2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature

Winner: The National Book Foundation describes this debut novel translated from the Portuguese as "an exploration of queer desire, violence and shame, and the transformative power of the written word."

Beyond the Door of No Return

Finalist: This hotly anticipated novel coming out in translation on September 19 is by the French Senegalese author of the 2021 International Booker Prize winner, At Night All Blood Is Black.

Cursed Bunny: Stories

Finalist: Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur, this book was described by The New Yorker as a collection of "ten disquieting, bloody tales [which] conjure a pitiless, almost folkloric world."

On a Woman's Madness

Finalist: This award-winning classic of queer literature originally published in Dutch in 1982 is "plainly a love story, but one that reminds readers that, more often than not, our social conditions matter just as much as the company we keep.” —Lily Meyer, NPR

Abyss

Finalist: This short novel is by the Colombian author of The Bitch, a 2020 National Book Award Finalist and PEN Awards Winner.

This Is Not Miami

Longlist: This unsentimental collection of vignettes highlights the violence of the author's native Veracruz, Mexico, and how people cope with it. "Skillfully translated by Hughes, this is a book that’s as gorgeous as it is dark, and it proves that Melchor is one of the finest writers working today. Absolutely stunning." —Kirkus Reviews

The Most Secret Memory of Men

Longlist: This winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt, written by a Senegal-born writer and translated from the French, was inspired by the real-life story of a successful Malian writer who stopped writing after being accused of plagiarism.

No One Prayed Over Their Graves

Longlist: This "vast, sprawling saga that depicts, among other things, the birth pangs of modern Syria" (The Guardian) gives an intimate look at the relationship between two Syrian friends amidst the violence and tension of the region.

Kairos

Longlist: This critical hit translated from the German by Michael Hofmann follows the long and torrid affair between a young woman and an older married man. The New York Times said, "It’s a cathartic leak of a novel, a beautiful bummer, and the floodgates open early."

The Devil of the Provinces

Longlist: This mysterious novel by a Colombian art critic, curator, translator and author follows a narrator who returns to Colombia after 15 years abroad and becomes entangled in his brother's unsolved murder.