#ReadWomen Around the World
International Women’s Day, March 8th, is a day to celebrate the economic, social, and cultural achievements of women around the world — which makes it a perfect time to celebrate the women writing great fiction (and one non-fiction) in a variety of languages today. From Elena Ferrante to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, international women’s writing is enjoying a boom in attention and recognition. Here are a few favorites from us to add to your TBR stack.
Han Kang — The Vegetarian
This just released novel, translated from Korean, is a strange and haunting work of obsession and metamorphosis. Yeong-hye leads an uneventful life until she suddenly and seemingly inexplicably decides to become a vegetarian. In a society where rebellion against social convention inspires distaste bordering on fear, her decision alters the life of her family even as Yeong-hye finds herself sinking further into disturbing nightmares and the certainty that she must change herself entirely. The Vegetarian has generated a great deal of excitement and critical acclaim. While in Korea she has garnered a number of awards for her work, this is Kang’s first novel translated into English.
Valeria Luiselli- The Story of My Teeth
Latin American and Mexican literature is some of the most fertile ground for exciting and innovative work — this year’s PEN World Voices festival is focusing on Latina/o writing. Valeria Luiselli stands out for her lively, experimental work — showcased in this fascinating book rich with contemplation of life, art, and the teeth of the famous. A clever extended commentary on the value we attach to objects, Luiselli’s style is brisk, thriving in her offbeat digressions from the main plot.
Clarice Lispector — Near to the Wild Heart
A Brazilian Jewish writer, long a powerful influence in her home country, Clarice Lispector has come back to attention recently with new translations of her works being reprinted. This, her first novel, is written in a stream-of-consciousness style that recalls European Modernism, centering on the childhood and early adulthood of the character Joana. For an even deeper dive into Lispector’s rich writing, try the PEN Award-winning translation of her Complete Stories, published last year.
Elena Ferrante — The Days of Abandonment
Ferrante may be best known for her Neapolitan novels (you may have seen everyone and their mother on the subway reading them) but her other works are equally compelling. The Days of Abandonment follows a woman named Olga after she is left by her husband. Literally trapped in her apartment, trying to care for two young children on her own, Olga descends into rage and self-pity, struggling to face the fact that her life may never return to the normalcy she became accustomed to.
Muriel Barbery — The Life of Elves
The just released novel by the author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog ventures into fantastic territory with a story of two girls with uncanny powers who come into contact with the parallel but interconnected world of elves. An idiosyncratic fable that demonstrates the range and imagination of Barbery’s writing, The Life of Elves echoes Milton and Tolkien. This modern fairy story enchants with its story of two young girls, Clara from Italy and Maria from France, whose meeting might have the power to change worlds.
Isabel Allende — The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende has long been recognized as one of the most powerful and influential Chilean voices. This, her first novel, follows four generations of the Trueba family, tracing the social and political upheaval in Chile — though the country remains unnamed — after it received its independence. Allende’s magical realism is skillfully interwoven with political reality, combining the personal and the universal. This novel brought Isabel Allende international acclaim, and it is easy to see why she remains a powerful voice in South American literature.
Christa Wolf — Cassandra
Rewriting Greek myth is a tradition as old as Aeschylus, but this novel was one of the earliest to pick up the story solely from a woman’s perspective. A retelling of the Cassandra myth by an East German writer, written during the Cold War, Christa Wolf writes of the fall of Troy seen through the voice of a woman who was viewed with contempt and scorn despite her prescience. Dwelling on themes of patriarchy and war, Wolf’s retelling also parallels Troy with the repressive government of East Germany, and contradicts or reverses many of the familiar tropes of classical stories. (Note: this novel is out of print — so check your local used bookstore!)
Anne Garréta — Sphinx
French novelist Anne Garréta was part of the literary group Oulipo, which used various linguistic or mathematical techniques to constrain their writing (as a kind of authorial self-challenge). This landmark text in feminist and LGBT literature, Sphyinx is a love story between two characters that uses no gender markers to define its two protagonists. A unique and thus far still unmatched feat of literary experimentation, the work also tells a beautiful story of falling in and out of love that is effortlessly readable and infinitely relatable.
Tiphanie Yanique — The Land of Love and Drowning
This Carribean novel of a family on the island of Saint Thomas is a novel of love and magic with echoes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez while also maintaining a unique voice that is entirely Yanique’s own. The language and rhythm of the book evokes an entire world, spanning sixty years between 1916 and the 1970s, intertwining the lives of its central family with the tumultuous history of the Virgin Islands.
Jenny Erpenbeck — The End of Days
This unique tour through German political and social history describes five different lives and deaths of a single character at various points in her life. The End of Days shows how a single life can affect time and place, following themes of contingency and fate: in one iteration her heroine grows up in Vienna; in the next she moves to Russia and ends up in a labor camp. Erpenbeck’s prose is graceful even as her subjects can be brutal. This book was the winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2015.
Leila Aboulela — The Kindness of Enemies
This book by the award-winning Sudanese writer examines the role of old conflicts in modern extremism. About a professor of history who, while researching a 19th century Muslim rebel, discovers that her favorite student is descended from him. Aboulela showcases the difficult negotiations Muslims make in a post-9/11 world while exploring the diversity between what many see as the monolith of Islam. Aboulela’s storytelling is clear and elegant, and her novel explores the ancient history of conflicts between “East” and “West” even as she deconstructs those categories.
Helen Oyeyemi — What Is Not Yours is Not Yours
Helen Oyeyemi’s just released (today!) short story collection is centered around the theme of keys and what they lock and unlock. Like all her work, What is Not Yours is Not Yours weaves its spell within a world at once familiar and strange, beautiful, haunting, and surreal. Oyeyemi’s deft touch and intelligent humor make these nine stories a joy to read, and it is an especial pleasure to notice how the stories interlock (pun perhaps intended) and play with each other, with characters constantly appearing in each others’ stories.
Marjane Satrapi — The Complete Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi has gained well-deserved fame for her two-part graphic memoir describing growing up in Tehran. The great-granddaughter of Iran’s last emperor and daughter of passionate Marxists, Satrapi describes her childhood during the 1979 revolution and the war between Iran and Iraq in black and white illustrations. Both a coming of age story and the story of a tumultuous period in Iranian history, if you still haven’t read Persepolis — there’s no time like the present.
Shirin Ebadi — Until We Are Free: My Fight for Human Rights in Iran
This newly released work by Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and Iranian activist, tells of Ebadi’s work as a human rights lawyer for women and children. Ebadi documents the threats, arrests, invasions of privacy and harassment she received from the Iranian government for her work. Her strength and courage — and determination to stand up against injustice in spite of overwhelming pressure — shine through the pages of this powerful book.
