Hi, folks!

Women in Translation Month is drawing to a close, but every month is more or less WIT month here! If you remember, Meytal at Biblibio decided to curate a list of the top 100 books for #WITMonth, and asked readers to share their top 10 books by women writers in translation (mine are here).

This week, she released the final crowdsourced list of the top 100 books by women writers in translation according to the readers. I am happy to see that four of the ten books I nominated got included in the final list; as for the rest of my nominations, three authors appeared in the final list with different books from the ones I had chosen (you can see everything below).

By now, you already know I am into reading lists, readalongs, reading projects, and the like, right? So, I am turning this list into a long-term reading project, and I will update this post as I go along. You will be able to find a link to this post in my projects page.

Meytal, Michael and Agnese also created a Goodreads group for people interested in reading & discussing the books. Agnese created a list on Goodreads here. And you can find the list as a challenge here.

As of now (August 28th, 2019), I’ve read 36 books, which will be listed below. Here is the

Key:

• Read books are marked as (✓)
• Favourites are marked as (✨)
• My reviews, when available, will be linked below
• Crossed off books denote the ones I either will not read or started reading and did not finish (DNFs)
• Books I nominated are marked as (*)
• Authors that appeared in my nominations with different books than the ones in the final list are marked as (#)
• Books I’ve read: 48/ 100 (April 08th, 2021)
  • Favourites: 14/48
• Source of the list: Biblibio
• Goodreads group: 100BestWIT

NB: Depending on the edition I read, the names of the translators can vary from the ones in the original list, so I will be adding them as I go along. If I read the book in its original language, I will add below the translator mentioned in the original list. An exception to this rule was The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector, which I read in Portuguese: I mention Giovanni Pontiero’s translation here, because I think it is better than Moser’s.

Click on the links to read my reviews, when available:

