Unabridged: Unabridged: Reading Translated Literature with Martha Adams
On today’s bonus episode, I’m talking all things translated lit with Martha Adams, the author of Martha’s Monthly, a Substack that highlights translated lit. We chat about how Martha began reading books in translation, why she loves them, and how they differ from English-language works. Plus, she shares her top recommendations for those looking to read more translated fiction, and the publishers she thinks release the best ones.
TRANSCRIPT
Traci Thomas 0:00
Hey everybody, it's me, Traci Thomas, host of the Stacks, and I am here with another episode of the Stacks Unabridged. That is our exclusive bonus podcast episode that we drop every single month for paid subscribers on the Patreon and the Substack. This month, I am talking to one of my absolute favorite readers. Her name is Martha Adams, and she is the reader behind Martha Monthly, which is a Substack that focuses on translated literature. This month is Women in Translation Month, so I thought it was a perfect time to bring Martha on the show to talk about why she reads translated literature, how she finds the books, how you can find the books, and of course, give us some recommendations of her favorite books in translation. All right, now it is time for my conversation with Martha Adams about all things translated literature. All right, everybody, I am so excited for today's bonus episode. We're doing something that I am quite frankly not an expert in. So I brought in an expert. September-it's not September. It's actually August. August is Women in Translation Month. Women Literature in Translation. I don't know. It's about women's books that aren't written in English first. And I have brought in my absolute go-to person, my favorite person to talk about translated lit on the internet, that is Martha Adams. She has a Substack called Martha Monthly. Martha, welcome to the stacks.
Martha Adams 1:30
Hello, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Traci Thomas 1:33
I'm so excited. I love your stuff. Every time anyone asks about books and translation, I always am like, well, I definitely don't know. But do you know about Martha on Substack? And I have sent so many people your way because you've got great taste. So I want to start with just like, how did you get? So you're in the UK.
Martha Adams 1:54
Yes.
Traci Thomas 1:56
Where are you exactly?
Martha Adams 1:57
Like an hour outside of London. I live in Surrey.
Traci Thomas 2:00
How did you get into reading translated literature? When did this start for you?
Martha Adams 2:05
It started when I got really, really sick. I got diagnosed with a chronic illness about five years ago, and I was bed bound for three of those years. And you can't do anything when you're stuck in bed. And I'd always been a reader, so I kept reading, and I think it was because I was stuck in bed. It was the only thing I could do. So then you end up, you know, researching a bit more. What are the best books? Like it was all I had for entertainment. I think the first translated book I read was by Mirakami, who can't say I'm a fan of now, but he's I think a lot of people's like first touchstone of translation. and I remember being really obsessed with like how the book had allowed me to travel so far away from my like situation. I know every book can do that, but there's something different about books in translation. I think their ability to like transport you to other places, and I got kind of hooked from there. And then I started reading and following Charco Press, and then got really into translated literature. And it sort of became a cult following for me from there. And I've like accidentally carved out a space online where people think I'm the expert of translated literature, which is not the case. But I just do read a lot of it, a lot of it.
Traci Thomas 3:21
You're not an expert, but you're just like reading the most of it. So I feel like you have at least in the people that I know. So for me, it's like, oh, I if I'm curious about a book, like I if I it's on my radar. Like Martha's probably read it, so I can at least go see, yeah, like what you think. And you and I have really different taste, but it's more just like a person who can sort of like vouch for something,
Martha Adams 3:45
we share a love of being completely honest about what we think about books, and that's where we yeah you and I
Traci Thomas 3:52
yeah that's where we overlap. I know I feel like there's we both loved Hunchback.
Martha Adams 3:56
Yes, I interviewed the author as well, which is really interesting.
Traci Thomas 3:59
Oh yeah? How does that work? Was it with her?
Martha Adams 4:03
Yeah, no, I wrote questions, and then the translator translated them into Japanese. Sal could answer them, and then they got translated back into English, and then sent back to us.
Traci Thomas 4:11
Wait, I think I read that.
Martha Adams 4:13
Yeah, probably it was on Pandora Sykes's newsletter. It was in the beginning of 2025.
Traci Thomas 4:19
Yeah, I think I did read that? I think I did read that. I loved that book. Did you read Sad Tiger? Do you ever read nonfiction and translation?
Martha Adams 4:27
I do read nonfiction and translation sometimes, but it's just a little bit harder to get your hands on for reasons that I can't quite, I don't quite understand. But I did love Sad Tiger. It was one of my favorite books last year.
Traci Thomas 4:38
So was a butt of mine too, and so was Hunchback. Those both, I think, made my top 10 last year. If Sad Tiger didn't make my top 10, it was like 12. Do you know what I mean? Like it was right there. I can't even remember. I think it made my top 10 of 2025. Yeah, but I don't know if it made my top 10 of all the things I read in the year. That I can't remember. But those were both were two of my apps. Favorite books last year. Why did you love
Martha Adams 5:02
them so much?
Traci Thomas 5:03
Well, you know, I love like a very messy protagonist. So for Hunchback, I just like the moral quandaries in that book. I just really loved. I know for a lot of people, it's like the disability representation not so interesting to me. I was really interested in the like sex for money, you know, and like the power and like all of that stuff. I was like, this is really dark, and it was weird, and not weird in a way that felt like
Martha Adams 5:35
familia.
Traci Thomas 5:35
It didn't feel like weird for weird sake. It felt correct, like that that person who is sort of like, you know, her mind is going a million miles a minute, but her body is not. To like have all of these thoughts and like ideas that were just all over the place. I was like, this feels like a grounded weirdness, if that makes sense.
Martha Adams 5:59
Yeah.
Traci Thomas 6:00
So I think I liked all of that, and then Sad Tiger is just that's like my bread and butter, you know, like a really dark memoir about something absolutely awful happening, but really like well written and sort of thinking about like not just things that happen, but like why we tell these stories and how we tell these stories. So like I don't know if you read the Yi and Lee last year. Things make your merely grow. They're very similar. Okay. And that one was about, I mean, similar in like they're similar in how they sort of approach writing about difficult topics. But the Yi and Lee is about her son who killed himself like six years after her older son killed himself, and it's like obviously about grief, but it was also about sort of like the performance of grief and like deciding to write about this and how have other people like told the story of grief, and so I sort of felt like those books were similar.
Martha Adams 6:59
Yeah
Traci Thomas 6:59
Anyways, this isn't about me. Why did you like them?
Martha Adams 7:02
Yeah, I liked Hunchback for the disability exploration. I liked the fact that she was a disabled protagonist who was like a bit morally corrupt. I think a lot of times disabled protagonists have to be like completely morally pure, and people write them that way. So I liked that, and just how outrageous it was. Like every time you turn the page, and she'd written something more outlandish than before, and you're just like, "This book's only 100 pages. Like, how? Where are we going? Like, where's it going to end? Yeah, yeah. So I just liked how much it just made me gasp. And then sad tiger, I just thought it was so beautiful and sad. I loved how she wrote about it. I loved how she wrote about everything that happened to her, like in context, the world we live in and society, and like how people treated her for her experience, I just thought it was unbelievable. Really makes you think about like the world that we live in and how people handle certain information and like how they interpret it and what it makes people think about people. That's like a really bad explanation, but I think you understand what I mean. You're nodding, yeah.
Traci Thomas 8:04
I do. I also feel like that was one of those books that was like, oh, everyone could be brave. Like anyone can be do like a brave thing, right? Because like she like does this brave thing of allowing this trial to be public, or whatever, or like taking it to trial.
