11 Indie Presses Recommend Books in Translation for World Book Day
By Words Without Borders
By Words Without Borders
This year, World Book Day comes at a difficult moment for book publishers, as well as for writers, translators, and readers. We thought we’d take the occasion to trumpet some of our favorite indie publishers of translated literature and to give you an excuse to treat yourself to a beautiful new book (as if you ever need an excuse for books).
We asked eleven nonprofit small presses we love to recommend a book in translation from their catalog. We encourage you to support the work of these nonprofit publishers by purchasing a book for yourself or another reader in your life.
The Living Days
Ananda Devi
$15.95 $14.83FEMINIST PRESS | This novel of post-9/11 London is a masterful dissection of racism, aging, and the perturbing nature of desire.
When the Whales Leave
Yuri Rytkheu
$14.00 $13.02MILKWEED EDITIONS | "We have so little intimate information about these Arctic people, and the writer's deep emotional attachment to this landscape of ice (today melting away under global warming forces) makes every sentence seem a poetic revelation." —Annie Proulx
Girls Lost
Jessica Schiefauer
$15.95 $14.83DEEP VELLUM | An award-winning, magical novel about three teenage girls whose exploration of fantasy threatens everything they know of reality.
The Other Name: Septology I-II
Jon Fosse
$17.95 $16.69TRANSIT BOOKS | “Fosse has written a strange mystical Möbius strip of a novel, in which an artist struggles with faith and loneliness, and watches himself, or versions of himself, fall away into the lower depths. The social world seems distant and foggy in this profound, existential narrative, which is only the first part of what promises to be a major work of Scandinavian fiction.”—Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears
My Part of Her
Javad Djavahery
$17.99 $16.73RESTLESS BOOKS | In exiled Iranian author Javad Djavahery’s captivating English debut, a youthful betrayal during a summer on the Caspian sea has far-reaching consequences for a group of friends as their lives are irrevocably altered by the Revolution.
Cars on Fire
Mónica Ramón Ríos
$14.95 $13.90OPEN LETTER BOOKS | “These stylish, often strange stories are like cars on fire themselves—cacophonous, melodious, tragic—and each burn like a symbol of urban resistance. An important and unique contribution to immigrant and protest literature of the Americas.”—Fernando A. Flores, author of Tears of the Trufflepig
Occupation Journal
Jean Giono
$18.00ARCHIPELAGO BOOKS | Malcolm Forbes wrote of Occupation Journal in The National: "Elegantly translated by Jody Gladding, the book is a fascinating account of ordinary life during extraordinary times...As diary entries offering a captivating portrait of an artist at work, a man under pressure, and a country in turmoil, Occupation Journal is a compelling read."
Book of Twilight
Pablo Neruda
$17.00 $15.81COPPER CANYON PRESS | In Book of Twilight we meet a poet on the verge: Pablo Neruda—young, impassioned, vulnerable—poised to become one of the most beloved writers of our time.
Lake Like a Mirror
Sok Fong Ho
$16.95 $15.76TWO LINES PRESS | “Straddling the surreal and the pointedly political, Ho reveals herself to be a writer of immense talent and range.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
The Book of Anna
Carmen Boullosa
$17.95 $16.69COFFEE HOUSE PRESS | In this metafictional escapade through St. Petersburg society on the eve of the Russian Revolution, Anna Karenina’s children and her controversial legacy collide with the stirrings of populist revolt in the streets; a scintillating literary accomplishment of imagination and feminist brio.
Tropic of Violence
Nathacha Appanah
$16.00GRAYWOLF PRESS | A potent novel about lost youth and migration in Mayotte, a tropic department of France in the Indian Ocean, Tropic of Violence “makes us understand—and feel—the steps leading toward bloody confrontation in this relentless world.” (Library Journal, starred review)