Here are a few older releases that I recently read that I'd recommend for most readers

Although I'm going to be writing several reviews later this week/month, almost all of those will be for recent 2013 releases.  There are older releases, however, that I do think is well worth a read for many here:

Donna Tartt, The Secret History - I had intended to read Tartt's 1992 debut for over ten years now, ever since I first heard of it when her second novel was released.  Now that her third novel, The Goldfinch, is coming out on October 22, I went ahead and finally read the book (which I had purchased as a used hardcover back in the springtime).  It is one of those novels that manages to meld several disparate elements, ranging from Greek tragedy to contemporary fiction to a sort of reverse murder-mystery, in a nearly seamless fashion.  Her prose fit the characters and action so well that it was very easy at times to overlook those sentences where Tartt wrote something truly elegant.

Jean Stafford, Collected Stories - At first, I thought her prose was rather dated, but the more attention I paid to how Stafford constructed her sentences, the more beautiful the narratives became.  Some very excellent internal dialogues make several of her stories a joy to read and to reflect upon.

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island - Nearly 50 years after his accidental death, Merton's religious reflections still influence thousands, if not millions, of readers.  There is nothing pompous about his reflections; this book simply has left me pondering, a month after finishing it, some of the implications explored within its pages.

Shani Boianjiu, The People of Forever are not Afraid - If I had read this in 2012, Boianjiu's first novel would have made my year-end Top 25.  But I didn't, alas, for this work that feels autobiographical (Boianjiu served two years in the Israeli army before studying in the US) while simultaneously exploring several layers of what it means to be a young woman surrounded by all sorts of external and internal conflicts.  Excellent narrative that deserves an even greater readership.

Feel free to ask more about these books or to comment on ones that you've already read.

So you find yourself wanting to discover works in translation...

Perhaps you came here from Twitter, where shortly after the last word is typed, a link will be posted there.  Perhaps you arrived via a Google search for an author.  Maybe you are reading this blog on an RSS feed.  Regardless of how you arrived, perhaps there will be some intriguing recent releases that will appeal to you, as I am one of those readers who believe that it is of paramount importance that cultures thrive best when they are in constant dialogue with one another and that no singular voice drowns out another.  Therefore, I am going to list below a few works that have recently been translated into English that I think readers should consider picking up.  These are in no particular order other than what I see on my e-book readers or shelves:

Alain Mabanckou, Black Bazaar – Congolese writer.  Translated from French in 2012 (2009 original).  Here is an excerpt.  Made the 2013 International Foreign Fiction Prize longlist.  Among many other things it is a satirical look at how outsiders view African societies.

Laurent Binet, HHhH – French writer.  Translated from French in 2012.  Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.  Review here.

Sjón, From the Mouth of the Whale – Icelandic writer.  Translated from Icelandic in 2011.  Finalist for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize.  Review here.

Diego Marani, New Finnish Grammar – Italian writer.  Translated from Italian in 2011.  Finalist for 2012 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.  I discussed it briefly in a post that also lists other outstanding translated fictions near the end of the post.

Liliana Bodoc, The Days of the Deer – Argentine writer.  Translated from Spanish in August 2013 (originally published in 2000).  I enjoyed her Spanish-language epic fantasy when I read it several years ago and I perhaps might write a review after judging the translation against the original.

Shani Boianjiu, The People of Forever are Not Afraid – Israeli writer.  Originally written in English and published in 2012.  Including this because Boianjiu is a non-native English speaker and her story is a wonderful look into contemporary Israeli society, particularly in regards to young Israeli women and the effects of continual guardedness have on their outlooks on life.

Inga Ābele, High Tide – Latvian writer.  Translated from Latvian in September 2013.  Open Letter, the translator, claims this might be the first Latvian novel translated into English and if this is indeed the case, then Ābele's twisted mystery narrative is an excellent choice.  Wish I could read more of her works.

Juli Zeh, The Method – German writer.  Translated from German in 2012.  One of the better dystopian novels that I've read and one that comments more forcefully on women's issues in particular than most other such dystopian fictions.

Jean-Marie Blas de Robles, Where Tigers are at Home – French writer.  Translated from French in 2011.  This book is one of the best I've read in years in any language (also read it in French).  A must-read for most readers.

Zoran Živković, Find Me – Serbian writer.  Translated from Serbian, but not yet available from US or UK publishers.  Sequel to his excellent literary mystery, The Last Book.  Lives up to the standards of that book.  Will attempt to write a review before the year is out.

Yuri Andrukhovych, Perverzion – Ukrainian writer.  Translated from Ukrainian in 2005.  Older translation than others listed here, but when I was thumbing through my books to come up with a short starter list of translated fictions that I enjoyed, I just had to include this one.


