Open Books Challenge 2026: Translated from its Original Language

The Open Books Reading Challenge is a year-long reading challenge for people interested in pushing the boundaries of their reading. For full details of the program, please check-out our page at: https://www.rplmn.org/books-more/discover-more/open-books-reading-challenge

These are some ideas that fit the 2026 category of "A book that was translated from its original language."

Happy Reading!

Updated December 31, 2025
RPL Staff
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The king
Abdolah, Kader
Paper Book
The King, young Shah Naser, takes to the throne of Persia at a turning point of history: he inherits an enchanted medieval world of harems, eunuchs, and treasures as well as a palace of secret doors, sudden deaths, and hidden agendas. Within the court is danger enough: outside all manner of change...
Celestial bodies
Alharthi, Jokha
Paper Book
Celestial Bodies is set in the village of al-Awafi in Oman, where we encounter three sisters: Mayya, who marries Abdallah after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries from a sense of duty; and Khawla who rejects all offers while waiting for her beloved, who has emigrated to Canada. These three women and...
We know you remember : a novel
Alsterdal, Tove
Paper Book
"Beautifully elegiac and intricately plotted, this is Nordic noir at its best."--People Winner of the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel * Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year * Shortlisted for the Best Swedish Book of the Year Award * One of People Magazine's Best Books of Fall...
The enlightenment of the greengage tree
Azar, Shokoofeh
Paper Book
LONGLISTED for the 2021 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE LONGLISTED for the 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Translated Literature FINALIST for the 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE From the pen of one of Iran's rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a family story...
I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki
Baek, Sehee
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling therapy memoir translated by International Booker shortlistee Anton Hur. PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don't know, I'm-what's the word-depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek...
On the calculation of volume. 1
Balle, Solvej
Paper Book
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024 A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off...
Restoration
Barrera, Ave
Paper Book
Propelled by female desire, shaped by the violence of the male gaze, and inspired by the endless vitality of old stories remade anew, Restoration takes on Bluebeard, Salvador Elizondo, Juan Rulfo, Angela Carter, Octavio Paz, Mariana Enriquez, and Amparo Dávila to produce a novel of obsession,...
The diving-bell and the butterfly
Bauby, Jean-Dominique
Paper Book
'Locked-in syndrome: paralysed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.' In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French...
We had to remove this post
Bervoets, Hanna
Paper Book
Kayleigh needs money. That's why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn't allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It's gruelling work. Kayleigh and her...
Humankind : a hopeful history
Bregman, Rutger
Paper Book
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and Daily Express Book of the Year'Hugely, highly and happily recommended' Stephen Fry'You should read Humankind. You'll learn a...
The good son
Jeong, You-Jeong
Paper Book
The Midnight Shift
Cheon, Seon-Ran.
Paper Book
A bestseller in Korea, a biting, fast-paced vampire murder mystery exploring queer love and the consequences of loneliness. When four isolated elderly people die back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn't understand why she's...
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 = Palsip yi nyeon saeng Kim Jiyeong
Cho, Nam-ju
Paper Book
A GUARDIAN 'ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR 2020'  A RED MAGAZINE 'CAN'T WAIT TO READ' BOOK OF 2020   THE MULTI-MILLION-COPY SELLING SOUTH KOREAN SENSATION THAT HAS GOT THE WHOLE WORLD TALKING Kim Jiyoung is a...
The remembered soldier
Daanje, Anjet
Ebook
The Meursault investigation
Daoud, Kamel
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt Winner of the Goncourt du Premier Roman Winner of the Prix des Cinq Continents Winner of the Prix François Mauriac THE NOVEL THAT HAS TAKEN THE INTERNATIONAL LITERARY WORLD BY STORM He was the brother of 'the Arab' killed by the...
Beyond the door of no return
Diop, David
Paper Book
A Finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature | Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award One of The Atlantic's 10 Best Books of 2023 A Financial Times Best Book of 2023 | Named a best book of the year by...
