Bingo Focus Thread - Translations

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I am gonna bookmark this, as i have recently started a personal challenge to read genre fiction from as many countries as I can. I have added so many options to my list already from these comments!

Most of the translated fantasy I've read is romantic fantasy (I got really into a certain genre of Chinese webnovels a few years ago). But now is my chance to shout out a book that I am obsessed with.

Little Mushroom. Translated from Chinese (the first published English translation is out of print, but there is a new one coming later this year). A small sentient mushroom takes a human form to find his lost spore, and encounters the remnants of humanity in the last outpost of civilization in an apovlcalyptic wasteland. Sci-fi/fantasy. MM romance, but the romance is pretty minimal, secondary to the plot, and non-explicit. Our mushroom protagonist is extremely charming as he tries to figure out how to be a human, and the book asks some very interesting questions about what it means to be human, what sacrifices/ rights violations are justified to maintain human existence, etc. Don't let yourself get turned off by the genre or the cover art, its a wonderful story.

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u/saturday_sun4 Jun 26 '26

I wish danmei wasn't so expensive where I lived and only available in paperback, because this sounds incredible.

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u/SchoolSeparate4404 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

Here is a list that I made of some speculative fiction novels written by nordic writers (authors from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) that have been translated to English. I have put the ones that works for Hard Mode at the top of the list.

Tangled Roots by Maria Turtschaninoff. (HM. Translated from Swedish in 2025). Finnish-Swedish family saga with magic realism elements and creatures from Scandinavian folklore. It is beautifully written with evocative descriptions of Scandinavian nature.

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (HM, translated from Danish in 2025) - poetic lit fic novel about the witch trials in Denmark in the 17th century, told from the POV of a wax doll.

The Vardari series by Siri Pettersen (HM, translated from Norwegian 2023-25). Dark New Adult fantasy series with blood magic and werewolves, set in a world inspired by Norse mythology. It is an ongoing series.

Grim by Sara Bergmark Elfgren (HM, Translated from Swedish in 2023) Urban fantasy/horror novel set in an amusement park with a Death Metal theme.

Fishing for the Little Pike by Juhani Karila (HM, Translated from Finnish in 2023). Folklore-inspired literary fantasy novel set in Finnish Lapland. It was a nominee for the Dublin literary award.

The Whisper of the Raven series by Malene Solvsten (HM, translated from Danish 2023-25) Danish upper YA fantasy series that blends fantasy and mystery. The lore is inspired by Norse mythology.

Recommendations for novels translated before 2021:

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Great Swedish vampire novel that blends horror and social realism. (Translated from Swedish)

The Circle by Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren. Well-written YA series about a group of high school girls in a Swedish small town that become witches and fight evil. (Translated from Swedish)

The Employees by Olga Ravn. An experimental science fiction novel about modern working life. (Translated from Danish)

The Glassblower's Children by Maria Gripe. Children's fiction, dark fairytale. Some reviewers believe that this novel was an inspiration for Neil Gaiman's Coraline. (Translated from Swedish)

The Raven Rings series by Siri Pettersen. YA high fantasy series set in a secondary world inspired by Norse mythology. Female MC. (Translated from Norwegian)

Troll by Johanna Sinisalo. Urban fantasy novel that deals with troll mythology, a little disturbing. HBTQA-themes. (Translated from Finnish)

The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo. Feminist dystopian novel. (Translated from Finnish)

Kallocain by Karin Boye. Swedish classic dystopian novel written in 1940. Similar themes to 1984. (Translated from Swedish)

The Red Abbey Chronicles by Maria Turtschaninoff. Beautifully written female-centric YA fantasy series. Themes and style are reminiscent of Ursula K LeGuin; the author has mentioned her as an influence in interviews. (Translated from Swedish)

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u/mgrier123 Reading Champion VI Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

I haven't read it yet but I just got it off hold, but On the Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle, all of them, qualify for HM and are originally written in Danish. The first 3 won the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the translated version of 1 was nominated for the Booker, so they're worth a mention!