Martha Adams 8:22
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 8:23
and I was like, sure. Did you also? Did you read? This is like a much more front listy. It's in translation, but it doesn't feel as like niche. But the Giselle Pelico book,
Martha Adams 8:35
I didn't. But it was the same translator as Sad Tiger.
Traci Thomas 8:38
Yeah, and so that was part of the reason I decided to read it.
Martha Adams 8:41
She translated a book before Sad Tiger that was again about sexual assault to some degree
Traci Thomas 8:46
Called consent I think. I haven't read that one.
Martha Adams 8:49
No, me neither. But I think it's fascinating. She's translated three books in such similar subject and tone.
Traci Thomas 8:57
Do you have any idea how people find their translator. Like, is it like, oh, I have a book about like sexual assault. I gotta go find.
Martha Adams 9:08
Well, maybe for that that woman who does it, she wanted Natasha Lehrer because she'd handled the topic so many times. So maybe Giselle Picolo or like her publishers trusted her.
Traci Thomas 9:19
Yeah
Martha Adams 9:19
But I think in other times it can. It's like a variety of different things. Like a lot of translators submit samples of translations to publishing houses, and I think like that is a way they get picked up. But a lot of publishing houses also have translators they just really love, and they keep coming back to. So I think a lot of it is like built on, especially for independent presses, it's like built on relationships.
Traci Thomas 9:42
Right.
Martha Adams 9:43
I interviewed Richard Village literally last week, who's the founder of Foundry Editions, and he himself speaks four languages, so he doesn't need the submissions. He like from translators, he can just read it himself and then pick. But they always talk about the fact that they want to build like a family of translators. So I. I think you often see with independent presses like the same translator will come up multiple times in them because they obviously build trust. So, but that's the extent of my knowledge.
Traci Thomas 10:11
I'd have to imagine also like it really depends on the language because there's probably a lot of people who can do like Spanish or French, but then if you start getting into other languages; it probably gets harder.
Martha Adams 10:24
Yeah, I think it is the case, and I think it also just depends on what kind of writer you are. Like, not to reference this interview again-that's not out yet-but Richard, I read he said that you know I translate some stuff for the house, but other times, like I know when to step back, and I said to him, like, "What does that mean? Like, when you read a book in Spanish and you know you can translate it, like, why do you choose not to? And he was like, "Because some people's translation style and their writing is just way better. Like, they're a better writer. It's not about the fact that you can just read and like relay the exact text. It's about like becoming a writer, like putting the emotion in it, you know, carrying the story, and that's a different skill entirely, isn't it? Yeah.
Traci Thomas 11:05
Did you did you read the book that I was obsessed with this year? If this be magic about translating Shakespeare? Have you read it?
Martha Adams 11:12
No.
Traci Thomas 11:13
You have to read it. It's written in English. Okay, but it's it's written by this guy Daniel Hahn and it's all, and he's a translator, so yeah, translate from Portuguese and also sometimes Spanish. But he's like been a Booker judge for the like international, like he's like a I guess a known translator, and also British, and he also did a bonus episode with me, and it was great. But the book is all about the different decisions that translators make when they're translating. In this case, Shakespeare. And the book-it's so long. First of all, the book-I was like, "Oh, I'm going to read this. I love Shakespeare. It's going to be like a quick. It's like a 450-page book. I'm like, "How is this possible? But every chapter is like a different thing, and he talks about how you know, like sometimes when he's translating, he's translated the color red to be the color blue because blue in another language means something different than like red does. And so, to get the actual point across, you just have to be like the door was blue because it needs a blue vibe, or whatever, or like you know, in English, blue has a play on words, so you can like you know, it's like the blues or what, like so. What I just thought it was so interesting, and the whole book is like that. It's like iambic pentameter. What do you do with that? And French, they translate Shakespeare into Alexandrines, which are like six six feet instead of the five feet in iambic, like so. Like all of these little things, it's fascinating. So I feel like you'd appreciate.
Martha Adams 12:48
They're like magicians. Like it's it's crazy.
Traci Thomas 12:50
Yes,
Martha Adams 12:51
and it's so interesting to learn about what they choose to remove and like what they keep in. Like we just did Taiwan Travelodge for the book club. Have you read it?
Traci Thomas 12:59
No. Okay,
Martha Adams 13:00
I don't know if you'd like it. I actually didn't. I was very impressed with the book in all of the things that it did, and I can see why it won. But I didn't like the act of reading it, which means I didn't like it. Okay, but I listened to an interview with the translator who was talking about the fact that railroads and like public train transport was a huge part of the book because it had just come in in Taiwan in 1938, which is when the book is based. But when they did the English translation, they decided to ax all of it because they were like, "Oh, the Americans like they're not into as trains and public transport as like us in Asia or in Europe. So like they won't get the train references, or like it's not really big. Like they won't feel moved by it. So they removed all of the like scope about the trains in detail
Traci Thomas 13:42
But what about what about English readers not in America?
Martha Adams 13:47
I know because then I thought like that's fascinating because obviously the the U.S. publishing of the translation came first before the British, and obviously they've used Linking's translation for the U.S. and the U.K. audience because it's it is English. But yeah
Traci Thomas 13:59
Is the U.K. edition out yet?
Martha Adams 14:02
Yeah, it came out last year.
Traci Thomas 14:04
And did it have the train stuff?
Martha Adams 14:05
No, it's the same translation.
Traci Thomas 14:07
Oh, it's the same one. They didn't. They okay. I see. I see. I see. Wow.
Martha Adams 14:10
But when I heard that interview, I was like, "That's crazy. I would have loved the train details about the train. I think it would have been interesting context, and it was just fascinating to learn that they made the decision, her and a publisher in the U.S. to cut it because they didn't think it would land well, which is,
Traci Thomas 14:25
huh?
Martha Adams 14:26
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 14:27
and then it won here, so obviously it went well
Martha Adams 14:30
It won the International Booker here too. So
Traci Thomas 14:33
oh, it did. That's right. Yeah, it won the Booker and the and the National Book Award.
Martha Adams 14:36
I know. Yeah, yeah.
Traci Thomas 14:38
Interesting. How often does that happen? I wonder.
Martha Adams 14:40
I don't. Yeah, it's a very impressive book. It's all like smoke and mirrors-a book within a book within a book, about like what is translation and everything is very. All of the messaging of the novel is very like subliminal and hidden. I can understand for like the judges if you read it like five six times, you take something different from it every time.
Traci Thomas 14:59
Hold up til we read it over here. I think it's interesting what you said about like feeling transported by translated literature. Why do you think it feels more transportive for you?
Martha Adams 15:14
I think it probably comes to the emotion originally of me being stuck in bed and like wanting to travel. Well, just wanting to be a part of the world and not being able to, so then feeling extra hungry for exposure and like you miss being in the world and you miss people, and I felt that very acutely. So I think it comes from that, and I also find often that non-translated books of perspective is like quite familiar. You can be quite familiar with like, especially a British writer, for example, or you with an American writer. Like I know America is exponentially bigger than the UK, but you feel you understand maybe where perspective's going, or you understand their point of view a bit more. And then when you read translated literature, it just it's like a point of view or a way of thinking in a part of the world that you've just never thought of, and I find that quite addictive and also beautiful because I think it reminds us about how similar we all are. Like, there's a lot of division in the world, and I think when you read translated literature, obviously we are all very different, but also we're all people, and the same things happen to all of us in like you know in different fonts, like everybody falls in love, and then people die, and horrible things happen, and like all of those things, our experiences of them are like pretty similar. And then you just get to read about perspectives from all different continents of how people like interpret or perceive those things. And yeah, I really love it, and I love learning. I love the world, and I love learning about things. Like I did history at university, so love to read
Traci Thomas 16:43
But you don't read nonfiction.
Martha Adams 16:44
No, I love a bit of nonfiction here and there, but not nothing like you.
Traci Thomas 16:49
Not really,
Martha Adams 16:50
no,
Traci Thomas 16:51
Martha. It doesn't make sense. You love history. You love learning. Come over to the dark side.
Martha Adams 16:57
I think sometimes there's a clash between my love translated and nonfiction because I find they don't overlap very much.
Traci Thomas 17:03
They don't. What's that about?
Martha Adams 17:05
I don't. I don't know. I do have. I'm literally looking at it here. I do have a nonfiction that's translated that I want to read this month. Woman in Translation. It's called The Village on the Edge of the Edge of the World. It's about Romania.
Traci Thomas 17:18
Oh, yeah. Interesting. I know I've read just a little teeny tiny bit of nonfiction in translation, the Nej Sino and the Giselle Pelico I read, and then like Marie Kondo I read, and that's in translation. Like the Art of Tidying Up, it is in translation. And then there's that book. God, I wish I could remember the name. I can see the cover so clearly. It's by a man, so maybe I shouldn't talk about it, but I think it won the National Book Award a few years ago, and it's like about like nuclear science, maybe, and it's like Benjamin Lebato or something like that.
Martha Adams 17:51
Yeah, when we cease to understand the world.
Traci Thomas 17:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think that's sort of like nonfictiony, right?
Martha Adams 17:56
I mean, it's that's like
Traci Thomas 17:57
it's like it's like oh, is it fiction?
Martha Adams 17:59
I think it's fiction. I've never read it. I do.
Traci Thomas 18:01
Oh,
Martha Adams 18:01
I do have it up. But I think it's like fiction is disguised as nonfiction
Traci Thomas 18:06
I thought it was the opposite. I thought it was nonfiction that was sort of had. No, I don't know. That was like, but I just feel like there's not a ton. There's some. Oh, and you know who's like famous? Lacare. Lacarre. This is. I'm an expert. Emmanuel Carrer. That's what I'm thinking of. Emmanuel Carrère. He's French. He wrote like version 13 or something. It's like about the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and he's like their big nonfiction Frenchy journalisty guy. Okay, and so all his stuff is is in translation. But again, he's a man. He's not a woman in translation. Is there a lot less women in translation? Is that why we have this month?
Martha Adams 18:45
This month was started in 2014 by a reader whose name has currently eclipsed my memory, but she started it to highlight the gender gap in translation. I think there used to be a pretty big one. I think 38% of translated books are are translated or written by women, so it's still a very male-dominated field. And so, yeah, the month's been around for 12 years now, and it just grows every year, which is very fascinating to watch. And I think it's also a credit to girls like Dua Lipa who are making reading and translation cool, and people think it's great.
Traci Thomas 19:19
She does a lot of translation, translated lit.
Martha Adams 19:21
Yeah, she does. She's putting in a lot of work for making translation.
Traci Thomas 19:25
She's got good taste. I got to be honest. She's got really good taste.
Martha Adams 19:28
I was really skeptical when it all first started because you know celebrity book clubs are not good.
Traci Thomas 19:34
They're usually so bad, and like hers is so like even if the books aren't great, it's just different. It's weird. Like she has like a big reader energy, you know. Like it doesn't feel like she's doing it to option. Yeah, and you know Reese is just doing it to make a TV show.
Martha Adams 19:53
You know that she's picking the books. You can tell, especially when you watch her interviews when she does with the author. Like I watched her small boat. After reading Small Boat, did you like that boat?
Traci Thomas 20:02
I haven't read Small Boat. No, I keep getting wait. No, I have. I keep getting Small Boat and One Boat confused. Oh yeah. I just interviewed an author, and he was like, "Oh, I loved One Boat. I was like, "Oh, I read that. And then he was like, "I was like, I think there was a different one though. And he was like, "No. And then he was like, "Have you read Small Boat?" I was like, "I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. I did read that with the yellow boat on the cover, and I was mixed on that. I was mixed on small boat. That's the one. It's about what's his name, Delacor.
Martha Adams 20:29
Yeah Vincent Delecroix.
Martha Adams 20:30
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 20:31
and he's writing about a real life incident where a boat with migrants is like in the channel. I think that's what they call it.
Martha Adams 20:43
Yes, that's what we call it
Traci Thomas 20:44
between France and England, and the and they're calling the French dispatchers, and the French dispatchers are like, "Sorry, call England, and it's like a sort of like a almost, you know, where where are they? Who should have sent help? And nobody sent help, so they all drown, or almost all of them drown, and he writes from all these different perspectives. And I thought the book was like an ambitious, interesting project, but it was basically just him doing philosophy, which I was sort of like, okay, like I just didn't like. I almost was like, just write the essay, you know, like just tell us what you think? Because I felt like he sort of was just like going between the perspectives. I'm like, I don't know. It felt like a project and not like a book to me.
Martha Adams 21:29
So you're not a big fan of philosophy. Yeah, I did like it.
Traci Thomas 21:32
I do, but I prefer like nonfiction. I want you to like make the argument to me why this is morally bankrupt or why not. And it felt I felt that the author in this case had a had clear feelings about this issue, and he was sort of masquerading them in fiction.
Martha Adams 21:50
Fair enough.
Traci Thomas 21:51
As opposed to like in Hunchback, I maybe felt like the morality was was the thing that was interesting, and that the author was maybe grappling with some of that more. And in this book, I felt like the author already sort of knew what he thought about it. If that makes sense,
Martha Adams 22:11
yeah, that makes sense. I think the book was him trying to speak to people who didn't agree with maybe how what he thought, always trying to reach people who maybe just hadn't even remotely thought about it in that way. I think it was veiled like that. Yeah.
Traci Thomas 22:28
Why are so many books in translation so short? Is everyone else just not doing the shit that we're doing over here? Because I feel like in in America they're forcing everyone to write a 400 page book, and I think everything I read in translation is like it's like under 200. It's tight.
Martha Adams 22:45
It is apart from good old Carl. He's his books are enormous, but other than that, yeah, they are so short. I actually don't know why, and I haven't ever asked someone what the reason is.
Traci Thomas 22:57
Do the publishers there not care? Because I feel like here they care. They're like me to give us 60,000 words or whatever.
Martha Adams 23:05
Yeah, I think I've read enough like commentary on U.S. publishing that makes me think that novellas aren't a big thing in US publishing, and I think they're really they're really big in the UK and in Europe. I think like yeah, we love a short book.
Traci Thomas 23:21
I like it.
Martha Adams 23:22
Yeah, it means you can just like.
Traci Thomas 23:24
I feel like I'll give anything a chance. Yeah, I'll give you a chance if it's 150 pages.
Martha Adams 23:29
Way easier to give a chance. Yeah.
Traci Thomas 23:32
Oh, I wait. I read another book in translation this year that's nonfiction. I hated it. Capitalism is sexism, and it was translated by someone named Erica Moore, and I think she's maybe like a 30-something. She's from the Netherlands, so I guess it's translated from the Dutch.
Martha Adams 23:49
Okay,
Traci Thomas 23:50
I hated it, but I did. That is nonfiction that I read in translation. I do try if nonfiction in translation comes across my like desk, I do try to check it out.
Martha Adams 23:59
Have you ever read This Is Not Miami?
Traci Thomas 24:02
No.
