It’s International Translation Day! To celebrate, here is the Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature team’s favourite books in translation. Want more? Last year we ran a series of interviews and panel talks, which you can find here.
Make sure to get in touch over social media and let us know what you’re reading for International Translation Day 2022.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
An unsettling story of corporeal prisons a woman’s unconventional decision to break free. Han Kang’s novel is bracing and shocking, with Deborah Smith’s translation smoothly shifting from character and thought.
‘The Vegetarian’ by Han Kang
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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Winning the Man Booker International prize in 2018, Olga Tokarczuk’s novel is no simple murder mystery. Imbued with the spirit of William Blake, the novel delves into the philosophies of vegetarianism as a comical yet political critique of violence and masculinity.
‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ by Olga Tokarczuk
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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
An off-beat novel that treats gender roles and social expectations with quirky humour.
‘Convenience Store Woman’ by Sayaka Murata
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Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur
A genre-defying collection of short stories, with horror, science-fiction and fairy-tales that crawl under your skin and sit there for days. Bora Chung sways from horror to humor as her stories show the cruelties of the modern world.