Task 8: Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited

[Mary Beth]

Here is a thread to discuss books you’re considering or suggesting for Task 8: Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited.

[Karen]

I went to the The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation site and chose something from this year's Longlist. The Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes translated by Ann Goldstein. All of their previous nominees are listed at the site.

[Elizabeth]

I love this challenge! Although I've only been to one other country besides my own so it won't be hard to find one.

Some I've enjoyed are Grass by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim (South Korean)
Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook (South Korean)
Playing with Lanterns by Wang Yage (Chinese - and can double dip with #11)
Moms by Yeong-shin Ma (South Korean).

[Elizabeth]

I'm actively trying to read more works in translation, so I'm very excited for this task. It's pretty wide open for me, since my traveling has been somewhat limited, and I think the only major thing to keep in mind is to avoid picking anything French Canadian (I'm Canadian, and other than my own country I've been to a few states in the US, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland).

The top of my to read list for this right now is Witches by Brenda Lozano (Mexico), Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Japan), Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga (Rwanda), Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada (Argentina), The Court Dancer by Shin Kyung-sook (South Korea), The Impatient by Djaïli Amadou Amal (Cameroon).... probably a ton of others honestly. There are so many promising options.

I would personally recommend:
-The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo (South Korea)
-When the Whales Leave by Yuri Rytkheu (Russia)
-Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (Palestine)
-La bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (Equatorial Guinea)
-Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (Argentina)
-Walking Practice by Dolki Min (South Korea)
-Blood Feast: The Complete Short Stories of Malika Moustadraf by Malika Moustadraf (Morocco)
-Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (Argentina)
-Ideas to Postpone the End of the World by Ailton Krenak (Brazil)
-Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun (South Korea)
My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems by by Yi Lei (China)
-Eartheater by Dolores Reyes (Argentina)

[Teresa]

I have about 50 books in my 'translated' shelf and I've never been outside the US, so this one is easy, lol.

[Rebecca]

Our Share of Night, Stolen, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead or Chilean Poet

[The Book Assassin]

As a European (because only a few hours for another country) who also had a chance to travel because of relatives or friends abroad, this is quite difficult! Also to realize what is translated fiction. I think A Man Called Ove would fit. Maybe I could go for some South American fiction!

[✨ Kayla Lynne ✨]

Fredrik Backman is my favorite authors and any of his books would fit!! Truly they’re all incredible. I’m considering reading the Elena Ferrante novels for this prompt <3 they’ve been on my list forever

[Angela N]

I’m going to the library, so I’ll look for a few of these. I might go with Elena Ferrantr, too.

[Joanna]

Booklist has some recommendations if you're interested in sci-fi and fantasy reads:
Amatka (Sweden)
Fauna (Canada)
Heavens on Earth (Mexico)
The Memory Police (Japan)
Our Share of Night (Argentina)
The Route of Ice and Salt (Mexico)
Slipping (Egypt)
They Will Drown in Their Mothers' Tears (Sweden)
Trafalgar (Argentina)
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories (China)

[Cayley]

Rebecca wrote: "Our Share of Night, Stolen or Chilean Poet"

I'm so excited to read Our Share of the Night by Mariana Enríquez for this!

[Elspeth]

I'm also working on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die challenge, so I'm going to read Ficciones for this one.

[Jessica]

I just visited Argentina so that eliminates a few things from my translated TBR shelf in terms of this challenge, but here's some that remain that I might read!

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Colombia)
Malice (Japan)
Penance (Japan)
Frankenstein in Baghdad (Iraq)
Where the Wild Ladies Are (Japan)
Murder in the Crooked House (Japan)
The Decagon House Murders (Japan)

Lots of Japan!

[Natalie Piccotti]

Going to read this one from my TBR from one of my favorite author's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (Japan). He has many great books so I'd also recommend Norwegian Wood or 1Q84.

[Natalie Piccotti]

Great info! I'm going to use mine then from Japan as a double-dipper.

TheSweetKat wrote: "A few from countries I've visited that I would recommend to others:

Like Water for Chocolate (Mexico)
My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness (Japan)
[book:The Property|1..."

[Nancy]

I've heard good things about What You Are Looking For Is in the Library and have been planning to read it, so I might go with this.

[Kira]

The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg (Italy)

[Lucilla]

I've had Vita Nostra (authors are Ukranian who write in Russian) on my tbr list for a while, so I'm excited for this task!

