It’s a few months since I last posted a review so, officially, I’m no longer a book blogger. But Women in Translation Month is still special to me, so I’m sharing mini reviews of the eight translated novels by women I’ve read in the last twelve months. You can find previous years’ WIT posts by clicking here.
Nothing Belongs to You by Nathacha AppanahMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
When her husband dies, Tara closes down both mentally and physically. Her reaction is understandable when we learn about the trauma of her childhood in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, the way the author chose to depict these, beginning with a character who is difficult to relate to, didn't work for me. Disappointing, as The Sky above the Roof was one of my favourite novels of 2022. Translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman.
Satisfaction by Nina BouraouiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
A study in loneliness. Michele no longer loves her husband and is losing her son to his new friend. She doesn't belong in newly independent Algeria but feels no affinity to her native France. Her promised new job is a long time coming. She fantasises about an affair with another mother. All of this could have been related more economically but the shock ending makes it a novel I won't forget.
The Delivery by Margarita García RobayoMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Born and raised in the Caribbean, a young writer has moved to the anonymity of Buenos Aires, where she receives a large crate from her sister containing her estranged mother.
I loved the deadpan voice that excuses the narrator from giving a rational account of how her mother and her supplies of food actually got there. I loved the overall unconventional banality of her life. But there was something missing, I'm not sure what, that made me feel I couldn't give it five stars. Maybe it was that, although she describes her neglectful childhood, I would have liked more of a sense of why she hadn't spoken to her mother for decades but they seemed to get along fine when they met.
Translated by Megan McDowell.
A Good Life by Virginie GrimaldiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
After the death of their beloved grandmother, two sisters, either side of forty, spent a week together at her house. Both are damaged by an abusive mother but Emma, the eldest, has done her best to protect her sister, Agathe, generally regarded as the more vulnerable and disturbed. Five years earlier, Emma felt she couldn't take it any more. Is this the moment for Agathe to grow up?
Translated from the French by Virginie Grimaldi, my copy was provided by Europa Editions.
Love at Six Thousand Degrees: A Novel by Maki KashimadaMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
A woman goes to Nagasaki on a whim. There she has a loveless affair with a strangely melancholic young man. She ponders his religion (Russian Orthodox), her brother's alcoholism and suicide, and her mother's neglect of her in favour of her more troublesome sibling. She reflects on these issues more than the mushroom cloud that is meant to fascinate her (great cover by the way) or the child, husband and boring life she has left behind. Then she goes home and there's a small and fairly contrived twist. Sometimes there's less of a story in fiction than in real life.
Translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell. Thanks to Europa editions for my review copy.
Kibogo by Scholastique MukasongaMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The missionaries bully Rwandan villagers out of their treasured creation myths, replacing them with the not so dissimilar myths of Christianity. Decades later, the white academics arrive to study the folk wisdom, but should they trust what they are told? An all too credible parable of colonialism, translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti.
Wenling's by Gemma Ruiz PalàMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
My Spanish is rusty, but I think I got a stronger sense of what this memoir is about through the reviews of the original (or of the translation from Catalan to Spanish) than from the English translation. I'm not blaming the translator (Peter Bush), more the dull prose that buried the gems far too deeply. Or is it because I have no interest in the beauty industry? But I am interested in racism and migration.
Days & Days & Days by Tone SchunnessonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Great voice, irritating character, one of the better versions of the millennial woman wastes her life tropes. Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel.
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