A Completely Biased List of Fifteen Non-English-or-European-Language Books (Translated into English) I’ve Read and One I Really Want to Read
by Tiffany Tsao
When we asked Tiffany Tsao “If you were to add five books to the English “canon” taught in universities what would they be?”, Tiffany asked, ‘Could I change the number, maybe?’ So, we did, and her is her completely biased list of fifteen non-english or european-language books she’s read, and one she really wants to read.
1. Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimawana, originally in Thai, translated by Mui Poopoksakul
This short-story collection is brilliantly feminist, with stories often subverting the male points of view and opinions that they, at first, seem to be premised on. The stories also overturn expectations that even the most “enlightened” reader may harbor about women. “Wood Children” is my favourite story.
2. The Story of the Stone or The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, originally in Chinese. I read the translations by David Hawkes & John Minford
The Dream of the Red Chamber is the classic of Chinese classics. It is also very long. But it’s worth it. It is so witty, so diverse within itself, with comedy, tragedy, poetry, political and social commentary, and religious and philosophical insight all combined into one engaging tome about a wealthy household and the rising and falling fortunes of its characters.
3. The Court Dancer by Kyung Sook Shin, originally in Korean, translated by Anton Hur
At first glance, this novel appears to be Madame-Butterfly-like tale of a love story between a pretty Asian woman and European diplomat. Nope. All wrong. Even though the French diplomat character is head over heels in love with the main character, his love, and Paris, are simply insufficient for her. Her heart lies with the Queen, whom she has comes to regard as a mother, and Korea, which she has to leave behind.
4. The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yoojoo, originally in Korean, translated by Janet Hong
This is an extremely psychologically intense novel about childhood cruelty--children who cope with cruelty and who mete it out. There was a scene where I had to literally look away because it was too painful to read. But it is so good. And the way Janet Hong translated the wordplay is mindblowing.
5. Sergius Seeks Bacchus by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, originally in Indonesian, translated by Tiffany Tsao
This queer poetry collection is heartbreaking, hopeful, funny, tragic, and human and honest to the core. I loved it so much, I translated it! There is also a speculative dimension to the poems, which posit alternate realities, some heavenly, some dystopian. This book makes me so incredibly happy. Check out the Australian edition by Giramondo Books!
6. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb al Salih, originally in Arabic, translated by Denys Johnson-Davies
This was one of the first postcolonial novels I read. It’s a story within a story: the narrator returns to Sudan after studying abroad in Europe and becomes friend with an older man in his village, Mustafa Sa’eed, who also studied in Europe when he was younger. As their intimacy grows, we learn the dark story of Mustafa’s time abroad.
7. The Wandering by Intan Paramaditha, originally in Indonesian, translated by Stephen Epstein
The author makes clever use of the choose-your-own-adventure format to create a gritty, darkly humorous labyrinth in which you, the reader, get to wander. The novel is an incisive commentary on global “cosmopolitanism”--how gender, class, nationality, and money all define the conditions under which one travels and how one gets to experience the world.
8. The Vegetarian by Han Kang, originally in Korean, translated by Deborah Smith
A novella in three parts about a woman’s decision to stop eating meat, much to the horror of her “loved” ones. But its more than just about vegetarianism--it’s about a woman’s passive attempt to opt out of the destructive and oppressive structures she has been built into, and that are destructive for so many.
9. Paradise of the Blind by Dương Thu Hương, originally in Vietnamese, translated by Phan Huy Đường and Nina McPherson
I really like this novel. I first learned about Paradise of the Blind when I was a student in a post-graduate seminar, and a fellow classmate gave a presentation about it. The novel alternates between the protagonist’s present (a clothing factory in the Soviet Union) and the northern Vietnam of her childhood.
10. The Ramayana by Valmiki, originally in Sanskrit, many different English translations available
This ancient epic has been so influential, not just in South Asia, but also Southeast Asia. The tale of Rama’s quest to rescue his wife Sita from Ravana’s clutches, what happens along the way, as well as the trial by fire she must undergo afterwards have been an endless source of inspiration for art, books, theatre, film in these two regions. If it’s between reading this and yet another white-authored novel? Come on, the choice is clear! You can always pick up the novel after you finish picking the shards of brain off the floor because this epic has been blowing minds for centuries.
11. A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, originally in Japanese, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter
This is an elegant adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights set amid the rising and falling fortunes of post-war Japan. I splurged on this at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali. I was pregnant for the first time, and because I was having trouble sleeping anyway, I stayed up past midnight for several consecutive nights utterly absorbed in it.
12. Hellfire by Leesa Gazi, originally in Bengali, translated by Shabnam Nadiya
I am almost finished with this, but not quite. But it is really good, so I thought I would put it in this list anyway. It opens with a woman who is 40 years old and allowed out of the house alone by her overprotective mother for the first time ever in her life, and as the day progresses, and as we turn it over from different perspectives, we learn about how things came to be how they are. I think the translation is marvellous, not pandering too much to the kind of English-language reader that complains, “There are too many unfamiliar terms and things, I feel disoriented.”
13. From Now On Everything Will Be Different by Eliza Vitri Handayani, originally in Indonesian and English, translated by Eliza Vitri Handayani
Translated by the author herself, this novel is brief in length, but sweeping in emotion and scope. It does such an amazing job of capturing the euphoria of youthful idealism at the end of the dictatorial Suharto regime and the aftermath, the optimism of young love, and the harsh realities that threaten to crush them. This novel was actually composed in a combination of two languages. In an PopMatters interview, the author says, “I wrote some scenes first in Indonesian and others first in English. I live in both worlds, I am a creature of both worlds.”
14. Words Breathe, Creatures of Elsewhere by Nhã Thuyên, originally in Vietnamese, translated by Kaitlin Rees
I bought this at a past Queensland Poetry Festival! When reading Nhã Thuyên’s poetry, I enter a dream-like state. The poems pull everything apart and show the strings connecting things to other things, creatures to other creatures, words to other words, things to other creatures to other words to other things, but in a breathtakingly precise way. She and her translator, Kaitlin Rees, work very closely together, and have been a source of inspiration for Norman and me in our partnership together as writer and translator.
15. Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, originally in Chinese, translated by Jeremy Tiang
This is going to be published on 26 November 2020 by Tilted Axis Press, and I am so excited. It involves a cryptozoologist in Yong’an, fantastical creatures, and is “part detective story, part metaphysical enquiry.” How can I wait?