Thank you for promoting translated fiction, Jean!! :) As a non native english speaker I've always read a lot of translated books but they are not that common here on english booktube, and there's sooo many good books! I'm happy the trend of global content is spreading, even with other things like tv shows on netflix or movies!
I'm from Germany but most of the time the I read books in the original english. It's kinda sad that not more people are looking into the international literature because they miss stuff like the books of Walter Moers (Jean I think you would adore "The City of Dreaming Books") or the hilarious books by Jonas Jonasson (swedish) I love to watch your videos because you're accent is so sweet and I like your recommendations I Just started The Missing of Clairedelune and love the series now :) So my Tbr got even bigger now thanks :)
Asterix and Tintin were definitely favorites of mine as a child. Thanks for making a video about translated works! I'll have to add these to my TBR and broaden my horizons.
So great to hear another BookTuber talking about translated fiction! I feel like it doesn't get enough attention. I studied Spanish at university, so I had to study a lot of books from Spain and Latin America, and always found it so fascinating to learn about different cultures. I just made a video about them, but some of the ones I'd recommend are The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by García Márquez.
I'm so intrigued by your description of Convenience Store Woman. Sometimes that's exactly how I want to live! And A Winter's Promise has been on my shelves since February so excellent reminder I should read it. :D
Being from the Netherlands, I grew up reading a lot of non-English fiction so my recommendations tend to be children's books. My I devoured and still love anything by Astrid Lindgren (the Swedish author known for Pippi Longstocking), especially Ronia The Robber's Daughter and The Brothers Lionheart, I've read both of these recently and they hold up! Another childhood favourite author is the Dutch Thea Beckman, queen of historical fiction. Her most well-known book in the Netherlands has been translated to English. It's called Crusade in Jeans and follows a teenage boy from the 20th Century who is sent back in time to the 13th Century and more or less accidentally joins a children's crusade. It's a wonderful mixture of historical fiction with some sci-fi elements and it's very well loved over here for good reason!
Oh I'm happy you mentioned the Ludmilla Petrushevskaya book. I was trying to remember the title and author of this book for a while now and couldn't for the life of me :D Great recommendations. I just read the Terracotta Bride you recommended recently. Loved it. Thanks!
I read translated fiction regularly but if I look at my favorites this year that aren't originally in English or Dutch (I'm Dutch myself) I would say 3096 Days by Natascha Kampusch (Non-fiction, originally written in German, read in Dutch) and Whisper by Isabel Abedi (also originally written in German, read in Dutch).
One of my favourite translated authors is Cixin Liu, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows about translated sci-fi, the man gets lauded and I think for good reason. The stories are just fascinating. I didn't know A Winter's Promise was translated! I'll definitely mark that down for when I pick it up later this year. Lots of great recommendations here. Thanks so much!
I'm from Germany but I usually read books in the original english. I think it's kind of sad that not more people look out for international literature because they miss so much like the books of Walter Moers (that you would probably love especially "The City of Dreaming Books") or the swedish novel "The Hundred-Year-Old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson
I loved Asterix when I was a kid and it's still borrowed by kids all the time at the library where I work. I also love the movies, I know they're "bad" but I love them lol I was wondering, have you read The reader by Bernard Schlink? It's an amazing german book.
I would recommend Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angelica Gorodischer, translated from Spanish Ursula K. Le Guin, as a fantasy with stories woven together that form the history of a fantasy empire. Also worth a mention for gothic magical realism short stories is Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo, translated from Spanish by Daniel Balderston with an introduction by Helen Oyeyemi. Lastly the Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Skokoofeh Azar, translated from Farsi by Adrien Kijel, is a magical realism story happening immediately after the Islamic revolution in 1979, drawing on Persian storytelling - it was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2018 (Aussie women authors award which can include fiction and non fiction work).
Currently I'm reading Cien Años De Soledad/100 Years of Solitude in Spanish with the English translation to go along with when I get stuck. It's really shown me, as much as I loved the English translation, that reading it in its original form is so much more beautiful. I'm really loving it
Favourite translated read is probably Cassandra, by Christa Wolf, but I'd imagine that's on your TBR list for a couple of reasons already... Also Siddhartha, by Hesse, and more recently, the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante.
