What about The War Within These Walls by Aline Sax and translated by Laura Watkinson. I have seen the play, but to my shame, not read the book! What about: Zeina Abirached’s A Game for Swallows, Satyajit Ray’s The Magic Moonlight Flower, Faten by Fatima Sharafeddine, Donkey Lady and Other Tales from the Arabian Gulf?Įmil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner was translated from German. I’ve read Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren who is Swedish and Kurt Gets Truckloads by Erlend Loe who is Norwegian.Īs far as translated books go I picked up a Baba Papa book in Paris which has great illustrations and is good for young readers my parents were nostalgic for the TV show that was on in the 1970s! The thirteen and a half lives of Captain Blue Bear gets my vote too. One of my favourite books when I was younger was Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and that was translated from German. It’s a great read and won the German Children’s Literature Prize. There were nine Tam Sventon books in all, but I think only three or four have been translated into English.Īnybody who likes Emil and the Detectives might like a book called The Pasta Detectives (or, if you’re in the US, it’s called The Spaghetti Detectives), which is about another little boy, Rico, running around modern-day Berlin looking for his friend Oscar, who’s been kidnapped. Sventon is a very quirky, cream-bun devouring, flying-carpet riding, private detective with an inconsistent lisp (he can’t pronounce his own name, which is Sam Svenson). Tam Sventon, Private Detective by Åke Holmberg. Amazing!Įrik Kastner’s The 35th of May, or Conrad’s Ride to the South Seas. They gripped myself, my husband and my two teenagers to the extent that we were fighting over who got to read the second part of the tale when it was published. Vango and Vango: Between Sky and Earth by Timothee de Flombelle are the most incredibly captivating romps I’ve ever read. Email us and tell us! Or you can Tweet us, Your recommendations:

So what are your favourites? We want to know! We want you to tell us which translated books you love and recommend to others. The first thing to say is that you might not even be aware that some of your favourite books, even some absolute classics, are actually translated fiction at all!įrom the Moomins to Pippi Longstocking to Tintin, all these books were written in another language and then translated into English, by hugely talented translators who bring their own ideas and poetry to the text – and sometimes even make the translated version better than the original.

We, Two Boys by Aline Sax