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Best translation is always a category that I wish was a bit bigger or more exciting around here. Although I always put “Read More Translated Work” on my Reading Goals year after year, I never quite hit the goals I reach. That said, I think the effort is important and worthwhile and it’s a goal I’ll keep setting.
I’m also not super qualified to rate translations because I don’t read any other languages. It would take me ages (and a lot of dictionary help) to read a book in French and that’s the closest I could get to reading outside of the English language.
So instead, I rate the Best Translation category on a book that feels to me like it captures something of the original language. Something about the rhythm or the cadence or the word choice feels different than an English writer, while still maintaining clarity and ease of reading.
Here are the runners-up:
The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (translated from Italian by Guido Waldman)
This is a book that has an old-fashioned setting and a lot of old-fashioned language. In fact, I kept forgetting that it was written in the 20th century. But the language added to the sense of a society and culture that was fading away and I felt like that was the author’s intention, captured in the translation to English.
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (translated from German by Ross Benjamin)
I thought this book had a quirky weirdness to it that jived with my experience of Germans themselves. There was something off-kilter about its humour that I enjoyed and I think was partially due to a good translation.
The Future by Catherine Leroux (translated from the French by Susan Ouriou)
Speaking of quirky writing – in my view the French take the cake for weirdness. The Future is full of lush description of food and nature and it seemed to me like the translation was well chosen for getting the meanings and power of the physical world across to the reader.
Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk (translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)
Interestingly, Lloyd-Jones translated Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead but not her Books of Jacob. Tokarczuk’s books often feature characters who come from various parts of Europe and speak a variety of languages and her translators do an excellent job of capturing those various cadences of language while making it all accessible for English readers.
And the winner is…
The Stolen Bicycle – Wu Ming-Yu (translated from Mandarin by Darryl Sterk)
This book takes the prize because it’s one where language is actually a key feature of the plot. The story features a Taiwan going through great change and with a wide variety of culture and language. I think that is extra tricky to highlight and keep clear in a translation because some of the social and linguistic references that will make sense in the original languages can easily slip away in a translation. As far as I could see, Sterk did an excellent job of maintaining those references and the sense of those various languages.
Karissa Reads Books 
You’ve reminded me that I want to read Empusium! I haven’t read any of Tokarczuk’s work yet, but because of my interest in medical history I think this is where I want to start.
I’d be interested to hear your perspective on this! Obviously the ways we treat TB have changed a lot!
I love that you make a point to read translations! Most of them end up being quite good reads, because they have to reach some modicum of success in their original language to even be considered as a translation to other languages so I found they are usually worth the investment of time (and the effort to seek them out!)
That’s a good point. For something to be translated means it has to have been well received in its original language. Sort of like they’ve been vetted by readers somewhere else!
exactly!
I don’t purposefully seek out translated works, but I’m noticing that more translated works are being published from the horror genre. They tend to come from South America, hence they’re in Spanish and translated into English, but I can tell that there’s a different sensibility at work there, even though the language is familiar through the translation.
I’ve noticed certain trends in different languages and I’ve actually noticed a lot of South American books are creepier than I would have expected. They aren’t necessarily marketed as horror but then will be very off-putting. (To me at least.) Japanese books are weird but in a very different way. German books feel like they are poking fun at something and French books seem very non-linear. You can tell a lot about a language’s sensibility, even in translation!
Several years ago I used to follow a young Australian blogger, and she loved young adult literature. She would tell me about how Australian YA is a lot grittier than American YA. I was telling her about how I don’t typically read young adult books because they just seem so idealistic and perfectly P.C., or the problems just don’t resonate with me, so I don’t feel connected when I’m reading. She got me to read some Australian YA, and oh my goodness, she was right about it being pretty gritty.
That’s so interesting! I love how books still really are different from one place/country to another.