Martha Adams 24:03
Maybe you would like that because it's like a collection of like essays that read like nonfiction. It's like nonfiction and fiction hybrid. It's really really good, and it's all about. Oh my god, my memory! I read it four years ago. It's about somewhere in South America, I could pull it off my shelf and actually give you.
Traci Thomas 24:25
Well, we'll link to everything in the show. So, people, if you're interested in this book, that's really good, but we don't know anything about it. We'll link to it.
Martha Adams 24:33
I know stuff about it. I just my brain. I want to do it justice, and I can't do it right now.
Traci Thomas 24:37
It's okay. Do you feel like this is also again. I think I'm so limited in the translated literature that even comes across my mind because I just don't read a ton of it. I know bad, bad me. I just feel like so many translated books are weird. Is that true? Like there, I just feel like books that are coming from other countries and other places. They're not giving, sort of like what I'm getting here in the fiction space. Like I've never read a book in translation and been like, sure. I'm always like, I don't know, that was nuts.
Martha Adams 25:13
Yeah, I think the most nuts books I have ever read have been translated. Like truly bananas.
Traci Thomas 25:18
What's that about?
Martha Adams 25:19
I think it must be like cultural. It must be cultural differences, and like there are like limits on Western writers that like we can't really see because we're conditioned or like socialized to speak and write in a certain way, and those don't exist in some of the countries that books get translated from. I think also all translation book translated books in the Western market. I just think they're braver in like the things that they're the trust that they give to the reader, and braver in the things that they explore. I think big publishing houses are not brave at all. They are often the opposite, and they treat the reader like an idiot, and they don't like, they don't play with fire on like bringing very weird like perspectives or explorations of things into books. But I, yeah, some Charco Press particularly comes to mind. Like their books sometimes can be so so weird, but it's fascinating because it's like understanding a different type of storytelling.
Traci Thomas 26:24
Yeah, I just think it's also like it's so it feels so expansive, like other things are possible, you know. And like sometimes I get so bored with like American fiction. I'm just like this feels like the same thing, and then I'll read something in translation and be like, "Yo, I don't even know what I just read. But like, I and sometimes like I'll hate it, but I like love that it that I'm just like, "What's going on? Like, I what was that book? God, I wish I could think of the name of it. I'm really not prepared today. This okay. The book I'm thinking of is called "The Sky Above the Roof" by Natasha Apanna, and it was written in. She's from Mauritius.
Martha Adams 27:11
Yes,
Traci Thomas 27:11
and it was written in French.
Martha Adams 27:13
Yes, I read
Traci Thomas 27:14
and it was so weird, and it was like I can barely remember anything about it. But I remember I read it and was just like, I gotta finish this because, like, why did they decide to translate this book? Like, what is it? And it had to do with prison, and like, maybe the mother or the son was in prison or something. I don't know. It was so weird, and like, not in like a oh my god way, but just in the like, that's how the sentence like follows this sentence is like it was just like I don't know unsettling, and I feel like sometimes that's how nonfiction or that's how translated literature is for me.
Martha Adams 27:53
Yeah, I would agree that I think so many UK and US novels read the same. Sometimes it feels like you just read the same one like five times over, and I think the more and more you retranslated, the more and more boring English language literature is for me. That's what I find. I find it harder and harder.
Traci Thomas 28:09
That's what my fear is.
Martha Adams 28:10
I find it harder and harder to like go back and I pick up an English language book and I just feel like really dissatisfied.
Traci Thomas 28:17
This is why I'm scared to get into translated literature. I'm like, how will I do my job?
Martha Adams 28:22
I think it's just the exposure of like different kinds of people and different walks of life and different cultures, and you get so used to the different, like, constantly being shown and feeling different things. It's just, yeah, it's kind of addictive. I think.
Traci Thomas 28:38
Do you notice that there are certain either languages, but even more specifically, like countries that you feel particularly drawn to, books from certain places that you're like really into.
Martha Adams 28:49
Yeah, for sure. I think you know translated literature is dominated by a lot of European translations. Like it just is. That also happens to be the translations I like the most European and South American, if we're talking about continents, and like countries like Argentina and France just have the most insane amount of translated lit. So I've read an enormous amount from both of them, but I do find that in general I don't love translations from Asian countries in a way that I just can't pin, and I wonder if it's just cultural, the way that they write and the way that they tell stories. It's often quite, I find, reserved and restrained, and there's a lot of formality. Whereas, for example, if I completely other side of the world, if I pull from South America, those stories can often be so gruesome and so intense, right? And very in your face. And I prefer that style of writing. So, yeah,
Traci Thomas 29:43
interesting.
Martha Adams 29:44
Yeah, I try and vary up because you don't. I don't want to read like too many from one place. Like I have my map on my newsletter because I'm always trying to see like where am I reading more from and like where am I not reading enough from. Like I was, I think two or three years ago. I hadn't read anything translated from Africa, because for multiple colonizing reasons, like a lot of the language that's spoken there is like French, Portuguese, Spanish, rather than the native languages that should be there anyway. But I made an effort last year to try and read more translated books from Africa, and every single one of them was a 10 out of 10.
Traci Thomas 30:19
Really?
Martha Adams 30:20
Yeah, which was a nice pleasant surprise for me. So, yeah, but continents have like like distinct tones and voices. It is funny. It's interesting,
Traci Thomas 30:28
right? I feel like a lot of the African literature I've read for different colonizing reasons has been in English. Like it's like people from countries that were colonized by England, and so they speak English, so it's never in translation. Like South Africa, you know. Well, they have a lot of languages there, but like I read South African literature, Nigerian, but not like Ghana, but not places like which I mean makes sense because I don't read a ton of translated literature, but like a lot of the international books that I've read are from English-speaking places, and I think that's probably also because it's easier. Because the American publishers will publish it much easier if they don't have to like go through the translation process. I feel,
Martha Adams 31:12
yeah, and I think to my limited knowledge, there has really not been much. I know there's not much money behind translated literature now, but I think there's more than there ever was before, so there probably just wasn't even the funding to do it.
Traci Thomas 31:23
Yeah,
Martha Adams 31:24
Because if something's translated, it needs to be translated by another author, another writer translator. So if you can remove that person because you can write in English, then I can understand why people do it. But I think there's more of an appetite for it now, so maybe it will change.
Traci Thomas 31:38
I think so too. Do you know Christina Rivera Garza.
Martha Adams 31:42
I know of her
Traci Thomas 31:44
You know of her. But what's so interesting about her is that she writes in English and in Spanish. But some of her novels she has translated. She has someone else translate, which I am fascinated by. Like she speaks Spanish. She's from Mexico originally, she teaches in the United States. She teaches creative writing, I believe, at Rice in English. Like she doesn't teach like translated literature, but then like her most recent book, she had a translator for, and I just thought that was so fascinating because she's the writer and she's totally fluent. But then I believe for her memoir that won the Pulitzer, Liliana's Invincible Summer. She wrote it in Spanish, and then a year later, she translated it herself into English. Yeah. So I was like, "This is so, like, I think that's so interesting. But it's probably what you were saying. That guy was saying the publisher you were talking to, which is like sometimes you just need someone else's skill set as a writer and a storyteller, and probably for the memoir, she was like, "This is my story; I can tell it. Whereas, for maybe for her fiction, she was like, "I need someone who has like a more style, because she's a really stylized writer.
Martha Adams 32:57
Yeah.
Traci Thomas 32:58
So I don't know. I just thought that, like, when I found that out, I was like, "This is because it was she was a that's nonfiction also that I read in translation, but she was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction, but not in the translated.