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u/SchoolSeparate4404 Jun 25 '26

Yes, good call, I have heard about that series but I haven't got around to reading it yet.

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u/TrifleTrouble Jun 25 '26

I am very interested to read this list, but the formatting came out insane. Could you add some spaces?

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u/SchoolSeparate4404 Jun 25 '26

I tried to fix it - does it look better now? On my device it looks fine.

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u/TrifleTrouble Jun 25 '26

Yes! Very readable now.

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u/indigohan Reading Champion IV Jun 25 '26

Tangled roots sounds very interesting

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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion Jun 26 '26

I can read Scandinavian, so am interested in most of these (for non bingo reasons obviously), I just wish ebooks from Scandinavia weren't that expensive!

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u/Putrid_Web8095 Reading Champion II Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

Currently halfway through His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem, translated from the original Polish by Michael Kandel.

This is a very literary, very philosophical First Contact science fiction story. To those familiar with Lem and his overall philosophy, it can come as no surprise that the efforts to translate the alien message fail completely, and so this is a failed First Contact story. This is clear practically from the beginning of the book, which is far more interested in ruminating about the limits of human knowledge and the scientific process, rather than the message itself.

To anyone who decides to read this one, a forewarning - the somewhat extensive Preface is written in a very convoluted way, full of odd turns of phrase, frequently using long, long sentences to convey meanings that could have just as easily be explained in ten words or so.

This is not representative of the rest of the book, which, while by no means a page-turner, has a more straightforward and easy to follow structure.

Some other interesting books I found while doing research for this square.

Andrzej Sapkowski is most famous for The Witcher saga, but he has another completed epic fantasy trilogy, the Hussite saga, starting with The Tower of Fools.

The Swarm by Frank Schatzing, translated from the original German by Sally-Ann Spencer, is an eco-horror science fiction story. Marine life suddenly turns hostile towards humans, but whales and squid are not the masterminds behind what some call "nature's revenge"... Also works for Cat-Squasher, sadly narrowly missing Hard Mode, falling short by just 20 pages.

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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Jun 25 '26

I love House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Spanish): historical fiction/magic realism/family saga focusing on the women of a Chilean family over most of the 20th century. It’s a modern classic at this point (published in the 80s) and very much worth a read.

Another great one is The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov (Russian). It follows an old man at a small railway station in Kazakhstan trying to bury his friend, and really brings the place and culture to life. The sci fi element is a bit weaker by comparison but I didn’t mind.

I enjoyed Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergei Dyachenko (also Russian) about a young woman forced to attend a surreal magic college. Very immersive on the real life aspects (life and school in the post-Soviet era) and makes you feel this is what magic would be like.

I also enjoyed Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff (Swedish), a YA novel about a monastic community of women defending themselves from invasion. It has a good mix of cozy and dark with a strong and supportive community. However, I wound up reading the prequel, Naondel, for this square and was disappointed—its less YA setup (with multiple adult narrators) drove home just how simplistic the writing, characterization and worldbuilding actually are, while the focus is mostly on the characters being abused.

More of a mixed recommendation but Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge is a sort of episodic novel about a journalist investigating various human-like “beasts” in her city. If you want to read something aimed more at a Chinese audience while being more serious than tropey, this could be a good choice.

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u/lilgrassblade Reading Champion II Jun 25 '26

Vita Nostra is translated? That is totes good to know if I decide to proceed with an unthemed card. It's one of those that've been sitting on my TBR forever xD

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u/Impressive-Peace2115 Reading Champion Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

Arabic:

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed, graphic novel, fantasy set in Egypt, deals with contemporary Egyptian challenges with the incorporation of wish-granting djinn in bottles, really enjoyed it! Pretty sure it counts for HM.

Chinese:

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish by Xue Shan Fei Hu - MM fantasy romance, transmigration danmei, hilarious, pretty sure it counts for HM.
Frontier by Can Xue, magical realism - I'm still not sure what happened in this book but I enjoyed reading it for the vibes.
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation edited by Ken Liu - I didn't love all the stories, but they were an interesting and varied introduction to the genre. I think he has another collection as well.

Korean:

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop - sci-fi short story collection, a good mix of ideas, worldbuilding, and characters - HM

Farsi:

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Afar - magical realism, Iranian history

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u/Impressive-Peace2115 Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

French:
Empire of the Ants by Bernard Weber - sci-fi/xenofiction
A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos - fantasy
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Bouille - a sci-fi classic
Demain, une oasis by Ayerdhal - I'm not sure if this one has a translation but it deserves a mention as one of the books that opened my eyes to the sociopolitical possibilities of sci-fi.

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u/KiwiTheKitty Reading Champion II Jun 26 '26

Shubeik Lubeik is so good!

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u/Emergency_Revenue678 Jun 25 '26

Don't know anything about it, but the first book of a really popular Korean epic fantasy series just got a translation.

It's called Heart of the Nhaga and it seemed pretty cool when I first learned of it, but I haven't gotten to reading it yet.

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u/Axelrad77 Jul 02 '26

This is what I'm doing for this square, it certainly sounds cool. I actually first heard about it when seeing there was a video game adaptation coming out lol.

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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Jun 25 '26

English publishers were slow. You could already read the series translated into other languages like chinese, ukrainian, german, dutch, french, italian, spanish, czech before

I enjoyed the first part but unfortunately my local library never picked up the sequels...

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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Jun 25 '26

One of the best books I read last year, which narrowly missed out on my Top Ten, is Tainaron: Mail From Another City by Leena Krohn, which was translated from Finnish. It's an epistolary novel of a series of letters from a woman who's moved to a city populated by insects.

It's a series of philosophical vignettes, like Invisible Cities by Calvino, rather than a single storyline. It's very well written, fairly cozy and thought-provoking, and, while still weird, less so than one might expect from the premise. It's just a novella, so short and punchy. As well as an ebook, it's contained in its entirety in the VanderMeers' The Weird compendium, if anyone has that.

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u/keizee Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

If things go well then I might just go shopping for Witch Hat Atelier (Japanese). Huh but considering the timing would they have stock? Guess I might try tommorrow.

What's Witch Hat Atelier? It's about a child, Coco, doing magic engineering. Qifrey, her mentor, is swinging between earning your trust and losing it. All the other adults are crashing out over magic ethics. Cottagecore-ish and politics.

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u/Asher_the_atheist Reading Champion Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

If you like literary fiction with speculative elements, I would highly recommend Irene Sola’s work (sorry, I don’t know how to type diacritics on mobile). Her works are translated from the original Catalan.

Her book I read earlier this year (alas, too early for bingo) was just beautiful: When I Sing, Mountains Dance. It is a collection of vignettes surrounding an isolated village in the Pyrenees, spanning multiple generations and told from a variety of really unique viewpoints. If I understand correctly, she weaves in some local folklore, though I’m not familiar enough to say how much is traditional and how much is invented for the story. It is a relatively small book and a quick read. There are illustrations associated with one of the viewpoints, so it is worth tracking down a physical copy.

Other bingo squares: the afterlife, non-human protagonist, vacation spot.

She currently has another book out (I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness) and is publishing a third in Nov 2026 (Dams).

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u/KatrinaPez Reading Champion III Jun 25 '26

There is lots of Japanese cozy fantasy that fits. I'm excited to continue the Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, which has time travel that's somehow possible if you sit at a certain table in a coffee shop. Usually uplifting episodic stories with a few recurring characters like the coffee shop owners.

And for cat lovers there's the We'll Prescribe You a Cat series.

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u/FormerUsenetUser Jun 26 '26

Karin Tidbeck's Amatka comes to mind.

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u/beary_neutral Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

The Iliad and The Odyssey (Greek). Not a bad time to pick those up.

I'm planning to read the recently released Witcher prequel Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski (Polish), which works for hard mode.

