A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Dutch!
Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (translated from Spanish by Anne McLean)
Sitting alone, overlooking the still and blue lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach surveys the men of the hotel bar. She is happily married and has no reason to escape the world she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover.
Amid sultry days and tropical downpours, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire, and the fear that sits quietly at her heart.
Constantly surprising and wonderfully sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, and the mysteries of love, from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.
Butter by Asako Yuzuki (translated from Japanese by Polly Barton)
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.
Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?
'Darkly compelling ... A twisty and quirky thriller that delves deep into the connections between food, gender and domesticity.' – Joe Murray, Readings bookseller
Read our full review here
Your Utopia by Bora Chung (translated from Korean by Anton Hur)
By the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, Your Utopia is full of tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality.
In 'The Center for Immortality Research', a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors, only to be blamed for a crime she witnessed during the event, under the noses of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. But she can't be fired - no one can. In 'One More Kiss, Dear', a tender, one-sided love blooms in the AI-elevator of an apartment complex; as in, the elevator develops a profound affection for one of the residents. In 'Seeds', we see the final frontier of capitalism's destruction of the planet and the GMO companies who rule the agricultural industry in this bleak future, but nature has ways of creeping back to life.
'Meticulously crafted, each story feels just the right length, with the perfect pacing to make me want to read more ...Your Utopia is a thought-provoking delight.' – Jamisyn Gleeson, Readings bookseller
Read our full review here
The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata (translated from Japanese by Haydn Trowell)
With the Second World War only a few years in the past, and Japan still reeling from its effects, two sisters - born to the same father but different mothers - struggle to make sense of the new world in which they are coming of age. Asako, the younger, has become obsessed with locating a third sibling, while also experiencing love for the first time. While Momoko, their father's first child - haunted by the loss of her kamikaze boyfriend and their final, disturbing days together - seeks comfort in a series of unhealthy romances. And both sisters find themselves unable to outrun the legacies of their late mothers.
A thoughtful, probing novel about the enduring traumas of war, the unbreakable bonds of family and the inescapability of the past, The Rainbow is a searing, melancholy work from one of Japan's greatest writers.
Maktub by Paulo Coelho (translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa)
From one of the greatest writers of our age comes a collection of stories and parables unlocking the mysteries of the human condition. Gathered from Paulo Coelho’s daily column of the same name, Maktub, meaning 'it is written', invites seekers on a journey of faith, self-reflection, and transformation. As Paulo Coelho explains, 'Maktub is not a book of advice — but an exchange of experiences.'
Each story offers an illuminated path to see life and the lives of our fellow people around the world in new ways, allowing us to tap into universal truths about our collective and individual humanity. These wise tales offer the perspective of talking snakes, old women climbing mountains, disciples querying their masters, Buddha in dialogue, mysterious hermits, and many saints addressing the mysteries of the universe.
The History of My Sexuality by Tobi Lakmaker (translated from Dutch by Kristen Gehrman)
Meet Sofie. The history of her sexuality begins when she loses her virginity to Walter the recruitment consultant. So, naturally, she thought that things could only improve from there. But she was wrong.
It seems Sofie's been wrong about a lot of things. First, she thought she was into men: wrong. Then she met Frida and thought she was set for life: wrong again. Turns out, facing up to everything she thought she knew about herself requires a lot of trial and error. Will Sofie ever be able to untangle the impossible knot of sex, love, loneliness, family relationships and grief that constitutes a life? Does it even matter?
Dragon Palace by Hiromi Kawakami, (translated from Japanese by Ted Goossen)
From the bestselling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo comes this otherworldly collection of eight stories, each a masterpiece of transformation, infused with humour, sex and the universal search for love and beauty — in a world where the laws of time and space, and even species boundaries, don’t apply.
Meet a shape-shifting con man, a goddess who uses sex to control her followers, an elderly man possessed by a fox spirit, a woman who falls in love with her 400-year-old ancestor, a kitchen god with three faces in a weasel-infested apartment block, moles who provide underground sanctuary for humans who have lost the will to live, a man nurtured through life by his seven extraordinary sisters, and a woman who is handed from husband to husband until she is finally able to return to the sea.