I loved Asterix too, I'm surprised how seldom it's mentioned on booktube! You mentioned some very interesting books, will add them to my tbr. Some of my own non-English books are The Flanders Panel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Momo by Michael Ende, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse & pretty much anything by Jules Verne :D
From your thoughts on these books and your affinity with magical realism, I think you'd like the Portuguese author, José Saramago. I would recommend two specific books: Blindness, and Baltasar and Blimunda 😊
Great video. I was wondering how you decide which translated version to read, especially when it comes to translated classics? Thanks again. Hope you're having a great day!
Have you read any José Saramago or Fernando Pessoa? There is an audiobook for The Book of Disquiet by him which is one of my favorite books OF ALL TIME!
I'm really interested to know if the writing style is noticeably different in translated books. As a native English speaker, can you kind of feel that the book is not originally written in English?
Not usually, I can tell if it's written in a different time period but I think translators are trying to give English readers as similar an experience as the native language speaking readers :).
@@JeansThoughts oh that is cool! I think it would be interesting to see if you could try to write in English, but as if you were writing in your native language. I'm Dutch for example so writing as if I'm writing in Dutch but using English. Idea for my next project I think!
I used to watch the Asterix cartoon adaptations in my French classes in primary school. I loved it. The second Mirror Visitor book is amazing, better than the first one.
I loved Convenience Store Woman! Best book I’ve read this year! I agree that the narrator was really compelling. I somehow found her to be relatable even though we don’t have much in common.
This is suuuuch a great video! I've heard a few people talk about Convenience Store Women and haven't really been urged to pick it up. But after hearing you describe I'm suddenly desperate to, so thanks for that! I loved The Vegetarian so much, I remember while I was reading it though, being so distracted by the question of "where is this book going" that I feel like i missed out on parts. So it's definitely a book I was to revisit one day. I've always had my eye on the accusation, it sounds like such an interesting read and a real eye opener for people that might be naive in that field, which is absolutely me. I bought A Winters Promise last year in the lead up to christmas but never got around to it, is it a book, in your opinion, that's worth saving for christmas time or would it suit any time of the year?
Love to see the promotion on non-English literature/poetry/essays/etc! I personally love Isabelle Allende, Natsuo Kirino, Laura Esquivel, and Yoko Ogawa...There are many others, but those female writers are awesome!
@@JeansThoughts , I've never read "City of Beasts," but I read and loved "Daughter of Fortune" when I read it as a teenager (MANY moons ago, hahaha!). I really need to reread it!
If you enjoyed Thérèse Raquin, you should totally try other books by Emile Zola! My personal favourite is Nana; I based a part of my master's degree dissertation on it! If you're looking for some translated fantasy, I'd recommand The Secret of Ji, by Pierre Grimbert, and for science fiction, The Ice People by René Barjavel! There's also Bernard Werber, he writes SF and Fantasy and is very influenced by mythology, but I'd avise to forget his famous Ants trilogy, and start with one his standalone novels. My favourite is The Butterfly of the Stars, but you might prefer one of his myth retellings!
Hello, I recommend a fantasy book written by a Mexican author (woman), translated from Spanish to English: Nation of the Beasts by Mariana Palova. I love this book, treats the culture of voodoo and magic in general in New Orleans, among other things. Thank's for the recommendations :)
Could you do a video on how you stay motivated to write your PhD? I’m doing my masters disso at the moment and considering a part time phd while working but I can’t imagine writing something for that long 😭
I just filmed a q&a where I answer this question ^_^ it'll be up at the weekend. I do have a video about finding motivation though as well if that would help.
Also specifically in regards to PhDs by the time you're doing it it won't really feel like writing say one essay for years because you sort of conduct initial research, tackle each chapter like its own dissertation then survey it all.
Thanks jean, yes that’s very true! My masters is in economic sociology but my undergrad was in classics so I’m hoping that the passion I have for classics would take over (unlike this masters dissertation which is draining my life!) I guess the lesson I’ve learnt is only study what you love and don’t bow to pressure from others 😓
You should read The Shamer's Daughter by Lene Kaaberbøl if you can find it. It's a fantasy book and I've read it so many times. It's my favourite danish fantasy book. Not that there's that many to choose from 😂😔
Oooh I have the Calvino Italian Folktales on my shelves, I shall head to that in the Autumn, thank you for the reminder. I enjoyed the Murata, it reminded me I don't read enough Japanese fiction. I loved the Villalobos, I have both hos follow up novels and surprise, surprise... haven't read them. I need to read those Russian fairytales.
It would be wonderful if you could take the time to #namethetranslator - after all, they're the people who made it possible for you to experience these books! Thanks!
Loved learning about more translated fiction. You should try to read "If on a Winter's NIght a Traveler" by Calvino. It is a wonderful book and I think you will like it. Thanks for your video!
