2022 New Releases
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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International Booker Prize
17 min read
The article mentions Olga Ravn's 'The Employees' being shortlisted for the Booker International prize. Understanding the history and significance of this prestigious award for translated fiction would enrich appreciation for the literary landscape discussed.
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The Troubles
16 min read
The article mentions 'Thin Places' by Kerri ní Dochartaigh as memoir and nature writing 'set during the Troubles in Ireland.' Understanding this decades-long ethno-nationalist conflict provides essential historical context for appreciating the book's themes.
I thought I might list some of the 2022 books I’m most interested in, in case you find them interesting too. I did a round-up at Book Riot on books in translation coming out in 2022, and some of those books appear here, but this list is broader in scope and includes anything that has caught my eye. The books are listed in chronological order by release date and only go through June. A lot of books coming out in the fall haven’t been announced, or at least I haven’t found them yet. Perhaps I’ll return in June with a list for fall.
Will I actually read all these books? Probably not. Okay, definitely not. But I like having a pool of new books to choose from as I go through the year, and then I can pick up what looks good based on whim. As of yet, I haven’t read any of these. Quotations below are from the publisher.
The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitkin (New Directions, February 1): I remember hearing lots of chatter about how good this is when it was shortlisted for the Booker International prize last year: “The Employees reshuffles a sci-fi voyage into a riotously original existential nightmare.”
Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated by Sarah Booker (Coffee House Press, February 8): Coffee House is such a fantastic press — I will check out everything they publish. This one looks like it’s horror: “Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise?”
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso (Hogarth, February 8th): Manguso is one of my favorite nonfiction writers, so of course I’m very curious to see what her fiction will be like. It’s an “ungilded portrait of girlhood at the crossroads of history and social class as well as a vital confrontation with an all-American whiteness.”
Woman Running in the Mountains by Yuko Tsushima, translated by Geraldine Harcourt (NYRB, February 22): I read Tsushima’s novel Territory of Light last year and loved it. This was originally published in 1980. It tells the story of a young, single mother in Tokyo.
the déjà vu: black dreams and black time by Gabrielle Civil (Coffee House Press, February 22): This is
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