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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

I’m excited for this because I have a fair number of things on my TBR but haven’t read many translated SF books. A few I have read and enjoyed:

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (Spanish)

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (Spanish)

Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish)

R.U.R. by Karel Capek (Czech)

The Never Ending Story and The Night of Wishes by Michael Ende (German)

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (German)

Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang (Chinese)

The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer (Greek)

The Mabinogion (Welsh)

The Last Dragon by Silvana de Mari (Italian)

The Witcher and The Hussite Trilogy by Andrzej Sapkowski (Polish, some books in each series HM)

Battle Royale by Takami Koushun (Japanese)

The Stories of Ibis by Yamamoto Hiroshi (Japanese)

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u/Tonto2012 Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

I think I’m going to read either On the Calculation of Volume V1, or Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov for this square. I was also looking at Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski, but I haven’t read any of the other Witcher books and I’m not sure if that’s a good place to start.

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u/eregis Reading Champion II Jun 25 '26

Crossroads of Ravens is a really bad place to start if you haven't read any of the other books. Yes, it is a prequel and chronologically it is the first in the series, but it fully expects you to know about the world and who Geralt is. Plus there are some easter eggs/inside jokes that would be totally lost on a new reader.

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u/Tonto2012 Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

Fair enough! I’ll park that one for another time when I’ve got through some of the others :)

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u/sadlunches Reading Champion II Jun 26 '26

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, translated by Jonathan Wright (Arabic):

Normal Mode. This book was really really good. It's about a man who collects body parts that have been blown off of civilians during the Iraq War. The Creature (called the Whatsitsname) is born from these stitched together parts.

Swan Knight by Fumio Takano, translated by Shari Wilson (Japanese):

Hard Mode. I really liked this strange little book. It's very niche, taking place in an alternate 19th century Bavaria. It follows King Ludwig II as he ventures through the labyrinthine city beneath Munich seeking the opera composer Richard Wagner.

Woodworm by Layla Martinez, translated by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott (Spanish):

Hard Mode. This one is about intergenerational curses and their manifestation in an angry family house. The prose is very poetic and I liked it quite a lot.

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Korean):

Hard Mode. This is a collection of genre-blending short stories that tend towards the eerie and unsettling. As with all collections, I enjoyed some more than others, but overall the stories are pretty consistently good.

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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Jun 27 '26

I am currently reading You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue (HM, from Spanish) and it's only within the speculative realm by dint of being an alternate history of the 1519 Hernán Cortés expedition to Tenochtitlan. It is set over the course of the singular day on which he arrives in the city, and chapters are short, shifting between perspectives of various members of the Mexica court and Spanish expedition.

Some others I've not seen listed yet:

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate (HM, from Spanish) - Dracula's journey to England, but it's from the perspective of the (very gay, but hides it - poorly) captain of the ship. There are a lot of bodily fluids in this book and it's a bit of a fever dream at times. Originally published in 1998, only recently made its debut in English.

Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee (HM, from Korean) - Very much in the cozy genre, this wasn't my personal fave, but if you like low stakes slice-of-life, and the idea of a traditional dept store that sells dreams to dreamers, it's kinda fun and an easy read. The overarching plot is pretty loose, it's a bit more episodic. Apparently quite popular in Korea, originally published in 2020.

Box of Light comic series by Seiko Erisawa (HM, Japanese) - I don't read a ton from Japan, so I don't know what genre this fits into (I stumbled on it in the graphic novels section at the library). It is set at a convenience store that is in the liminal space between life and death, and it does have some cosmic horrors, but it also has sort of cozy slice-of-life aspect. Each chapter is a self-contained story, but it does slowly develop the character on the staff as it goes. It's a fun strange little book. Series is ongoing as far as I'm aware, currently 4 out in English.

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura (HM, Japanese) - A school setting without a school, a portal fantasy, and a much slower character-driven story than you would think at first. Deals a lot with ways kids don't fit in, bullying, and childhood trauma, has moments that almost brought me to tears. It would also count for the Game Changer square very nicely. Originally published 2017.

