The best translated books of 2018

Translation literature is finally taking a spin with the advent of several brilliant translators across India. For a literary piece of work that requires translation, the most obvious challenge is to retain the perception and nuances of the language it was originally written in. But, we have a host of authors who are doing wonders with their perception of language, tone and in retaining the very essence of a literary gem, almost, if not totally. With their sense of a linguistic fluidity and their ability to manoeuvre multiple languages for a literary purpose, these writers are carving a niche in the translation genre. Here are nine books available in English that prove translation is an art in itself, not just a mere English manifestation of a literary work in another language.
Image: Juggernaut; Alpeh Book Company

Originally written in Tamil, 'Poonachi' is a funny and warm tale of a black orphan goat who lives a life tethered a rope. The story follows her from forest to habitation, independence to motherhood and traces the trajectory of Poonachi's fight for survival. A clever depiction of our own responses to hierarchy and ownership, selflessness and appetite, love and desire, living and dying, 'Poonachi' highlights the profound truths of our unequal world.

Image: Westland

Translated from the Malayalam, this is the story of a young Radio Jockey Sameera Parvin who immigrates to an unnamed city in the Middle East from Pakistan where she tells the story of the Arab Spring of 2011. Her seemingly shiny world starts to fall apart with the revolution and people's agitation due to which she is forced to choose between life and death. ‘Jasmine Days’ was first published in Malayalam in 2014 as ‘Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal’.
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Munshi Premchand, widely regarded as the greatest Hindi writer of the twentieth century, wrote some to 300 short stories over the course of a prolific career spanning three decades. His poignant tales talk of powerful themes of romance, satire, gender politics and social inequality, with unmatched compassion and invoke a pastoral simplicity that rings inside readers of all ages. These massive four volumes of Premchand's short stories, translated by M. Asaduddin, feature several stories not hitherto available either in Hindi or Urdu.
Image: Penguin Random House India

Originally written in Malayalam a decade ago, K.R. Meera's 'The Unseeing Idol of Light' is a dark tale that brilliantly explores love, loss, blindness, perception and suffering. Meera projects a haunting world where nothing is certain, no love is the same. The story follows Prakash, whose pregnant wife disappears mysteriously leaving him in a state of agony. Now a blind man, Prakash wants to settle with Rajani, but denies the love she craves since his heart is still unable to dispel the love for Deepti. Heart-breaking and violent, Meera's work is laced with an emotional exuberance that is at the same time, extremely compassionate.
Image: Penguin Random House India

Originally written in Bangla, Manoranjan Byapari's ‘There’s Gunpowder in the Air’ is set in the early 70s when the Naxalbari Movement is gathering strength in Bengal. At a time when protesting men are being arrested and some are shot openly by the government, five Naxals are meticulously planning a jailbreak to continue the revolution in full swing. The book, charged with Sinha's impeccable translation, is "a searing investigation into what deprivation and isolation can do to human idealism", reads the blurb.
Image: Eka

Originally written in Bangla by popular writers from India and Bangladesh, including Premendra Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Gobindolal Bandyopadhyay, Swapan Kumar, Arunava Sinha's anthology of Bengali pulp fiction is a spectacular introduction to sensational noirs from Bengal. From murder mysteries to detective thrillers, spicy love triangles to eerie ghost stories -- Sinha's collection is an assortment of everything a Bengali finds nail-biting.
Image: Aleph Book Company

Sequels to the controversial 'One Part Woman', these two titles follow the life of Ponna who, at the end of the first book, finds out her love Kali has killed himself in despair. Plagued by memories of Kali, Ponna must now learn to face the world alone and confront harsh new uncertainties in her once idyllic life with Kali. The books are originally written in Tamil.
Image: Penguin Random House India

In a harrowing narrative, Manoranjan Byapari points to the inescapable roles that every human plays in an unequal, unjust society. Originally written in Bangla as 'Itibritte Chandal Jivan', the memoir talks about his traumatic life as a child in the refugee camps, his struggle to escape hunger, only to face further exploitation, jail time -- to a new, enticing world of books. Sipra Mukherjee's translated work captures the pains and predicaments of Byapari's eventful life, along with retaining the literary essence of his words.
Image: SAGE Publications

Originally written in Polish, 'Flights' brings a whole new perception to the rhetoric of travel and human anatomy. With no coherent plot but a "cacophony of voices", Olga's non-traditional narrative presents fragments of lives, moving between stories including a Dutch anatomist who discovered the Achilles tendon while dissecting his own amputated leg, and the story of Chopin’s heart as his sister carried it from Paris to Warsaw. Winner of the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, Olga's voice was described by the Booker committee as "one that moves from wit and gleeful mischief to real emotional texture and has the ability to create character very quickly, with interesting digression and speculation."

Image: Riverhead Books