translated by Matt Treyvaud original publication (in Japanese): 2002 first English edition: 2018, Haikasoru 352 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library **spoilers** “What does it mean to remember? What is a memory?” (79). Thus opens Chapter 3 of Tobi Hirotaka’s sf-horror novel The Thousand Year Beach (skillfully translated
translated by Kathleen Taji original publication (in Japanese): 1999 first English edition: 2012, Kurodahan Press 344 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Crystal Silence is one of the many excellent works of Japanese sf in translation published by the now-sadly-shuttered Kurodahan Press. Sprawling, technically detailed, and ambitious, Fujisaki
“Giant Grandmother” by Liu Maijia, translated from the Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks (Clarkesworld, October 1) Black Hole Heart and Other Stories by K. A. Teryna, translated from the Russian by Alex Shvartsman (Fairwood Press, October 1) The world is not how we perceive it. A blizzard may be the fury of a whale god. Intelligent
On LitHub, translator Yuki Tejima talks about translating Mizuki Tsujimura’s Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon (Scribner) into English.
Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan, translated from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood (S&S/Summit Books, September 2) Welcome to the Japan of tomorrow. Here, the practice of radical sympathy toward criminals has become normalized. The incarcerated are considered victims influenced by their environments to commit crime and are labeled accordingly as Homo miserabilis. A grand,
My series on SF in Translation of the early 1960s can be found on the Seattle Worldcon 2025 website. Posts so far include: Fantastic Fiction: Kōbō Abe and Post-War Japanese SFT Fantastic Fiction: Perry Rhodan Fantastic Fiction: Nathalie Henneberg’s Forays into the Strange Fantastic Fiction: SF in Central/Eastern Europe Fantastic Fiction: Stanisław Lem, 1961 Fantastic
The Bewitched Bourgeois: Fifty Stories by Dino Buzzati, translated from the Italian by Lawrence Venuti (NYRB, January 7). In The Bewitched Bourgeois, Lawrence Venuti has put together an anthology that showcases Buzzati’s short fiction from his earliest stories to the ones he wrote in the last months of his life. Some appear in English for
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, translated from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood (Ballantine, August 20) In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just
Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary (Scribner, July 2) In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out
“The Rambler” by Shen Dacheng, translated from the Chinese by Cara Healey (Clarkesworld, April 1) The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain (Restless Books, April 30) A perilous and fantastical satire of banned books, secret libraries, and the looming eye of an all-powerful government. Oracle