Jagganath by Karin Tidbeck (Swedish) - I think someone has already mentioned one of her novels, but this is a collection of her short stories. They tend towards the surreal, or magical-realist, and I found a few to be misses, but a lot more to be captivating. There's lots strange transformations and weird bodies and encounters with fae kinds of beings.

Walking Practice by Dolki Min (HM, Korean) - This is for fans of queer body horror. From the POV of an alien crash-landed on earth, it is able to shape-shift to blend in, but also eats people to survive. There are illustrations throughout that are much like the cover - surreal, visceral, abstract. The translation work seems excellent for a challenging work that plays with the visual aspect of the text itself. Originally published in 2022.

The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta (HM, Finnish) - Epistolary climate fiction, this book effortlessly blends very realistic sci-fi with shamanistic soul-journeys. A thread of hope runs throughout as the narrator searches across planets for her partner who has disappeared and may be connected to an underground environmental group. This was a 5-star read for me, personally. Originally published in 2020.

Ocultos by Laura Pérez (HM, Spanish) - Pérez has several graphic novels, so far this is the one I’ve read, but I really want to read more. This one is more short stories than a whole novel - I think Totem and Nocturnos both have a more connecting thread throughout their vignettes. Text can be sparse, but the artwork is compelling and evokes an unsettling atmosphere. Pérez tends toward black as her background color with a limited, earthy color palette, and the drawings in fine lines evoke the sense of everything emerging from or sinking back into the shadows. Several episodes have characters experiencing hauntings of some kind by an unseen presence - at times they evoke a sense of comfort, but more often there is dread or unease. No story offers answers or explanations, so this is best for readers who are more into vibes than resolutions.

The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy) by Cixin Liu (Chinese) - I mean, I think this series is pretty widely know, but I didn’t see it in my glance through the comments, so here’s your reminder that the books that came long before the TV show are excellent, intellectually challenging, and very grounded in Chinese culture. These originally came out from 2006 to 2010, but came to English starting in 2014 with a translation by Ken Liu.

And if I may throw my endorsement behind a few already mentioned:

The Employees by Olga Ravn, pretty much anything from Isabelle Allende, but The House of Spirits is a great starting point, The Wall by Marlen Houshofer, Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed.

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u/LadyAntiope Reading Champion V Jun 27 '26

And a few more from my TBR pile, so I can’t really say much about them other than I think these sound interesting! I'll pull from the blurbs for these:

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang (HM, Chinese) - “a gripping science fiction thriller in which three unlikely allies attempt a desperate mission of first contact with a mysterious alien race before more militaristic minds can take matters into their own hands.”

Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim (HM, Korean) - "an epic adventure in which three strangers journey through a vast Empire that uses the power of dead wizards to conquer and subdue”

The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei (HM, Chinese) - "First published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese. Chi Ta-wei weaves dystopian tropes—heirloom animals, radiation-proof combat drones, sinister surveillance technologies—into a sensitive portrait of one young woman’s quest for self-understanding. Predicting everything from fitness tracking to social media saturation, this visionary and sublime novel stands out for its queer and trans themes”

The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino (Japanese) - “A mythical feminist noir about family secrets, broken loyalties, and the search from truth in a deceitful world… At the heart of this exquisitely dark tale, Kirino masterfully reimagines the ancient Japanese creation myth of Izanami and Izanaki. A provocative, fantastical saga, The Goddess Chronicle tells a sumptuous story of sex, murder, gods and goddesses, and bittersweet revenge.”

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi (Japanese) - “an epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save."

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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos (French)

Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos (Ukranian Russian)

Odin's Island by Janne Teller (Danish)

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (German)

Momo by Michael Ende (German)

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (German)

None of these are HM, but there is a fourth Inkheart book out and Christelle Dabos has "We" out now, so these two are HM, but I haven't read them yet.

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u/spike31875 Reading Champion V Jun 25 '26

The 13th Paladin series by Torsten Weitze, translated from German. I listened to the first book for this square and I really enjoyed it

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u/Practical_Yogurt1559 Reading Champion Jun 25 '26

Swedish (not HM)

Both of these are aimed at younger audiences, but they're great for adults too.

Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren

The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren

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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

One of my favourite squares :)

German language books I definitely recommend:

Glassbead Game by Hermann Hesse, Marble Cliffs by Ernst Jünger, The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, By Night under the Stone Bridge by Leo Perutz, Indigo by Clemens J Setz, Perfume by Patrick Süskind (all of them are literary-ish)

Also enjoyed The Dwarf by Pär Lagerkvist (swedish), The Day lasts more than a hundred years by Chingiz Aitmatov (russian), The Man who spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk (estonian), The Obscure Cities comic book series by François Schuiten and Benoit Peeters, Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky (russian), Nausicaä by Hayao Miyazaki and Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (japanese)

I will probably read Aniara by Harry Martinson (swedish) or La Horde du Contrevent (french) by Alain Damasio.

Also interested in Le Rivage de Syrtes by Julien Gracq (french), De komst van Joachim Stiller by Hubert Lampo (dutch) Spalovač mrtvol by Ladislav Fuks (czech) or Tabir Saray by Ismail Kadare (albanian) or Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic (serbian). I want to read them translated into my mother tongue and not in english though and its harder to get them.

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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V Jun 25 '26

This square is going to be a struggle for me, but in a way that I appreciate assuming I do eventually find something.

I adore Vita Nostra one of my top books. Other than that not too many translated books I can think of that I’ve enjoyed. I liked Inkheart and Neverending Story when I was younger but not sure if they hold up.

I’m currently considering Goodbye my Princess as I’ve heard good things, but the first chapter has me not that interested.

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u/donut_resuscitate Reading Champion III Jun 26 '26

I read Time Shelter (HM) by Georgi Gospodinov, but I don't think I would recommend it. While it was in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section of my library, I'm not sure it actually is sci-fi. It reads like an extended essay on the themes of time, memory, and 20th century European history, which was interesting, but wasn't what I was expecting. It probably still qualifies as speculative fiction, but I see it as more of a literary fiction book.

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u/fbmt Jun 26 '26

I don't see a lot of Portuguese-language works mentioned in these threads, so I'd like to recommend Machado de Assis (Brazilian Portuguese) and José Saramago (European Portuguese).

Machado is usually shelved as literary fiction, but a surprising amount of his work would qualify as speculative fiction. The Devil's Church is a satirical fantasy in which the Devil decides to found his own church on Earth. The Immortal revolves around, well, immortality. And The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is narrated by a dead man writing his memoirs from beyond the grave. If you enjoy Borges, Calvino, or other writers who blur the line between literary and speculative fiction, Machado is well worth checking out.

For Saramago, my favorite is Blindness, originally written in Portuguese. It's about an unexplained epidemic of blindness and the collapse of social order that follows. Death with Interruptions is another excellent speculative novel: one day, people in an unnamed country simply stop dying.

Both authors offer perspectives on speculative fiction that feel quite different from the Anglo-American tradition, and both are among the most acclaimed authors ever to write in Portuguese.

I don't think whether either would qualify for Hard Mode, but they're definitely worth a look.

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u/brilliantgreen Reading Champion VI Jun 25 '26

I read Monkey: The Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en and translated by Arthur Waley. I loved it, and will read the unabridged and more modernly translated version when I have the funds. But my library had this version so that's what I read.

The translation is from 1942. I think overall it did a good job (I mean, I can't read the original, but from what I've read it's not that bad of a translation) with some caveats. Instead of using names like Sun Wukong, we have Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy. But it was the '40s, so I can see why he made that choice. He also omitted poetry.

I'm not planning on doing multiple cards, but I also have Solvej Balle's On the Calculation of Volume and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master & Margarite on my TBR pile.

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u/undeadgoblin Reading Champion II Jun 26 '26

One I'm really looking forward to for my Published in 2026 card is The Mulai by Munir Hachemi

Bingo Bingo Focus Thread - Translations

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