The best recent translated fiction – review roundup

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The best recent translated fiction – review roundup

The Guardian · 4 hours ago

This roundup rounds up four recent works of translated fiction, spanning Finnish autofiction, an experimental Austrian crime novel, a Ghanaian migrant's story set in Denmark, and short stories from a Japanese-Argentinian writer. It offers readers a snapshot of standout international literature now available in English, highlighting the diversity of voices and styles reaching British bookshops.

The Red Book of Farewells by Pirkko Saisio (Penguin Classics, £14.99) completes her 1970s-set autofictional trilogy about coming out as a lesbian and political theatre. Short Circuit by Wolf Haas (HarperVia, £20) is a genre-bending, "loopy" thriller about two intertwining lives. Cosmos by Lucia Odoom (Daunt, £10.99) follows a young Ghanaian migrant in Copenhagen, told through WhatsApp messages home. The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest by Alejandra Kamiya (Pushkin, £12.99) is a short story collection exploring unspoken emotion and silence.

– Four translated fiction titles reviewed, priced £10.99 to £20
– Saisio's Finnish trilogy concludes; Haas offers an experimental thriller
– Odoom and Kamiya explore migration and family through distinctive narrative styles

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