[Saluka]

Any of the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo

[Ashu]

A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Russia) is a great book. I've read 2 different translations.

[Lisa]

I read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto [Japan]

[Carole]

I read Albert Camus’ The Stranger, translated by Matthew Ward, for this task. Existentialism at its finest. I remember disliking this genre in high school. Now I love it. Story takes place in Algiers, originally written in French.

[Aquaria]

Chilean author Alejandro Zambra's Multiple Choice is, ironically enough, my choice for this one among literally hundreds of translated books I have on my TBR pile.

[Eleonora]

I listened to Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Japan) for this prompt and really loved it.

[Jonna]

I am going to read The Three-Body Problem for this prompt, but I highly recommend Blindness if you haven't been to Portugal.

[Teresa]

I read The Cost of Sugar (Suriname)

Some great authors for this prompt from more "obscure"/atypical vacation countries:
Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan)
Gerty Dambury (Guadeloupe)
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel (Equatorial Guinea)
Alain Mabanckou (Congo)
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Kenya)
Saša Stanišić (Bosnia & Herezgovina)
Ahmed Saadawi (Iraq)
Gazmend Kapllani (Albania)
José Eduardo Agualusa (Angola)
Kapka Kassabova (Bulgaria)
Zoé Valdés (Cuba)
Niviaq Korneliussen (Greenland)
Johary Ravaloson (Madagascar)
Nathacha Appanah (Mauritius)
Gioconda Belli (Nicaragua)
Anton Shammas (Palestine)
Scholastique Mukasonga (Rwanda)
Samar Yazbek (Syria)
Célestine Hitiura Vaite (Tahiti)
Eduardo Galeano (Uruguay)
Liu Xinwu (China)
Lu Nei (China)

[Teresa]

I read your post and thought, no I didn't read that. Lol, duh me.

[Cheryl]

I picked a highly rated science fiction book for this one. And it looks like Netflix made a movie. I watch more sci-fi than I read, but I was hopeful I would like The Three-Body Problem. It's dry, and uses way too make scientific words for my layman's brain to absorb. I am almost done listening to it though.

[Mandie]

I read Suite Française for this.

[Amy Elise]

Added to my top ten:

The Disaster Tourist Yun Ko-Eun

[Sherri]

The Housekeeper and the Professor

[Misty]

I love Nordic Noir, and I read The Preacher (Sweden) by Camilla Läckberg for this one. It's the second in the series. Others I would recommend:

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (Japan)
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi (France and Iran)
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany)
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich (Russia)
Abigail by Magda Szabó (Hungary)
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (Japan)
Betrayal by Lilja Sigurðardóttir (Iceland)
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali (Yemen)
The Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö (Sweden)
The Witch Hunter by Max Seeck (Finland)

[Katie]

Just finished Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener! (Spain)

[Elizabeth]

I just have to say I love seeing differences between countries, because when Teresa listed Cuba as an obscure/atypical vacation country I had a good chuckle. Not in a mean way, I promise! I'm just in Canada, and Cuba is an extremely common vacation destination for Canadians. It's just funny to see how different stuff like this can be between countries.

Anyway, I'm currently reading a book for this task, A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata (Japan). It isn't one of the original ones I listed, which I still hope to get through, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

I've read a few other things in translation so far this year, but I've used them for other challenges or felt they didn't fit the spirit of the task as well as I'd like. I'd recommend the graphic novel Ashes by Álvaro Ortiz (Spain) for this task though.

[Teresa]

Elizabeth wrote: "I just have to say I love seeing differences between countries, because when Teresa listed Cuba as an obscure/atypical vacation country I had a good chuckle. Not in a mean way, I promise! I'm just ..."
😂 I get it! I've actually lived/worked on several continents and in several of the countries I listed. So I know that it really varies by who the audience is (Anglophone vs Francophone for instance), how far away the countries are, certain countries get popular as destinations in pop culture, and also, authors from certain countries just get translated a lot more than others by the international publishers. (So even though Greece is a tremendously popular destination for most of the "Western" world, there are not a lot of Greek authors whose work gets translated and widely read outside of Greece.)
It is funny though to be reminded, I too chuckle sometimes at what I take for granted.

[Denise]

I used Around the World in 80 Days because it was the first translated book I read this year, but I also read:
What You Are Looking For is in the Library
If Cats Disappeared From the World
A Doll's House
The Girl Who Reads On the Metro
Persepolis
Identity (Milan Kundera)