Thanks so much for your video and for listing the books in the show notes (not all You Tubes do this). A few I had read, a few I knew of so loved hearing your review and some I had not heard of and am excited to add them to my possibilities. Great video and loved seeing your dog relaxing in the background. He lifted his head during certain reviews so I think he added them to his list as well
I remember hearing William Weaver, whom you mentioned as translator of The Name of the Rose, as a frequent guest on the radio intermission features of the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, back in the 60's. There is a Wikipedia article on him which lists an amazing number of translations he made from a who's who of 20th century Italian writers including Eco, Calvino et al., a number of books on opera and various other subjects. A few books in translation I have especially enjoyed recently include Compass, Mathias Enard, trans. Charlotte Mandell, the Convert, by Stefan Hertmans, trans. David McKay, Flights, and the Books of David by Olga Tokarczuk, both translated by Jennifer Croft.
Thank you, Brian, for the mention, and for a brilliant list of recommendations! I've only read 3 of these, so the rest are an exciting mix of 'on my TBR' and 'new to me.'
I’ve only read two, _Boulder_ and _Minor Detail._ But I’ll keep alert to the other titles. It’d be interesting to do a video about translators - Edward Seidensticker, Ralph Manheim, David Magarshack among my favorites of old - but I haven’t read nearly enough. Pevear and Volokhonsky may be the most famous names today but I’ve never read them.
There are so many amazing translated books out there - and I often prefer them to many of the books written in English 😮. I have read nine of your list and they’re all brilliant so I should get to the others asap - two are on the shelf waiting (including Septology which I still haven’t got to).
@@BookishTexan I've been delayed by reading his backlist first (and the only justification I can come up with for that is they are shorter!). So I really enjoyed Aliss at the Fire, Boathouse and Trilogy, and I am shortly going to read Melancholy.
I really enjoy translated fiction. I also read that same edition of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Still have but will probably upgrade to an edition with bigger print when I reread it later this year. I need to finish Jon Fosse.
Thanks, read only 2 of those (One Hundred Years..., Unbearable Lightness...) and certainly agree. Recommend A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke, Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina, Soutine's Last Journey by German Ralph Dutli, A Door Behind a Door by Yelena Moskovitch, Clarice Lispector's tour de force, The Passion According to G.H. So many terrific, innovative (if difficult) novels, and thanks to you BookTubers for helping find them!
I've not read that Saramago, but it sounds fantastic. Reminds me of Leonardo Sciascia's "The Council Of Egypt". Like the sound of that Bosnian book too. Thanks, will invest in both
Lady of the Nile sounds interesting, adding that to the tbr! Great list. A few translated works I’ve enjoyed recently are: Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius (Swedish, literary thriller following a Sami girl as their reindeer are being attacked, looks at the treatment of Scandinavia’s indigenous people), I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman (French, Belgium, 40 women, or rather 39 women and one girl, in an underground cage who don’t know why they are there or how they got there or what is outside/above the cage), and Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior (Portuguese, Brazil, follows two Black sisters in rural Brazil after the abolition of slavery). Happy weekend Brian, stay strong.
Thank you. The Swedish literary thriller sounds great! I have been meaning to read I who have never known men for a while now. I hope to get to it this year.
Thanks, Brian!🌷Great video! I’ve read two (The Name of the Rose is among my all-time favourites), DNF The Unbearable Lightness of Being a long time ago (may be it’s time to pick it up again), own three still unread, and am intrigued by Collected Works (I’ve added it to my birthday wishlist). A great novel translated from the French is The Attack by Yasmina Khadra (pseudonym of a male Algerian writer) published in 2006, with an Israeli Arab surgeon as its main character. The French writer Georges Perec is among my favourites, and I would recommend his novel Things.
I haven’t read any of these but I do own The Name of the Rose. One of my bookish goals this year is to read some of these translated works on my physical shelves. I have 21 that are unread to choose from. Coincidentally I picked up a translated book yesterday from my library on inter-library loan and I have an ILL request for another translated book. For whatever reason my library doesn’t hold on to physical copies of those very long. If your library is like mine, ask if they can locate a physical copy for you via ILL. The wait time was significantly shorter than on Libby. 10 days for ILL vs several months for Libby for the one I just borrowed.
Thanks for the tip on ILL. I have used it for academic purposes. My library surprises me sometimes with what they do and don’t have. It’s been a long time since I read The Name of the Rose.
