Fiction in Translation

Honey Hunger by Zahran Alqasmi, translated by Marilyn Booth, is a lyrical novel set among the mountains and plains of rural Oman. Azzan is a beekeeper who searches for wild hives and finds solace in tending his bees. When he encounters Thamna, a solitary...

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg is an intimate and beautifully observed autobiographical novel about family, language, memory and life in Fascist Italy. Ginzburg recreates the world of her family through their distinctive expressions, arguments, routines, friendships and memories. At the centre is the lively...

The Gates of Paradise by Kuwaiti author Taleb Alrefai, translated by Kay Heikkinen, follows Yaqoub, a wealthy Kuwaiti businessman in his sixties whose comfortable life begins to unravel. His marriage is deteriorating, he develops an unexpected attraction to a young Iranian employee, and his...

The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer, and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine. Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in the...

Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky, follows Richard, a recently retired university professor living in Berlin. When he encounters a group of African asylum seekers living in a tent city, he gradually begins to question his assumptions about belonging, nationality...

Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Michael Emmerich, brings together three atmospheric stories about women experiencing unusual states of sleep, grief, love and isolation. The stories blend contemporary Japanese life with elements of the supernatural and surrealism.

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai is the second book in the heartwarming Kamogawa Food Detectives series, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood. In a small Kyoto restaurant, a father and daughter recreate treasured dishes from their customers' memories. From a former...

M: Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati, translated by Anne Milano Appel, is a sweeping historical novel about Benito Mussolini and the rise of Italian Fascism. Blending documented historical events with a powerful narrative, the novel follows Mussolini's rise from political agitator to...

Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida is a beautifully interconnected novel set in Tokyo during the quiet hours of the night. Matsui, a taxi driver, travels through the city between 1 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., encountering an eclectic cast of insomniacs, eccentrics and strangers, each...

Notes from a Lost Country by Sinan Antoon follows Sami, a retired Iraqi doctor living in Brooklyn who is gradually losing himself to dementia and memories of Iraq before the war. Omar, an Iraqi army deserter, arrives in the United States carrying the physical...

A powerful novel of the saving grace of language and human connection, from the celebrated author of The Vegetarian. In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her...