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Wednesday May 1, 2024

A poet searches for answers about the short life of a writer in 'Traces of Enayat'

Transit Books

Review

Book Reviews

A poet searches for answers about the short life of a writer in 'Traces of Enayat'

May 1, 2024 • Poet Iman Mersal's book is a memoir of her search for knowledge about the writer Enayat al-Zayyat; it's a slow, idiosyncratic journey through a layered, changing Cairo — and through her own mind.

Thursday February 8, 2024

Books from Mexico, Netherlands, and Japan bring rewrites of history, teen tales

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

Books from Mexico, Netherlands, and Japan bring rewrites of history, teen tales

February 8, 2024 • Books from writers Álvaro Enrigue, Simone Atangana Bekono, and Kiyoko Murata may not come from the same place — but they still work in conversation with each other.

Friday November 3, 2023

3 books in translation for fall that are big — in different ways

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 books in translation for fall that are big — in different ways

November 3, 2023 • Vengeance Is Mine, Undiscovered, Pedro and Marques Take Stock come from one of France's most significant living writers, a major voice in Peru, and a new talent from Brazil, respectively.

Saturday August 19, 2023

3 works in translation tell tales of standing up to right wrongs

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 works in translation tell tales of standing up to right wrongs

August 19, 2023 • Itamar Vieira Junior's Crooked Plow, Miroslav Krleža's On the Edge of Reason, and Maru Ayase's The Forest Brims Over all emerge from acts of rebellion.

Monday June 26, 2023

3 works in translation: History and literature intertwined

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 works in translation: History and literature intertwined

June 26, 2023 • It is easy to act as if fiction and history were separate. But they cannot be completely divided. Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos and Oksana Lutsyshyna's Ivan and Phoebe help readers connect with time past.

Tuesday May 30, 2023

3 new books in translation blend liberation with darkness

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 new books in translation blend liberation with darkness

May 30, 2023 • The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, The House on Via Gemito, and Cousins together form a tour of human darkness where liberation comes in many forms.

Friday May 5, 2023

3 works in translation tell science-driven tales

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 works in translation tell science-driven tales

May 5, 2023 • AI may be the topic du jour, but for now only a human can read attentively and sensitively enough to genuinely recreate literature in a new language, as translators have done with these three works.

Thursday March 16, 2023

'Heart Sutra' is a satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith

Grove Press

Review

Book Reviews

'Heart Sutra' is a satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith

March 16, 2023 • Chinese novelist Yan Lianke treats the deities of China's major religions as quiet, omnipresent participants in the novel's events, which range from slapstick comedy to shocking violence.

Friday February 10, 2023

3 books in translation that have received acclaim in their original languages

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 books in translation that have received acclaim in their original languages

February 10, 2023 • On a Woman's Madness and Forbidden Notebook have been highly lauded in their original languages for decades but, like the more recent Black Foam, inaccessible to English readers — until now.

Wednesday October 26, 2022

3 books in translation that ask a lot — and allow the reader to ask a lot in return

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 books in translation that ask a lot — and allow the reader to ask a lot in return

October 26, 2022 • Concerning My Daughter, Hugs and Cuddles and Freeway: La Movie do not pretend to be easy reads, yet they are all completely consuming.

Saturday September 10, 2022

3 late-summer books in translation that stand out individually

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Home Page Top Stories

3 late-summer books in translation that stand out individually

September 10, 2022 • Iraqi poet Faleeha Hassan's memoir War and Me, Mexican novelist Brenda Lozano's Witches, and Uyghur novelist and social critic Perhat Tursun's The Backstreets have a few broad commonalities.

Tuesday July 19, 2022

Books in Translation: Three tales touching on French colonialism

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

Books in Translation: Three tales touching on French colonialism

July 19, 2022 • Mutt-Lon's The Blunder, Pina by Titaua Peu, and Thuận's Chinatown all come from different continents and deal, glancingly or in depth, with French colonialism.

Thursday May 19, 2022

Latin American literature in translation: Stories that take you to unexpected places

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

Latin American literature in translation: Stories that take you to unexpected places

May 19, 2022 • New translations of Juan Emar's Yesterday, Cristina Rivera Garza's New and Selected Stories, and Gabriela Alemán's Family Album offer a look at human nature — and adventures along the way.