Martha Adams 33:11
Yeah, because same thing happened there with the sisters. You know that big book that was on.
Traci Thomas 33:16
Oh yeah,
Martha Adams 33:17
because that is translated by him. I can't remember his name right now, but he originally wrote it in Swedish, or and then he translated it into English, but it wasn't on the translated list
Traci Thomas 33:30
because I think there's like some loophole that if you translate your own book, it's not considered translated or something like that.
Martha Adams 33:36
Yeah, which is fascinating because it is a different. It's different. It's a different novel. It's a different book.
Traci Thomas 33:42
Yeah, and I know there's some people like in the stacks community who read Liliana's in English and Spanish, or or read parts of it in both, and they were saying like there are definite changes to like how she frames things in the different languages, and I thought that was so interesting because it's like I don't speak another language, obviously.
Martha Adams 34:03
Neither do I. I'm an idiot.
Traci Thomas 34:04
But I just imagine that if I was like the house is blue in my book, I would be like La Casa es azul. Like I don't know. Like to me, I'm just like, wouldn't I just write the same shit in another language? Obviously, this is why I I'm not bilingual or a translator, but I do think it's fascinating that if you translated your own book, like that, you would change words. And maybe part of it is like so many authors are like, you know, always revising. And so she was like, "There's a better way to say this, or like a more efficient way, or a more impactful way. But yeah, I think like it
Martha Adams 34:43
probably also depends on cultural differences. Maybe some people feel like they've got more strengths in writing a language into a different culture. Like I read this book, The Dark Side of Skin, a couple years ago. That's a it's Brazilian book and it's about racism in Brazil and. The translator is called. She wrote the book Blue Light Hours that was quite popular last year, and she, in the translator's note of the novel, was talking about how she spent ages debating about whether in this translation, The Dark Side of Skin, that's all about racism, to capitalize the B in black to bring it into English, because she was like that is tampering with the original text because that's not how the original author wrote the word black because capitalized B is a very Americanized like word it's not very common and she was like you know common in other places in the world like it's not used often so she spent ages agonizing over whether she would do that is that she was like is it changing like the tone of the text too much? And then eventually she decided not to because she said she felt like it was tampering with the novel in the period of time that like it wasn't relevant to Brazilian society at that moment. So she felt like she'd be impressing too much U.S. culture onto it
Traci Thomas 35:56
like of the moment.
Martha Adams 35:57
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 35:58
yeah, yeah.
Martha Adams 35:59
Which is such a stark difference to Ling King's Taiwan traveloge, who made the decision to ax all that train content because she was like the U.S. audience won't like it.
Traci Thomas 36:09
I can't believe that. I think that is so interesting. I'm just saying you. It's a book about it's a travelog, so I'm assuming the trains are a big deal.
Martha Adams 36:17
The trains are mentioned, but from the interview, it seemed that the trains were a way bigger deal in the Mandarin version. Yeah, crazy.
Traci Thomas 36:26
What percentage of your reading is in translation? Do you track your reading?
Martha Adams 36:29
Not as
Traci Thomas 36:30
I mean, I know you track countries.
Martha Adams 36:31
Yeah, not as much as you. I would say it's it's probably like 60% I think every for the past couple of years, it's like it's definitely been over half. I if as I if I'm going to read a book that's not in translation, there has to be like quite there has to be a reason for it. Like I just
Traci Thomas 36:50
yeah why what what what are the what are the reasons you would read something not in translation?
Martha Adams 36:55
If it's loads of people are talking about it on the prize list, like I've got The Disappearers by Marlon James staring at me, which is enormous.
Traci Thomas 37:02
I'm reading it later today. it's enormous. I've heard great things. Here's the thing I'm going to say about Marlon James. I feel like it's a cheat because I feel like while it's not in translation, he is from another country, and I do feel like that is sort of like it's not translation. I understand, and he lives in the states. I get it, but like there is something about people who are from another place that does a lot of the stuff you're talking about when it comes to translation, like if you've read his book Brief History of Seven Killings, that is a transporting book that does not feel like American literature. That feels like something else entirely. It has its own world about it, and my understanding is this book is too. And so I do think that like translated is great, but also just like out of our home countries is doing at least some of that work. Don't you think?
Martha Adams 38:04
Agreed. You've basically said my point, which is, if a book is not translated, I'll pick it up if the author just like is from somewhere else in the world or like doesn't look like me. I think I said this in my galley brag discussion with Ezra, where like I really rarely ever read books by like Western white women because I just think like I'm just really not interested in what you think because also that's my perspective too so I kind of know it and I don't really I don't really want to read about it I want to read books from people that don't look anything like me or come from corners of the world that I'm not familiar with and some of those people obviously like because of migration and all the movement in the world end up in countries where they do end up speaking English, and then they write books in English. But they can be just as like Brotherless Night, that won the Women's Prize. That is like.
Traci Thomas 38:51
Did you love that?
Martha Adams 38:52
I loved that book. Did you read it?
Traci Thomas 38:54
I didn't read it. I've been wanting to read it.
Martha Adams 38:56
It's very nonfictiony.
Traci Thomas 38:59
I've heard it's fantastic. I'm told I would love it. I need to read it. Like it's been on my list for since it came out. I think I had predicted that it would be on the National Book Award long list, which is I'm famously bad at predicting. But I just had like what from what I'd heard about it, I was like, this sounds like something that they would like. It's Sri Lankan?
Martha Adams 39:21
it's Sri Lankan? Yeah, and that is so transportive and immersive, and like you do, even though it's written in English, it has all of the tropes of what I like about translated literature, which is like submerging you in like a completely different culture and like being able to learn things from it too. So, if those are the types of books I pick up in English,
Traci Thomas 39:42
I feel like the Marlon James is gonna do that.
Martha Adams 39:45
Yeah, I read a brief history history of Seven Killings, but so many years ago, so I feel like I
Traci Thomas 39:49
so did I
Martha Adams 39:50
lost my reference point of what he's like as a writer because I can't remember.
Traci Thomas 39:54
I read it years ago when I was like first getting back into reading. I read it like 10 years ago, and to. Me forever to read, and I remember being like, "I fucking hate this. This is so hard. Like it was like kicking my ass, and then I got to like the last 100 pages, and I was like, "Fuck yeah! Like I was like, "I'm here. We did it! Like it was so worth it for me in the end. I think I finished, and I was like, "I have to start this book over. Like I was like I I just I struggled. This was the year that I was trying to read one book a month, and I I I remember I was in Italy that summer. I took it to Italy with me. I remember being on the train in Italy, and it took me two months to read it. And I was like, this is ruining my entire life. And but when I got to the end, I was back in the states, and I was like, "We did it, Joe. We did it.
Martha Adams 40:46
Maybe also like that with the disappearers because it's so long.
Traci Thomas 40:50
Well, I think I'm a much better reader now. Like I am such a stronger reader. Like I am more practiced. I understand. I can like you like that was. I don't believe that like books are like too hard or whatever, but I do think for me at that time that was a way too hard book. I didn't appreciate nearly enough of it. I'm sure. I have no like. I think now at least when I'm reading the disappears, even if I'm struggling, I'll at least be able to be like, oh, I see what he's doing, or like, oh, that's an interesting. That reminds me of this, or that reminds me of that. Whereas when I was reading Brief History of Seven Killings, the reason I got the book is because I saw someone in Palm Springs reading it, and I was like, "That title, that sounds like a great. I thought it was nonfiction. I literally was like, "That's got to be a nonfiction book, and I was like, "Okay, let me check it out. So I ordered it. I don't know. It was so crazy.
Martha Adams 41:43
That's a lovely story of book recommendation found in public, though, and not from social media.
Traci Thomas 41:49
I know. I used to find so many books. Now it's like all the internet and people I sort of know, but I do miss like randomly stumbling upon things.
Martha Adams 41:57
Yeah.
Traci Thomas 41:59
Are there? I know you mentioned two publishers already. What other publishers do you feel like people could go to to find like good books in translation?
Martha Adams 42:11
Well, they are all UK indies, but obviously there are indies in the US that sort of pick up similar titles. But I'm not as familiar with them. But my favorites are Fitzcarraldo
Traci Thomas 42:24
Is that the blue? Yeah, is that the blue?
Martha Adams 42:26
Yeah, and all of their nonfiction is in white.
Traci Thomas 42:30
I've never seen the white. So the blue.
Martha Adams 42:32
This is not this is not Miami is in white. The book I was referring to. Yeah, yeah. So if you see a white Fitzcarraldo, then you know It's nonfiction,
Traci Thomas 42:41
okay.
Martha Adams 42:42
And Charco Press, and Daunt Books Publishing-they have really good publishing house
Traci Thomas 42:48
That's the bookstore right?
Martha Adams 42:50
Yeah, but they have a publishing imprint.
Traci Thomas 42:52
I didn't know that.
Martha Adams 42:53
Yeah, it's very strong actually, and like it doesn't get as much press as the others. I think probably because they don't have that uniform cover style that like Fitzcarraldo, Charco, Foundry, like a lot of the ones here do.
Traci Thomas 43:08
What's the one who does Elena knows?
Martha Adams 43:11
Charco Press?
Traci Thomas 43:12
Okay, that I love their look too.
Martha Adams 43:15
Yeah, yeah, and I love Pyrene Press, and I think those. Oh, and seven stories, and they do a US. They have a US branch too. Seven stories. Yes, I feel like they're my tried, true, trusted. Like I will always buy books from them. Really, because I think.
Traci Thomas 43:32
Have you heard about this book that's coming about South Africa? I think it's in English though.
Martha Adams 43:37
What's it called?
Traci Thomas 43:40
Seven stories. The book is called "We Belong to the Trees.
Martha Adams 43:44
Oh yes, I have seen that.
Traci Thomas 43:47
It comes out in for us. It comes out in November. I I went to South Africa in college, and so I'm like, oh, anything about South Africa? Yeah, I didn't even study abroad. I literally I took a class on art in South Africa, and then we went for like two weeks. But we read Disgrace in that class by like J.M. Cotier, and I was like, "This is incredible! And so now I'm like, anything from South Africa. And we also read Nelson Mandela's like a long walk. I'm like, "I'll I'll read it. So they just pitched me on that book, and I was like, "I mean, I'll check it out. Sure,
Martha Adams 44:24
but yeah, those are my favorites, and I also always use English Pen. If you've heard of them
Traci Thomas 44:31
No
Martha Adams 44:32
they're like a they offer lots of grants for translations on a lot of books in the UK. There'll be like a little stamp if it won a grant, saying like winner English pen, and they release their like translation awards every year. I think like they award grants to the translations, and they do it every year.
Traci Thomas 44:49
I see.
Martha Adams 44:50
They released their last one a couple weeks ago, and that is always a really good place to find translated books too, because they are often under the radar ones. Yeah, I really enjoy.
Traci Thomas 44:59
What's a book that you feel like you invented? Are you familiar with this phraseology that I use? Okay, so I-it's very Christopher Columbus. I call books that I invented such a new phrase that like nobody. I am who I am, Martha. What can I say? I call books that I invented like a book that maybe I read early and really loved and like didn't stop talking about that. Like people associate with me. Yes. Like you know, I think there there's a handful of books that I think people will be like, "Oh, you invented that. But I'm wondering what books like people associate with you.
Martha Adams 45:37
I think The Time of Cherries is one by I don't know. I literally before this podcast, I was like, I'm gonna have to. It's gonna be curse of reading translated literature. Is when people ask you an author and you can't pronounce their name, it's just mortifying. So you feel like you're just doing them like a complete disservice. But her second name is Roch. She is a Spanish author. I think the book came out in the 1940s or 50s, a long time ago, and it's about Spanish Civil War, but it's done through like the perspective of like women and old people and sex. It's like fascinating, and I read it in 2024, and no one I knew had read it, and it's just been it got published in the US in April, and oh, this I got quoted on the press release because, like, they'd obviously read me speak about the book so much, and so many people always tag me in their stories and say, "Like, I picked up this book because of you, Martha. And I'm like, "Yes, that's yes, that's who invented it. That's a book I invented. You invented it for sure. Congratulations! Say
Traci Thomas 46:35
the title of it again:
Martha Adams 46:37
The Time of Cherries.
Traci Thomas 46:38
The Time of Cherries.
Martha Adams 46:39
Yeah. What
Traci Thomas 46:40
else? Anything else?
Martha Adams 46:41
I mean, this-you know-when you read a book before it comes on a prize list, and then everybody reads it, and they're talking about how great it was, and you're like, "Yeah, but I read it first, and I told you how great it was first.
Traci Thomas 46:50
That's an invention. Yes, like I invented "There Is No Place for Us" by Brian Goldstone, which went on to win the Pulitzer, and it was like on Obama's list, and I was like, "Shut up, Barack. I fucking had it. I read it early. I told everybody. I knew. I knew. Yeah. What is yours?
Martha Adams 47:08
She Who Remains, which was on.
Traci Thomas 47:10
Oh,
Martha Adams 47:11
yeah, by Renee Carabash. It was. I wrote about it in the book piece, but it was on the International Booker long list this year, and I read it in December. I got a proof of it before it'd come out, and I just-it was incredible. It made me cry. I loved it so much. And then, yeah, everybody else was talking about it when it got long listed, and I was like, "But I was there first. I loved it.
Traci Thomas 47:30
They already awarded their prize, or no?
Martha Adams 47:32
Yes, it was taiwan travelog
Traci Thomas 47:34
Oh right, duh. But when do they do it?
Martha Adams 47:37
The long list is released in February, and the prize comes out in June.
Traci Thomas 47:42
That's right.
Martha Adams 47:43
yeah, yeah.
Traci Thomas 47:44
I'm always their their whole schedule. Whatever you guys are doing over there, it's very confusing. Okay, you need to talk to the people at the Booker. I'm just like, the long list comes out in July. It's like the international. I can never. I keep people who do predictions for the Booker. I'm like, how do you know the timetable of UK publishing if you're an American? I'm always stunned. I can barely keep track of what's going on here, and y'all's schedule is like this to October in the UK. I'm like, what do you mean Brandon Taylor's book from seven years ago is eligible? Like, what are we talking about?
Martha Adams 48:20
I know the people who predict the bookers are just like that's like a Olympic sport. I don't understand how they do it. It's so impressive. It could never be.
Traci Thomas 48:27
And honestly, this year not a lot of people did well. I got as many as most people. I didn't predict publicly, but like I was talking about books, and I was just like, book prize prediction is I think impossible. Yeah, I I think it's so hard. The only one I ever am actually good at is the Pulitzer for general nonfiction.
Martha Adams 48:47
That's my strongest one. But I like think that she she who remains. I feel like will maybe be on the National Book Awards at the end of this year because I just think people have really loved it. I read lots of people on Instagram said that it was like the fan favorite to win. People were disappointed they didn't win the international booker, which that was fascinating. And like, it's but do you know what it's about?
