Why you should read translated books — here are 3 to check out now
Robert J. Wiersema loves books in translation because they introduce him to new worlds
Columnist and writer Robert J. Wiersema loves books in translation because they introduce him to new worlds, places and feats of language.
"At a fundamental level, language shapes how we see and interpret the world," said Wiersema on The Next Chapter. "It structures how we think. Even in translation, that comes through when you're reading books from writers from other places, from other languages, from other visions of their worlds."
Wiersema is the author of books including Before I Wake and Bedtime Story. As a journalist and columnist, his book reviews have been published in the Toronto Star and Quill & Quire. He is based in Victoria and teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University.
Weirsema joined Antonio Michael Downing to share three books in translation that reader's shouldn't miss.
May Our Joy Endure by Kev Lambert in French, translated to English by Donald Winkler
"I haven't spent a lot of time in Montreal, but I have been there, and it it was quite a revelation that there's this level of wealth sort of overseeing the city, and these complicated and at times corrupt relationships between money and politics and media and the society in which they all live," Wiersema said. "[The translation] flows beautifully ... it has a metrical rhythmic quality that is very unusual in English. So I think that's Winkler's translation from the French, at work."
May Our Joy Endure follows the story of Céline Wachowski, a world famous architect who faces intense criticism when her ambitious Webuy Complex housing project in Montreal is blamed for worsening social problems like gentrification and the widening divide between the rich and poor. When she is ousted from her firm, she is forced to confront the uncomfortable truths about the ultra-wealthy social circle that she has been a part of.
May Our Joy Endure won the Prix Médicis, Prix Décembre and Prix Ringuet and was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt.
[The translation] flows beautifully ... it has a metrical rhythmic quality that is very unusual in English.- Robert J. Wiersema
Kev Lambert is a Montreal-based writer. Their other works include Querelle de Roberval, which was a finalist for the Prix Médicis and Prix Le Monde, won the Prix Sade and was shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Their first novel You Will Love What You Have Killed received an award for the best novel from the Saguenay region and was a finalist for the Quebec Booksellers' Prize.
Donald Winkler is a translator living in Montreal. He is a three-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for French-to-English translation.
The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk in Polish, translated to English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
"There's a really insidious quality to the work, which starts with the point of view. Our main character always feels like he's being watched, and the narration of the book uses the first-person plural 'we' in a detached form. We're observers. We notice the boots under the door, we notice shoes. It's very voyeuristic. We are watching him, it's a brilliant approach and it's deeply unsettling," Wiersema said.
In The Empusium, a young Polish man with tuberculosis travels to a health resort in the Silesian mountains. As he participates in activities with the other residents, which include debates on pressing topics of the time, he begins to sense something unsettling lurking in the background. Strange events unfold, and he starts to feel as though he is being watched, ultimately realizing that he may be the next target.
Olga Tokarczuk is a writer from Poland. She has written 12 works of fiction, two essay collections and a children's book, with her work being translated into 50 languages. Tokarczuk has won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Booker International Prize, among many other awards.
Antonia Lloyd-Jones is a British translator of many Polish literary works, based in London, England. Her translation of Olga Tokarczuk's novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead was shortlisted for the 2019 Booker International Prize.
Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse in Norwegian, translated to English by Damion Searls
"I'm not a religious person by any means, and this isn't a religious book. It is, though, a holy book. It's a transcendent novel about transcendence. It's about the beginning and the end, and the morning and the evening of a life. It's a very simple, very straightforward book that speaks directly to the soul," Wiersema said.
Morning and Evening covers the full span of the character Johannes's life, from his birth to his death. The novel starts with his father's thoughts as his wife goes into labour and ends with Johannes reflecting on his final day. It explores his life and the poignant moments leading up to its end.
It's a very simple, very straightforward book that speaks directly to the soul.- Robert J. Wiersema
Jon Fosse is a Norwegian writer who has written over 40 plays as well as novels, short stories, children's books, poetry and essays. Best known for Septology, a seven-volume work that has garnered critical acclaim, he won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Damion Searls is a translator from German, French Noregian and Dutch to English. Searls has won Guggenheim, Cullman Center and two NEA fellowships. He is also a writer and his books include What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going, The Inkblots and The Philosophy of Translation.