Disoriental
Djavadi, Négar
Ebook
National Book Award Finalist: "A multigenerational epic of the Sadr family's life in Iran and their eventual exile . . . Full of surprises" ( The Globe and Mail). Winner of the 2019 Albertine Prize and Lambda Literary Award Kimiâ Sadr fled...
Winter in Sokcho
Dusapin, lisa Shua
Paper Book
2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE As if Marguerite Duras wrote Convenience Store Woman--a beautiful, unexpected novel from a debut French Korean author It's winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea...
Your second life begins when you realize you only have one
Giordano, Raphaëlle
Paper Book
THE #1 FRENCH BESTSELLER MORE THAN 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE The feel-good #1 bestselling French novel about a woman whose mission to cure her "routine-itis" leads her to lasting joy and true fulfillment, for fans of The Alchemist and Hector and the...
The physics of sorrow
Gospodinov, Georgi
Paper Book
'Compulsively readable' New York Times 'Utterly original' Alberto Manguel In the small and the insignificant - that's where life hides, that's where it builds its nest. Our unnamed narrator is not well. He suffers from attacks of 'pathological...
Red queen
Gómez-Jurado, Juan
Paper Book
Now an Amazon Prime Original series, Red Queen is the first in Juan Gómez-Jurado's internationally bestselling thriller series, translated by Nick Caistor. Winner of the Cognac Prize 2022 with more than two million copies sold in Spain alone. Sunday Times - Best...
Stalingrad /
Grossman, VasiliÄ­
Paper Book
Now in English for the first time, the prequel to Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate, the War and Peace of the twentieth Century. In April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini meet in Salzburg where they agree on a renewed assault on the Soviet Union. Launched in the summer, the...
The guest cat
Hiraide, Takashi
Paper Book
A bestseller in France and winner of Japan's Kiyama Shohei Literary Award, The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties...
Will and testament : a novel
Hjorth, Vigdis
Paper Book
Longlisted for the National Book Award Four siblings, two summer houses, one terrible secret--the "prickly, persuasive" bestseller from one of Norway's most celebrated novelists, perfect for readers of Rachel Cusk and Karl Ove Knausgaard (New Yorker) ...
Hunchback : a novel
Ichikawa, Sao?
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD, THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE, THE PRIX MÉDICIS ÉTRANGER AND THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL * A bombshell bestseller in Japan, a defiant, darkly funny debut novel about a young woman in a care home seeking autonomy and the full possibilities of her life--"not...
A river in darkness : one man's escape from North Korea
Ishikawa, Masaji
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller and Amazon Charts Most Read and Most Sold book. A Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Memoir & Autobiography. The harrowing true story of one man's life in--and subsequent escape from--North Korea, one of the world's most brutal...
The Kamogawa food detectives
Kashiwai, Hisashi
Paper Book
The Kamogawa Food Detectives, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood, is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese sleuthing series for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time?Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a...
Before the coffee gets cold
Kawaguchi, Toshikazu
Paper Book
The first book in the multi-million copy bestselling series about a cosy Japanese cafe that offers its visitors the chance to travel back in time. Toshikazu Kawaguchi's heart-warming Before the Coffee Gets Cold, translated from Japanese, explores the age-old question: what...
The Nakano Thrift Shop
Kawakami, Hiromi
Paper Book
This "gentle, humorous novel" follows a young Japanese woman as she yearns for the love of a reluctant coworker (The Wall Street Journal). The objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff and customers who handle them. But like those...
Under the eye of the big bird : a novel
Kawakami, Hiromi
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution,...
No one prayed over their graves
Khalīfah, Khālid
Paper Book
Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Fiction | One of The Washington Post's 50 best works of fiction of 2023 "Gorgeous . . . Lush, elegiac [and] Márquezian . . . A novel of abundance and generosity." --Sarah Cypher, The Washington Post<...
