I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from sharing a post about Women in Translation month (see my WIT lists from 2020 and 2021), but I haven’t stopped reading books written and translated by women.
Just in case you need a quick reminder – Women in Translation Month or WIT Month is an initiative launched by Meytal Radzinski in 2014 as a response to her observation that only 30% of books published in translation were by women. Radzinski notes that WIT Month has always been about inclusion and she’s worked to include and emphasize works from marginalized women* (*and transgender, nonbinary, or intersex individuals) writers over the years.
My local bookshop in Germany has a very small English section but I found some of the books on my WIT TBR that I couldn’t not buy them! So if you’re looking for inspo or want to try something new, these are the three books I picked up to enjoy during Women in Translation Month 2024.
What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts
What are you looking for? This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.
Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine editor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.
What you are looking for is in the library has been on my TBR forever, so it was an instant “yes” when I saw it in the shops here. The story is heartwarming and I love the cover (mine has a sparkly bit on it).
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton
A busybody aunt who disapproves of hair removal; a pair of door-to-door saleswomen hawking portable lanterns; a cheerful lover who visits every night to take a luxurious bath; a silent house-caller who babysits and cleans while a single mother is out working. Where the Wild Ladies Are is populated by these and many other spirited women—who also happen to be ghosts. This is a realm in which jealousy, stubbornness, and other excessive “feminine” passions are not to be feared or suppressed, but rather cultivated; and, chances are, a man named Mr. Tei will notice your talents and recruit you, dead or alive (preferably dead), to join his mysterious company.
In this witty and exuberant collection of linked stories, Aoko Matsuda takes the rich, millennia-old tradition of Japanese folktales—shapeshifting wives and foxes, magical trees and wells—and wholly reinvents them, presenting a world in which humans are consoled, guided, challenged, and transformed by the only sometimes visible forces that surround them.
The blurb got me with Where the Wild Ladies Are! A collection of Japanese folktales stories about shapeshifters, magical trees and wells that take place in a world where humans are guided by partially-visible forces. It sounds like perfection!
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan
Yeongju is burned out. With her high-flying career, demanding marriage, and busy life in Seoul, she knows she should feel successful, but all she feels is drained. Yet an abandoned dream nags at her, and in a leap of faith, she leaves her old life behind. After quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a small residential neighborhood outside the city, where she opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
For the first few months all Yeongju does is cry, but the long hours in the shop also give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store. As she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she eases into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start again.
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop gave me Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (also a great read!) vibes. Stories about how books help people deal with things and heal will always be one of my favourite genres.
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Goodreads
Happy reading and enjoy Women in Translation month! If you want to get involved and see what others are reading, I’d highly recommend following @Read_WIT on X (formerly Twitter) or using the #WITMonth on X and Instagram.
If you read (or have read) any of the books on this list, I’d love to know what you thought in the comments below!
