Reading Project: The 100 Best Books by Women Writers in Translation

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:

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