By Jessie Chaffee



As we celebrate Women in Translation month, we’re looking back at exciting works by women writers from around the world published this past year. Here are 25 to add to your reading list for #WITmonth.



Heavens on Earth by Carmen Boullosa

Translated from the Spanish by Shelby Vincent

Deep Vellum Publishing, 2017



Leading Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa’s latest novel features three narrators from different historical eras who, interacting over space and time, try to preserve history.



Read an excerpt from Carmen Boullosa’s Texas: The Great Theft

Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi

Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman

Deep Vellum Publishing, 2016



Winner of the 2017 CLMP Firecracker Award, Ananda Devi’s novel follows four young Mauritians attempting to break free of the country’s cycles of violence and poverty.



Read a short story by Ananda Devi

City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya

Translated from the Russian by Nora Seligman Favorov

Columbia University Press, 2017



Originally written under a male pseudonym and now translated into English for the first time, nineteenth-century writer Sofia Khvoshchinskaya’s novel is a satirical tale of 1860s Russia.





A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska

Translated from the Macedonian by Christina Kramer

Two Lines Press, 2016



In Lidija Dimkovska’s novel, twin sisters conjoined at the head come of age in Yugoslavia as Eastern Europe transitions from communism to democracy.



Read a poem by Lidija Dimkovska

Land of Love and Ruins by Oddný Eir

Translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton

Restless Books, 2016



Winner of the EU Prize for Literature, Oddný Eir’s semiautobiographical novel follows a writer’s return home to Reykjavik to excavate her grandmother’s past.



Read a review of Land of Love and Ruins

Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Hogarth, 2017



Exploring inequality, violence, desire, and the macabre, Mariana Enriquez’s short stories create a powerful and hypnotic portrait of contemporary Argentina.



Read an essay by Mariana Enriquez

Landing by Laia Fàbregas

Translated from the Spanish by Samantha Schnee

Hispabooks, 2016



In Barcelona-based Spanish writer Laia Fàbregas’s novel, a young Dutch woman seeks to unravel the mystery of the elderly Spanish man whose death she witnesses during a flight.



Read an excerpt from Landing

Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg

Translated from the Polish by Eliza Marciniak

Portobello Books (UK)/Transit Books (US), 2017



Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, celebrated Polish poet Wioletta Greg’s fiction debut depicts the social and political dramas of an agricultural community in 1980s Poland.



Read an interview with translator Eliza Marciniak

The Weight of Paradise by Iman Humaydan

Translated from the Arabic by Michelle Hartman

Interlink Publishing, 2016



Lebanese writer Iman Humaydan’s novel weaves together the stories of two women—a documentary filmmaker and a journalist—in postwar 1990s Beirut.





Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

Translated from the Chinese by Bonnie Huie

NYRB Classics, 2017



A renowned literary modernist and one of Taiwan’s first openly lesbian writers, Qiu Miaojin’s posthumously published novel is a coming-of-age story of two queer misfits in late-1980s Taipei.



Read an excerpt from Notes of a Crocodile

Inheritance from Mother by Minae Mizumura

Translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter

Other Press, 2017



In Minae Mizumura’s latest novel, a Japanese woman in her mid-fifties grapples with an unfaithful husband, an ailing mother, and her own desire for fulfillment.



Read a review of Inheritance from Mother

Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga

Translated from the French by Jordan Stump

Archipelago Books, 2016



Scholastique Mukasonga’s memoir recounts her childhood as a refugee in Burundi following her family’s forced displacement from Rwanda in the years leading up to the Rwandan genocide.





My Heart Hemmed In by Marie NDiaye

Translated from the French by Jordan Stump

Two Lines Press, 2017



Prix Goncourt-winning author Marie NDiaye’s latest is a surreal, suspenseful story of two provincial schoolteachers who realize that they are despised by their community.





Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors

Translated from the Danish by Misha Hoekstra

Pushkin Press, 2017



Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, Danish writer Dorthe Nors’s novel follows a woman’s search for meaning in present-day Copenhagen.



Read an interview with Dorthe Nors

Knots by Gunnhild Øyehaug

Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017



Norwegian writer Gunnhild Øyehaug’s short-story collection explores the conflicts, complexities, discomforts, and bonds of love and desire.





The Hunger in Plain View by Ester Naomi Perquin

Translated from the Dutch by David Colmer

White Pine Press, 2017



In her third poetry collection, Dutch writer Esther Naomi Perquin inhabits the minds of nameless, the imprisoned, and the strange.



Read a review of The Hunger in Plain View

The White City by Karolina Ramqvist

Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel

Grove Press/Black Cat, 2017



Swedish writer Karolina Ramqvist’s novel is an intimate psychological portrait of a woman’s attempt to save herself and her infant following the death of her criminal boyfriend.





Adua by Igiaba Scego

Translated from the Italian by Jamie Richards

New Vessel Press, 2017



In Italian writer and journalist Igiaba Scego’s latest novel, an emigrant from Somalia to Italy is torn between her life in Rome and her homeland following her father’s death.



Read an excerpt from Adua

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

Riverhead Books, 2017



In Argentinian writer Samanta Schweblin’s first novel, shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker International Prize, a young woman on her deathbed engages in a feverish dialogue.



Read a short story by and interview with Samanta Schweblin

Croatian War Nocturnal by Spomenka Štimec

Translated from the Esperanto by Sebastian Schulman

Phoneme Media, 2017



Spomenka Štimec’s fictionalized memoir recounts the wars in former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s through the eyes of a Croatian Esperanto activist and teacher.





A Greater Music by Bae Suah

Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith

Open Letter Books, 2016



In Korean writer Bae Suah’s novel, a young writer’s fall into an icy river in the suburbs of Berlin inspires her journey through near and distant memories.





Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada

Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky

New Directions, 2016



Japanese-German writer Yoko Tawada’s latest novel explores empathy, alienation, and intimacy through the story of three generations of polar bears.



Read a science fiction story by Yoko Tawada

The End by Fernanda Torres

Translated from the Portuguese by Alison Entrekin

Restless Books, 2017



In renowned Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres’s tragicomic debut novel, five friends in Rio’s Copacabana reflect on their glory days.





The Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen

Translated from the Spanish by Andrea Rosenberg

Europa Editions, 2017



Winner of the 2015 Mauricio Achar Prize, Mexican writer Aura Xilonen’s debut follows a young man who illegally immigrates to the United States from Mexico in search of a better life.



Read an excerpt from The Gringo Champion

Frontier by Can Xue

Translated from the Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping

Open Letter Books, 2017



Experimental Chinese writer Can Xue’s novel is told through the viewpoint of a dozen different characters who have gravitated to the surreal, frontier city of Pebble Town.



Read Porochista Khakpour’s interview with Can Xue



Read More #WIT on WWB

Where Are the Women in Translation? Here Are 31 to Read Now.

33 International Women Writers Who Are Bold for Change

Turning Points: Women Writers from Taiwan

Keep Reading #WIT with These 13 Taiwanese Writers

Women Write War

Le altre e io (The Other Women and I)—Women Writing within and beyond Italy

Tipping the Scales: WWB’s Conversation on Women in Translation at AWP

