Recommendations please for books in translation ...

[NotSoLongGoodbye]

Been stuck in a bit of a reading rut recently and realised I haven't read much contemporary fiction in translation / from authors that may be popular in other (non-English speaking) countries. I've just pre-ordered this
www.waterstones.com/book/the-silence-of-scheherazade/defne-suman/betsy-goeksel/9781800246959

but am looking for other suggestions ... modern authors please, not classics as I've probably read those. Any thoughts / ideas welcomed ...

How about a modern classic? I loved Abigail by Magda Szabo.

Also loved Miss Iceland by Olafsdottir. I have been reading my way round Europe instead of travelling and both of the above books were amazing.

The Three Body Problem - one of the big SF hits of recent years, translated from the Chinese.

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Human Acts by Han Kang

I read a Minor Detail by Palestinian author Adania Shibli last year, and liked it a lot.

slightly different, but very good - 50 Sounds by Polly Barton.
She moved to Japan and eventually became a translator.
The book is about this and is so many things - I haven't enjoyed something so much for a long time.

Thank you I haven't heard of any of these books or authors. Has anyone read anything by a Korean author Kwon Yeo-sun? This caught my eye too ...
www.amazon.co.uk/Lemon-Kwon-Yeo-sun/dp/180024147X?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

@MaMaLa321

slightly different, but very good - 50 Sounds by Polly Barton. She moved to Japan and eventually became a translator. The book is about this and is so many things - I haven't enjoyed something so much for a long time.

Oh, I picked this up in a bookshop the day they reopened but didn't buy it -- it looked fascinating.

Seconding Magda Szabo, but I prefer The Door to Abigail, though it's also excellent, but very different.

Flights or Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk.

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li.

Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal.

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell.

It's a slow read, as there is a lot to absorb. But one of the best books I've read in a long time.

I'd second the recommendation for Fifty Sounds - I'm now reading one of the books that she's translated (There's No Such thing as an Easy Job) and enjoying that too.

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Based on true story of a german couple who tried to do something to fight back against the Nazi system in WW2. Is also a film with Emma Thompson.

I'm rereading 50 Sounds Sadik, as I don't think I appreciated everything she was trying to say at the 1st reading

I'd recommend The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I can't remember the author but it was translated from French. I really enjoyed it and part of the reason it has stuck with me is the everyday descriptions as so different to anywhere I have lived in the UK.

The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness.

Like an Icelandic David Copperfield, but less wordy and more...slightly left of field? Anyway, read it, it’s brilliant.

I recommend The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia. It’s set in Mexico at the time of the Spanish flu pandemic, which made for interesting reading! It’s one of my all-time favourite books.

I'm in the middle of reading The Discomfort of Evening and finding it very disturbing

Here's a couple of blogs that concentrate on translated fiction:

A year of reading the world
Translating Women

The best translated books I've read over the last year or so are these:

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi. Winner of the international booker a few years ago, this follows 3 sisters in Oman as they get married.
The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani. This is newly out in English and is the first in a trilogy loosely based on the author's own family in Morocco.
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi. A memoir of escaping the Bolsheviks by one of Russia's most famous writers.
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana. A boy abandoned by his parents in a working class community in Thailand.
The Cost of Sugar by Cynthia McLeod. Two sisters on a sugar plantation in Suriname.
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. Two stories about grief.
The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami. A portrait of a man by the women who loved him.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang. Short novella about a woman's relationship with food.

A Bag of Marbles (French title - Un Sac de Billes) by Joseph Joffo. The author's account of how he and his brother, two working class Jewish Parisian schoolboys, fended for themselves after their father told them to flee the Nazi round-ups. It's riveting, powerful and moving. It's very well known in France and deserves to be far better known elsewhere.

How about Murakami. A Japanese author. I really like the style of the writing. Just ordered a book of his short stories but he's written a number of novels too.

I also came on to say Murakami. Love all his stuff.

I also recently read the Elegance of the Hedgehog which is originally French.

I loved 'Independent People' by Haldor Laxness.