There are some of my favourites and some 2025-TBR books on your list, great! Can you please tell me whether Mammoth can be read as a standalone? Translated authors that I adore and hardly ever hear about on English booktube are Tezer Özlü (Turkish) and Chingiz Aitmatov (Kyrgyz/Russian).
@@azu_rikka Thank you. Yes! Mammoth can be read as a stand alone. All three of Baltasar’s novels I mentioned her can. They are subtly linked thematically, but share none of the same characters or plots.
What a great list, Brian. I used to own that same edition of Hundred Years of Solitude from the early 1980's. It did my heart good to see it again. Wait, no Claudia Pineiro?? 😉
_First!_ Greg & I are rereading _One Hundred Years ...,_ sometime this year. I _still_ have _At Night ...,_ upon your rec, stilll unread. 😔 Have you read any Clarice Lespector, yet? I thunk she's great! 📚 Id like to read, _Strange Weather in Tokyo!_ Thanks, Brian. 🎉
I’ve only read a few of Lispector s stories. I know her books are widely admired, but her stories didn’t really appeal to me. I’ll give a novel a try some day.
I envy you for being able to read translated books by contemporary writers from all over the world. I am now addicted to Yoko Tawada. There are many English translations available.
@@BookishTexan Sorry, I couldn't choose just one book. How about one of the following? The Emissary Memoirs of a Polar Bear The Bridegroom Was a Dog The Naked Eye I'm a beginner myself, but I plan to read everything she's written by the end of the year. Have you read everything by an author?
I read "The Name of the Rose" and was frustrated by the arrogance of having documents in other languages, without translation, and assuming that the reader should just know these languages, because the author knows these languages. WTF put out a translation, if the reader is required to know several different languages in order to read all of the book? This was more of a problem when I read it, because I could not copy and paste the text into a translator or look online for translations of these documents that take up pages of the book. One amusing aspect of the film is that Sean Connery's accent is not as far from the accent of William of Ockham (the real person of his character is based on) as is common when Connery is playing someone who is not Scottish. Saramago's "Blindness" was excellent, so I will look for "The History of the Siege of Lisbon". My first book in translation, other than the Bible (OT translated from Hebrew and NT translated from Greek) was probably "Candide" - even in translation, banned books are often much better than books that do not offend the powerful. .
I started Blindness once but I own it in a bind up with two other Saramago novels which made it awkward to read. I read Name of the Rose so long ago that I don’t remember the u translated sections.
Yes I’m actually reading a translated book right now called Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes.. Can I say that on UA-cam? Guess I can. Loved The Name of the Rose but sorry to say DNFed One Hundred Years and have no intention of returning to it. Be well.⚛❤
Sir!! You put the brazilian flag in the thumbnail and did not mention a single brazilian book. Not only that but talked about the competition (portugal). For your own safety i will not tell anyone about this diplomatic incident!!!! 😂
@@carlos_herrera in the world we have 🇧🇷 brazilian portuguese and 🇵🇹 portuguese (from portugal and other countries like moçambique) We have the same grammatical structure, in fact we have a treaty about it, but they are not the same
I've mostly read translations from Asia recently, this just is a nice reminder to look for other countries again. Good list.
And your comment is a nice reminder for me to read more fiction in translation from Asian authors. 🙂
Thanks so much for your video and for listing the books in the show notes (not all You Tubes do this). A few I had read, a few I knew of so loved hearing your review and some I had not heard of and am excited to add them to my possibilities. Great video and loved seeing your dog relaxing in the background. He lifted his head during certain reviews so I think he added them to his list as well
Thank you. Zelda likes to make cameos in my videos from time to time and she definitely has opinions.
I remember hearing William Weaver, whom you mentioned as
translator of The Name of the Rose, as a frequent guest on the radio intermission features of the Saturday afternoon Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, back in the 60's. There is a Wikipedia article on him which lists an amazing number of translations he made from a who's who of 20th century Italian writers including Eco, Calvino et al., a number of books on opera and various other subjects.
A few books in translation I have especially enjoyed recently include Compass, Mathias Enard, trans. Charlotte Mandell, the Convert, by Stefan Hertmans, trans. David McKay, Flights, and the Books of David by Olga Tokarczuk, both translated by Jennifer Croft.
Thank you for that info about William Weaver. He sounds like a fascinating fellow.. and thank you for the recommendations.
