A 2022 round-up of reviews of works in translation from Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Kazakh, Russian, French and Spanish. Click on the title for the review.
Turkey
Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Ekin Oklap
It helps to be reminded from time to time that literature, all other objectives aside, is at bottom storytelling. And Turkish Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk’s latest novel Nights of Plague is storytelling so luxuriant that one cannot help but soak in it. Set in 1900—that is, both fin-de-siècle and fin d’empire—Mingheria, a largely forgotten (and entirely fictional) Ottoman island province lying between Rhodes and Crete, Nights of Plague tells the story of how the coming of the plague led to a revolution and independence.
Tulip of Istanbul by Iskender Pala, translated by Ruth Whitehouse
The conceit of Tulip of Istanbul is that it was “found” as an 18th-century handwritten Ottoman manuscript at a stamp and rare book auction. The arrival of the novel itself is almost as serendipitous: originally published in Turkish in 2009 and then in English in 2015 (also curiously published in Turkey), it is now available to a perhaps wider English-language audience via India’s Niyogi Books.
Prisoner of the Infidels: The Memoir of an Ottoman Muslim in Seventeenth-Century Europe by Osman of Timisoara, translated by Giancarlo Casale
As a counterpoint to the rich literature of Europeans discovering Asia, readers have access to many accounts by Asians about Europe. These writings hold up a mirror in front of their authors, who, unconsciously, reveal much about their own societies… These works can be more profitably studied to learn about the cultural and political preoccupations of the writers rather than about their subjects. Prisoner of the Infidels, the memoirs of Osman Ağa of Timişoara (active 1671-1725), is one of the most famous of these “return visits”.
Iran
Island of Bewilderment: A Novel of Modern Iran by Simin Daneshvar, translated by Patricia J Higgins and Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
The novel is set in Tehran during a tumultuous period in the mid-1970s that led to the eventual fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and the subsequent rise of the Islamic Republic. Daneshvar examines Iranian society, through the eyes of a young, secular-minded Iranian woman, who bears witness to a society awash with petrodollars with noticeable extremities in wealth between the English-speaking urban elite and the conservative Farsi-speaking poor.
Hafez in Love by Iraj Pezeshkzad, translated by Patricia J Higgins and Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi
Hafez in Love is an English translation of the 2004 novel Hafez-e-nashenideh pand (literally “Hafez, Heedless of Advice”) by the late author Iraj Pezeshkzad who was one of Iran’s best-known contemporary authors. He is best remembered for his satirical 1973 novel, My Uncle Napoleon which was later made into a successful television series. In Hafez in Love, Pezeshkzad—through a creative engagement with the poetry of Hafez and his contemporaries, as well as an imaginative use of historical fiction—brings the literary scene of 14th-century Iran to life.
The Kushnameh: The Persian Epic of Kush the Tusked by Iranshah ibn Abu’l-Khayr, translated by Kaveh Hemmat
The Kushnameh, composed by the epic poet Iranshah for the then ruling dynasty of the Seljuks, tells of the heroic and vainglorious Kush. Born with a monstrous physiognomy; tusks growing out of his face, Kush enjoys the strength of an elephant, but weak self-control. His 1,000 year reign is stained with horrendous crimes, including incest and blasphemous claims to godhood. There is much pathos in this anti-hero, whose ugliness makes him unhappy in love, yet at the same time his inhumane striving gives this tale an otherworldly grandeur.
Central Asia
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird came about through the efforts of Untold Narratives, a UK-based organization which works to develop and amplify the work of writers marginalized by social, geopolitical or economic isolation, particularly those in areas with recent or ongoing conflict. In 2019 and early 2021, Untold put out open calls across Afghanistan, asking women to submit short stories in either of the country’s two languages, Dari and Pashto.
Amanat: Women’s Writing From Kazakhstan, edited and translated by Zaure Batayeva and Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Amanat features the translated prose of 12 authors, representing multiple generations. Some are accomplished literary figures while others are relative newcomers and some write in Kazakh, while others write in Russian. The two source languages alert the reader to the diversity of Kazakhstan’s literature, which in turn speaks to the complex history of the former Soviet republic. Many readers will come to Amanat knowing all too little of the history of Central Asia’s largest country.
Arabic
Bitter Orange Tree, by Jokha Alharthi, translated by Marilyn Booth
In this lyrical follow-up to her Man Booker International prize-winning novel, Celestial Bodies, Jokha Alharthi explores love, desire and language through three generations of an Omani family… Unlike a conventional family saga with a chronological timeline, author Alharthi chooses to blend the stories of the three generations. Sometimes the scene changes seem random; at other times they are prompted by Zuhour’s thoughts or dreams. This lends the novel an air of magical realism as well as playing into one of its major themes: how the actions and experiences of previous generations affect their successors.
European languages
The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins (French)
Claire, an ethnic Korean grad student from Switzerland, arrives in Tokyo to escort her grandparents on their first visit to Korea since they left to escape the Korean War. They run “Shiny”, the somewhat down-at-heel pachinko parlor of the title. This trip takes a few weeks of preparation and to help fill the time, Claire signs up to tutor 12-year-old Mieko in French. Given that Elisa Shua Dusapin’s debut Winter in Sokcho won the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature, The Pachinko Parlour comes with high expectations. It doesn’t disappoint.
Vice-royal-ties, poetry by Julia Wong Kcomt, translated by Jennifer Shyue (Spanish)
Chifa. The word may not immediately register with visitors, but once said out loud, the origins of the term for the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants in Peru are obvious to anyone with even a smattering of Cantonese. Arroz chaufa soon becomes recognizable (if somewhat redundant) as fried rice. Once the surprise wears off, it is of course entirely natural. There is a large Chinese diaspora in Latin America for much same reason as there is in the US, UK and Australia. Nevertheless, the idea of Asian writing in Spanish still seems exotic.
High: A Journey Across the Himalayas by Erika Fatland, translated by Kari Dickson (Norwegian)