Translated from Hindi by Daisy RockwellPublished by Tilted Axis Press, 2021, 320 pages. Original version published in 2018. Tomb of Sand is the story of Ma, an 80-year-old woman who comes into her own after spending her life in roles dictated by society: as daughter, wife, mother and grandmother. When the book begins, Ma’s husband …
Category: Books in translation
This Tilting World: Colette Fellous
Translated from French by Sophie LewisPublished by Les Fugitives, 2019, 190 pages. Original version published in 2017. “[B]ut now it’s over, my novel is damaged, the world is damaged, I too am deeply wounded, something has happened here, something real, but everything can still begin, everything can begin again, I firmly believe it... “I must …
Mother’s Beloved—Stories from Laos: Outhine Bounyavong
Translated from Lao by Bounheng Inversin, Roger Rumpf, Jacqui Chagnon, Thipason Phimviengkham and William GallowayPublished by University of Washington Press, 1999, 198 pages. A poor cobbler finds a way to make his contribution to his country's war effort; a young man offers strangers lifts on his bicycle; and a young woman tries to return a …
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The Death of the Perfect Sentence: Rein Raud
Translated from Estonian by Matthew HydePublished by Vagabond Voices, 2017, 176 pages. Original version published in 2015. On 20 August 1991, Estonia formally declared its independence from the Soviet Union, even as Soviet authorities were trying to crush this movement. Set during the last days of the Soviet Union in Estonia, The Death of the …
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Grey Bees: Andrey Kurkov
Translated from Russian by Boris DralyukPublished by MacLehose Press, 2021, 352 pages. Original version published in 2018. Set in the period after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, this book by Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov is particularly timely, given the war that is now unfolding in Ukraine. Sergey Sergeyich lives in Little Starhorodivka, an almost …
Of Strangers and Bees: Hamid Ismailov
Translated from Uzbek and Russian by Shelley Fairweather-VegaPublished by Tilted Axis Press, 2019, 446 pages. Original version published in 2001. “Life in exile! May it be cursed. Once you have become a stranger, a stranger you shall remain; you may endeavour to make friends, but the task is a difficult one, full end to end …
We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day: Ivana Bodrožić
Translated from Croatian by Ellen Elias-BursaćPublished by Seven Stories Press UK, 2021, 223 pages. Original version published in 2016. “Everyone is running from someone, or from their own past.” Corruption and the long shadows thrown by war are at the heart of this political thriller from Croatia. Nora, a young journalist in Zagreb, is sent …
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Vultures in the Living Room and Other Stories: Lula Falcão
Translated from Portuguese by Helena Cavendish de Moura with Andrew Michael BrownPublished in a bilingual edition by Casa Forte Press, 2017, 123 pages. Original version published in 2017. Lula Falcão is an award-winning journalist, political advocate and writer. His criticism of the current President Jai Bolsonaro has landed him on the list of “intellectuals to …
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1Q84: Haruki Murakami
Translated from Japanese by Jay Rubin and Philip GabrielPublished by Vintage, 2011, 944 pages. Original version published in 2009-2010. Prepare to walk into Haruki Murakami’s strange world. You can slip through the thin barrier between this world and an alternate one simply by taking an emergency exit off a highway or ghost-writing a particular book. …
Flights: Olga Tokarczuk
Translated from Polish by Jennifer CroftPublished by Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2018, 416 pages. Original version published in 2007. “Clearly I did not inherit whatever gene it is that makes it so that when you linger in a place you start to put down roots. I’ve tried, a number of times but my roots have always been …
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