After Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio was given the Nobel Prize for Literature, a large number of English speaking readers began asking what else they might be missing out on and sales for Le Clezio’s book exploded on AbeBooks since most of his English translations were out-of-print.
A stat that is thrown around is that only three per cent of books published in the US are works that have been translated, so in the spirit of getting to know the literary world around you The NPR has put together a list of the the best foreign books that you may never have heard of.
Russia
Victor Pelevin, The Sacred Book of Werewolf and Buddha’s Little Finger
Boris Akunin, The Winter Queen
Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party
Albania
Ismail Kadare, The Three-Arched Bridge and Spring Flowers, Spring Frost
Hungary
Imre Kertesz, Fateless, The Pathseeker
Portugal
Antonio Lobo Antunes, What Can I Do When Everything’s on Fire?
Norway
Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses
Egypt
Naguib Mahfouz, The Thief and the Dogs
Muhammad Yusuf Quayd, War in the Land of Egypt
Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building
Japan
Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Mexico
Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz
