Four translated works explore hardship, change and friendship across borders
Four translated works show how international fiction can use comic absurdity, fractured storytelling and intimate lives to explore hardship, change and friendship. The roundup covers stories and novels by Barbi Marković, Pol Guasch, Helle Helle and Hamid Ismailov, each in a different setting and style.
Marković’s short stories follow a couple through surreal family encounters; Guasch’s climate-altered world traces the lives and friendship of Rita and Líton through shifting timelines. Helle’s novel follows a 48-year-old woman travelling after leaving her husband, while Ismailov’s stories centre on Uzbeks, often exiled in Russia, mixing comedy with more severe experiences.
In short
- Four translated books blend humour with difficult lives.
- Their stories range from climate change to exile.
- Friendship, freedom and hardship recur across the works.
Explained simply
Translation allows fiction written in different languages to reach readers beyond the places where it was first published. These four writers approach everyday relationships and difficult circumstances through distinct settings and styles, from surreal encounters to stories told across disrupted timelines.
The works include couples and friends negotiating change, a woman travelling after leaving her husband, and Uzbeks living in exile in Russia. Together, they offer different perspectives on how people experience hardship, displacement and connection across borders.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “The best recent translated fiction – review roundup”.