Translate This Book!

Edited by Scott Esposito and Annie Janusch — Published on December 7, 2009

Why We Did This

These days, it’s no secret that translated literature gets short shrift. It has become a well-known fact that just three percent (or less) of all literature published in the United States is translated from another language. These days, too, its hardly less well-known that many publishers and book pages still shy away from translated lit for fear that the taint of a foreign language will chase away coveted consumers.

Still, translation is in a much better place now than even ten years ago. Thanks to the work of some inspired publishers and advocates, the worth of translated lit—and our gross negligence in not publishing more of it—is becoming better known. We’re even getting a certain amount of access to some of the best contemporary writing the world outside the United States has to offer.

So far we’ve come, yet still so far to go. We have the Tolstoys, yes, we even have the Murakamis, but there is so much classic and contemporary literature still out there that has never been published in English—never ever. So, to acknowledge all that’s out there, to inspire readers to thirst for more literature not originally written in English, and to do a service for those publishers in search of the next great translated book, we offer this collection of recommendations.

We’ve talked to some of the top translators into English working today; we’ve talked to publishers big and small; we’ve talked to agents, journalists, and foreign-language authors. We’ve asked them all for the best books that still aren’t in English. And have they responded. They’ve told us TRANSLATE THIS BOOK!, and now we pass that on to you.

To read Translate This Book! in a single page, click here.

Our Panelists and Their Picks

Kareem James Abu-Zeid on Rabee Jaber

Chris Andrews on La Orilla Africana (”The African Shore”) by Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Jeffrey Angles on Toge-nuki Jizō: Shin Sugamo Jizō engi (”The Thorn-Pulling Jizō: New Tales of the Jizō at Sugamo”) By Hiromi Itō

Marcelo Ballvé on ¡Que viva La música! (”Let Music Live!”) by Andrés Caicedo

Susan Bernofsky on Der Kramladen des Glücks (”The Curiosity Shop of Happiness”) by Franz Hessel

Ellen Elias Bursac on Tin Ujević

Charles Cantalupo on Aynfelale (”Let Us Not Separate”) by Alemseged Tesfai

Sergio Chejfec on Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto

Jessica Cohen on Hayei Elyakum (”The Life of Elyakum”) by Benjamin Tammuz)

Peter Constantine on Njeriu me top (”The Man with a Gun”) by Dritëro Agolli

Margaret Jull Costa on La Casa (”The House”) by Manuel Mujica Lainez

Steve Dolph on Rosario Castellanos

Karen Emmerich on I Papissa Ioanna (”Pope Joan”), by Emmanuel Roidis

Michael Emmerich on Dogura magura (”Dogura Magura”) by Yumeno Kyusaku

George Fragopoulos on “The Cows” by E.H. Gonatas

Juan Francisco Ferré on El Dorado by Robert Juan-Cantavella

Edward Gauvin on Sainte Barbegrise by Noël Devaulx

Juan Goytisolo on La fiesta del asno by Juan Francisco Ferré

Jason Grunebaum on Basharat Manzil by Manzoor Ahtesham

Susan Harris on Pol Pots leende (”Pol Pot’s Smile”) by Peter Fröberg Idling

Charles Hatfeld on Todos se van (”Everybody’s Going”) by Wendy Guerra

Dwayne Hayes on Tre dagböcker by Ingmar Bergman

Fady Joudah on “Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me” by Ghassan Zaqtan

Rohan Kamicheril on Godavari by Fahmida Riaz

Ilya Kaminsky on Poems of Miron Bialoszewski

Jim Kates on Vladislav Khodasevich

Tina Kover on Spiridion by George Sand

Andrea Lingenfelter on Chengshi jifeng (”Urban Currents”) by Yang Dongping

Charlotte Mandell on Les ombres errantes by Pascal Quignard

Christopher Merrill on Shanhei Rumeng by Ge Fei

François Monti on Fragments de Lichtenberg by Pierre Senges

Javier Moreno on Cuentos Completos de Juan Carlos Onetti

Murat Nemet-Nejat on Histoire Du Cinema Jean-Luc Godard

Idra Novey on Adios Mariquita Linda by Pedro Lemebel

Chad Post on Dogura magura (”Dogura magura”) by Yumeno Kyũsaku

Sal Robinson on “The Explosion of the Radiator Hose” by Jean Rolin

Adam Rovner on The Streets of the River: The Book of Dirges and Power by Uri Zvi Greenberg

Matt Rowe on The Stories of Machado de Assis

Sophie Schiavo on Là où les tigres sont chez eux (”Where Tigers Feel at Home”) by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès

Marian Schwartz on Bessmertniy (”The Immortal”) by Olga Slavnikova

E.J. Van Lanen on Karnevál by Béla Hamvas

Enrique Vila-Matas on El fondo del cielo, (”The Bottom of the Sky”) by Rodrigo Fresán

Charles Waugh on “The Tale of Kieu” by Nguyen Du

Jeffrey Yang on Kitab al-Hayawan (”The Book of Animals”) by Al-Jahiz

Read More on this Subject:

More from The Quarterly Conversation:

1. Only Poems Can Translate Poems: On the Impossibility and Necessity of Translation Robert Frost famously said, "Poetry is what gets lost in translation." But what if it's really not so black and white?...

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