katie]

For a quick read, I suggest The Red Notebook.

[Book Riot]

Hey everyone! Our list of recommendations for this task is up: https://bookriot.com/2019/01/31/book-...

[Ann]

I have a few in mind
1. Convenience Store Woman
2. Those Who Knew I read Ways to Disappear and liked it, so...
3. Fever Dream

[Bonnie G.]

I am between Convenience Store Woman and Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation

[Anna (lion_reads)]

I'm considering Before the Feast for this one. Sounds magical and weird!

[Joanie]

I read Convenience Store Woman and would highly recommend it.

[Angela]

I read An Elderly Lady is Ip to No Good for this one. Written and translated by women.

[Amelia]

I also read Convenience Store Woman and recommend it.

[Lavanya]

I am seriously debating between Trick as its translated by one of my fav writers Jhumpa Lahiri and A convenience store woman .Which one should i pick?

[Mya]

Lavanya wrote: "I am seriously debating between Trick as its translated by one of my fav writers Jhumpa Lahiri and A convenience store woman .Which one should i pick?"

I vote for Trick, by Domenico Starnone, if only because everyone else in the world is apparently reading Convenience Store Woman! :p It'll be nice to have reviews from more titles.

That, & if Jhumpa Lahiri is one of your favorite authors it could be interesting to see the difference between how she writes, & how she translates.

[Dana]

The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz is both written and translated by women. (The Queue by Vladimir Sorokin is written by a man but translated by a woman. It's written in all dialogue, and while I'm glad that's not a category, that is definitely getting at the idea of diversifying the types of books I read!)

[Lisa]

Without realizing this was a task, I've completed it. I've just finishedA Jump for Life: A Survivor's Journal from Nazi Occupied Poland What a powerful and heartbreaking book.

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺]

I used Suzanne by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, translated by Rhonda Mullins. It's a great choice for Canadians since it's one of the five books that will be on Canada Reads this year!

Another great book (also translated by Rhonda Mullins) is And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier.

[Sarah Ruth]

I was planning to read Things We Lost in the Fire for this one, but I was browsing through a used book store the other day and came across The Japanese Lover. I picked it up because it looked like something I might enjoy, and then I realized it likely satisfies this prompt, so I will probably count this book here instead.

[Sheri]

I read The Hole, it's both written and translated by a woman. I didn't really enjoy this one, but it was more for my personal taste issues than because it wasn't well done.

[Mandie]

I read a graphic memoir calledMarzi for this category.

[Chickadee]

I read My Brother's Husband, Volume 1, which also meets the Manga task.

[Sarah]

I highly recommend The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. It's written by Katarina Bivald and translated by Alice Menzies. It is such a lovely story.

[Octavia]

I read Memoirs of a Polar Bear for this one. It was both written by a woman (Yoko Tawada) and translated by a woman (Susan Bernofsky) so it ticked all the boxes here. It was ok - one of those books I ended up admiring for its cleverness while having pretty much no emotional response to most of it.

Anyway, task done.

[Julia]

I read Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World by Sabina Berman and translated by Lisa Dillman. It's set largely in Mazatlán, Mexico, but I'm not counting it as a novel set in Mexico, unless I need to. The MC is autistic, but there are others books I've read and will read for that prompt.

[Charley Girl]

Lesley wrote: "I just completed The Perfect Nanny which is written by a woman and translated from French. It’s a quick read and I recommend it for those who like thrillers."

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to read it for this one.

[Sherri]

I read The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald. Alice Menzies Translator.

[Haley]

Brandon wrote: "The Odyssey

This can be a double-dip with #15 (mythology/folklore)."

I'm planning to do the new translation of the odyssey!

[Bonnie G.]

I went with The Story of My Teeth written and translated by women, and A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Short Stories translated by two women. Both worth the read. Teeth is weird and very literary (in ways that are good and bad) and Primo Levi is always worth spending time with. I am also about to embark upon So Long: Stories, 1987-1992 written and translated by women,

[Krista]

Shelldon (Aspiring Ninja) wrote: "I think I'll be reading An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. Love a good elderly sinister lady, gives me a great hope for my future."

I just finished this one this morning. Man, talk about sinister elderly lady! But I give it 5 stars! Excellent read and not an overly long book either. I recommend it for anyone looking.

[April]

Krista wrote: "Shelldon (Aspiring Ninja) wrote: "I think I'll be reading An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. Love a good elderly sinister lady, gives me a great hope for my future."

I just finished..."
I loved this book! Maud is quite a character, I really liked her in spite of her *inclinations* but I sure wouldn't want to be her neighbor!

[Linda]

I didn't notice either of these mentioned, but I just realized that two books that just came in from the library are translated by women:
The Plotters was translated by a woman and At the Wolf's Table was both written and translated by women.

[Alexis]

Would we count Homes: A Refugee Story for this challenge?
Winnie Yeung is the young man's teacher and helped him put his story down in English as part of a school project. Are we counting her as an co-author or a translator, would you say?

[Elspeth]

For this I read "Three Bags Full" which was also a Cozy Mystery and translated from German, and the POV characters are animals.

