Women in Translation Month Book Recommendations!

Posted On August 10, 2023

Hi Readers! You have seen a few book reviews this month for the books I read for Women in Translation month. I won’t be able to read all the books that I have on my TBR for this. So, I thought of sharing my TBR with all of you. When I was trying to add more books to my list, I read a lot of articles and Instagram posts where amazing readers recommended amazing books. But, I wasn’t able to find any guide which was as per genres. So, if you are mainly looking for Women in Translation Month Book Recommendations as per genre, you have come to the right place!

This initiative is for books written by women who write in languages other than English to reach a wider audience. Before we get into the WiTMonth book recommendations, here is the official link to the WiT website if you want to learn more about it.

I tried my best to curate a list with most genres, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get any books from fantasy and romance genres. Here we go!

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: HORROR FICTION GENRE~~

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chang translated from Korean by Anton Hur

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica translated from Spanish by Sarah Moses

Knife and Apple by Intan Paramaditha translated from Indonesian by Stephen J. Epstein

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: BILDUNGROMAN OR COMING-OF-AGE GENRE~~

Almond by Sohn Won-pyung translated from Korean by Sandy Joosun Lee

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: PSYCHOLOGICAL FICTION GENRE~~

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo translated from Korean by Jamie Chang

Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi translated from Japanese by David Boyd and Lucy North

All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell

The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura translated from Japanese by Lucy North

There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura translated from Japanese by Polly Barton

We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets translated from Dutch by Emma Rault

Eve Out of Her Ruins by Ananda Devi translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: SCIENCE FICTION GENRE~~

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman translated from French by Ros Schwartz

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani

The Employees – A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn translated from Danish by Martin Aitken

The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo translated from Finnish by Lola Rogers

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: LITERARY FICTION GENRE~~

Violets by Kyung-Sook Shin translated from Korean by Anton Hur

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri translated from Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri

Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes

Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin translated from French by Hildegarde Serle

Abandon by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: FICTION GENRE~~

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto translated from Japanese by Megan Backus

The Room Beneath Their Feet by Geetanjali Shree translated from Hindi by Rahul Soni

People from My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami translated from Japanese by Ted Goossen

The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins

The Woman Destroyed by Simone De Beauvoir translated from French by Patrick O’Brian

Mother of 1084 by Mahashweta Devi translated from Bengali by Samik Bandyopadhyay

The Liberation of Sita by Volga translated from Telugu by T. Vijay Kumar and C. Vijayasree

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth

Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin translated from Chinese by Bonnie Huie

Moom by Bani Basu translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: MYSTERY OR SUSPENSE GENRE~~

Sahela Re by Mrinal Pande translated from Hindi by Priyanka Sarkar

The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun translated from Korean by Lizzie Buehler

The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Dead Girls by Selva Almada translated from Spanish by Annie McDermott

~~WOMEN IN TRANSLATION MONTH BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: HISTORICAL FICTION GENRE~~

Human Acts by Han Kang translated from Korean by Deborah Smith

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia translated from Spanish by Simon Bruni

The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili translated from German by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin

Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga translated from French by Mark Polizotti

Violetta by Isabel Allende translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle

Segu by Maryse Condé translated from French by Barbara Bray

The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck translated from German by Susan Bernofsky

Happy Reading! 😊

Until next time,