August is Women In Translation Month, Some intriguing books on my radar by Guadelupe Nettel, Han Kang, Claudia Piñeiro and more- Have you read any of these/ are you planning to?
Translated Fiction By Women
Stillborn by Guadelupe Nettel; Translation by – A favourite for me, I shared my thoughts here. Not to be read lightly though, it did get some tears from me which isnt the usual!
Two friends, Alina and Laura explore the decisions around having or not having children. They are both independent and career-driven women in their 30s, neither of whom have built their future around the prospect of a family. In the course of the story, we see women through many different lenses- non condemned and all experiences shown for their validity
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor ; Translation by Sophie Hughes – TBR-
Description from Fitzcarraldo Editions :
Inside a luxury housing complex, two misfit teenagers sneak around and get drunk. Franco Andrade, lonely, overweight, and addicted to porn, obsessively fantasizes about seducing his neighbour – an attractive married woman and mother – while Polo dreams about quitting his gruelling job as a gardener within the gated community and fleeing his overbearing mother and their narco-controlled village.
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro; Translation by Frances Riddle – TBR –
Description from Charco Press:
After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society
Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 by Cho Nam Joo; Translation by Jamie Chang- TBR – Kim Jiyoung is a girl born to a mother whose in-laws wanted a boy. Kim Jiyoung is a sister made to share a room while her brother gets one of his own.
Kim Jiyoung is a female preyed upon by male teachers at school. Kim Jiyoung is a daughter whose father blames her when she is harassed late at night.
Kim Jiyoung is a good student who doesn’t get put forward for internships. Kim Jiyoung is a model employee but gets overlooked for promotion. Kim Jiyoung is a wife who gives up her career and independence for a life of domesticity.
The White Book by Han Kang; Translation by Deborah Smith – TBR- The Vegetarian left a lasting impact on me so I look forward to this
A fragmented exploration of white things – the swaddling bands that were also her shroud, the breast milk she did not live to drink, the blank page on which the narrator herself attempts to reconstruct the story – unfold in a powerfully poetic distillation. As she walks the unfamiliar, snow-streaked streets, lined by buildings formerly obliterated in the Second World War, their identities blur and overlap as the narrator wonders, ‘ Can I give this life to you ?
Translated Non Fiction By Women
The Copenhagen Trilogy: Childhood, Youth & Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen; Translation by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman- TBR-I’ve read some fiction by Ditlevsen that I loved
From Penguin:
Growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Tove feels that her childhood is made for a completely different girl. As ‘long, mysterious words begin to crawl across my soul’, she comes to understand that she has a vocation that will define her life. Her path seems assured, but she has no idea of the struggles ahead – love affairs, wanted and unwanted pregnancies, artistic failure and destructive addiction. As the years go by, the central tension of Tove’s life comes into painful focus: the terrible lure of dependency, in all its forms, and the possibility of living freely and fearlessly – as an artist on her own terms
Paperback Social 