I could easily spend several more hours writing a very exhaustive (and exhausting!) list of other translated works that I think deserve greater consideration.  But these should make for an excellent beginning.  Feel free to suggest other recent translations of literary and/or genre fictions.  Doubtless I'm overlooking several, perhaps because I didn't read them in translation and thus cannot comment on the quality of the translations.

Some books I'm going to recommend to you without a description

I think this might be an interesting exercise in seeing if readers will fill in the blanks, so here are blanket recommendations for books recently read about which I have said nothing prior to writing this.  Curious to see who echoes which books or expounds upon reactions for others' benefits (I won't elaborate in any possible comments I might make):

1.  Katherine Vaz, Saudade

2.  David Albahari, Leeches

3.  Kay Ryan, The Best of It

4.  Frank Turner Hollon, The God File

5.  William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

6.  Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room

7.  John Sayles,  A Moment in the Sun

8.  Philipp Meyer, American Rust

9.  Brian Evenson, The Wavering Knife

10. Peter S. Beagle, Sleight of Hand

11.  Cormac McCarthy, Sunset Limited


Let me know if you decide to look into any of these, OK?

Recommended recent reads

Despite now having a bit more "free time" (to say the least), I regretfully will not be able to review at length every single book that I've read and had things to say. While full reviews of Ekaterina Sedia's The Alchemy of Stone, John Rieder's Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, and the dual review I'm currently working on for Strange Horizons of Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia and Jo Graham's Black Ships will all be completed in the next couple of weeks, here are a list of books that I've read recently that I would recommend to most here:

1. Francie Lin, The Foreigner (2008) - I usually do not like crime/thriller novels that use mysterious family elements as a hook. However, Lin's tale has so many levels of meaning to it that her story becomes much more than an American-born Taiwanese returning to his ancestral homeland. Lin writes nuanced, carefully-crafted characters, creates palpable tension without sacrificing these well-rounded characters' personalities to the plot demands, and she tosses in certain symbolic acts and gestures that bring the story full-circle by the end of this 300 page novel.

2. D.M. Cornish, Lamplighter (2008) - I posted a few weeks ago about how I believed Cornish deserved a larger readership for his YA series, Monster Blood Tattoo. After reading this 700 page sequel to 2006's Foundling, I found the sequel to continue with the vividly-drawn (and illustrated) characters and monsters, with interesting side-plots, and with a twist at the end that makes me eager to read the concluding volume whenever it comes out in the next few years.

3. Kay Kenyon, Bright of the Sky (2007); A World Too Near (2008) - Sometimes, I just want to read a nice SF quest story. When I do, I like to read stories that have a nice pace, interesting characters, with writing that doesn't irritate me. Kenyon's first two novels in a planned quadrilogy succeeded on all accounts. Not the greatest stories I've ever read, but decent, entertaining reads that I doubtless will re-read in the near future.

4. Alan Campbell, Iron Angel (2008) - This sequel to Scar Night (2006) was an improvement on the characterizations and plotting. Campbell still is developing as an author and his writing does not always match his ambitions, but what I read was enough for me to continue on with this series.

5. Barth Anderson, The Magician and the Fool (2008) - Excellent mystery/thriller regarding tarot cards, Romulus and Remus, and ancient Troy. Anderson toes a fine line between winking at his readers and making the story outlandishly exciting. A fun, fast-paced novel that makes me curious about his first novel.

6. James Braziel, Birmingham, 35 Miles (2008) - Excellent debut novel about a post-apocalyptic event in the early 21st century, when the ozone layer dissolves above Alabama and living conditions there become harsh. Told via letters and personal communication between a husband and wife, Braziel has created sympathetic characters who tell their stories plainly and yet eloquently. One of my favorite debut novels read this year.

7. Maurice Dantec, Cosmos Incorporated (2008 English translation from the French) - This novel was slow for me at first, detailing a fractured world in which the US has split apart into several nations. The mysterious stealthy assassin whose PoV dominates the novel didn't really appeal to me until the final half of the novel. However, once I reached that point, the story took off in an unexpected direction that made for a much more interesting story than I had expected after 200 pages.

8. Sarah Hall, Daughters of the North (published in the UK in 2007 as The Carhullan Army; 2008 US release). This Clarke Award finalist contains the bones of a really good feminist critique of modern society and how women's bodies are viewed (among a great many other matters). However much I enjoyed it, I was left with the impression that if Hall had fleshed out the relationships a bit more, had explored the totalitarian society a tad bit more in detail, that this would have been on par with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It falls just a bit shy of that, but even so, it was a very good read.