Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the C’s!!! Country: Central African RepublicTitle: Co-Wives, Co-WidowsAuthor: Adrienne YabouzaLanguage: FrenchTranslator: Rachael McGillPublisher: First published in Mali, 2015; Dedalus, 2021 Co-Wives, Co-Widows is the first book from the Central African Republic to be translated into English. The self-educated Yabouza fled the country in 2013, seekingContinue reading “CO-WIVES, CO-WIDOWS – Adrienne Yabouza”
Tag Archives: translation
THE MADWOMAN OF SERRANO – Dina Salústio
Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we are now in the C’s!!! Country: Cape VerdeTitle: The Mad Woman of SerranoAuthor: tLanguage: PortugueseTranslator: Jethro SoutarPublisher: Spleen Ediçũes (1998), English translation Dedalus (2019) The Mad Woman of Serrano was the first novel by a female author to be published in Cape Verde, and the first toContinue reading “THE MADWOMAN OF SERRANO – Dina Salústio”
YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES – Álvaro Enrigue
Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires (translated by Natasha Wimmer – pub date 1/9/2024, Riverhead Books (thanks for the gifted advanced copy!)) is a fever dream of a reimagined meeting between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma in 1519. Edgar Allen Poe once wrote “all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream,”Continue reading “YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES – Álvaro Enrigue”
STOLEN – Ann- Helén Laestadius
“The reindeer were biekka oapmi, belonging to the wind.” Ann- Helén Laestadius’s Stolen (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles, Scribner 2023 – originally published by Romanus & Selling in 2021) came to my attention in January when Fredrick Backman recommended it. I made a mental note to check it out and promptly forgot. ThisContinue reading “STOLEN – Ann- Helén Laestadius”
HOW TO TURN INTO A BIRD – María José Ferrada
“One side of love, an undervalued one, has to do with letting the other person walk their own path.” María José Ferrada’s How to Turn into a Bird (translated by Elizabeth Bryer, Tin House 2022) echoes with the same tender ache of growing up as Le Petit Prince and Peter Pan, and it has justContinue reading “HOW TO TURN INTO A BIRD – María José Ferrada”
LEMON – Kwon Yeo-Sun
“Lemon, I muttered. Like a chant of revenge, I muttered: Lemon, lemon, lemon.” Da-on “Her beauty was urgent, precarious, like the piercing wail of a speeding ambulance. I could not look away.” – Sanghui’s description of Taerim Lemon (Other Press 2021, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong) is Kwon Yeo-sun’s first novel to beContinue reading “LEMON – Kwon Yeo-Sun”
US AGAINST YOU – Fredrik Backman
“People we love will die. We will bury our children beneath our most beautiful trees.” “On the hilltop stand two girls, watching the car disappear. They’ll soon be sixteen. One of them is holding a guitar, the other a rifle.” Fredrik Backman is easily one of my top five contemporary authors. The following is quoteContinue reading “US AGAINST YOU – Fredrik Backman”
BEARTOWN – Fredrik Backman
“Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead, and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there.” With perhaps the most memorable of openings, Fredrik Backman begins Beartown (Atria 2017, English translation byContinue reading “BEARTOWN – Fredrik Backman”
THE BATHING WOMEN – Tie Ning
Tie Ning’s The Bathing Women (2000, 2012 – English translation by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer) was an unexpected read. The translation received mixed reviews, and I initially found it a bit “off” – but I realized it wasn’t the translation so much as the style of storytelling. It was a bit frustrating, especially earlyContinue reading “THE BATHING WOMEN – Tie Ning”
MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE’S SORRY – Fredrik Backman
“But they do what they can. They construct words of forgiveness from the ruins of fighting words.” I’ve read countless books over the years. Countless. There have been books I loved, books I hated, books I enjoyed, and books that were entirely forgettable. I am a reader, and every reader knows that once in aContinue reading “MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE’S SORRY – Fredrik Backman”
A Girl Named Tommi 