Harrison Betz analyzes, side by the side, the English and Italian translations from Japanese of Banana Yoshimoto's novel "Kitchen."| Reading in Translation
At the start of her second memoir, "Parisian Days," Banine, a French author of Azerbaijani descent, arrives in the promised land. The year is 1921. Paris has newly entered the Roaring Twenties, a time of short respite between the two Great Wars. Banine is only nineteen, and she has just miraculously escaped her detested husband, the distant city of Istanbul where she left him behind, her homeland Azerbaijan and, perhaps most significantly, the grips of the Soviet Union.| Reading in Translation
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
In this interview, Izidora Angel unravels some of the mysteries behind her latest translation, discusses her choices and decisions as a translator, and hints at some of her own creative writing projects.| 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
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