recommend me a translated book

[WeshMaGueule]

It's the International Translation Day, so recommend me a good book you've read that was originally written in anything other than English :-)

I really like Haruki Murakami. Norwegian Wood is probably my favourite.

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/63604-the-10-best-haruki-murakami-books.html

Persepolis, a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi about growing up during the Iranian revolution.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which depicts a single day in a Russian gulag.

FFS why is there an extra "the" in my OP? Just ignore it. As you were.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlick or Jean de Florette by Marcel Pagnol.

My Brilliant Friend (the whole saga!)
A Whole Life

Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn. It's semi-autobiographical, patient focused & IMO should be read by anyone working in the NHS.

Good stuff! I've read five of the ones listed so far and seen another one as a film, so keep the recommendations coming.

The Gloomster Ludwig Bechstei. OK it's a poem but I love it.

The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans. Wikipedia says:

The Darkroom of Damocles (Dutch: De donkere kamer van Damokles) is a war novel by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, published in 1958. An immediate success since it was first published, the novel has been printed in numerous editions and is one of the greatest World War II novels.

"Osewoudt, a cigar store owner from Voorschoten, near Leiden, living under the Nazi occupation, makes his acquaintance with the mysterious Dorbeck, who claims to be involved in the Resistance movement. Dorbeck enlists Osewoudt for dangerous attacks on the Gestapo and Dutch Nazi collaborators. After the Nazi defeat Dorbeck has disappeared, and Osewoudt is arrested for collaboration. Now, Osewoudt needs Dorbeck to prove his innocence."

Reception Edit
Neel Mukherjee of The Daily Telegraph wrote in 2007: "The novel, written in a spare, even desiccated style, becomes starkly existentialist, bringing to mind Camus and the Sartre of Les Chemins de la Liberté. Crackling with tension at the same time as a philosophical cynicism - or perhaps just an uninterested amorality - about motives and actions, this is an edgy, uneasy novel about the human condition, effortlessly disguised as a thriller."

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Most of Isabel Allende's books were originally in Spanish like The House Of Spirits/ La Casa de is Espiritus (I have a feeling she might have written some more recent work in English).

I also loved The 100 Year Old Man Climbed Out Of a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.

I haven't read them but a lot of people loved Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. Interestingly a bilingual friend couldn't get into them in English but loved them translated into French

Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu

The Futurological Congress - Stanislaw Lem

Metro 2033 - Dmitry Glukhovsky

The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, by Carl-Johan Vallgren. Hard to describe but very very good.

HHhH by Laurent Binet (I think that's the author) - quite a recent one.

I agree with many of the above too.

Just thought of another fairly recent one - Lullaby, by Leila Slimani.

I'm reading HHhH right now! It's amazing. Nearly finished, hence my question. ALways looking to expand my horizons.

This is a great thread...reading material for miles!

Anything by Pierre Lemaitre, but particularly Blood Wedding. All his work is translated by Frank Wynne who is a fantastically talented literary translator whose success I would like to emulate one day

Sweet Bean Paste

Convenience Store Woman

Both translations by friends of mine

My mum’s just read Convenience Store Woman, Tante, and really enjoyed it!

Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, by Peter Hoeg, is a translation and one of my favourite books ever. I often wonder whether I’d love it as much if I’d been able to read it in the original Danish.

haha, love the name grosseconnasse!

@Laquila yay

Great thread! Adding lots to my wishlist.

My recommendation is Die, My Love, by Arianna Harwicz. It's a short, dark story of a woman living in rural France, struggling (to say the least) with being a wife and mother. It's a heavy read - definitely read reviews before getting it if you might find it disturbing - but fascinating and really beautifully written and translated.

The shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (there are sequels but in my opinion this more than stands alone)

Translator here, basking in the reflected glory of the literary translators! I'd love to be able to recommend something that I had translated, but that's still very much a dream... but if you ever visit the Neandertal Museum in Germany, I translated all the exhibit information into English.

I don't read a lot in translation, because I find myself treating it as an exercise in translation criticism, but I loved Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg. Like a PP, I loved The Hundred Yr Old Man too, but really struggled with The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden, so I had a quick look in the front - they're translated by different people and IMO the translator of the former (Rod Bradbury) has far greater lightness of touch. Similarly, I find I only enjoy Murakami if it was translated by Jay Rubin.