On the 20th of May, the winner of the International Booker Prize will be announced, crowning the best piece of fiction translated into English in the last year. Introduced officially in 2016, with the first winner being Han Kang with the brilliant novel The Vegetarian, the ever growing influence of the International Booker Prize mirrors a current trend within UK reading habits which show ever increasing interest in translated fiction, where 1.9 million copies of translated fiction were sold in 2022, a 22% increase from 2022. However, this 1.9 million still only makes up 1.5% of all fiction sold, and the proportion of translated fiction published in the UK still remains very low. With this in mind, it is still very important to encourage people to keep on reading translated fiction, for two key reasons. Firstly, a lot of translated fiction is just so good. Secondly, and I do truly believe this, reading translated fiction makes you a more well-rounded person. I’ll explain, I promise.
Some of the best books I’ve ever read have been translated from other languages, and if we’re thinking about it logically, is this really a surprise? In the world, only around 7% of people are native English speakers. Roughly 20% of books are originally published in English. There are so many writers out there, writing in their native languages, which would probably blow most English writing out of the water. Take, for example, Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most famous writers from South America. When I first read his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, I was awestruck. Never had I read a more creative book, nor had I read such descriptive writing anywhere else. This clearly shows the importance in reading translated fiction; you will undeniably find some of your favourite books. To assume that the best books are ones written originally in English is completely false, and arguably, rather obtuse.
Now onto my second point, that reading translated fiction makes you a more well-rounded person. To illustrate this point, let me refer to one of my most recent reads, a book called Katalin Street, by Magda Szabo. Originally published in Hungarian in 1969, it was not until 2017 that this novel was translated into English. Depicting trauma, loss and grief during and following WW2, reading this book offered me a completely new perspective; that of WW2 from the perspective of a Hungarian family, written by someone where this had been a lived experience. Without reading this book, would I have had any knowledge on the experience of Jewish people in Hungary during the war, or the way in which families were ousted from their homes, and crammed into miniscule Soviet apartments? It’s not to say that I now understand the experience of Hungarians during the war, it’s that I now have an awareness. Reading this book allowed me to recognise part of the war which I had never even considered, never even heard of. Only through translated fiction would this have been possible.
With these points in mind, and the upcoming International Booker Prize approaching, I’d strongly encourage readers to have a look at the shortlist for the award. I guarantee that you’ll find books which are both extremely enjoyable, and also incredibly interesting, giving you a greater knowledge and appreciation for other parts of the world.