Our staff share some of their favourite translated books from the past year.

‘I have been collecting titles from the Penguin China Specials and The Hong Kong Penguin Specials series fanatically! Some of these bitesize books are translated and some are written in original English.

A translated favourite is Dung Kai-Cheung’s Cantonese Love Stories – a collection of 25 short stories so brief they can best be described as sketches. Dung Kai-Cheung’s writing fits within classical Chinese traditions of pithy and odd fictions (see Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Song-Ling if you feel so inclined!), but pushed rudely into the twenty-first century and the growing consumerism of Chinese society. These are some of the oddest stories about love and desire that you’ll ever read; full of mystery and riddled with what may appear to Western readers as non sequiturs. A nice part of their journey is that some of the translations were completed by Masters of Translation Studies students at the University of Sydney.’

– Leanne Hall, bookseller at Readings Kids

‘ Black Moses is the latest book from Congolese–French writer Alain Mabanckou, and tells the of the tragic story of the orphaned Moses who’s living through the political changes in the Republic of Congo during the 1970s and 1980s. Trying to live up to his namesake, Moses uses his internal sense of justice, rather than government propaganda, to attempt to do his best to protect those who are even more vulnerable than him. Mabanckou is an incredible writer, using dark comedy and just a touch of magical realism to transport the reader into Moses’ reality.

The Murderer’s Ape tells the extraordinary story of Sally Jones – gorilla, loyal friend, sailor and engineer. Told from the point of view of Sally Jones and spattered with the occasional illustration (and the most fantastic maps!), the novel tells the exciting mission she undertakes to try and free her Captain, Henry Koskela, from a Portuguese prison where he’s been placed for a crime he did not commit. Gripping and mysterious, Sally is not a character you will forget. This is a great book for adults and younger readers alike.’

– Julia Gorman, bookseller at Readings Carlton

‘I doubt I’ve read a book as surreal and disturbing as Argentinian writer Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream – translated from Spanish into English for the first time this year by Megan McDowell and longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Fever Dream is a hypnotic literary page-turner, beautiful and chillingly contemporary. Structured like a play, the entire novel is an unbroken dialogue extruding from a void. The speakers are Amanda, a woman in a hospital bed, and David, a young boy (not hers) who kneels beside her and forces her to recount a series of recent events. It’s difficult to describe what unfolds, but the result is absorbing, inventive and sickeningly good.’

– Stella Charls, marketing & events coordinator

‘ The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a heartwarming feline road trip novel with Nana and his owner Satoru. Taken in by Satoru as a stray, Nana can’t understand why after five years of living together, Satoru is determined to find him a new place to live. Together they travel throughout Japan, visiting people from Satoru’s childhood (plus a number of animals) along the way. Translated by Murakami’s translator Philip Gabriel, this is a novel about the importance of friendship, connection and loyalty.’

– Amanda Rayner, bookseller at Readings Carlton

‘This year I read my very first Clarice Lispector novel, Hour of the Star, and was disappointed in myself for not having made time for her work sooner. I read the book as part of a book club I’m currently in. The rule of this book club is that the books we read must be from an author recommended by another author we like. The results can sometimes be a bit obscure, but are always excellent. Lispector’s work was recommended by Canadian author Sheila Heti and is originally translated from Portuguese.

Apparently Lispector’s body of work, mostly written in the mid-twentieth century, has been re-translated in recent years. I found the language and sentence structure of Hour of the Star really odd, in a good way. The narration is quirky, sometimes brutal, but so completely idiosyncratic. I really enjoyed this novel, and have put more of Lispector’s work in my mental reading queue.’

– Ellen Cregan, bookseller at Readings Doncaster

‘Tove Jansson has been one of my favourite backlist discoveries in recent years. Best known for her children’s series of illustrated Moomin novels, her adult fiction is gentle, playful and immensely pleasurable. I’ve been trying to space out her books so that I don’t rush through them too quickly and this past year I read and adored two of them: A Winter Book (a collection of stories, some autobiographical) and Fair Play (a depiction of a creative partnership, based on Jansson’s own life). Every one of Jansson’s books I’ve read has moved me in extraordinary ways, and after I finish one I always need to sit quietly with my thoughts for a while.

Another of my favourite authors in translation is Alejandro Zambra and his latest work is the strange and slim Multiple Choice. While its unconventional structure (based on the Chilean academic aptitude test of 1993) might give you pause, this is a really compelling story – wry and melancholic. As with Zambra’s earlier books, this one is another exploration of Chilean life under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and it’s a wonderfully nuanced portrayal.’

– Bronte Coates, bookseller at Readings online