September | 2025 | Reading in Translation
Explore Shida Bazyar's powerful novel "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran," a poignant tale of revolution, exile, and inter-generational trauma.| Reading in Translation
Explore Shida Bazyar's powerful novel "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran," a poignant tale of revolution, exile, and inter-generational trauma.| Reading in Translation
Explore Shida Bazyar's powerful novel "The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran," a poignant tale of revolution, exile, and inter-generational trauma.| Reading in Translation
Katherine Gregor's translation of Cécile Tlili’s "Just a Little Dinner" effectively captures the symbolic violence enacted on female bodies.| Reading in Translation
The plot of Katherine Gregor’s translation of Cécile Tlili’s "Just a Little Dinner" unfolds in an apartment in Paris at the end of August. It follows the dramas of two couples at a dinner party organized by Étienne, who hopes to strike a business deal with his guest, Johar. he novel’s title becomes more ironic as the story unravels. Death and transformation fill the apartment’s space, making the scene much more than “just a little dinner.”| Reading in Translation
Nicolas Pasternak-Slater and Maya Slater have recently completed their translation of Tolstoy’s novel "Anna Karenina" (to be published in 2026 by the Folio Society). In this interview, Olga Kenton discusses with them the novel, obstacles that arose during the translation process, and the significance of engaging with Russian literature in the twenty-first century.| Reading in Translation
In both its iterations, "Silk" straddles the line between domestic and foreign, not unlike Joncour himself. Translation serves as a lens through which Baricco interrogates traditional Western notions of foreignness and domesticity.| Reading in Translation
Nadia Terranova’s 2022 novel "The Night Trembles" (Trema la notte), translated by Ann Goldstein for Seven Stories Press (2025), gives voice to Barbara and Nicola, a young woman and a boy whose parallel plot lines develop against the background of a catastrophic natural disaster – the earthquake that decimated the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria, on each side of the Strait of Messina, on December 28, 1908.| Reading in Translation
In both its iterations, "Silk" straddles the line between domestic and foreign, not unlike Joncour himself. Translation serves as a lens through which Baricco interrogates traditional Western notions of foreignness and domesticity.| Reading in Translation
Baricco’s short novel almost reads like a collection of linked prose poems, a form that lends itself to be read and reread. Rather than understand Waldman’s and Goldstein’s translations as in competition, one “more faithful” than the other, it may be more useful to see them as partners.| Reading in Translation
Nadia Terranova’s 2022 novel "The Night Trembles" (Trema la notte), translated by Ann Goldstein for Seven Stories Press (2025), gives voice to Barbara and Nicola, a young woman and a boy whose parallel plot lines develop against the background of a catastrophic natural disaster – the earthquake that decimated the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria, on each side of the Strait of Messina, on December 28, 1908.| Reading in Translation
"Lost Bread" represents multilingual worlds, with Hungarian, Yiddish, German, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, French, and other languages woven into the narrative and author’s life. Both the Italian and English translation have footnotes for some of the phrases that appear. The narrator’s relationships to these languages evolve throughout the work.| Reading in Translation
Nadia Terranova’s 2022 novel "The Night Trembles" (Trema la notte), translated by Ann Goldstein for Seven Stories Press (2025), gives voice to Barbara and Nicola, a young woman and a boy whose parallel plot lines develop against the background of a catastrophic natural disaster – the earthquake that decimated the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria, on each side of the Strait of Messina, on December 28, 1908.| Reading in Translation
Bužarovska and Bradbury’s equivalents of food and drink illustrate the interplay between concision and elaboration in the English version. The concision often corresponds to the original phrasing, staying philologically close to the source, while the elaboration might constitute a gloss or simply revel in the possibilities of the target language.| Reading in Translation
Long before postmodern historical novels such as Italo Calvino’s "Invisible Cities" (1972), Umberto Eco’s "The Name of the Rose" (1980), Christa Wolf’s "Cassandra" (1983), and Salman Rushdie’s "The Enchantress of Florence" (2008) captivated readers with their imaginative, thoroughly researched, and carefully plotted recreation of the past, there was Vera Mutafchieva’s "The Case of Cem" (1967).| Reading in Translation
“The philosophical account of translation in this book is of what it means to read like a translator” (5) writes Damion Searls. Some might object that philosophy isn’t particularly good at describing reading (or writing, for that matter) and argue that one should prefer literary theory, but Searls enlists philosophers to describe what translators do (they read). Philosophy, moreover, usefully displaces translation ‘theory’ which too often, in his view, involves telling translators w...| Reading in Translation
Robyn Creswell shares his insights into translating poetry from Arabic and discusses his broader philosophy and practice of translation, including questions of fidelity, agency, and accessibility.| 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
"There’s No Turning Back" examines the experiences of eight women at various stages in their lives, spanning the years 1934-1946. Their hardships and successes come through as world experiences that feel as relevant now as they did nearly one hundred years ago.| Reading in Translation
"Água viva" is an astounding exploration of language’s limitations and potential to communicate the ineffable. Via the experimental, stream-of-consciousness flow of the novel, Lispector reaches for the raw experience of existence beyond traditional storytelling, unifying form and content to affect not just the mind but the body. Stefan Tobler’s English translation keeps this intimate and visceral quality intact, preserving Lispector’s distinctive voice.| Reading in Translation
Rooted deeply in psychological realism, Arnaud’s expertly-paced stories delve into themes of death, betrayal, illicit affairs, and violence. Yet, they are not without moments of tenderness. Laced with suspense and emotional intensity, Arnaud’s writing evokes the interiority of Clarice Lispector and features plot twists worthy of Edgar Allan Poe, consistently delivering surprising endings.| Reading in Translation
"The Tokyo Suite" by Brazilian author Giovana Madalosso, translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato, is an ambitious novel. It explores and questions gender roles and expectations in marriage and caregiving, the very structure of traditional marriages, the demands and complexities of motherhood, the contradictions of life in the big city, and the inequities inherent in capitalism.| Reading in Translation
Baricco’s short novel almost reads like a collection of linked prose poems, a form that lends itself to be read and reread. Rather than understand Waldman’s and Goldstein’s translations as in competition, one “more faithful” than the other, it may be more useful to see them as partners.| Reading in Translation
