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recommend me a translated book

92 replies

WeshMaGueule · 30/09/2019 08:05

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

OP posts:
ALittleBitAlexis · 30/09/2019 18:32

I've been buying books all day thanks to this thread Grin

I especially can't wait to read Convenience Store Woman and Life's a User Manual!

rosamacrose · 30/09/2019 18:35

Germial and the rest of the series, Emile Zola

rosamacrose · 30/09/2019 18:36

Germinal, (my hopeless eyesight )

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

MacavityTheDentistsCat · 30/09/2019 18:37

The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer. The first part in particular is fascinating. It tells the story of the first attempts to climb the North Face of the Eiger.

Catnuzzle · 30/09/2019 18:38

Les Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier.

Hypnotic and beautiful tragic love story.

Stabbitha · 30/09/2019 18:41

Beside the sea.

Warning tho. It's fairly harrowing.

WeshMaGueule · 30/09/2019 18:42

Who's it by Stabbitha?

OP posts:
Candleabra · 30/09/2019 18:46

Anything translated by Stephen Sartarelli, he's brilliant. (He does the inspector moltalbano books amongst lots of other stuff)

grosseconnasse · 30/09/2019 19:24

Ooh another one, but this time with my Italian translator's hat on rather than French: If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino. This book had a huge impact on me the first time I read it and I still go back to it nearly 20 years down the line.

BeanBag7 · 30/09/2019 19:27

I was also going to suggest Shadow of the Wind, but @Kalim8 beat me to it. I loved that book and, at the time of reading, had no idea it was translated.

bookgirl1982 · 30/09/2019 19:32

Sixteen trees of the Somme

noblegiraffe · 30/09/2019 19:33

If you like maths: Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis.

WeshMaGueule · 30/09/2019 19:35

Totally

OP posts:
WeshMaGueule · 30/09/2019 19:37

This is my recommendation, not translated by me I hasten to add: Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès, The Island of Point Nemo. A kind of modern-day Jules Verne, one of my top all time favourites.

OP posts:
PastTheGin · 30/09/2019 19:43

Günter Grass, The Tin Drum

Daniel Kehlmann, Measuring the World

Lars Saabye Christensen, Beatles

Harry Mulisch, The Discovery of Heaven

GinLimeandLemonade · 30/09/2019 19:45

I loved this
www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Natsuo-Kirino/dp/0099472287?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
It won't appeal to everyone though!

Brigante9 · 30/09/2019 19:51

@grosseconnasse Connasse is my favourite word ever in French. I use it far too much.

Doyoumind · 30/09/2019 19:56

100 Years of Solitude.

mamaduckbone · 30/09/2019 20:13

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backmann, originally Swedish.
It's one of my absolute favourite books, and I'm usually not a fan of translations.

Balloondog · 30/09/2019 20:13

Alone in Berlin

mamaduckbone · 30/09/2019 20:15

Sorry OP - just RTFT and seen that you're a translator - no offence intended!

InTropicalTrumpsLand · 30/09/2019 20:16

My favourite Brazilian author is Jorge Amado. Captains of the Sand is my favourite book ever, but if you are up for lighter reading I cannot recommend "The Two Deaths of Quincas Water-Yell" enough.

EBearhug · 30/09/2019 20:21

Little Man What Now by Hans Fallada is also good (he wrote Alone in Berlin mentioned upthread.)

There's a Harry Mulisch book which isn't the Discovery of Heaven, but I can't remember the title, and am not at home to go upstairs and check, but it was about a man remembering a raid on their house in the war and how the neighbours reacted. And now it's going to annoy me that I don't remember.

IveGotBillsTheyreMultiplying · 30/09/2019 20:22

Agree with a Balloon Dog -
Alone in Berlin

Also Defying Hitler

and for crime with Scandi domestic drama all the Camilla Lackbergs.

EBearhug · 30/09/2019 20:25

The Assault (thank goodness for Google.)
I read quite a few Dutch-authored books a while back after saying to a Dutch colleague, how come we never hear of Dutch writers? In a couple of cases, I realised why...