Wednesday May 18, 2022

'Translating Myself and Others' is a reminder of how alive language can be

Princeton University Press

Review

Books

'Translating Myself and Others' is a reminder of how alive language can be

May 18, 2022 • Jhumpa Lahiri mixes detailed explorations of craft with broader reflections on her own artistic life, as well as the "essential aesthetic and political mission" of translation.

Thursday March 24, 2022

3 nonfiction translations to read this spring

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

Review

Book Reviews

3 nonfiction translations to read this spring

March 24, 2022 • It's been rare for non-academic nonfiction to be translated into English — but that's beginning to change. These three books may be academic in the depth of their inquiries — but not in style.

Wednesday March 2, 2022

'Checkout 19' follows a life tracked through the lens of books

Riverhead Books

Review

Book Reviews

'Checkout 19' follows a life tracked through the lens of books

March 2, 2022 • The protagonist of Clare-Louise Bennett's novel is a determinedly unfixed and unrooted person who marks time by which writers she has read.

Thursday February 17, 2022

A creation myth in Sheila Heti's 'Pure Colour' has art critics as evolutionary stars

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review

Book Reviews

A creation myth in Sheila Heti's 'Pure Colour' has art critics as evolutionary stars

February 17, 2022 • The novel is simultaneously wise and silly, moving and inscrutable. It is also indisputably working hard to be new.

Wednesday January 26, 2022

A true crime writer struggles with his responsibility to the victims in 'Devil House'

MacMillian

Review

Book Reviews

A true crime writer struggles with his responsibility to the victims in 'Devil House'

January 26, 2022 • Novelist John Darnielle — also singer-songwriter with the Mountain Goats — has a hero who wants to honor the victims he's writing about but doesn't much like them.

Wednesday September 29, 2021

For Fall, 3 Novels Where Great Translations Make All The Difference

NPR

Review

Book Reviews

For Fall, 3 Novels Where Great Translations Make All The Difference

September 29, 2021 • Sometimes, it's not the author you choose, it's the translator. So we've picked three novels where the translation will help you discover new things about the text, even if you can read the original.

Thursday September 23, 2021

Communication Is The Challenge In This Novel Of Loss And Discovery

Catapult

Review

Books

Communication Is The Challenge In This Novel Of Loss And Discovery

September 23, 2021 • Jon McGregor's new novel follows an expedition guide who suffers a stroke in the middle of an Antarctic ice storm and loses the ability to speak — and the people around him at a loss for what to say.

Thursday September 9, 2021

In 'Civilizations,' Inca Emperor Atahualpa Conquers 16th-Century Spain

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review

Book Reviews

In 'Civilizations,' Inca Emperor Atahualpa Conquers 16th-Century Spain

September 9, 2021 • Laurent Binet seems to genuinely want to know to what extent conquest and the cruelty it inevitably produces are reducible, redeemable, or escapable. He also plainly wants to play around.

Monday August 30, 2021

'Image Control' Is A Plea For Artistic Ethics In What Author Calls 'Fascist Times'

Image Control: Art, Fascism, and the Right to Resist, by Patrick Nathan Counterpoint hide caption

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Counterpoint

Review

Book Reviews

'Image Control' Is A Plea For Artistic Ethics In What Author Calls 'Fascist Times'

August 30, 2021 • In order to track Patrick Nathan's ideas, one must to get on board with his habit of invoking fascism broadly, emphasizing its aesthetic and imaginative tendencies over its concrete manifestations.

Tuesday August 24, 2021

'Real Estate' ls An Elegant Exploration Of The Concept Of — And Desire For — Home

Real Estate: A Living Autobiography, by Deborah Levy Bloomsbury Publishing hide caption

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Bloomsbury Publishing

Review

Book Reviews

'Real Estate' ls An Elegant Exploration Of The Concept Of — And Desire For — Home

August 24, 2021 • The third installment of British writer Deborah Levy's excellent Living Autobiography is largely a book about the collisions of fantasies and real life — or perhaps a synthesis of the two.

Thursday August 12, 2021

CIA Role In Africa Expanded As U.S. Cold War Worries Grew, 'White Malice' Details

White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa, by Susan Williams Public Affairs hide caption

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Public Affairs

Review

Book Reviews

CIA Role In Africa Expanded As U.S. Cold War Worries Grew, 'White Malice' Details

August 12, 2021 • Though Susan Williams' book is framed far too expansively, it overflows with fascinating information, research and bold ideas — especially regarding Congo's first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.

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