Traci Thomas 49:10
No,
Martha Adams 49:10
it's about sworn virgins, which is like a term.
Traci Thomas 49:14
Oh my god!
Martha Adams 49:15
Yeah, which is like a term. It's about traditional laws, like traditional cultural laws in the Albanian mountains, where if you're a woman, you can like take a vow of chastity to like renounce your womanhood, and you can like live socially as a man. Crazy,
Traci Thomas 49:31
but isn't it? Doesn't it have something to do with like if you're betrothed and you don't want to get married?
Martha Adams 49:37
Yeah, the protagonist was supposed to go through with an arranged marriage, and she didn't want to. And the only way you can not go through with that is by becoming a sworn virgin. But there is a lot of violence it entails too. Like I think her father has to be murdered because of it. Yeah, it's harsh, very harsh. But it's like that's was you would never learn about that in an English in English language written book. Never, and like it's never. Reads like a it reads like a really violent fairy tale in some ways, and it's so fascinating. But it's a term that's dying out in Albania. I think there's only like 15 or 20 sworn virgins left, because it's obviously the product. It's a product of like pretty aggressive patriarchy. Women not having any rights whatsoever.
Traci Thomas 50:19
I mean, I guess it's good. You probably would like something like that to die out.
Martha Adams 50:23
Yeah.
Traci Thomas 50:24
Okay. I love that you invented that. That's a that's a big.
Martha Adams 50:26
I did basically invent that book, and yeah, everybody who reads it loves it. It's really good. I don't know if you would like it because it's quite it's quite flowery in its language, and it reads a lot like a sort of book length poem. And I feel like that's not your vibe. No
Traci Thomas 50:40
book length poem. You've lost me. You you had me with sworn virgins and violent, but you've lost me. But you know I'm seeing 150 pages.
Martha Adams 50:50
Yeah, it's really short. I read it in an afternoon.
Traci Thomas 50:52
Wow. See, I can't.
Martha Adams 50:53
And there's a lot of blank space in the book because it's like stylistically formatted, a lot like verses and stuff too. So it's it's very quick,
Traci Thomas 51:03
and it's in Spanish.
Martha Adams 51:04
No, it was written in Bulgarian.
Traci Thomas 51:07
Oh, okay, that's what I'm seeing. I'm like, wait, what? Okay. Oh, the other one was in Spanish. Cherries.
Martha Adams 51:12
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's in Spanish.
Traci Thomas 51:14
Any other books you've invented? Any other books you want to take credit for? This is your chance.
Martha Adams 51:20
What other books I feel like I've invented? Brandy Sour, which I know Sara Hildreth has also read. Oh, so maybe we were back.
Traci Thomas 51:27
I do associate that with Sara. '
Martha Adams 51:29
Invented that, yeah, yeah. But um, I sometimes I felt like trying.
Traci Thomas 51:35
From that book,
Martha Adams 51:36
Cypriot.
Traci Thomas 51:37
She loved that book, but it sounds awful to me.
Martha Adams 51:41
I maybe you would like it
Traci Thomas 51:43
the one about the drinks. Like all the drinks are different characters or something.
Martha Adams 51:47
No, it's well, sort of. It's about like the protagonist of the book is a hotel that like sits on the bound on the boundary line of Cyprus, and this hotel is like in this neutral zone between the two, and that that's the protagonist of the novel, and it goes through like maybe 50 or 60 years of all these different people in the hotel and their perspective on like the conflict, and it's like fascinatingly done.
Traci Thomas 52:12
So the last thing I want to ask you about is for people who are listening to this who are like, I know I should be reading books from all over the world, but I'm just like really intimidated by translated literature. What could you say to them that would maybe like assuage their anxieties and like, or or maybe what are some books you could point them to that don't feel so weird and like off the beaten path that they're going to feel intimidated by them.
Martha Adams 52:42
I would say that the people who think the like translated literature is hard because it isn't written in English, but the hard part of translate like that's why it's hard to read. But the hard part is done because the hard part is translating it, which somebody has already spent like many, many, many hours doing to make sure that it reads smoothly and that you can understand it. So all you have is just the joy of reading it, and I just yeah. So it's not intimidating. Like the hard part is done, and I think that it's worth it to think about how nice it is that like a book that you can read can like connect you with people all over the world. So, the hard bit is done. Basically, is what I always say. It's not intimidating. It's really not as hard as you think it is. It's hard if you are like, oh, crime. I maybe I should read Crime and Punishment because that's translated. That book is hard to read. But like current translations, you know, in the last like 10, like 20 years, like they are not challenging to read. And then the best books to point towards. I mean, the one of the first books I read in translation that I just loved so much was Stillborn by Gudalpe Netto. Nete.
Traci Thomas 53:55
Okay,
Martha Adams 53:55
she's Mexican. I I wrote about it on the booker list that I just did. But yeah, I really love that book. It's about two women who are friends, and they, in their youth, said that neither of them wanted to be mothers, and one of them gets sterilized, and then the other one starts to feel really attracted to the idea of becoming a mother, and she does get pregnant, but her pregnancy has loads of complications. So it's about their friendship, and like the role of being maternal in women's lives, and how like you can you know what it's like to be a modern woman and not want kids, and how there's like love and maternal feelings to be found in your life, like whatever you do. Like I really loved that. I also think Claudia Pinero is one of the best. She writes thrillers, but they're like slower-not thrillers, like you know, sort of boy thrillers that you would think. I think you talk about those sometimes. Like it's not masculine thriller. She is not.
Traci Thomas 54:56
I can't take credit for that, but I love the idea of a boy thriller.
Martha Adams 54:59
Yeah, you invented that phrase.
Traci Thomas 55:01
No, I didn't. Never did. I assume I refer. I think about it as you. So yeah, but she writes.
Traci Thomas 55:07
So to whoever who actually invented that, you've been invented on top of. Yeah, been supplanted. I am the Christopher Columbus of boy thrillers.
Martha Adams 55:14
Yeah, and she's like Elena knows is her book. She wrote one called A Little Luck. She's got another one called Cathedrals, and they're super easy. They're just like thrillers that are like interrogate like society, but they're very easy to read, like incredibly.
Traci Thomas 55:31
So I have to read Elena knows. I have to.
Martha Adams 55:34
I think you would like it.
Traci Thomas 55:36
This is the one that everyone thinks I would like
Martha Adams 55:38
Because it's so different. Do you know what it's about?
Traci Thomas 55:40
Like a murder and of a daughter and like the mother or something.
Martha Adams 55:44
Yeah, so a daughter is found; she's hanging in a church, her church that she goes to, and the police are like, "Oh, it's obviously a suicide. And her mother is like, "I absolutely do not accept this. It's not a suicide. The book is based across one day, and it's all about the mother Elena. She has Parkinson's, and so that really affects her mobility. The whole day is from like her perspective, and like she can't lift her head up. She's always looking at the ground, so she spends a day investigating the murder of her daughter. But it's written completely from her perspective, so you're often always looking at the ground, like you're completely immersed in her brain and about how she has to like take these medications to like warm up her body again until they like kick in. She's like very stuck physically. It's fascinating. It's done very very well. I think you would like it because it's so different.
Traci Thomas 56:39
Everyone says that. And it's short,
Martha Adams 56:43
and it's and it's short. Exactly short.
Traci Thomas 56:46
I my thing is I can do anything for 150 pages. Yeah, you know, because like because like that's about the time that I'm like get me out of here if I really don't like something.