May I recommend "The House of Ulloa" by Emilia Pardo Bazán. They once rejected her rightly deserved seat at the Royal Academic of Spain because "her ass would not fit in the chair" (actual quote). She is one of the few well known female galician writers and she had to endure so much sexism. Penguin recently translated this book: www.bookdepository.com/The-House-of-Ulloa/9780241259160. Hope you check it out!
I grew up on Asterix (and Tintin too). When I was in primary school, these were the ones at the school library I always went for. Don't know if I had any real idea that they were translated, though. You evidently had a happier time with Therese Raquin than I did. Really disliked that one. I have most of the Rougon-Macquart series cos several of them are on a reading project I'm doing, but Therese hasn't exactly made me want to dive into Zola somehow. The Accusation sounds interesting, but from reading about it, I somehow get a vibe from the backstory similar to "Propaganda", the supposedly North Korean "documentary" that turned out to be a hoax made in New Zealand.
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This is so funny to watch, because when you don't live in the UK or the US almost every book is translated, lol.
Thank you for promoting translated fiction, Jean!! :) As a non native english speaker I've always read a lot of translated books but they are not that common here on english booktube, and there's sooo many good books! I'm happy the trend of global content is spreading, even with other things like tv shows on netflix or movies!
I'm from Germany but most of the time the I read books in the original english. It's kinda sad that not more people are looking into the international literature because they miss stuff like the books of Walter Moers (Jean I think you would adore "The City of Dreaming Books") or the hilarious books by Jonas Jonasson (swedish) I love to watch your videos because you're accent is so sweet and I like your recommendations I Just started The Missing of Clairedelune and love the series now :) So my Tbr got even bigger now thanks :)
Andrej Sapkowski’s Witcher series is my fave translated fantasy, I need to read some Cixin Liu still for Sci Fi
The books by the german author Cornelia Funke are great middle grade (to YA) fantasy reads! I loved the Inkheart trilogy when growing up
Asterix and Tintin were definitely favorites of mine as a child. Thanks for making a video about translated works! I'll have to add these to my TBR and broaden my horizons.
So great to hear another BookTuber talking about translated fiction! I feel like it doesn't get enough attention. I studied Spanish at university, so I had to study a lot of books from Spain and Latin America, and always found it so fascinating to learn about different cultures. I just made a video about them, but some of the ones I'd recommend are The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier, and One Hundred Years of Solitude by García Márquez.
I recommend Enrique Vila-Matas if you haven't read him yet, specially his book "Doctor Pasavento" :)
@@doesitmatter13 Thanks for the recommendation! I'll have a look into it :)
I'm so intrigued by your description of Convenience Store Woman. Sometimes that's exactly how I want to live! And A Winter's Promise has been on my shelves since February so excellent reminder I should read it. :D
Convenience Store Woman is SO GOOD
I love your book shelfs
Being from the Netherlands, I grew up reading a lot of non-English fiction so my recommendations tend to be children's books. My I devoured and still love anything by Astrid Lindgren (the Swedish author known for Pippi Longstocking), especially Ronia The Robber's Daughter and The Brothers Lionheart, I've read both of these recently and they hold up! Another childhood favourite author is the Dutch Thea Beckman, queen of historical fiction. Her most well-known book in the Netherlands has been translated to English. It's called Crusade in Jeans and follows a teenage boy from the 20th Century who is sent back in time to the 13th Century and more or less accidentally joins a children's crusade. It's a wonderful mixture of historical fiction with some sci-fi elements and it's very well loved over here for good reason!
Oh I'm happy you mentioned the Ludmilla Petrushevskaya book. I was trying to remember the title and author of this book for a while now and couldn't for the life of me :D Great recommendations. I just read the Terracotta Bride you recommended recently. Loved it. Thanks!
I read translated fiction regularly but if I look at my favorites this year that aren't originally in English or Dutch (I'm Dutch myself) I would say 3096 Days by Natascha Kampusch (Non-fiction, originally written in German, read in Dutch) and Whisper by Isabel Abedi (also originally written in German, read in Dutch).
Yesss love this video, would love more current reads
One of my favourite translated authors is Cixin Liu, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows about translated sci-fi, the man gets lauded and I think for good reason. The stories are just fascinating. I didn't know A Winter's Promise was translated! I'll definitely mark that down for when I pick it up later this year. Lots of great recommendations here. Thanks so much!