1. ✓ My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante, tr. Ann Goldstein
2. ✓ The Vegetarian, by Han Kang (#), tr. Deborah Smith
3. ✓ Fever Dream, by Samanta Schweblin, tr. Megan McDowell (2017. Original: Distancia de rescate, 2014)
4. Human Acts, by Han Kang (#)
5. ✓✨* The Door, by Magda Szabó, tr. Len Rix (2005. Original: Az ajtó, 1987)
6. ✓✨* Flights, by Olga Tokarczuk, tr. Jennifer Croft (2017. Original: Bieguni, 2007)
7. ✓ Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata (2018, tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori. Original: コンビニ人間 – Konbini ningen, 2016)
8. ✓✨ The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson, tr. Thomas Teal
9. ✓ The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa, tr. Stephen Snyder
10. ✓✨* The Years, by Annie Ernaux, tr. Alison L. Strayer (2017. Original: Les Années, 2008)
11. Things We Lost in the Fire, by Mariana Enriquez
12. Death in Spring, by Merce Rodoreda
13. ✓ Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, by Olga Tokarczuk (2018, tr.  Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Original: Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych, 2009)
14. Sphinx, by Anne Garreta
15. ✓ Die, My Love, by Ariana Harwicz (2017, tr. Sarah Moses & Carolina Orloff. Original: Matate, Amor, 2012)
16. ✓ Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto, tr. Megan Backus
17. ✓ Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, tr. Mattias Ripa, Blake Ferris, Anjali Singh
18. ✓ Disoriental, by Négar Djavadi
19. ✓ The Mussel Feast, by Birgit Vanderbeke, tr. Jamie Bulloch (2013. Original: Das Muschelessen, 1990)
20. The Notebook, the Proof, the Third Lie: Three Novels, by Ágota Kristóf
21. Innocence, by Heda Margolius
22. ✓ House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende, tr. Magda Bogin
23. The End of Days, by Jenny Erpenbeck
24. A True Novel, by Minae Mizumura
25. The Unwomanly Face of War, by Svetlana Alexievich
26. Eve Out of Her Ruins, by Ananda Devi
27. Trieste, by Daša Drndic
28. ✓ Bonjour Tristesse, by Françoise Sagan, tr. Irene Ash
29. ✓ Love, by Hanne Ørstavik (2018, tr. Martin Aitkin. Original: Kjærlighet, 1997)
30. ✓ Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky, tr. Sandra Smith
31. ✓ So Long a Letter, by Mariama Bâ (1989, tr. Modupé Bodé-Thomas. Original: Une si longue lettre, 1981)
32. ✓ The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, tr. Royall Tyler (2002. Original: Genji monogatari, 11th century)
33. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barberry
34. ✓ Tentacle, by Rita Indiana (2018, tr. Achy Obejas. Original: La mucama de Omicunlé, 2015)
35. ✓ Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset, tr. Tiina Nunnally (2005. Original: Kristin Lavransdatter, 1920)
36. Second Hand Time, by Sviatlana Aleksievich
37. ✓ ✨* Territory of Light, by Yūko Tsushima, tr. Geraldine Harcourt (2018. Original: Hikari no ryōbun, 1979)
38. ✓ Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector, tr. Giovanni Pontiero (1992. Original: A hora da estrela, 1977)
39. ✓ Woman at Point Zero, by Nawal El Saadawi
40. ✓ Soviet Milk, by Nora Ikstena, tr. Margita Gailitis (2018. Original: Mātes piens, 2015)
41. Notes of a Crocodile, by Qiu Miaojin
42. ✓ La Bastarda, by Trifonia Melibea Obono
43. Vernon Subitex, by Virginie Despentes
44. Revenge, by Yoko Ogawa
45. Memoirs of a Polar Bear, by Yoko Tawada
46. ✓ Nada, by Carmen Laforet, tr. Edith Grossman (2007. Original: Nada, 1944)
47. ✓✨Near to the Wild Heart, by Clarice Lispector, tr. Alison Entrekin (2012. Original: Perto do Coração Selvagem, 1943)
48. Strange Weather in Tokyo, by Hiromi Kawakami
49. ✓ Go, Went, Gone, by Jenny Erpenbeck, tr. Susan Bernofsky (2017. Original: Gehen, ging, gegangen, 2015)
50. Seeing Red, by Lina Meruane
51. Fish Soup, by Margarita García Robayo
52. ✓✨The Lover, by Marguerite Duras, tr. Barbara Bray
53. ✓✨Memoirs of Hadrian, by Marguerite Yourcenar, tr. Grace Frick
54. ✓✨The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer, tr. Shaun Whiteside
55. ✓ Family Lexicon, by Natalia Ginzburg, tr. Jenny McPhee (2017. Original: Lessico famigliare, 1963)
56. ✓✨People in the Room, by Norah Lange (2018, tr. Charlotte Whittle. Original: Personas en la sala, 1950)
57. ✓ Mouthful of Birds, by Samantha Schweblin, tr. Megan McDowell
58. ✓ If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, by Sappho, tr. Anne Carson (2003)
59. The Faculty of Dreams, by Sara Stridsberg
60. Thus Were Their Faces, by Silvina Ocampo
61. ✓ The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, tr. H.M. Parshley
62. The True Deceiver, by Tove Jansson
63. Faces in the Crowd, by Valeria Luiselli
64. ✓ View With a Grain of Sand, by Wisława Szymborska, tr. Stanislaw Baranczak, Clare Cavanagh
65. The Queue, by Basma Abdel Aziz
66. Fox, by Dubravka Ugresic
67. ✓ The Days of Abandonment, by Elena Ferrante, tr. Ann Goldstein
68. History, by Elsa Morante
69. ✓ Arturo’s Island, by Elsa Morante
70. Confessions, by Kanae Minato
71. The Ten Thousand Things, by Maria Dermout
72. ✓✨My Heart Hemmed In by Marie NDiaye, tr. Jordan Stump
73. The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist
74. The Bridge of Beyond, by Simone Schwarz-Bart
75. Purge, by Sofi Oksanen
76. The Story of My Teeth, by Valeria Luiselli
77. Swallowing Mercury, by Wioletta Greg
78. Tokyo Ueno Station, by Miri Yu
79. The Little Girl on the Ice Floe, by Adélaïde Bon
80. ✓✨Extracting the Stone of Madness, by Alejandra Pizarnik, tr. Yvette Siegert
81. The Remainder, by Alia Trabucco Zeran
82. ✓✨The Seventh Cross, by Anna Seghers (2018, tr. Margo Bettauer Dembo. Original: Das siebte Kreuz, 1942)
83. The Naked Woman, by Armonía Somers
84. Waking Lions, by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
85. ✓✨The Quest for Christa T, by Christa Wolf
86. A Winter’s Promise, by Christelle Dabos
87. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, by Dorthe Nors (#)
88. Sweet Days of Discipline, by Fleur Jaeggy (#)
89. Zuleikha, by Guzel Yakhina
90. The Hunger Angel, by Herta Müller
91. Please Look After Mother, by Kyung Sook Shin
92. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
93. La Femme De Gilles, by Madeleine Bourdouxhe
94. The History of Bees, by Maja Lunde
95. ✓ The Weight of Things, by Marianne Fritz, tr. Adrian Nathan West (2015. Original: Die Schwerkraft der Verhältnisse, 1978)
96. Translation as Transhumance, by Mireille Gansel
97. ✓ Out, by Natsuo Kirino, tr. Stephen Snyder
98. Our Lady of the Nile, by Scholastique Mukasonga
99. Subtly Worded, by Teffi
100. The Letter for the King, by Tonke Dragt

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This is it for now, folks! If you fancy doing a readalong with me of any of the books I haven’t read yet, let me know! 🙂

Yours truly,

J.

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