On eve of Brexit, figures show unprecedented numbers of Britons are turning to translations of continental novels

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

As Brexit looms and the UK faces a future outside the EU, the country’s readers are gulping down European fiction at an unprecedented rate, with sales at their highest since records began.

According to research commissioned by the Man Booker International (MBI) prize from Nielsen Book, overall sales of translated fiction in the UK were up last year by 5.5%, with more than 2.6m books sold, worth £20.7m – the highest level since Nielsen began to track sales in 2001. Over the last 18 years, sales of fiction in translation have risen “steadily”, with the performance of translated literary fiction in particular standing out for its “extreme growth”, up 20% in 2018 year-on-year. Sales of English-language literary fiction over the period, meanwhile, have plateaued and are now significantly below where they stood in the mid-noughties.

Quick guide Top 10 bestselling novels in translation in 2018 Show Hide 1. The Thirst by Jo Nesbø Translated by Neil Smith from Norwegian, 123,066 copies sold 2. Macbeth by Jo Nesbø Translated by Don Bartlett from Norwegian, 111,206 copies sold 3. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz Translated by George Goulding from Swedish, 105,897 copies sold 4. Lullaby by Leïla Slimani Translated by Sam Taylor from French, 98,058 copies sold 5. The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles from Swedish, 69,372 copies sold 6. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa Translated by Philip Gabriel from Japanese, 46,846 copies sold 7. The History of Bees by Maja Lunde Translated by Diane Oatley from Norwegian, 44,602 copies sold 8. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R Clarke from Portuguese, 40,322 copies sold 9. Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami Translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen from Japanese, 37,547 copies sold 10. The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz Translated by George Goulding from Swedish, 35,736 copies sold Photograph: Linda Nylind

Nielsen said that UK readers are “overwhelmingly” reading translated fiction from Europe, with French literature accounting for 17% of volume sales, the biggest language represented. Strong sellers over the last year include Lullaby, Leïla Slimani’s story of a murderous nanny, which racked up sales of almost 100,000 copies.

“Reading fiction is one of the best ways we have of putting ourselves in other people’s shoes. The rise in sales of translated fiction shows how hungry British readers are for terrific writing from other countries,” said Fiammetta Rocco, administrator of the Man Booker International (MBI) prize, which will announce its longlist on 13 March.

Norwegian and Swedish writing, represented by authors including the Norwegian thriller powerhouse Jo Nesbø and the Swedish bestseller Jonas Jonasson’s The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, was also popular over the last year, with Chinese, Arabic, Icelandic and Polish languages “in growing demand”. Popular Polish titles included Olga Tokarczuk’s MBI-winning Flights, as well as Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy series The Witcher. Chinese science fiction and fantasy novels such as Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem and Jin Yong’s A Hero Born also sold strongly, but sales of crime novels and thrillers, a major contributor to sales of translated fiction in the past, declined by 19% between 2017 and 2018.

Charlotte Collins, co-chair of the Translators Association and translator of Robert Seethaler’s MBI-shortlisted novel A Whole Life, hailed the surge of interest, adding that the amount of international fiction now available for sale in the UK has almost doubled in recent years, now accounting for 5.63% of all published fiction.

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“This is really exciting news, and welcome confirmation that publishers have responded to the proven popularity and marketability of translated literature,” she said.