I also read Confessions this year which also counts as translated.

[Melissa]

Hi Folks! I've just discovered the "Read Harder" challenge and promptly joined this group so I'm off to a late start but I look forward to finding new and diverse titles to push myself out of my comfort zone. I'm starting off though with a lit fit offering as that is in my wheelhouse.

I'm currently reading Bright by Thai author Duanwad Pimwana. It is a short novel (191 pages) telling the story of a five-year-old boy who has fallen into somewhat haphazard care of a tiny Thai community after being partially abandoned by his parents. I'm about forty pages in and, so far, Pimwana is telling the story of this working class community with both an open heart and without sentimentality. I'm enjoying it. (The "Newest Literary Fiction" folks are staring a group discussion of this title on Monday, if anyone is interested.)

The translator is Mui Poopoksaukul.

The publisher's note says that Pimwana is the first female Thai fiction author to be translated into English.

Cheers!

[Alexis]

Melissa wrote: "Hi Folks! I've just discovered the "Read Harder" challenge and promptly joined this group so I'm off to a late start but I look forward to finding new and diverse titles to push myself out of my co..."

Oh, great find!

This is my favourite part of this challenge. Yes, I'm diversifying my own bookshelf, but it's just as rewarding to hear what everyone else is finding. There are just so many avenues and authors and perspectives out there that I would never have found if I didn't have people like you sharing their own discoveries. My TBR wishlist is growing considerably longer. (Ironic, because I partly joined to get it under control)

[Alexis]

Melissa wrote: "Hi Folks! I've just discovered the "Read Harder" challenge and promptly joined this group so I'm off to a late start but I look forward to finding new and diverse titles to push myself out of my co..."

On that note (see above comment), I did "The Bad Mother" by Marguerite Andersen. It's a Canadian novel originally written in French. It says it's her "fictionalized life story," so I'm actually not sure if it's a memoir or a novel or a stretching of the facts or what.

It tells the journey of a young woman who meets a soldier and gets pregnant around WW2. Fitting with the times, she ends up marrying him and moving to Tunisia, where he is from. It deals with her isolation, sudden thrust into motherhood and an increasingly controlling and abusive relationship. She eventually leaves him and ends up as a single mother in Canada.

There's a lot of themes like how the ideals of motherhood have shifted over decades and internal conflict between the narrator's own feminist world view and society's deep rooted ideas of a "good mom." She wants to have her own life, but she loves her kids. There are a lot of circumstances out of her control that, never the less, have a damaging impact on her kids, and there's a lot of guilt associated with that.

I also found the format interesting. Sometimes, the author broke into this almost poetic style. It was interesting for emphasis, although sometimes a little choppy.

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

Melissa wrote: "I'm currently reading Bright by Thai author Duanwad Pimwana...The publisher's note says that Pimwana is the first female Thai fiction author to be translated into English. "

How funny, I just started Pimwana's short story collection, Arid Dreams, also translated by Poopoksakul.

[Melissa]

Alexis wrote: " It says it's her "fictionalized life story," so I'm actually not sure if it's a memoir or a novel or a stretching of the facts or what."

Ditto on the exploding TBR! I noticed your comment on the "fictionalized life story" and the interesting, almost poetic format, and that reminded me of another title the New Lit Fic group just read The Atlas of Reds and Blues. This title rose out of a life event and had an interesting format probably influenced by her primary work as a poet. Some people in the group read found that choppy too.

FYI--"Atlas" is NOT a translated work, so it won't fit this category! Don't let me lead anyone astray!

[Melissa]

Leslie Ann wrote: "How funny, I just started Pimwana's short story collection, Arid Dreams...

Oh! I hope you will write a review or comment here! I'd be very interested to hear what you think!

[Kelly]

I just read Salt on My Skin by Benoite Groult -- deliciously romantic French erotica. Two thumbs up for the bourgeois Parisienne intellectual shacking up with the rough and tumble Breton fisherman, would read again.

[Nicole]

Ripper

[Mya]

If I want to double-dip, then I've already completed this task with Like Water for Chocolate, which was written by & translated by, a woman. However I've got a bunch of books already on my to-read list that meet this task.

The following are have both female authors & female translators. They include:
- Umami, by Laia Jufresa
- Crow Blue, by Adriana Lisboa This is leftover from last year's BRICs challenge! :)
- The comic/graphic novel My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, by Kabi Nagata This also meets the task of a comic by a queer creator.
- An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten is two short stories/mysteries. Dunno if they qualify as cozies.

The following are written by, or translated by, a woman, but not both:
- The mystery Snare is written by a woman but translated by someone named Quentin (I'm assuming male).
- The Murmur of Bees, by Sofía Segovia. Translated by Simon Bruni. This may also meet the #ownvoices challenge for Mexico.
- About the Night, by journalist Anat Talshir, if you want to multi-task with the journalist challenge.
- Troll: A Love Story, written by Johanna Sinisalo, translator named Herbert.
- Trick, written by Domenico Starnone, translated by author Jhumpa Lahiri.