August is Women in Translation month, and I always forget that until the last week of the month. So this year, I decided to put together a list of five short books (under 300 pages) that you might decide to pick up and read before the month’s over.
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell | 357 pages
This was the book that inspired this whole post. I had the chance this month to hear Enriquez speak and she is a truly fascinating writer. This’ll be my personal read for this month as it’s the one I bought at the event, but all of her books sound incredible.
Blizzard by Marie Vingtras, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman | 240 pages
Translated from French, this is the story of a boy who goes missing in a split second in an Alaskan blizzard. A ragtag team comes together to search for him before time runs out, but they’re all hiding dark secrets. Blizzard is Vingtras’ debut novel, but it won twelve literary prizes in France before it was translated.
Black Box by Shiori Ito, translated by Allison Markin Powell | 224 pages
The subtitle for this book is ‘the memoir that sparked Japan’s #MeToo Movement’, so this is definitely not an easy read. Ito was an aspiring young journalist when she was assaulted by a prominent reporter in 2015—when she reported her attack to the police, she was told it was ‘untouchable’. After its publication, this book launched a movement in Japan which saw a cultural and legal shift around assault.
The Naked Woman by Armonia Somers, translated by Kit Maude | 168 pages
Let me just tell you the first line of this book’s summary: A woman’s feminist awakening drives a hypocritical village to madness in rural Uruguay. I don’t know about you but I’m sold. This was originally published in 1950 and became available in English for the first time only a few years ago.
Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962 – 1972 by Alejandra Pizarnik, translated by Yvette Siegert | 129 pages
I could’ve easily made this entire list just poetry based but I limited myself to just this one. If you’ve never read anything from Alejandra Pizarnik before then you’re missing out. She was an incredible poet who sadly took her own life at 36, but these poems are full of discussion of madness, solitude, childhood, the self and more. She is truly a must read.
What have you read for Women in Translation month?
Earl Grey Books 