September is National Translation Month, a time to highlight the works and contributions of authors from around the world, and the translators who make their work available to more readers. Check out this taste of recent fiction in translation.
Delicious Hunger by Singaporean author Hai Fan uses the author’s background as a guerilla fighter in the Malayan Communist Party in the 1970s and 80s as the backdrop for his collection of short stories. Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, these stories follow comrades deep in the jungle on the Malaysian-Thai border, seeking moments of camaraderie, tenderness, and love amidst landmines, starvation, and struggle.
Cameroonian filmmaker and photographer Osvalde Lewat’s The Aquatics, translated from the French by Maren Baudet-Lackner, takes on gender roles and societal views of homosexuality in a fictional African country called Zambuena. As wife and mother Katmé balks against the expectations of her in privileged society, her relationship with her best friend Samy, a gay artist and activist, offers her another possibility of expression and livelihood–even as homosexuality is punishable by death in Zambuena. But when Katmé’s connection to Samy is leaked in an attempt to damage her politician husband’s reputation, Katmé must work to save her friend and come face to face with the underbelly of Zambuena society.
Translated works span genre and setting, and the finest in historical horror is on display in Danish author Olga Ravn’s novella The Wax Child, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken. Based on the true story of a 17th century Danish noblewoman beheaded for witchcraft, this haunting story is narrated by a wax doll made by Christenze Kruckow, a single woman who lives at Nakkebølle Manor. After the mistress of the manor experiences 15 miscarriages and stillbirths, she accuses Christenze of witchcraft, leading the woman to flee to another town where she comes into a community of women who use Christenze’s doll to cast spells.
For a mystery-within-a-mystery in translation, Broken Truths by Italian author Alessandro Robecchi, translated from the Italian by Gregory Conti, delivers. Septuagenarian movie director Manilo Parrini hasn’t made a movie since his magnum opus, Broken Truths, over 30 years ago. Now he returns to cinema to adapt and solve a decades-old cold case, the murder of detective novelist Augusto de Angelis. But while working on his film, Parrini’s neighbor turns up dead and Parrini gets pulled into the investigation.
For more titles, check out the list Fiction in Translation.
~posted by Jane S.