MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's that time of year when NPR issues its collection of our favorite books of the year. And every time we do, the number of translated books on the list reminds us that there's a whole world of literature out there. It can be daunting to pick just a few. But thankfully, Andrew Limbong is here to help with that. He's host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast, and he's here to talk us through some picks. Andrew, hello.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Hey, Michel.
MARTIN: So before we get into the meat of things, could you just remind us about how NPR's books team does year-end lists a little differently than other people do?
LIMBONG: Yeah, you know, it's that time of season where everyone comes down from on high saying, like, here's the 10 best books you've got to read from this year. We take a little different route. Every year, we make this tool called Books We Love, and it's a much broader roundup made from books our staff and critics loved. And this year, it's, I think, like, 350ish books.
MARTIN: Lots more than top 10.
LIMBONG: Yeah, lots more than top 10. The overall philosophy is that, like, there's definitely going to be a book on here for you that you love, that fits your tastes. And I know that 350 number sounds a little daunting, but there are ways to, like, narrow down and filter to find the books that you love.
MARTIN: And one of those filters is Tales From Around The World. That includes a lot of books that have been translated into English. So let's start from there. What's a translated book that you think listeners might want to know about?
LIMBONG: Yeah, I definitely want to shoutout Marjane Satrapi's book, "Woman, Life, Freedom." That was translated by Una Dimitrijevic. Satrapi, she wrote "Persepolis." It's a black-and-white graphic novel about a girl coming of age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. That book was a massive hit. You know, it became a movie. And, you know, this book, "Woman, Life, Freedom," depicts the feminist uprisings in Iran in 2022. And that was after a young girl was arrested by the morality police in Tehran for not wearing a headscarf properly, and she was, you know, beaten and killed. And for this graphic novel, Satrapi worked with a bunch of different artists and academics and activists to detail what these feminist protests and rallies were like. It's a really firsthand account of it. And ironically for what we're talking about - books in translation - it's a graphic novel and so kind of speaks to all languages and cultures using the images and art in the book.
MARTIN: What else have you got?
LIMBONG: All right. Speaking of protests, there's this book called the "Blue Lard" by Vladimir Sorokin. After it was first published in Russia in 1999, a group of Kremlin loyalists threw portions of the book into a giant toilet (laughter), claiming that the book was pornographic, in particular due to a sex scene between Nikita Khrushchev and Joseph Stalin.
MARTIN: Imagined - it was imagined 'cause it's a book.
LIMBONG: Yes, yes, yes. It was an imagined...
MARTIN: Right.
LIMBONG: Yes, yes. Now it's first published in English, translated by Max Lawton. And it's kind of a funny, postmodern book about Russian scientists cloning the country's greatest writers. And when these clones write, they create a substance that can power a hidden reactor (laughter). You know, like you said, it's imagined, right? And it is kind of a funny, goofy, postmodern sort of way of parodying the great Russian novelists.
MARTIN: And just as you reminded us, these books have all been recommended, either by NPR staff or book critics. Did you personally recommend anything?
LIMBONG: Yeah, I wrote about this book called "Mina's Matchbox" by Yoko Ogawa. It's translated by Stephen Snyder. The plot to this novel is pretty straightforward. It takes place in Japan in the 1970s. It follows a 12-year-old girl named Tomoko, who goes to live with her superrich aunt and uncle and forms a relationship with her cousin, Mina. I've been telling people that this book is kind of like a warm blanket of a novel because there's just something so cozy about how simple this story is, because it's just about these two preteen girls forming a close relationship with each other. But there's, like, a ton of, like, these weird little details about the superrich family that are just ever so slightly unsettling. And so it's cozy with just, like, shimmering uncomfortability to it, like a wool sweater or something.
MARTIN: Well, that sounds really interesting. That is NPR's Andrew Limbong talking about NPR's Books We Love. And in this segment, he's talking about books in translation. Andrew, thank you.
LIMBONG: Thanks, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ZMEYEV AND SCREEN JAZZMASTER'S "CLARITY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
