GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais (France)

A wickedly funny and life-affirming coming-of-age road trip story – winner of France’s biggest prize for teen and YA fiction Mireille, Astrid and Hakima have just been voted the three ugliest girls in school by their classmates on Facebook. But does that mean they’re going to sit around crying about it?… Well, maybe a little, … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais (France)

GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame (Japan)

**WINNER OF THE 2019 GLLI TRANSLATED YA BOOK PRIZE** Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo; formerly married to Natsuki, father to their young daughter, Kana. Their lives suddenly change with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi’s estranged gay … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame (Japan)

2019 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Winner and Honor Books Announced

Japan’s My Brother’s Husband Wins Inaugural GLLI Translated YA Book Prize New Prize to Highlight World Literature in Translation for Young People My Brother’s Husband: Vol. 1 & 2, by Japan’s Gengoroh Tagame (translated from the Japanese by Anne Ishii; Pantheon Books) is the winner of the inaugural GLLI Translated YA Book Prize. Administered by … Continue reading 2019 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Winner and Honor Books Announced

GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali (France)

Nazi Germany. 1936. In the Lebensborn program, carefully selected German women are recruited by the Nazis to give birth to new members of the Aryan race. Inside one of these women is Max, literally counting the minutes until he is born and he can fulfill his destiny as the perfect Aryan specimen. Max is taken … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali (France)

GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (Equatorial Guinea)

The first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English, La Bastarda is the story of the orphaned teen Okomo, who lives under the watchful eye of her grandmother and dreams of finding her father. Forbidden from seeking him out, she enlists the help of other village outcasts: her gay uncle and … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono (Equatorial Guinea)

GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan (China)

Sunflower is an only child, and when her father is sent to the rural Cadre School, she has to go with him. Her father is an established artist from the city and finds his new life of physical labor and endless meetings exhausting. Sunflower is lonely and longs to play with the local children in … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan (China)

Title Pick: I’m an Old Commie! by Dan Lungu (Romania)

Emilia, a pensioner in northern Romania, is forced to confront the nostalgic illusions she nurtures as a reaction to the grim post-communist present when her daughter, now living in Canada, telephones urging her not to vote for the former communists in upcoming elections. Determined to discover in her own mind why ‘things were better back … Continue reading Title Pick: I’m an Old Commie! by Dan Lungu (Romania)

The Beautiful Contradictions of Rosario Ferré’s Flight of the Swan

This month we will be taking in and discussing some of the literature of the island of Puerto Rico, whose beautiful prose is matched by the strength of its people’s character. Rarely have I come across a novel so masterfully layered as Rosario Ferré’s Flight of the Swan. Like the movements of its ballet prima … Continue reading The Beautiful Contradictions of Rosario Ferré’s Flight of the Swan

Memories of a GLLI Intern: Must-Read Adult Literature from the Middle East and North Africa (Part 2) – by Nneka Mogbo

The works I chose for my adult and college-aged list tell stories of conflicts (both good, bad and internal or external) that stem from interacting with different cultures. An interaction may be caused by one’s exile from a home country, moving to a new country for better opportunities, changes in generational beliefs or living in … Continue reading Memories of a GLLI Intern: Must-Read Adult Literature from the Middle East and North Africa (Part 2) – by Nneka Mogbo

Translators Association – 60 Years of Classic Translations: Season of Migration to the North (1969)

SEASON OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH was selected by the Arab Literary Academy as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century, and is frequently cited as one of the most important post-colonial works in any language. Eminently readable, the metaphorical exploration of the relationship between colonial powers and their victims and the politics … Continue reading Translators Association – 60 Years of Classic Translations: Season of Migration to the North (1969)