For six years, I have had a tradition: right around the beginning of December, when the Florida heat finally cools off, I slip my copy of Banana Yoshimoto’s "Kitchen" off the shelf and allow it to rekindle a warmth within my being. Translated in English by Megan Backus, the light, intricate, and mouth-watering prose of the novella has delighted me endlessly.| Reading in Translation
Running just 120-odd pages in its most recent English translation by Douglas J. Weatherford, Juan Rulfo’s "Pedro Páramo" is as dense as it is short. The novel revolves around its titular character, don Pedro Páramo, as he maneuvers his way to the heights of regional, ranchero power in Comala, a remote town in the arid parts of West-Central Mexico. Its plot, though, defies the bounds of perspective and narrative coherency.| Reading in Translation