Just added Visitation to my TBR!
One of my favorites.
Starter Pack! Well done, hope this kept you busy and warm inside during the snow!
@@MargaretPinard Thanks Margaret.
Thanks for the suggestions.
You are welcome Clare.
Thank you, Brian, for the mention, and for a brilliant list of recommendations! I've only read 3 of these, so the rest are an exciting mix of 'on my TBR' and 'new to me.'
Thank you for the inspiration Katja.
I’ve only read two, _Boulder_ and _Minor Detail._ But I’ll keep alert to the other titles. It’d be interesting to do a video about translators - Edward Seidensticker, Ralph Manheim, David Magarshack among my favorites of old - but I haven’t read nearly enough. Pevear and Volokhonsky may be the most famous names today but I’ve never read them.
That is a good idea. I couldn’t do it because I’m not knowledgeable enough about translator or translations to do it.
There are so many amazing translated books out there - and I often prefer them to many of the books written in English 😮. I have read nine of your list and they’re all brilliant so I should get to the others asap - two are on the shelf waiting (including Septology which I still haven’t got to).
I am finding the same thing to be true for me. Glad we agree on so many books. I hope you enjoy Fosse.
@@BookishTexan I've been delayed by reading his backlist first (and the only justification I can come up with for that is they are shorter!). So I really enjoyed Aliss at the Fire, Boathouse and Trilogy, and I am shortly going to read Melancholy.
I really enjoy translated fiction. I also read that same edition of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Still have but will probably upgrade to an edition with bigger print when I reread it later this year. I need to finish Jon Fosse.
Bigger print is becoming an increasing requirement. I have a feeling I will go to ebooks only in the next few years.
Loved this. What a great list. I’ve read a couple but not nearly enough. More additions to my ‘want to read’ list 😊
Thank you.
Thanks, read only 2 of those (One Hundred Years..., Unbearable Lightness...) and certainly agree. Recommend A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by Peter Handke, Ingeborg Bachmann's Malina, Soutine's Last Journey by German Ralph Dutli, A Door Behind a Door by Yelena Moskovitch, Clarice Lispector's tour de force, The Passion According to G.H. So many terrific, innovative (if difficult) novels, and thanks to you BookTubers for helping find them!
Thank you for all the suggestions. I’ve read some stories by Lispector but never a novel.
@@BookishTexan good translators are golden these days! so much good writing from all over
I've not read that Saramago, but it sounds fantastic. Reminds me of Leonardo Sciascia's "The Council Of Egypt". Like the sound of that Bosnian book too. Thanks, will invest in both
I’ve read a few other Saramsgos but I think this one is my favorite.
@@BookishTexan I've read a few, but not that one. Have ordered now
the birthday is translated from french. a wonderful book with suspense that sneaks up on you.
Thank you for the recommendation.
Lady of the Nile sounds interesting, adding that to the tbr! Great list. A few translated works I’ve enjoyed recently are:
Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius (Swedish, literary thriller following a Sami girl as their reindeer are being attacked, looks at the treatment of Scandinavia’s indigenous people),
I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman (French, Belgium, 40 women, or rather 39 women and one girl, in an underground cage who don’t know why they are there or how they got there or what is outside/above the cage),
and Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior (Portuguese, Brazil, follows two Black sisters in rural Brazil after the abolition of slavery).
Happy weekend Brian, stay strong.
Thank you. The Swedish literary thriller sounds great! I have been meaning to read I who have never known men for a while now. I hope to get to it this year.
Thanks, Brian!🌷Great video! I’ve read two (The Name of the Rose is among my all-time favourites), DNF The Unbearable Lightness of Being a long time ago (may be it’s time to pick it up again), own three still unread, and am intrigued by Collected Works (I’ve added it to my birthday wishlist). A great novel translated from the French is The Attack by Yasmina Khadra (pseudonym of a male Algerian writer) published in 2006, with an Israeli Arab surgeon as its main character. The French writer Georges Perec is among my favourites, and I would recommend his novel Things.
My friend Marc Nash is a regular reader of Perec. I hope you get to Collected Works. It is a real favorite of mine.
I want to read more translated books! This video was great!
Thank you.
I haven’t read any of these but I do own The Name of the Rose. One of my bookish goals this year is to read some of these translated works on my physical shelves. I have 21 that are unread to choose from.
