Translated Fiction Staff Picks (9/29/26)

September is National Translation Month, so we’re sharing some of our most anticipated translated titles to celebrate!

AMANDA’S PICK: THE BLACK CATS BOOKSHOP BY PIERGIORGIO PULIXI; TRANSLATED BY ANTONY SHUGAAR

This cozy mystery is an international bestseller set in a bookstore filled with crime novels, cats, amateur detectives, and a very grumpy bookseller. The Black Cats Bookshop in Southern Italy has everything a crime fiction lover could dream of: shelves stacked with Christie, Penny, Osman, and King, and a book club full of amateur detectives who once solved a real-life cold case.  With a new terrifying masked killer on the loose, the police will turn to them to help solve the case. This book has sold over 100,000 copies in Italy and France alone, and readers love its inventiveness, clever humor, and unique setting. This new series will be perfect for readers who adore the smell of old books, the soft fur of a cat, and armchair adventuring.

EMILY’S PICK: THE READER ON THE 6.27 BY JEAN-PAUL DIDIERLAURENT; TRANSLATED BY ROS SCHWARTZ

The beloved French bestseller is now translated into the English language! Guylain Vignolles works a job that he hates at the local book pulping plant. As he grows tired of the monotony of his life, his only pleasure each day is his ride on the daily 6.27 train, where he reads aloud different material every day. When he discovers the journal of a woman named Julie, he begins reading, and finds himself falling in love with both her and her words. With elements of Frederik Backman’s A MAN CALLED OVE, Robin Sloan’s MR. PENUMBRA’S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE, and Amélie, this is a warm, funny story about the redemptive power of books, extraordinary love, and literature’s ability to uplift and expand your mind and your heart.

MARGO’S PICK: THE HORSE AND I BY GENKI KAWAMURA; TRANSLATED BY CHIKAKO KOBAYASHI 

If you enjoyed the internationally loved story IF CATS DISAPPEARED FROM THE WORLD, you have to pick up Genki Kawamura’s upcoming title, THE HORSE AND I, translated by Chikako Kobayashi! It follows Yuko, a lonely shipyard clerk who has a fateful encounter with Strada, an escaped racehorse. Yuko follows him to a struggling riding club and instantly bonds with him, and she soon becomes determined to make him a champion. But doing so requires money that Yuko doesn’t have, and desperate measures lead to her embezzling funds from the shipyard union’s coffers. When someone discovers her secret, Yuko must decide: turn herself in, or commit to Strada at any cost.

HALLIE’S PICK: PAN BY FRANCESCO DIMITRI; TRANSLATED BY SOPHIA MCDOUGALL

For National Translation Month, I would like to highlight the incredible, modern classic Italian award winning book PAN written by Francesco Dimitri and translated by Sophia McDougall. Set in modern-day Rome, this dark retelling of Peter Pan follows a hidden war between returning deities and sky-bound children clashing with pirates as magic reawakens. Oblivious to the ancient and new gods fighting for total dominance, the city braces for the brutal arrival of Pan, a transgressive god coming for them all. Think WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth meets THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden.