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The best translated fiction of 2025

The best translated fiction of 2025

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What are the translated fiction books that you don't want to miss in 2025? Looking to get into translated fiction for the first time and don't know where to start?

For long-time fans of translated fiction and new readers alike, here is a round up of the best translated fiction of the year ahead of International Translation Day on 30 September.

Summary

Discover nine must-read translated fiction books from Vintage for every reader including Haruki Murakami, Emi Yagi, Jacqueline Harpman and Simone de Beauvoir.

Of course the list must start with one of the most buzzed-about classics of the year. If you're one of the few readers who hasn't picked up this disquieting, powerful classic yet, it might be time to change that.

Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?

You might not get the answers to all the questions this novel raises, but it will be a story that stays with you long after you've turned the final page.

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

For the reader who has already devoured and became obsessed with I Who Have Never Known Men, here is another feminist literary classic that you will not be able to stop thinking - and talking - about.

In The Wall, a woman's weekend away in the Austrian mountains takes an inexplicable and sinister turn - and becomes a fight for survival.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

If you haven't yet ventured into the weird and wonderful world of Japan's most globally celebrated author, there's no better place to start than his most recent novel.

A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a breathtaking sotry about the boundaries between worlds and individuals.

What will you find there?

Where to start reading Haruki Murakami’s books

Cosy choices

Soyangri Book Kitchen by Kim Jee Hye

If a bookish speculative read sounds right up your alley but you picked up The City and Its Uncertain Walls when it first hit shelves, this heartwarming debut novel is the perfect cosy escape you're in search of.

In a peaceful village in the countryside, far from the bustling heart of Seoul, lies a book lovers’ paradise. But the book kitchen is more than just a place to eat or read – it’s a place which offers its guests a true escape, not just inside the pages of its many books, but in the warm embrace of an overnight bookstay.

Over the course of one year, seven visitors lives are subtly transformed by the magic of its books and the kindness of its people.

I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki

A genre all of its own, Japanese cat fiction has been taking bookshelves by storm. First published at the turn of the twentieth century, and regarded as one of Japan’s most iconic classics, I Am a Cat is a captivating exploration of identity, society, and the often bewildering nature of the human condition—all seen through the eyes of a very special, uncompromising cat.

Discover one of the original cat classics, now with a vibrant new translation by Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City.

When the Museum is Closed by Emi Yagi

From the bestselling author of Diary of a Void, round out your joyful, cosy translation reading with this queer love story in which a museum worker falls in love with the statue of Venus she is hired to converse with after the museum closes to the public.

By turns charming, funny and surprising, When the Museum is Closed is a surreal take on our most real emotions and concerns: love, loneliness, freedom, perceptions of beauty and how women are seen in society.

Want to know what it's like to be a translator? You can read Yuki Tejima's experience meeting Emi for the first time here.

Perspective changers

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, this masterful novel is set on an unnamed island, objects are disappearing: first hats, then ribbons, birds, roses...

Most of the inhabitants are oblivious to these changes, while those who remember live in fear of the Memory Police.

When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she desperately wants to save him. For some reason, he doesn't forget, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for him to hide his memories. Who knows what will vanish next?

We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Camara

Based on the life of Antonio de Erauso, a real figure from the Spanish conquest, We Are Green and Trembling is a masterful criticism of religious tyranny and the mistreatment of women and indigenous people.

This queer, baroque, tender and surreal novel conveys glimmers of hope for the future within the brutal colonial history of Latin America – finding in the rainforest a magical space where transformation is not only possible but necessary.

The Image of Her by Simone de Beauvoir

Sometimes the name of the translator can be as big of a draw as the name of the author - and in the case of the novel that we end this list with, that is certainly true!

Translated by Lauren Elkin, The Image of Her follows a woman who appears to live an ideal life, but a life that has always been overwritten by the expectation of perfection.

It is only when her 10-year-old daughter starts to vocalise her despair about the unfairness of the world that she begins to act, finally grappling with a life that prizes image over truth.

Frequently asked questions

What is Japanese cat fiction?

This is a popular genre featuring novels and stories centred on cats that often fall into cosy fiction categories. Popular examples include The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa and The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa.

What is Haruki Murakami's most popular novel?

In the UK, Norwegian Wood is widely considered to be Haruki Murakami’s most popular novel, as it turned Murakami into a literary icon in Japan and is his bestselling title throughout the world.

The best translated fiction of 2025

Summary

Popular picks

Where to start reading Haruki Murakami’s books

Cosy choices

The best Korean fiction in translation

The 20 must-read classics in translation

9 Must-Read Vintage Books for Women in Translation Month

Perspective changers

Frequently asked questions

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Where to start reading the Penguin Archive collection

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Extract: The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai

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