The life-changing magic of tidying
Kondō, Marie
Paper Book
Marie Kondo will help you declutter your life with her new major Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Transform your home into a permanently clear and clutter-free space with the incredible KonMari Method. Japan's expert declutterer and professional cleaner...
Eurotrash
Kracht, Christian
Ebook
Baron Wenckheim's homecoming
Krasznahorkai, László
Paper Book
The defining master-work of the Man Booker International winner's spectacular career.
Lily the thief
Kukkonen, Janne
Paper Book
In Janne Kukkonen's swashbuckling fantasy graphic novel Lily the Thief, a young girl tries to make a name for herself in a secret and perilous society of thieves. Lily is a young novice who dreams of being a master thief. That's not easy when the Guildmaster of Thieves...
The three-body problem
Liu, Cixin.
Paper Book
The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem! WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL Over 1 million copies sold in North America "A mind-bending epic."--The New York Times * "War of the Worlds for...
The land of green plums : a novel
Müller, Herta.
Paper Book
Set in Romania at the height of Ceauescu's reign of terror, The Land of Green Plums tells the story of a group of young people who leave the impoverished province for the city in search of better prospects and camaraderie. But their hopes are ravaged, because the city, no less than the...
Night train to Lisbon
Mercier, Pascal
Paper Book
Raimund Gregorious is a predictable character. A bookish Latin professor, well-respected, perhaps a little boring. One storm morning, he encounters a beautiful, distraught Portuguese woman in a red leather coat. Later that day Raimund will realise: that moment change everything. All of a sudden...
The frolic of the beasts
Mishima, Yukio
Paper Book
Set in rural Japan shortly after World War II, this gripping novel tells the story of a strange and utterly absorbing love triangle that leads to psychological self-entrapment, seduction, and murder. * "A compelling tale of love and violence." --The Washington Post
Black forest
Mréjen, Valérie.
Ebook
Cockroaches
Mukasonga, Scholastique
Paper Book
Scholastique Mukasonga's Cockroaches is the story of growing up a Tutsi in Hutu-dominated Rwanda - the story of a happy child, a loving family, all wiped out in the genocide of 1994. A vivid, bittersweet depiction of family life and bond in a time of immense hardship, it is also a story of...
Novelist as a vocation
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * An insightful look into the mind of a master storyteller--and a unique look at the craft of writing from the beloved and best-selling author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running....
Heart Lamp : Selected Stories
Mushtaq, Banu/ Bhasthi, Deepa (TRN).
Paper Book
Winner of the 2025 International Booker Prize Winner of a PEN Translates Award A monumental first collection in English from Banu Mushtaq: lawyer, activist, champion of Muslim women, and winner of India's highest literary honors. In the twelve...
Your steps on the stairs : a novel
Muñoz Molina, Antonio
Paper Book
A man travels to Lisbon ahead of his wife to prepare their newly purchased home, while she stays in New York to oversee a research project on the neuroscience of memory and fear. Leaving behind a phase of their relationship indelibly marked by 9/11, he revels in the Portuguese capital's temperate...
My lesbian experience with loneliness
Nagata, Kabi
Paper Book
HARVEY AWARD WINNER The heart-rending autobiographical manga that's taken the internet by storm! My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness is an honest and heartfelt look at one young woman's exploration of her sexuality, mental well-being, and growing up in our modern age. Told...
The cat who saved books : a novel
Natsukawa, So?suke
Paper Book
AN INDIE NEXT PICK! From the #1 bestselling author in Japan comes a celebration of books, cats, and the people who love them, infused with the heartwarming spirit of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the...
Saving H'non : Chang and the elephant
Nguyễn, Trang
Paper Book
From the creators behind the Eisner-nominated Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear comes another gorgeously-illustrated graphic novel adventure based on a true story, in which young conservationist Chang overcomes the odds to save and return an elephant to its natural habitat. ...