Coincidentally I picked up a translated book yesterday from my library on inter-library loan and I have an ILL request for another translated book. For whatever reason my library doesn’t hold on to physical copies of those very long. If your library is like mine, ask if they can locate a physical copy for you via ILL. The wait time was significantly shorter than on Libby. 10 days for ILL vs several months for Libby for the one I just borrowed.
Thanks for the tip on ILL. I have used it for academic purposes. My library surprises me sometimes with what they do and don’t have. It’s been a long time since I read The Name of the Rose.
I love Eva Baltasar’s books. Lots of great recommendations here, thank you for sharing them with us.
Thanks Charlie.
There are some of my favourites and some 2025-TBR books on your list, great!
Can you please tell me whether Mammoth can be read as a standalone?
Translated authors that I adore and hardly ever hear about on English booktube are Tezer Özlü (Turkish) and Chingiz Aitmatov (Kyrgyz/Russian).
@@azu_rikka Thank you. Yes! Mammoth can be read as a stand alone. All three of Baltasar’s novels I mentioned her can. They are subtly linked thematically, but share none of the same characters or plots.
What a great list, Brian. I used to own that same edition of Hundred Years of Solitude from the early 1980's. It did my heart good to see it again. Wait, no Claudia Pineiro?? 😉
I forgot Pineiro and Han Kang. I had both written on the back of my note card, but never turned it over!!🫣
@ Awww. It happens! I kept waiting for you to talk about Pineiro! 😂
_First!_ Greg & I are rereading _One Hundred Years ...,_ sometime this year. I _still_ have _At Night ...,_ upon your rec, stilll unread. 😔 Have you read any Clarice Lespector, yet? I thunk she's great! 📚 Id like to read, _Strange Weather in Tokyo!_ Thanks, Brian. 🎉
I’ve only read a few of Lispector s stories. I know her books are widely admired, but her stories didn’t really appeal to me. I’ll give a novel a try some day.
I envy you for being able to read translated books by contemporary writers from all over the world.
I am now addicted to Yoko Tawada. There are many English translations available.
I will have to try Tawada . Can you suggest a book as a starting place.
@@BookishTexan Sorry, I couldn't choose just one book. How about one of the following?
The Emissary
Memoirs of a Polar Bear
The Bridegroom Was a Dog
The Naked Eye
I'm a beginner myself, but I plan to read everything she's written by the end of the year.
Have you read everything by an author?
@ Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll pick one and hopefully get to it soon.
what are you doing to my TBR my good sir?!
Sorry😂
I read "The Name of the Rose" and was frustrated by the arrogance of having documents in other languages, without translation, and assuming that the reader should just know these languages, because the author knows these languages. WTF put out a translation, if the reader is required to know several different languages in order to read all of the book? This was more of a problem when I read it, because I could not copy and paste the text into a translator or look online for translations of these documents that take up pages of the book. One amusing aspect of the film is that Sean Connery's accent is not as far from the accent of William of Ockham (the real person of his character is based on) as is common when Connery is playing someone who is not Scottish. Saramago's "Blindness" was excellent, so I will look for "The History of the Siege of Lisbon".
My first book in translation, other than the Bible (OT translated from Hebrew and NT translated from Greek) was probably "Candide" - even in translation, banned books are often much better than books that do not offend the powerful.
.
I started Blindness once but I own it in a bind up with two other Saramago novels which made it awkward to read.
I read Name of the Rose so long ago that I don’t remember the u translated sections.
Yes I’m actually reading a translated book right now called Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes.. Can I say that on UA-cam? Guess I can. Loved The Name of the Rose but sorry to say DNFed One Hundred Years and have no intention of returning to it. Be well.⚛❤
I heard someone else talking about Dear Dickhead a few days ago! I’ll have to try it out. Thanks Frank.
Sir!! You put the brazilian flag in the thumbnail and did not mention a single brazilian book. Not only that but talked about the competition (portugal). For your own safety i will not tell anyone about this diplomatic incident!!!! 😂
Haha! Very sorry. I have read some Clarice Lispector stories, but not one of novels.
That is the flag for Portuguese in Duolingo
@@carlos_herrera in the world we have 🇧🇷 brazilian portuguese and 🇵🇹 portuguese (from portugal and other countries like moçambique)
We have the same grammatical structure, in fact we have a treaty about it, but they are not the same