Best summer books of 2026: Fiction in translationÁngel Gurría-Quintana selects some of his best international mid-year reads Jun 18 26June 18, 2026Article at Financial Times
Taiwan Travelogue — a Booker-longlisted novel on the tricks of translationAt the heart of Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s rich, heady book is the uneasy bond between a Japanese author and her Taiwanese interpreter Mar 06 26March 06, 2026Article at Financial Times
Childish Literature — reflections on the joys and fears of parentingAlejandro Zambra explores the ups and downs of fatherhood in this collection of essays, poems and stories Dec 13 24December 13, 2024Article at Financial Times
Eurotrash — unearthing a family’s collaboration and complacencyA mother-and-son road trip is propelled by guilt and unease in Christian Kracht’s hilariously unsettling novel Dec 06 24December 06, 2024Article at Financial Times
Best books of 2024: Fiction in translationÁngel Gurría-Quintana selects his must-read titles Nov 20 24November 20, 2024Article at Financial Times
Best summer books of 2024: Fiction in translationÁngel Gurría-Quintana selects his best mid-year reads Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott (Charco Press) Shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize, Almada’s unsettling novel follows three men on a fishing trip,… Jun 20 24June 20, 2024Article at Financial Times
Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán — seeking meaning in the menialSocial ills and unrest in modern-day Chile play out in a tense and tragic story of a put-upon domestic worker In her critically acclaimed non-fiction work When Women Kill (2022) Chilean writer Alia Trabucco Zerán investigated real-life murders… Jun 13 24June 13, 2024Article at Financial Times
Change — Édouard Louis’s imitation gameIn his latest volume of auto-fiction, the French literary sensation narrates a ruthless quest to disown his working-class roots A decade ago, The End of Eddy took France’s literary scene by storm. The harrowing account of a working-class childhood in… Mar 08 24March 08, 2024Article at Financial Times
You Dreamed of Empires — a colonial encounter reimaginedÁlvaro Enrigue revisits Spain’s conquest of Mexico through the eyes of Cortés, the conquistadors and the vanquished natives Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Like the fall of Constantinople in… Jan 04 24January 04, 2024Article at Financial Times
Best books of 2023 — Fiction in translationThe Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn (MacLehose) A group of writers attending a literary festival on the Island of Mozambique find themselves stranded when a cyclone cuts them off from the mainland. Unable to… Nov 15 23November 15, 2023Article at Financial Times
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior — the lost voicesDeep in the backlands of Brazil’s north-east, Bibiana and Belonísia, young daughters of indentured farmworkers, make an astonishing discovery: in a suitcase hidden beneath their grandmother’s bed is an old, mysterious knife. Entranced by the glint of… Jul 20 23July 20, 2023Article at Financial Times
Best summer books of 2023: Fiction in translationThe Drinker of Horizons by Mia Couto, translated by David Brookshaw (World Editions/Farrar Straus and Giroux) Couto’s “Sands of the Emperor” trilogy, an epic account of Portugal’s rapaciousness in Mozambique, comes to an end as its protagonists —… Jun 21 23June 21, 2023Article at Financial Times
"Translation is what we do": On speechwriting and translationI was invited to deliver a short speech at a meeting of the European Speechwriter Network, held in Cambridge in the Spring of 2022. This was both fun and nerve-wracking. As speechwriters, we are used to putting words in other people's mouths, but not… Mar 27 23March 27, 2023Article at Angel on Authory
Best books of 2021: Fiction in translationBrickmakers by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott, Charco Press £9.99/Graywolf Press $16.99 In a deserted amusement park in Argentina, two men lie dying in the aftermath of a knife-fight. Through masterfully managed flashbacks, Almada… Nov 19 21November 19, 2021Article at Financial Times
Summer books of 2021: Fiction in translationThe Republic of False Truths by Alaa al-Aswany, translated by SR Fellowes, Faber £16.99/Knopf $28.95 Banned in the author’s home country, this fictionalised account of 2011’s Egyptian revolution serves up a chorus of voices — a corrupt general, a… Jun 22 21June 22, 2021Article at Financial Times
Best books of 2020: Fiction in translationThe Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, by Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox, World Editions, RRP£12.99, 368 pagesWritten in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, this picaresque romp tracks the journey of twins Ivan… Nov 20 20November 20, 2020Article at Financial Times
THE RETURN: Q&A with Dulce Maria Cardoso“I wanted to talk about a past towards which I felt a special responsibility: what happened could not be forgotten.” In 2016, MacLehose Press published THE RETURN, by Portuguese author Dulce Maria Cardoso, translated by me. A year later, at the time… Jul 01 17July 01, 2017Article at Angel on Authory
Man Booker International vs. Translated LiteratureThe following piece was written by Ángel Gurría-Quintana, a freelance journalist, editor and translator. He is a regular contributor to the books pages of the Financial Times. His writing has also appeared in The Observer, The Economist, Prospect,… May 01 11May 01, 2011Article at Three Percent
Literary licence: Retranslating the classicsLiterary translators are seldom rewarded for their efforts. One of the perversities of their trade is that when they do their job well they remain mostly unnoticed. Invisibility is the successful translator’s badge of honour. Only when a translation… Oct 20 06October 20, 2006Article at Financial Times
In his own words: 'If this Be Treason', by Gregory RabasaIF THIS BE TREASON: Translation and its Dyscontents A memoir Gregory Rabassa New Directions $21.95, 189 pages If there were an order of merit for services to world literature, Gregory Rabassa would probably be at the top of the honours list. As a… May 06 05May 06, 2005Article at Financial Times
