The National Book Award for Translated Literature (2024)

"Yáng Shuang-zi’s Taiwan Travelogue follows a fictional Japanese writer and her relationship with the charming yet closed-off Taiwanese woman who serves as her interpreter. Translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, this novel explores language, politics, and popular culture in 1930s Taiwan, and the shape a cross-cultural friendship takes under the weight of history."

"Linnea Axelsson’s Ædnan, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel, is an epic that relates the experiences of two Indigenous Sámi families over the course of three generations and one hundred years. Ædnan—a Northern Sámi word that translates to land, ground, or earth, and echoes of mother—weaves together a tale of displacement, cultural erasure, and resistance in the face of colonial oppression."

"Set in a dystopian future headed by an all-powerful government, Bothayna Al-Essa’s unnamed narrator is hired as a book censor and tasked with identifying books not fit for publication—those that depict queerness, religion, education, and democracy. Concerned that his daughter’s love for stories will put her in danger, the book censor joins an underground organization of clandestine booksellers and undercover librarians, and develops a love for reading that fuels his mission to preserve history in The Book Censor’s Library, translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain."

"In The Villain’s Dance, translated from the French by Roland Glasser, readers zig-zag across timelines, perspectives, and borders—from 1990s Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of Congo) to the diamond mines of Angola. Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s novel features a dizzying cast of characters whose quests for survival amidst political, environmental, and financial uncertainty somehow, ultimately, converge."

"In Where the Wind Calls Home, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price, a wounded nineteen-year-old soldier, Ali, is fighting to survive in the Syrian Civil War. Blurring timelines to mirror Ali’s disorientated state, Samar Yazbek recounts the history of a country’s cultural richness and religious traditions through vivid hallucinations, remembrances, and a chilling reminder of the painful realities of war."

"When readers are introduced to Tara Selter, the protagonist of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume (Book I), she is stuck in a time loop and reluctantly accepting her new reality as she realizes that she has relived November 18th for the 122nd time. Translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland, this novel is the first in a seven-volume series about existential loneliness, the revelations found in repetition, and how to find your way back into a shared timeline with those you love."

"Fernando Vallejo’s queer autofiction novel, The Abyss, follows a middle-aged man on a visit to Medellín, Colombia where his brother is dying of AIDS. Together, the brothers reflect on their youth and country in this poignant exploration of memory and mortality, translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert."

"Nasser Abu Srour’s poetic memoir, The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on the Meaning of Hope and Freedom, depicts more than three decades spent in Israeli prisons, where Abu Srour is serving a life sentence without parole. Translated from the Arabic by Luke Leafgren, Abu Srour shares how, during prolonged periods of solitary confinement, he turned to his imagination as a strategy for survival in this rumination on love, justice, and the far-reaching power of hope."

"In Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, an unnamed woman grapples with the resentment she feels towards her overbearing mother, the ex-husband she’s still in love with, and the boy she babysits whose insatiable hunger demands round-the-clock care. All the while, a devastating plague ravages the city’s food supply, forcing residents to consume an affordable but nauseating pink slime produced by a local meat-processing plant in this harrowing debut novel translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary."

"When a young boy goes missing, the neighbors suspect the duo is behind his mysterious disappearance in Layla Martinez’s debut novel. Woodworm, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott, offers an exploration of classism, inherited trauma, and the search for revenge and justice in an inhospitable world."