Martha Adams 56:55
And I think also that's why it's easy to give translated books a chance is because they are so short. You don't feel like you're losing time to them, like they are so easy and accessible.
Traci Thomas 57:07
Yeah,
Martha Adams 57:07
and I often think like classics in translation, apart from Crime Punishment, not that one. I hate that book, but others are like sometimes really good starting points in translation because
Traci Thomas 57:20
I loved Anna Karenina. I got to be honest.
Martha Adams 57:22
I've never read it, but I want to because
Traci Thomas 57:24
I loved it.
Martha Adams 57:25
There's been so much Anna Karenina propaganda in the last year on Substack of people loving it, like really loving it.
Traci Thomas 57:33
We did it on book club here in 2021.
Martha Adams 57:35
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 57:35
and I was dreading it.
Martha Adams 57:37
And did you do it for one month?
Traci Thomas 57:38
We did it for two months, actually.
Martha Adams 57:41
Okay,
Traci Thomas 57:42
I think I announced it. I gave people two months. I was like, I announced it early and said we're gonna do it. And it was like the way I set it up. I think it was like if you start now, it's 20 pages a day or something, or 30 pages or something like that. But I, I think I ended up reading it in like 11 days. Like I gave myself all this time, and I was like, "Wait, I love this. There's some stuff in the fields, the Russian like farming stuff, the agriculture stuff that I did not care for. Might have skimmed a little bit, but Anna, Karinina, her my god, love her. The drama, the the drama between the people so good. I need the one I really want to do that I keep not doing fully classic is Count of Monte Cristo. Oh yeah, got to do.
Martha Adams 58:30
I've not read that either.
Traci Thomas 58:32
I've heard it's great, but it's not a it's not women in translation.
Martha Adams 58:37
No, okay, women in translation classics. We have childhood youth dependency by Tove Dittlesvan. Have you read that? That's a non-fiction.
Traci Thomas 58:45
Never even heard of that. Oh my god! I've literally never even heard of it.
Martha Adams 58:48
Okay, that's nonfiction.
Traci Thomas 58:50
Okay,
Martha Adams 58:51
it's a it's like her memoir, basically. I think, and it's split into three: childhood, youth, and dependency. And it's about her life. She grew up in Denmark.
Traci Thomas 59:01
It's oh oh oh that trilogy or whatever. Yeah, yeah, I've heard of that. I also read some Annie Arno. That she, I read one of her books.
Martha Adams 59:11
Oh yeah, I've never read.
Traci Thomas 59:13
And she's nonfiction. I hated it. Did you? What I read the it was it was the the new one.
Martha Adams 59:18
Right.
Traci Thomas 59:19
I think I. It was like about her affair, like the young boy or something, the young man or something was it called? I was like, this is, and it was so short, I almost didn't finish it, and it's only like 80 pages. I was like, I am out of here. No, you want to give her another chance
Martha Adams 59:35
You should read childhood youth and dependency, because it's got the grit that I know you like in stories.
Traci Thomas 59:41
Okay,
Martha Adams 59:41
Her life ends up pretty tragic. It's where it's going. But I'm not going to tell you anymore.
Traci Thomas 59:47
That's a good. That's a good plug for me. Pretty tragic. Okay. Last question for you because we've gone over. Is just what's like the last really great book in translation you've read? Like, what's the last one that knocked your socks off.
Martha Adams 1:00:01
Oh my god! Probably Soviet Milk is the book it was called. It is by. Hang on, I wrote her name down. Nora Ixtana. She's where is it from?
Traci Thomas 1:00:17
Oh, she's from Latvia.
Martha Adams 1:00:18
That's it. Yeah,
Traci Thomas 1:00:20
Riga Latvia. That's where my people are from.
Martha Adams 1:00:22
Is it?
Traci Thomas 1:00:23
On my mother's side? I've got I've got some Ukrainians and then some Latvians.
Martha Adams 1:00:29
Well, I absolutely loved that book. It's about a mother and a daughter, and they're like two different perspectives on Latvia because the mother obviously knew Latvia before it was brought into the Soviet Union. The daughter only knows Latvia as part of the Soviet Union, and it was just beautiful. I thought it was so so good. The Latvian Prime Minister and the author died at the beginning of this year, which is obviously really sad because she was young. But the Latvian Prime Minister is blood of the book, which I think is just crazy. I don't know many books that I have read that have been blood by the sitting Prime Minister of the country being like, no, this book is excellent. Yeah, and she did.
Traci Thomas 1:01:05
Okay, you've convinced me. And again, this year for our mega challenge, it's I just looked. It's like 192. This year for the mega challenge, which we do here, it's like I come up with 52 prompts, and one of the prompts is read a book about a place your people are from, and I could do this. I've never read anything about Latvia. I did. I I chose something that was set in Louisiana, which is where my dad's people are from. But I can move things around. I I I'm sort of interested. I try. I so famously, I really can't read any books about Russia. Like for whatever reason, I like even like English language. I just as soon as it's like about Russia, I just black out. I like cannot focus. I DNF everything. I have no idea why. Maybe I just read Midnight in Chernobyl. I guess I have no idea. I just read Midnight in Chernobyl, which is like in Ukraine, and I and the author Adam Hagen Botham, famous British person, he wrote the Challenger book, which I love and invented. And I struggled so much. Everyone's like Midnight in Chernobyl's the best. I was like, you guys, I am. I I finished, but barely, barely by the skin of my fucking teeth. And I I don't know why. I don't I don't know. It's like a block. I feel like everybody has it. There's like certain things you just like cannot read about. Mine just happens to be an entire ginormous country that used to be in charge of like a bunch of other countries, two of which I'm from. But I was trying to read a book about the Ukraine war that's only 200 pages, and I was like, I DNF'd it. I could, I just like cannot. I don't know. It's very bad.
Martha Adams 1:02:43
Well, I have a Ukraine rec for you. Actually, if you want to try again, it's not by a woman. It's but it's by a man. It's called Rock Paper Grenade. We read it for book club, and it is translated from Ukrainian. And it is like a, I guess you could describe it. It's coming out of age. It's about a boy who is growing up just as Ukraine has gained independence in the 90s, and it like follows him and his whole family. And his family is like every single person represents like different parts of Ukrainian history. It's just it's pretty horrific, really sad and really well done. Like everybody in the book club, like enjoyed it for what they learned, and they were impressed by it as well.
Traci Thomas 1:03:27
Okay, I'm gonna try to read more translation, and then every time I do, I'm gonna come to you and be like, "Have you read this? Like the way people do me every time they read a nonfiction book. Like, have you read this? I'm like, no. Do you know how many books there are that I've not read? Like the list just does not end. This was amazing. You're the best. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for coming with me on this silly little journey of chaotic that not being able to pronounce any names or remember any books. It was amazing. No, it's fine. It's fine. Everything's going to be linked in the show notes for people. And yeah, you'll be able to find it. And I'm going to link to your piece that you wrote for the Booker Prize, which you've mentioned a few times, which was very cool. They asked Martha to recommend was it 10?
Martha Adams 1:04:12
Yeah, 10 women
Traci Thomas 1:04:14
about 10 international Booker Prize finalists that were finalists, not winners.
Martha Adams 1:04:21
Not winners, but anything from the long or short list. Any of yeah, anything from the nominees.
Traci Thomas 1:04:26
Oh, long list too. And it's a great list. So I, there's a few on there that I knew, and then a few that I was like, let me let me check these out. So I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. All right, Martha, this was amazing. Thank you so much for being here, and everyone else. We will see you in the stacks.