CRIME LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
In Other Words.....Translated from
Other Languages
Reviewed by J. Madison Davis
Below are some fine works of foreign crime fiction
currently available in English translation:
Stephen Abarbanell, Displaced, translated from the German by Lucy Renner Jones (Harper)
Takemaru Abiko, The 8 Mansion Murders, translated from the Japanese by Ho-Ling Wong (Locked Room International)
Stefan Ahnhem, The Ninth Grave: A Fabian Risk Novel, translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlen (Minotaur)
Ursala Archer and Arno Strobel, Strangers, translated from the German by Jamie Searle Romanelli and Stefan Scholtz (Minotaur)
Jean-Luc Bannalec, The Fleur de Sel Murders: A Brittany Mystery, translated from the German by Sorcha McDonagh (Minotaur)
Peter Beck, Damnation, translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch (Point Blank)
Sara Blaedel, The Undertaker’s Daughter, translated from the Danish by Mark Kline (Grand Central)
Mario Bolduc, The Roma Plot, translated from the French by Jacob Homel (Dundurn) [Original French novel, The Kashmir Trap, won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in French]
Michel Bussi, Time is a Killer, translated from the French by Shaun Whiteside (Europa)
Dino Buzzati, Catastrophe, translated from the Italian by Judity Landry (Ecco)
Karin Brynard, Weeping Waters, translated from the Afrikaans by Maya Fowler and Isobel Dixon (Europa)
Andrea Camilleri, The Pyramid of Mud, translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli (Penguin)
Héctor Aguilar Camín, Day In, Day Out, translated from the Spanish by Chandler Thompson (Schaffner)
Patrick Chamoiseau, Slave Old Man, translated from the French and Creole by Linda Coverdale (New Press)
Paul Colize, Back Up, translated from the French by Louise Rogers Lalaurie (Point Blank)
Sandrone Dazieri, Kill the Angel, translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar (Scribner)
Jonathan de Shalit, Traitor, translated from the Hebrew by Steven Cohen (Atria/Bestler)
Victor Del Árbol, A Million Drops, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman (Other Press)
Ramón Díaz Eterovic, Dark Echoes of the Past, translated from the Spanish by Patrick Blaine (AmazonCrossing)
Romain Gary, The Kites, translated from the French by Miranda Richmond Mouillot (New Directions)
Alain Guiraudie, Now the Night Begins, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zukerman (Semiotext(e))
Zhou Haohui, Death Notice, translated from the Chinese by Zac Haluza (Doubleday)
Sophie Hénaff, The Awkard Squad, translated from the French by Sam Gordon (MacLehose)
Nir Hezroni, Last Instructions, translated from the Hebrew by Steven Cohen (St. Martin’s/Dunne)
Anne Holt, In Dust and Ashes: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel, tanslated from the Norwegian by Anne Bruce (Scribner)
Arnaldur Indridason, The Shadow District, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (St. Martin’s)
Arnaldur Indridason, The Shadow Killer, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (St. Martin’s)
You-Jeong Jeong, The Good Son, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Penguin)
Ragnar Jónasson, Nightblind, translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates (Minotaur)
Lene Kaaberbøl, A Lady in the Shadows: A Madeleine Karno Mystery, translated from the Danish by Elisabeth Dyssegaard (Atria)
Mons Kallentoft and Markus Lutterman, Zack, translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith (Washington Square/Bestler)
Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) , Dandelions, translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich (New Directions) [final unfinished novel by the author, a Nobel laureate]
Walter Kempowski, All for Nothing, translated from the German by Anthea Bell (NY Review of Books)
Lars Kepler, The Sandman: A Joona Linna Novel, translated by Neil Smith (Knopf)
Julia Kristeva, The Enchanted Clock, translated from the French by Armine Kotin Mortimer (Columbia Univ)
Dirk Kurbjuweit, Fear, translated from the German by Imogen Taylor (Harper)
Nicola Lagioia, Ferocity, translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar (Europa)
Pierre Lemaitre, Three Days and a Lie, translated from the French by Frank Wynne (Quercus)
Szu-Yen Lin, Death in the House of Rain, translated from the Chinese by the author (Locked Room International)
Minna Lindgren, The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove, translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers (Pan)
Clarice Lispector, The Chandelier, translated from the Portuguese by Benjamin Moser and Magdalena Edwards (New Directions)
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Neighbor, translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Ernesto Mallo, Editor, Buenos Aires Noir, translated from the Spanish by John Washington and M. Cristina Lambert (Akashic)
Jean-Patrick Manchette, Ivory Pearl, translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith (New York Review Books) [Unfinished novel from Manchette (1942-1995)]
Pavel Mandys, Editor, Prague Noir, translated from the Czech by Miriam Margala (Akashic)
Paolo Maurensig, Theory of Shadows, translated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Jon Michelet, The Frozen Woman, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett (No Exit)
Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove) [winner of Japan’s Akutagawa Prize]
Naivo, Beyond the Rice Fields, translated from the French by Allison M. Charette (Restless) [first novel from Madagascar to be translated into English]
Fuminori Nakamura, Cult X, translated from the Japanese by Kalau Almony (Soho Crime)
Jo Nesbø, Macbeth, translated from the Norwegian by Don Barrett (Hogarth Shakespeare) [a retelling of Macbeth as a crime story set in 1970's Scotland]
Harri Nykänen, Holy Ceremony, translated from the Finnish by Kristian London (Bitter Lemon)
Oliver Pötzsch, The Council of Twelve: A Hangman’s Daughter Tale, translated from the German by Lee Chadeayne (Mariner)
Roslund & Hellström, Pen 33, translated from the Swedish by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Quercus) [Hellström, an ex-convict, died earlier this year]
Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Penguin)
Joan Sales, Uncertain Glory, translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush (New York Review of Books) [Banned in Franco’s Spain when first published in 1956]
Emelie Schepp, Slowly We Die, translated from the Swedish by Suzanne Martin Cheadle (Mira)
Anna Seghers, The Seventh Cross, translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo (New York Review Books) [First published in 1942, this is the first unabridged English translation of an early work of fiction set in a concentration camp]
Lilja Sigurdardottir, Snare, translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates (Orenda)
Yrsa Sigurdardottir, The Legacy, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb (Minotaur)
Leila Slimani, The Perfect Nanny, translated from the French by Sam Taylor (Penguin) [Winner of France’s Goncourt Prize]
Peter Stamm, To the Back of Beyond, translated from the German by Michael Hoffman (Other Press)
Anton Svensson, The Sons: Made in Sweden, Part II, translated from the Swedish by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Quercus)
Jun’ichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965), In Black and White, translated from the Japanese by Phyllis I. Lyons (Columbia Univ)
Helene Thursten, Protected by the Shadows, translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy (Soho Crime)
Carl Frode Tiller, Encircling2: Origins, translated from the Norwegian by Barbara J. Haveland (Graywolf)
Masako Togawa, The Master Key, translated from the Japanese by Simon Grove (Pushkin Vertigo)
Antti Tuomanien, The Man Who Died, translated from the Finnish by David Hackston (Orenda)
Fred Vargas, The Accordionist, translated from the French by Siân Reynolds (Harvill Secker)
Nicolas Verdan, The Greek Wall, translated from the French by W. Donald Wilson (Bitter Lemon)
Noel Vindry, The Double Alibi, translated from the French by John Pugmire (Locked Room International) [first published in 1934]
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