• Here’s my favorite translated novel that I’ve read in the past few years: When I Sing, Mountains Dance. —Mary Ardery
• I immediately knew my answer to your question because it had a lasting and profound effect on me. A translated book I would recommend is the emotionally-charged memoir, A Silenced Voice: The Life of Journalist Kim Wall by Ingrid & Joachim Wall. In the summer of 2017, 30-year-old Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall was murdered by her interview subject, an eccentric inventor, aboard his man-made submarine. My review of the book can be found here on Hippocampus Magazine. —Angela Eckhart
• I won’t pretend to have read many works of Russian literature in English, but those I have tried have been translated from the Russian by the husband/wife team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I first learned of them via a fascinating interview on CBC Radio in which they make clear just how creative an endeavour literary translation is. I also recall NOT reading a translation from French to English of a detective novel; the first one in the series captivated me, but the translator changed for subsequent books and just ruined the reading experience. Terrible. It was like bad writing with no heart. A good translator makes all the difference. —Amanda Le Rougetel
• My favorite work of translated literature is Dora Bruder, a non-fiction work by Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano, which Kirkus described (far better than I can) as “a hauntingly fetching book” that “weaves research, logical speculation, and emotive imagination around a Jewish girl who runs away from the convent school that is hiding her” in Vichy France. (British readers will find it under an alternate title, The Search Warrant.) —Jay Wigley
• The children’s book series Inkheart by Cornelia Funke is translated from German into English by Anthea Bell, I believe? Regardless, the prose is striking and poetic, often surprisingly complex for a children’s book. It’s a delectable meal for any book lover. Plus, Funke just released a fourth book in the series! It’s been over a decade since the third book came out! —Anna Hedges
• Rumi: Daylight, translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski. —Susan Hodge
• Still with Me by Thierry Cohen, translated from French, has never been far from my thoughts in the 15 years since I read it. A (TW) suicide at the beginning results in a dreamlike split reality, and to say more would require expressing my interpretation of a story which is magnificently left open to interpretation. —Dana Sweeney
• The Diana Burgin & Katherine Tiernan O’Connor translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is mindblowing. —Bob
• A translated work that I can’t recommend highly enough: A Line in the World ****by Danish author Dorthe Nors (translated by Caroline Waight). It’s a series of essays about her travels along the North Sea coast of Denmark from north to south, but so much more as she examines her childhood, family ties, her ties to the land and sea. So beautifully written, I can only imagine how wonderful it is in its native Danish. —Carol Bartold
• Translated work? Oh my GOD. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. From Penguin Random House: “…a coming-of-age tale of a young boy who, through the magic of a single book, finds a purpose greater than himself and a hero in a man he’s never met.” I can’t remember much of what happened in the book, but I can still feel the ache, the magic, the beauty. WOW. —Sue Granzella
• I highly recommend The Travelling Cat Chronicles, written by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel. Narrated in large part by the cat, the story unfolds in such a way that the reader suspects what’s happening before the cat figures it out. The climactic scene left me literally sobbing in a way no other book ever has. (Possible spoiler to cat lovers: fear not. This is not a feline Old Yeller.) —PJ Burgh
• I recently read On the Calculation of Volume (Book 1) by Solvej Balle, and truly loved the unique style. It wasn’t just that it was translated (by Barbara J. Haveland) from Danish, but also the cadence, style, and perspective of the book were unique to anything I had read before. I hope all 7 eventually get translated into English! —Jessica Feder
• For my favorite translation, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum and translated by Shanna Tan was absolutely delightful. A woman in South Korea decides she’s burnt out and fed up with her life so she opens a bookshop. It doesn’t minimize the struggle of opening a new business, but it has some interesting meditations on work and rest and the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical cost of capitalism. —Alison Ver Halen
• I really loved Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan, translated by Helen Wang (from Chinese). Lyrical, poignant, and so differently-paced than an American English work. This is a novel for children, but has enough resonance that adults may enjoy it, too. My colleague really enjoyed Dragonfly Eyes (same author and translator). —Betsy Farquhar
• The mystery series by Swedish author Viveca Sten is probably my favorite translated work (Sandhamn Murders series). Ms. Sten artfully blends sleuthing, the main character’s private life, and the landscape of the Stockholm Archipelago. British translator Marlaine Delargy is a master of her art, making the books very readable in English. —Susan Stonitsch
• There’s so many I'd love to suggest! If it’s a heartwarming story you want, then I highly recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. The translation is exquisite and makes you feel like you are sitting in the cafe with the characters. It’s the first of a series but I would caution against reading all of it back to back—like coffee, it’s best taken in moderation. —Patricia P
• A translated work I loved was Independent People by Halldór Laxness (Sjálfstætt fólk in the original Icelandic). Laxness won the Nobel Prize in Literature, in large part due to this novel, which is heavily ironic from the title onwards, subtly exquisite, and paints a love/hate portrait of a unique, stubborn people. I both despised and somewhat admired the protagonist, who was beautifully drawn. —Stephanie Ricker
• I realize I am probably too late for your poll about novels translated into English, but I can't resist putting in for Perfume (Das Parfum: Die Geschichte eines Mörders) by Patrick Süskind, a literary historical murder mystery from 1985. I rarely reread novels, but I've read this one multiple times. The movie was very well done too. —Brenda Winter Hansen