Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books in translation from Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Colombia, South Korea, and Norway.

It’s always struck me how many rich people in our countries end up hiring their own private armies: a very Colombian phenomenon.

“There have been times when we have spent hours discussing a single phrase and how to give it the same life and soul in English.”

I thought he was in search for something meaningful and, thus, he was exposing himself to conditions he hoped would light the way for a coming revelation.

“To me writing is an act of listening. And if I am writing well then what I write will necessarily be new to me as well. Writing is a journey into the unknown.”

We’re living in a world where both languages and people are constantly in flux. In this novel, I wanted to focus on a small group of people making their way through that world.

“One thing that makes 'Kibogo' such a compelling work is the critical distance it maintains from all the power structures it describes.”

I’m always a little amazed at the subtlety of Samanta’s language, how much she can convey in so few words—that hasn’t changed over all the books of hers I’ve translated.

I always say to myself that Jawbone came to me as a nightmare, a vision full of fear and desire, but I really can’t remember how it started.

I started working on [the book] in 2016 when my grandmother was showing the first serious signs of dementia. I wanted to create an archive of sorts, in which her life was told in stories.

I think my task was less linguistic than it was a matter of representing the environment in my mind and sensing its moods emotionally, entering that strange atmosphere so it could seep through into the translation.

your mother like Mecca is a promised land—you must go there only once

When we celebrate the increasing visibility of translation, we should also ask about what languages and literatures—and, consequently, what human experiences—are afforded visibility.

Show me to those southerners / Tell them about all the tongues that are mine / all the nature that’s mine

I stood in the red church, / its tiny domes like buds / blossoming in stone

I was assigned to work in the propaganda group to recruit more people to our cause.

In celebration of #WorldKidLitMonth, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp recommends 12 international books for young readers with an interest in world history.

Do you know what your grandmother’s mother did to avoid being subjected to speaking Japanese at school? She sliced off part of her own tongue.”

bloodrush like the swell of desire in a room / surging higher and higher to my eyes, craving life

WWB seeks a social media editor to drive engagement and growth across our social media channels as we work to broaden the audience for international literature.

The way the sunset sometimes Tiepolos the clouds.

With this needle she can create anew what would otherwise disappear.

For days, / years, they walked with jade beneath their tongues, seeking / home.

In 2014, translating Uyghur knowledge into English felt like a subversive act in itself.

When I first read Identitti, I thought, “Is the author using this in earnest or is this meant to be funny?”

Tobias Carroll recommends new and exciting books in translation from Sudan, Belgium, Haiti, France, and South Korea.

Are there homosexual reindeer herders?

I thought I could create a space for sharing women’s global experiences through literary fiction. 

Her mother was dead, she knew that, but she did not know why her aunt and her uncle were the ones who took her in.

I had the look of a Westerner fresh off the boat, with my wrinkled trousers, tourist backpack, and it didn’t tally with my fluency in Kinyarwanda.