Books by Women in Translation to Read This August and Beyond
Every year, more readers are discovering the magic of translated fiction as a way of immersing themselves in new cultures and broadening their own worldviews. Women in Translation Month, celebrated every August since its inception in 2013, is a special time to honor the incredible women around the world who write in languages other than English.
This month, we invite you to explore poignant novels and thought-provoking non-fiction by these talented women. Dive into the richness of global literature and add one (or more!) of these exceptional books to your August reading list.
Choose your next read
For feminist classics: Letters To Sartre or Killing Stella
For contemporary literary fiction: Waist Deep, Discontent orMoney to Burn
For speculative fiction: The Forest Called You or When the Museum is Closed
For memoir: A Hymn to Life
Frequently asked questions
What are some of the best books in translation?
Some of the best books in translation are the ones that open a door into another literary tradition while still speaking directly to contemporary readers. For Japanese dystopian fiction, Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police, translated by Stephen Snyder, is a haunting novel about memory, disappearance and control. Readers drawn to surreal, unsettling stories might choose Jacqueline Harpman’s We Were Forbidden, translated by Ros Schwartz, or Emi Yagi’s When the Museum is Closed, translated by Yuki Tejima.
For feminist classics and rediscovered European literature, Simone de Beauvoir’s Letters To Sartre, translated and edited by Quintin Hoare, offers an intimate view of one of the twentieth century’s defining thinkers, while Marlen Haushofer’s Killing Stella, translated by Shaun Whiteside, explores domestic guilt and moral inaction. Contemporary readers might turn to Linea Maja Ernst’s Waist Deep, translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg, Beatriz Serrano’s Discontent, translated by Mara Faye Lethem, or Asta Olivia Nordenhof’s Money to Burn, translated by Caroline Waight. For speculative Korean fiction, Amil’s The Forest Called You, translated by Joheun Lee, brings together music, virtual reality and identity. For non-fiction, Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir A Hymn to Life, translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver, is a powerful account of survival, dignity and renewal.
Who is the most translated female author?
Agatha Christie is widely cited as the most translated female author. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the most translated author overall, with 7,236 translations of her works recorded in UNESCO’s Index Translationum as of its 2017 verification.
Christie’s global reach is unusual even among bestselling writers: her detective fiction, including the stories of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, has travelled across languages, formats and generations. For readers interested in women in translation, her record is a reminder that translation is not only a route into literary fiction, but one of the ways books of every genre find readers around the world.
Who started Women in Translation Month?
Women in Translation Month was started by Meytal Radzinski in 2014. Radzinski, a book blogger and researcher, launched the initiative to draw attention to the imbalance in translated literature and to encourage more readers, publishers, booksellers and critics to seek out books by women writing in languages other than English.
The wider Women in Translation movement began to take shape in late 2013, prompted by conversations about how few women writers were being translated into English. Today, WITMonth is marked every August by readers and literary organisations around the world, with a focus on discovering, discussing and celebrating women writers in translation.