Translated books suitable for 12-15 year old boys

[2020again]

I am looking for books suitable for 12 to 15 year-old boys written in a foreign language but then translated into English. Can anyone suggest suitable titles that do not run to hundreds of pages and may grab this age group. It does not have to be full on action but heavy description and no action books probably wont be interesting enough I am guessing.

Erich Kästner - Emil und die Detektive (Emil and the Detectives)

• is the first thing that springs to mind, though it may be a bit young. Or:

Antoine de Saint-Exupery - Flight to Arras

might be suitable. It begins "Surely I must be dreaming. It is as if I were fifteen again. I am back at school. My mind is on my geometry problem ..."

I recall spending my teens reading a huge amount of Russian literature: Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Sholokhov ... All obviously in translation. But it doesn't sound as if that's the sort of thing you want.

What's the purpose of your quest, OP? General interest or for a school project? For contemporary fiction I'd imagine the best thing would be to look through the catalogues of publishers that specialise in literature in translation. There are quite a few (though I can't recall any names right now). There are quite a few hard hitting coming of age novels recently published by French authors. I usually stumble upon them in the review pages of The Guardian or The New York Times.

Solaris
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. Is descriptive but could hold them & is short.

Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Whisperers;Private Lives in Stalins Russia Orlando Figes
Gulag Archpelago by Solzhenitsyn
Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas
The Three Musketeers also by Dumas
The Plague by Albert Camus
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of Hadrian by Yourcenar
Papillon by Charriere

Here's a list of contemporary novels:

lithub.com/the-10-best-translated-novels-of-the-decade/

I wouldn't attempt to guess which might appeal most to a twelve year old boy - but it's a place to start.

Thank you for all your replies. This is very helpful.