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2024: The year of literature in translation
Although translated literature surged with unrivalled popularity in 2023, it was not until this year that readers finally opened their arms to possibilities beyond country bounds. In 2024, the market for literature in translation rose to its peak, making pathways for more chance releases in the imminent year.
NUR-E-JANNAT ALIF
Starting from comfort reads to kicking-my-feet-giggling romance to stimulating memoirs, there is a little bit for everyone from every country, including the vast South Asia. Here we have accumulated a few titles to give you an overview of all the translated works published this year.
Hospital
Sanya Rushdi, Arunava Sinha (Translator)
Seagull Books, 2023
Allow us to cheat a little as we include this literary masterpiece from the year before. Originally published in 2023, Sanya Rushdi’s Hospital gained better footing after the noteworthy nomination for The Stella Prize in 2024. Readers are known to proclaim that Hospital has been one of the best translations coming out of Bangladesh in the last few years. In Melbourne, Australia, a woman in her late 30s has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, following her third episode of psychosis. The protagonist, Sanya, a student of psychology herself, questions the credibility of the evaluation and ponders whether there might be a better way to fix this. Fix her. A division of opinion persists, the humane margin between patients and doctors collides. Through eerily sombre, reflective conversations, she navigates the uncertainty of her illness, haunted by the possibility of another episode. Based on true events and initially written in Bangla, Hospital is a raw and intimate exploration of one woman’s struggle to reclaim her identity in a world quick to label her.
More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop
Satoshi Yagisawa, Eric Ozawa (Translator)
Harper Perennial, 2024
You can seldom go wrong with a Japanese-translated novel, and thanks to the widespread fanfare gathering around the first book in this series, we now have another instalment to look forward to. The beloved Japanese bookshop and its adjacent coffee shop in the Jimbocho neighborhood of Tokyo are back again, and along with it returns the darling cast of characters—some old, some new. Takako has finally moved out of the shop in search of her lost individuality, her relationship with her uncle, Satoru thriving like never before. In his book about books, Satoshi Yagisawa weaves a heartfelt tale about the bonds people create through a shared love of words. We find an old man wearing the same mouse-coloured sweater day after day and we come across another collecting books solely for the authors’ official stamps, and we have Satoru, with the support of his niece Takako, facing a bittersweet decision about the future of their family bookshop. Working together, their journey leads them back to their roots, stirring memories and emotions once long buried. Stay tuned to trace the budding romance as well!
Kairos
Jenny Erpenbeck, Michael Hoffman (Translator)
New Directions, 2024
Winner of The International Booker Prize in 2024, Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck is an agonising, discomfiting work of fiction centering around partners destined to be doomed in the failing years of East Germany. A classic love affair of a 19-year-old girl and a much older married writer, the couple traverse the complexities of fervent adoration, growing up and a finite romance through a tumultuous political change, against the backdrop of the crumbling GDR and its dissolution in 1989. In her distinctive style, Erpenbeck captures the sweeping arc of their relationship hauntingly, entwining it with the collapse of an entire mankind, its ideologies fading away as Katharina and her lover try to find their place in a new reality. For fans of Sally Rooney and Samantha Harvey, Kairos would be an appropriate pick.
The Book Censor’s Library
Bothayna Al-Essa, Ranya Abdelrahman (Translator)
Restless Books, 2024
A darkly imaginative satire, The Book Censor’s Library dives into the shadowy world of banned books, secret libraries, and the suffocating grip of an all-seeing government. The new book censor spends his days scrutinising manuscripts for forbidden content–references to queerness, unapproved faiths, or life before the Revolution. At night, he relays vivid, insistent dreams about characters from the very books he marked red. Unbeknownst to his wife and daughter, the hidden corners of his house grow musty in silence, novels he is not permitted to own assembling an army. Luring him in, entangling him in an underground network of rebels, secret booksellers and outlaw librarians, fighting to preserve their culture and history. With piercing insight, Bothayna Al-Essa brings this dystopian sphere to life, blending Orwellian oppression with Carroll-like absurdity and Kafkaesque unease. More than a story, this is a love letter to books and a chilling reminder of what is at stake when freedom of expression is threatened. A time-sensitive treat for sure!
My Heavenly Favourite
Lucas Rijneveld, Michele Hutchison (Translator)
Faber & Faber, 2024
To conclude, ticking this list off is an absolute fan-favourite, a new, exhilarating novel from the highly-acclaimed author of The Discomfort of Evening . When the summer of 2005 burns as hot as the inside of a barn, a farmer’s 14-year-old daughter forms an implausible alliance with the local veterinarian who tends her family’s cows. At 49, the vet is burdened by a past he cannot escape, while the girl yearns to lose herself in a world of stupendous imaginations. Their shared stories, meant to heal and distract, spiral into a dangerous obsession, with a confession at its heart that could shatter their tightly knit Dutch community. Bold and unforgettable, My Heavenly Favourite mesmerises with its lyrical prose and unrelenting exploration of human vulnerability.
Nur-E-Jannat Alif is a gender studies major and part-time writer who dreams of authoring a book someday. Find her at @literatureinsolitude on Instagram or send her your book/movie/television recommendations at nurejannatalif@gmail.com.