Great recommendations. 👍
i love Asterix so much! have read some for the reading rush and the book junkie grail
omg Asterix haha, love it! great video, Jean 💗
Thanks ;)
I'm from Germany but I usually read books in the original english.
I think it's kind of sad that not more people look out for international literature because they miss so much like the books of Walter Moers (that you would probably love especially "The City of Dreaming Books") or the swedish novel "The Hundred-Year-Old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson
I love both those books as well!
Thankyou Jean Great list, I have one that I want to read “ a winters promise “ love your channel and your Irish accent !
Aha it's Scottish but glad you're enjoying the videos ^_^
Jean Bookishthoughts oops, well I love your Scottish accent , sorry 😐 I knew that but made an error!
Have you read any Pascal Garnier? Perfect if you want some french noir, and pretty much all novellas so a nice compact read!
I'd definitely recommend In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. It's especially rewarding to read it in one sitting (it is quite short)
I loved Asterix when I was a kid and it's still borrowed by kids all the time at the library where I work. I also love the movies, I know they're "bad" but I love them lol
I was wondering, have you read The reader by Bernard Schlink? It's an amazing german book.
I would recommend Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was by Angelica Gorodischer, translated from Spanish Ursula K. Le Guin, as a fantasy with stories woven together that form the history of a fantasy empire.
Also worth a mention for gothic magical realism short stories is Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo, translated from Spanish by Daniel Balderston with an introduction by Helen Oyeyemi.
Lastly the Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Skokoofeh Azar, translated from Farsi by Adrien Kijel, is a magical realism story happening immediately after the Islamic revolution in 1979, drawing on Persian storytelling - it was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2018 (Aussie women authors award which can include fiction and non fiction work).
Currently I'm reading Cien Años De Soledad/100 Years of Solitude in Spanish with the English translation to go along with when I get stuck. It's really shown me, as much as I loved the English translation, that reading it in its original form is so much more beautiful. I'm really loving it
Favourite translated read is probably Cassandra, by Christa Wolf, but I'd imagine that's on your TBR list for a couple of reasons already... Also Siddhartha, by Hesse, and more recently, the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante.
I loved Asterix too, I'm surprised how seldom it's mentioned on booktube! You mentioned some very interesting books, will add them to my tbr. Some of my own non-English books are The Flanders Panel
by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Momo by Michael Ende, Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse & pretty much anything by Jules Verne :D
Yay for more translated book recs!
From your thoughts on these books and your affinity with magical realism, I think you'd like the Portuguese author, José Saramago. I would recommend two specific books: Blindness, and Baltasar and Blimunda 😊
I have been meaning to read Saramago for years! He was one of my dad's favourites :).
@@JeansThoughts Oh that's lovely! I hope you like it then, he's definitely one of our most treasured authors :)
We read the Asterix comics in my high school French class to help us learn French, and I completely forgot about it until now!
That's such a good strategy! I wish my school had done that aha bet my French would be better ^_^
Great video. I was wondering how you decide which translated version to read, especially when it comes to translated classics? Thanks again. Hope you're having a great day!
Have you read any José Saramago or Fernando Pessoa? There is an audiobook for The Book of Disquiet by him which is one of my favorite books OF ALL TIME!
omg I'm so glad to hear some Jose Saramago love! Blindness is one of the most poignant novels I've ever read
Juan Pablo Villalobos is now added to my TBR 😁
I'm really interested to know if the writing style is noticeably different in translated books. As a native English speaker, can you kind of feel that the book is not originally written in English?
Not usually, I can tell if it's written in a different time period but I think translators are trying to give English readers as similar an experience as the native language speaking readers :).
@@JeansThoughts oh that is cool! I think it would be interesting to see if you could try to write in English, but as if you were writing in your native language. I'm Dutch for example so writing as if I'm writing in Dutch but using English. Idea for my next project I think!
My mother was a huge fan of Asterix so I also read them as a child!
I used to watch the Asterix cartoon adaptations in my French classes in primary school. I loved it.
The second Mirror Visitor book is amazing, better than the first one.
I loved Convenience Store Woman!
Best book I’ve read this year! I agree that the narrator was really compelling. I somehow found her to be relatable even though we don’t have much in common.
