The Best Books in Translation to Read Now

The Wolves of Eternity

"Knausgaard... brings to life — even celebrates — the complex and ambivalent give-and-take between men, between women and between men and women. These relationships, full of misunderstandings, concessions and reconciliations, feel real, without agenda." - Sven Briskerts in the New York Times

The Words That Remain

Winner of the National Book Award in Translated Literature

A Shining

"The world is rendered just as it is. This is perhaps why A Shining feels so momentous, even at fewer than 50 pages. You never quite know where you’re going. But it doesn’t matter: you want to follow, to move in step with the rhythm of these words." - Matthew Janney for Financial Times

Beyond the Door of No Return

"A hypnotic, powerful historical novel in which stories nest within one another like dolls... In a few vivid brush strokes, Diop brings to life not only Adanson, but also the ways in which his dreams, loves and losses shaped the lives of those around him." - Clémence Michallon for the New York Times

Roman Stories

"Melancholy yet electric ... The fluid transitions between Lahiri’s and Portnowitz’s translations elevate Roman Stories from a grouping of individual tales to a deeply moving whole." - Lily Meyer for the New York Times

My Work

"This collage could be frustrating — a stylish evasion of plot or character. Instead, it is exactly right, capturing the overwhelming disorientation of early motherhood. As Ravn illustrates, a few minutes of birth can seem like an eternity." - Thessaly La Force for the New York Times

Phantom Pain Wings

"Death speaks across, and beyond, many languages...In Choi’s empathic translations, Hyesoon’s poetry takes flight into a resonant and deathless English." - Srikanth Reddy in the Washington Post

Her Side of the Story: From the Author of Forbidden Notebook

"De Céspedes immerses the reader in the febrile consciousness of a young woman with too much time on her hands and too many overpowering fantasies about a long series of men with agendas of their own... A lavishly detailed critique of romantic ideals and social constrictions." - Kirkus Reviews

Fulgentius

"This is with great anticipation and joy to have in my hand a new work by Cesar Aira. He is a genius! It’s translated by Chris Andrews, who is one of the best." - Patti Smith

The Flowers of Buffoonery

"Ultimately, the newly translated novel adds a revealing new texture to a classic text, and readers may find pleasure in the levity brought to the somewhat dire thesis: The world is full of inauthenticity and forced performance." - Thu-Huong Ha for the Japan Times