In 2019, the English translation of Selva Almada’s The Wind That Lays Waste (translated by Chris Andrews) was Books and Bao’s favourite translated novel of the year. Twelve months later, we’re already gifted another sharp and cutting Almada book, once again published by Charco Press: Dead Girls, translated by Annie McDermott. Dead Girls is a …

Dystopian novels are seeing a massive resurgence in popularity right now, due to the state of the political world we find ourselves living in. Novels written in the World War 2 era and during the Cold War have found relevance now more than ever before. We’re all digging out our old copies of Nineteen Eighty-Four …

How do you begin to discuss the narrative, historical, and cultural impact of music on the human experience? Do you explore the sounds of nature? Provide anecdotes about the gold record aboard the Voyager? Tell the wild story of an enormous organ that took fifteen years to build, was blessed by a bishop, and then …

Holiday Heart is a novel that unravels the time and space of a relationship, pulling it apart and making a battlefield of the pieces. It is a novel about the far future of a marriage, nineteen years deep and in tatters. It’s a novel that explores the hows and whys of getting to this place …

Fate is a novel populated by people who would not want our sympathy if they knew we were watching, and yet we are compelled to offer it. That is the wisdom and ferocity of Jorge Consiglio’s writing. That said, despite us being so eager to offer our sympathies to these people, tossed about as they …

There is so much mischief, corruption, deception, and aggression spilling out from Hurricane Season that the book’s bindings can hardly contain it. Hurricane Season is a courageous story, and Fernanda Melchor is undoubtedly a courageous author for committing it to paper. It’s a book about the myriad evils that stain the human spirit. It’s a …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a work of literature does not have to be enjoyable to be considered good. Books are written and read for an infinite number of reasons, and with the case of dystopian literature it is often written as a warning of things to come, or things that are already …

Born in Santiago, Chile in 1953 but spending much of his youth in Mexico and his later adult life in Spain, Roberto Bolaño had already become a sensation in the Spanish speaking literary world before his untimely death in 2003. Sadly, it’s only really in the years following his death that he’s started to gain wider recognition …

We have fervently celebrated not only our ten best translated books of 2019, but also the best indie publishers of 2019. Now, it’s time to look to the future and see what 2020 has to offer in the wonderful world of literature in translation: the most exciting translated books of 2020. Translated Books of 2020 …

It’s that time of year again: the time when everyone obsesses over lists and gets deeply frustrated if someone else’s list is different from their own. And in keeping with that delightful spirit, prepare to get frustrated by our list of best translated books of 2019! In all seriousness, though, I love a good list. …