If you’re looking to read more works in translation this year, we’ve compiled a list of seven new works of fiction that bring you voices from around the world.

I’m Waiting For You by Kim Bo-Young (translated by Sophie Bowman)

A stunning collection of short fiction by a South Korean writer who counts film director Bong Joon-ho among her many fans! In the title story, an engaged couple working in distant corners of the galaxy plan to arrive on Earth simultaneously and walk down the aisle together. But small incidents wreak havoc on their vast journeys, pushing the date of their wedding far into the future. As centuries pass on Earth and the land and climate change, one thing is constant: the desire of the lovers to be together. Through two pairs of interlinked stories stories, Kim explores the driving forces of humanity - love, hope, creation, destruction, and the very meaning of existence.

Heaven by Mieko Kawakami (translated by David Boyd and Sam Bett)

Fourteen-year-old Eyes is subjected to relentless torment from his classmates for having a lazy eye. The only person who understands what he is going through is Kojima, who suffers similar awful treatment. The young friends take secret solace in each other’s company, completely unaware that their relationship has not gone unnoticed by their bullies…In her challenging first (but second-translated) novel, acclaimed author Kawakami (Breasts and Eggs) asks us to question the fate of the meek in a society that favours the strong, and the lengths that even children will go in their learned cruelty. Our staff reviewer described it as ‘high in depraved spectacle yet filled with compassion and understanding’. You can read our staff review here.

Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke (translated by Carlos Rojas)

On his return to his hometown to aid the Cultural Revolution, married soldier Aijun meets Hongmei wandering barefoot along the railway tracks. From this moment on, Aijun and Hongmei hurl themselves into revolutionary struggle, but soon their sexual and political fervour begin to merge. The party bosses are impressed and, emboldened, the couple build a ‘tunnel of love’ to connect their homes. But when Hongmei’s husband finds them there, and the young couple are arrested for framing a comrade, their dreams of a life together begin to fall apart. Hard Like Water is an entertaining tale of sexual infatuation and revolutionary zeal, a universal human drama about political power, the danger of hubris, and the freewheeling momentum of love and sexual desire.

The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany (translated by S. R. Fellowes)

Under the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt is gripped by cronyism, religious hypocrisy, and the oppressive military. Now, however, the regime faces its greatest crisis. Both darkly comic and tragic, The Republic of False Truths revolves around the occupation of Tahrir Square in the centre of Cairo by the idealistic young. Euphoria mounts as Mubarak is toppled and love blossoms across class divides, but ruthless General Alwany and his friends mount a devastating counter-attack. With its vivid cast of characters, Al Aswany’s fifth novel offers a deeply moving and passionate fictional account of the trauma of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Fidelity by Marco Missiroli (translated by Alex Valente)

Carlo and Margherita: a happily married couple in their mid-thirties, perfectly attuned to each other’s restlessness. They are in love, but they also both harbour desires to stray: Carlo longs for the quiet beauty of one of his students, Sofia; Margherita fantasises about her physiotherapist, Andrea. It is love, with its unassuming power, which ultimately pulls them from the brink, aided by Margherita’s mother Anna - a wise, proud seamstress hiding her own disappointments. But after eight years of repressed desires and the birth of a son, when the past resurfaces in the form of books sent anonymously, will love be enough to save them?

Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono (translated by Lucy North)

An immeasurably influential female voice in post-war Japanese literature, Kono writes with a strange and disorienting beauty: her tales are marked by disquieting scenes, her characters all teetering on the brink of self-destruction. In the famous title story, the protagonist loathes young girls but compulsively buys expensive clothes for little boys so that she can watch them dress and undress. Kono’s detached gaze at these events is transfixing: What are we hunting for? And why? These pitch-black tales rarely give the reader straightforward answers, rather reflecting, subverting and examining their expectations, both of what women are capable of, and of the narrative form itself.

Touring the Land of the Dead by Maki Kashimada (translated by Haydn Trowell)

These two novellas are the English translation debut of multi-award-winning Kashimada. The first novella, Touring the Land of the Dead, is a story of family, trauma, memory and identity. Natsuko and her husband Taichi live on Natsuko’s part-time wages and Taichi’s disability benefits. But Natsuko is well accustomed to financial hardship. Before meeting Taichi, she lived with her mother, a proud woman who clung to illusions of affluence long after the family riches had dried up. One day, Natsuko sees an ad for a spa resort and recognizes the place as a former luxury hotel, a symbol of that time in her mother’s youth when she wanted for nothing. When Natsuko and her husband visit the much-changed hotel, the building triggers memories relating to the complicated history of her family.