3 late-summer books in translation that stand out individually
Iraqi poet Faleeha Hassan's memoir War and Me, Mexican novelist Brenda Lozano's Witches, and Uyghur novelist and social critic Perhat Tursun's The Backstreets have a few broad commonalities.
When I write roundups of books that have been translated into English, I often concentrate on choosing works that play well together. I've focused on the surreal and the creepy -- and highlighted the role of the translator and the colonial history of the author's country.
Although the U.S. has miles to go in terms of publishing international literature, there's still an abundance of newly translated works to choose from — so linking books by theme or genre can help narrow the focus. But also, I am always wary of treating translation as its own genre: I never want to pretend that books are similar, or related, by virtue only of not having been written in English first.