This is suuuuch a great video! I've heard a few people talk about Convenience Store Women and haven't really been urged to pick it up. But after hearing you describe I'm suddenly desperate to, so thanks for that! I loved The Vegetarian so much, I remember while I was reading it though, being so distracted by the question of "where is this book going" that I feel like i missed out on parts. So it's definitely a book I was to revisit one day. I've always had my eye on the accusation, it sounds like such an interesting read and a real eye opener for people that might be naive in that field, which is absolutely me. I bought A Winters Promise last year in the lead up to christmas but never got around to it, is it a book, in your opinion, that's worth saving for christmas time or would it suit any time of the year?
Love to see the promotion on non-English literature/poetry/essays/etc! I personally love Isabelle Allende, Natsuo Kirino, Laura Esquivel, and Yoko Ogawa...There are many others, but those female writers are awesome!
Oh my gosh I forgot about Isabel Allende. I've only read City of Beasts but it was great and I need to read more!
@@JeansThoughts , I've never read "City of Beasts," but I read and loved "Daughter of Fortune" when I read it as a teenager (MANY moons ago, hahaha!). I really need to reread it!
If you enjoyed Thérèse Raquin, you should totally try other books by Emile Zola! My personal favourite is Nana; I based a part of my master's degree dissertation on it!
If you're looking for some translated fantasy, I'd recommand The Secret of Ji, by Pierre Grimbert, and for science fiction, The Ice People by René Barjavel! There's also Bernard Werber, he writes SF and Fantasy and is very influenced by mythology, but I'd avise to forget his famous Ants trilogy, and start with one his standalone novels. My favourite is The Butterfly of the Stars, but you might prefer one of his myth retellings!
oh and for crime fiction, you should definitely try The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas! It's about three historians, I'm sure you'll love it!
Hello, I recommend a fantasy book written by a Mexican author (woman), translated from Spanish to English: Nation of the Beasts by Mariana Palova. I love this book, treats the culture of voodoo and magic in general in New Orleans, among other things.
Thank's for the recommendations :)
Could you do a video on how you stay motivated to write your PhD? I’m doing my masters disso at the moment and considering a part time phd while working but I can’t imagine writing something for that long 😭
I just filmed a q&a where I answer this question ^_^ it'll be up at the weekend. I do have a video about finding motivation though as well if that would help.
Also specifically in regards to PhDs by the time you're doing it it won't really feel like writing say one essay for years because you sort of conduct initial research, tackle each chapter like its own dissertation then survey it all.
Thanks jean, yes that’s very true! My masters is in economic sociology but my undergrad was in classics so I’m hoping that the passion I have for classics would take over (unlike this masters dissertation which is draining my life!) I guess the lesson I’ve learnt is only study what you love and don’t bow to pressure from others 😓
You should read The Shamer's Daughter by Lene Kaaberbøl if you can find it. It's a fantasy book and I've read it so many times. It's my favourite danish fantasy book. Not that there's that many to choose from 😂😔
Oooh I have the Calvino Italian Folktales on my shelves, I shall head to that in the Autumn, thank you for the reminder. I enjoyed the Murata, it reminded me I don't read enough Japanese fiction. I loved the Villalobos, I have both hos follow up novels and surprise, surprise... haven't read them. I need to read those Russian fairytales.
It would be wonderful if you could take the time to #namethetranslator - after all, they're the people who made it possible for you to experience these books! Thanks!
Loved learning about more translated fiction. You should try to read "If on a Winter's NIght a Traveler" by Calvino. It is a wonderful book and I think you will like it. Thanks for your video!
May I recommend "The House of Ulloa" by Emilia Pardo Bazán. They once rejected her rightly deserved seat at the Royal Academic of Spain because "her ass would not fit in the chair" (actual quote). She is one of the few well known female galician writers and she had to endure so much sexism. Penguin recently translated this book: www.bookdepository.com/The-House-of-Ulloa/9780241259160. Hope you check it out!
I grew up on Asterix (and Tintin too). When I was in primary school, these were the ones at the school library I always went for. Don't know if I had any real idea that they were translated, though.
You evidently had a happier time with Therese Raquin than I did. Really disliked that one. I have most of the Rougon-Macquart series cos several of them are on a reading project I'm doing, but Therese hasn't exactly made me want to dive into Zola somehow.
The Accusation sounds interesting, but from reading about it, I somehow get a vibe from the backstory similar to "Propaganda", the supposedly North Korean "documentary" that turned out to be a hoax made in New Zealand.
The only one I've read is the vegetarian but I did not like it at all. I didn't know it was based on the myth though, so that's interesting! :)
Thérèse Raquin is soooo hard, nasty people from what I remember. But I love Zola, read more than 10 of his Rougon-Macquart series. Naturalism is nice.
🖒