My Women In Translation Month TBR

August is Women in Translation Month, an exciting time to celebrate translations from women authors all over the world! This initiative was founded by Meytal Radzinski in 2014 and has been going strong ever since. The initiative has since expanded to include transgender, non-binary and intersex authors too.

Obviously in an ideal world we’d all be reading women in translation year-round, which I do. (Side note: just like we should be reading LGBTQ+ authors outside of Pride Month and Black authors outside of Black History Month). But I’m really going for it this year, aiming for at least 10 titles by women in translation in August, hopefully more! Two of my books didn’t arrive in time to photograph for this post, but I was too eager to share. They are all listed below.

I’ve tried to keep my TBR as inclusive as possible, as translated literature can often be very Euro-centric. However, I could only afford to buy two books from Black women authors in translation. As well as a general lack of Black women in translation, the ones that are published are either difficult to source or expensive. I will work on finding more to read over time. Do check out the @ReadWIT Instagram page though, as Meytal has been sharing lots of Black women in translation there!

But eight out of ten authors here are authors of colour, so I’m quite happy with that balance. I’ll also be listening to audiobooks throughout the month (side note: translated audiobooks are quite hard to find!), so I’ll be sure to prioritise more BIPOC stories there.

Please note this post contains affiliate links. If you buy through my Blackwell’s link, I’ll earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you! Any prices I may mention are correct at the time of publishing this post.

So here are the 10 titles I’ll be reading during Women in Translation Month!

1. Segu by Maryse Condé, tr. French by Barbara Bray

Did someone say family saga? Segu is set in 1797, when the kingdom of Segu is flourishing. But threats loom from every direction, and even the kingdom’s soothsayers cannot predict what will happen. Condé is one of the most prominent and prolific Black women in translation and I’m excited to be reading what is probably considered her crowning achievement.

Buy Segu at Blackwell’s

2. Revenge by Yōko Ogawa, tr. Japanese by Stephen Snyder

I can’t shut up about The Memory Police so it’s probably about time I read another Ogawa to gush over. A collection of darkly intertwined short stories, I’ll probably read Revenge spread out over the month. Unless, of course, it sucks me in and I can’t put it down, which is definitely a distinct possibility. Stephen Snyder translates this one too, so it should be a smooth read! This is currently just £6.99 at Blackwell’s.

Buy Revenge at Blackwell’s

3. Adua by Igiaba Scego, tr. Italian by Jamie Richards

This is probably the book I’m most looking forward to for Women in Translation month. With praise from Maaza Mengiste, the novel centres around Adua, an immigrant from Somalia to Italy who has lived in Rome for almost 40 years. She dreamed of becoming a star in Italy but it didn’t end well, and now she feels a pull to return to Somalia as the civil war has ended. Grab a copy for just £7.99 right now!

Buy Adua at Blackwell’s

4. Grove by Esther Kinsky, tr. German by Caroline Schmidt

Thank you, FitzCarraldo Editions, for gifting this one to me. Although originally written in German, our unnamed narrator is travelling through Italy following her bereavement. It promises to be a novel filled with introspection, reflecting on memories and the way we process grief and love. In short, something I’m sure to love. This one is currently £4 off at Blackwell’s!

Buy Grove at Blackwell’s

5. Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, tr. Thai by Mui Poopoksakul

This book is the first book by a Thai woman to appear in English! So Women in Translation month seemed like the perfect time to finally read it. It’s a coming-of-age story which follows a young boy who is adopted by a community after his father abandons him. I believe the author uses vignettes to tell this story. Sometimes I love vignettes and sometimes I find them too fleeting, so hopefully this will be a case of the former!

Buy Bright at Blackwell’s

6. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, tr. Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette

This is another book that my dear friends at FitzCarraldo sent to me – they are too good to me over there! This is a slim little novel but I hear it leaves a large impression. It starts in 1949, a year after the Nakba that saw 700,000 Palestinians displaced. Israeli soldiers capture, rape, and kill a young Palestinian woman. Years later, a woman becomes fixated on this ‘minor detail’ of history. This sounds like an incredibly moving and haunting read and I’m so grateful for the chance to read it.

Buy Minor Detail at Blackwell’s

7. Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, tr. Arabic by Sherif Hetata

I’ve been meaning to read the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi for a while, and what better time? I serendipitously found a copy of this when I went for my first second-hand book browse since lockdown began! I grabbed it off the shelf so fast. The narrator is Firdaus, who tells her story from her prison cell after she kills a pimp in Cairo. She tells her life story, from childhood to her life as a prostitute.

Buy Woman at Point Zero at Blackwell’s

8. Panty by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, tr. Bengali by Arunava Sinha

I’ve never read anything translated from Bengali before, so I’m excited for this one! I really need to do better at reading more literature from India in general, so this will be a start. This book consists of two novellas where ‘darkly glamorous and fiercely erotic heroines take centre stage’. Sign me up. I also got this for an absolute STEAL online with Blackwell’s – £2.43! It’s currently listed as £4.30, which is still a bargain.

Buy Panty at Blackwell’s

9. Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, tr. Spanish by Sarah Moses

I’ve read quite a lot of Argentinian authors this year (seven so far), and I’m not stopping in August! I won’t lie, this book frightens me a little. The main gist is that it’s a dystopian novel where human meat is no longer taboo. I’m sure your imagination can fill in from there. But I love books that push boundaries and explore the darkest recesses of the human mind, so I’m ready to dive in and be horrified!

Buy Tender is the Flesh at Blackwell’s

10. The Door by Magda Szabó, tr. Hungarian by Len Rix

Back in February I really enjoyed reading Katalin Street by Szabó, again translated by Rix, so I’m looking forward to diving into one of her backlist titles! This is the story of a bizarre relationship which develops over 20 years between a writer and a housekeeper. The housekeeper is described as ‘stubborn and foulmouthed’, so pretty much guaranteed to be a character I will adore. This is another one that’s just £6.99 at the moment.

Buy The Door at Blackwell’s

***

Usually I read between 15 and 20 books a month, so you’ll notice I’ve left some wiggle room for other reads that catch my eye. I do have a few other translated titles I want to buy (The Summer Book by Tove Jansson and Last Words from Montmartre by Qui Miaojin) but I’ll have to see what my bank balance says!

Women in Translation month is (I think) mainly about celebrating the women authors who are writing, but it is cool that six out of ten translators here are also women.

Let me know in the comments if you’re planning to read anything for Women in Translation month too! And look out for my upcoming post with some recommendations for books by women in translation I’ve already read that you might want to add to your TBR for August!