Best books of 2016: Fiction in translation

The Parable Book, by Per Olov Enquist, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner, MacLehose Press, RRP£17.99

In this autobiographical tale of longing and loss, an ageing author recalls his encounter, aged 15, with a 51-year-old woman from Stockholm visiting his remote northern village. A poignant meditation on the layering of memory and the persistence of desire.

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Human Acts, by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith, Portobello, RRP£12.99/Hogarth, RRP$22 (Jan 2017)

In Human Acts, the author, winner of 2016’s International Man Booker Prize for her earlier novel, The Vegetarian, examines the long shadow cast over South Korea by the 1980 Gwangju uprising, and the military government’s brutal response. “There is no way back to the world before the torture,” says a character in this harrowing account of survival and shame.

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No Knives in the Kitchens of this City, by Khaled Khalifa, translated by Leri Price, The American University in Cairo Press RRP£9.99/$16.95

The now tragically ravaged city of Aleppo is at the centre of this story chronicling a family through decades of conflict and tyranny. “Cities die just like people,” writes Khalifa, one of Syria’s most celebrated novelists, screenwriters and poets.

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Man Tiger: A Novel, by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Labodalih Sembiring, Verso, RRP£9.99/$18.95

Man Tiger, winner of this year’s Financial Times/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Award for Fiction, is a savage critique of violence against Indonesia’s women. Set in a fictitious coastal township, it tells the story of Margio, “a child of domestic rape”, who believes himself possessed by a tiger.

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Judas, by Amos Oz, translated by Nicholas de Lange, Chatto & Windus, RRP£18.99/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, RRP$25

The first novel in more than a decade by the Israeli author re-examines the story of the vilified apostle, Judas Iscariot, as a counterpoint to a powerful tale of desire, betrayal and unrequited love set in the 1950s, at the dawn of the Israeli state.

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The Evenings, by Gerard Reve, translated by Sam Garrett, Pushkin Press, RRP£12.99

Almost 70 years after it was first published, and 10 years after its author’s death, a Dutch classic finally appears in English. It follows 23-year-old Frits, a bored office worker trying to fill the emptiness of life with mind-numbing routine.

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Fish Have No Feet: A Family History, by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton, MacLehose Press, RRP£14.99

In this powerful family saga spanning three generations, Ari, a divorced poet-turned-publisher, returns to the fishing town of his youth to visit his sick father. A lyrical novel set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Iceland.

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Reputations, by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean, Bloomsbury, RRP£14.99/Riverhead, RRP$25

In the latest offering by the Colombian author of The Sounds of Things Falling, a celebrated political cartoonist is forced to confront an episode from his past — one that is likely not only to ruin his reputation but also to leave his own sense of righteousness in tatters.

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I’ll Sell You a Dog, by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated by Rosalind Harvey, And Other Stories, RRP£10/$25.95

In a rundown old people’s home in Mexico City, a retired taco salesman, failed painter and wannabe philosopher called Teo recounts his life and sets out to seduce his neighbours — Francesca, who leads the local reading group, and Juliette, a greengrocer with revolutionary aspirations. A triumph of quirky humour and social observation.