The Best Books in Translation to Read Now
Many of the most exciting books out this year have been translations, with critically acclaimed authors such as Olga Ravn, Jhumpa Lahiri, and the Nobel Prize-winning Jon Fosse now topping the best-of-year lists. We're thrilled to see translated literature enjoying a sharp resurgence and are sharing here a must-read list of 18 gems from David Diop's journey into colonial Senegal to Stenio Gardel’s National Book Award-winning Brazilian queer love story. Stock up now and make 2024 the year where you expand your reading horizons!
18 books
The Wolves of Eternity
Karl Ove Knausgaard"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
Brandon & Charles ArrowsmithOut of stock
The Words That Remain
Stênio GardelWinner of the National Book Award in Translated Literature
Bruna Dantas Lobato & National Book FoundationPaperback, 2023
$16.95$8.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
A Shining
Jon Fosse"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
Anton Hur & David VarnoPaperback, 2023
$16.95$8.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Beyond the Door of No Return
David Diop"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
Clay McLeod Chapman & Clémence MichallonHardcover, 2023
$27.00$13.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Roman Stories
Jhumpa Lahiri"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
Chloe Schama & alifeinbooksHardcover, 2023
$27.00$13.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
My Work
Olga Ravn"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
Amber Sparks & Thessaly (王正谊) La ForcePaperback, 2023
$18.95$9.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Phantom Pain Wings
Kim Hyesoon"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
Alexander Chee & Alina StefanescuPaperback, 2023
$18.95$9.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Her Side of the Story: From the Author of Forbidden Notebook
Alba de Céspedes"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
Publishers Weekly & The MillionsHardcover, 2023
$29.00$14.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Fulgentius
César Aira"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
BOMB Magazine & Alina StefanescuPaperback, 2023
$14.95$7.47 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Flowers of Buffoonery
Osamu Dazai"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
terry nguyễn & The TLSPaperback, 2023
$14.95$7.47 + Free shipping50% off your first book