So, with January and the first book currently underway, I have started planning the translated reads I will be notching up for the rest of the year. Is it weird that I am super excited about this?! I still have books on my shelf that have been waiting to be read since I was at college (basically 5 years ago) so the prospect of some structured reading is really quite appealing to me right now. Although those five year old unread purchases do not fit the criteria for this challenge, some other books on my TBR do so at least I'll be making a slight dent. Only slight, but enough to lessen the guilt momentarily.
Next month I'm planning on a double whammy and will aim to read Primo Levi's The Periodic Table and Elie Wiesel's Night as they go together well. I have quite the collection of books by Primo Levi, my favourite being If this is a Man which is a ridiculously powerful book that I would highly recommend if you are interested in a truthful, unsentimental portrait of life in a concentration camp. Night is, as far as I can tell, along the same lines as If this is a Man so it will be interesting to compare the two.
It is my aim to read twelve (thirteen, possibly, if February goes to plan) books from different countries and I so far have quite a few options:
1. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (French)
2. Night by Elie Wiesel (Romanian - Originally written in Yiddish)
3. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi (Italian)
4. The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad (Norwegian) This is a piece of journalism/non fiction but is written in the style of a novel.
5. Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (Spanish)
6. Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall (Polish)
7. Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius (German)
8. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Russian)
Any recommendations are more than welcome to fill up my 13!
I look forward to reading all of these books and to reading everyone else's translation challenge reviews so let me know if you are doing it too.
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