Suite francaise
Némirovsky, Irène
Paper Book
Colony
Norlin, Annika
Ebook
Blitzed : drugs in Nazi Germany
Ohler, Norman
Paper Book
GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016 'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow 'Blitzed is making me rethink everything I've ever seen and read about WWII... terrific!' Douglas Coupland 'A huge contribution... remarkable' Antony Beevor, BBC RADIO 4 'Extremely...
My name is Red
Pamuk, Orhan
Paper Book
The Nobel Prize winner and one of today's most prominent contemporary Turkish writers delivers a novel that is a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, a brilliant symposium on the power of art, and a "modern classic ... rich and essential" (Los Angeles Times Book Review)--s<...
Snowglobe
Park, Soyoung
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The groundbreaking Korean phenomenon that Entertainment Weekly called "The Hunger Games meets Squid Game"--now in English for the first time! A COSMOPOLITAN BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR * A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST...
The employees : a workplace novel of the 22nd century
Ravn, Olga
Paper Book
"Is this a human problem? If so, Id like to keep it. The crew of the Six-Thousand Ship consists of those who were born, and those who were made. Those who will die, and those who will not. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew is perplexed to find...
On a woman's madness
Roemer, Astrid
Paper Book
A FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE On a Woman's Madness tells the story of Noenka, a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her own choosing. When her abusive husband of just nine days refuses her...
Love
rstavik, Hanne
Paper Book
Love is the story of Vibeke and Jon, a mother and son who have just moved to a small place in the north of Norway. It's the day before Jon's birthday, and a travelling carnival has come to the village. Jon goes out to sell lottery tickets for his sports club, and Vibeke is going to the library. From...
Frankenstein in Baghdad : a novel
Sa?da?wi?, Ah?mad
Paper Book
International Booker Prize finalist Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction "Brave and ingenious." --The New York Times "Gripping, darkly humorous . . . profound." --Phil Klay, bestselling author and National Book Award winner for...
The last wish
Sapkowski, Andrzej
Paper Book
The most secret memory of men
Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2023 by the New York Times and The New Yorker and Longlisted for the National Book Award A gripping literary mystery in the vein of Bolaño's Savage Detectives, this coming-of-age novel unravels the fascinating life of a maligned Black author,...
The café with no name
Seethaler, Robert
Paper Book
A NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BEST-SELLER A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE A vibrant tale of love, companionship, and renewal set against the transformations of 1960s Vienna. "How I loved this book! Filled with truth after truth, poignantly rendered and given to us with tender...
El murmullo de las abejas
Segovia, Sofía
Paper Book
En Linares, al norte del país, con la Revolución mexicana como telón de fondo... Un buen día, la vieja nana de la familia Morales abandona sorpresivamente un reposo que parecía eterno para perderse en el monte. Cuando la encuentran, sostiene dos pequeños bultos, uno en cada brazo: de un...
Sad tiger
Sinno, Neige
Paper Book
Winner of multiple prizes, Neige Sinno has created a powerful literary form with Sad Tiger, a book that took France by storm and is an international phenomenon. "Reading Sad Tiger is like descending into an abyss with your eyes open. It forces you to see, to really see,...
The perfect nanny
Slimani, Lel?a
Paper Book
*Soon to be an HBO series starring Nicole Kidman and Maya Erskine* She has the keys to their apartment. She knows everything. She has embedded herself so deeply in their lives that it now seems impossible to remove her. One of the 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR of...
Herkunft
Stanišić, Saša
Paper Book
Crossing
Statovci, Pajtim
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST From the acclaimed author of My Cat Yugoslavia: a stunning, incandescent new novel that speaks to identity, war, exile, love, betrayal, and heartbreak The death of head of state Enver Hoxha and the loss of his father leave Bujar...
In memory of memory : a romance
Stepanova, Marii︠a︡
Paper Book
With the death of her aunt, the narrator is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia. Carefully reassembled with calm, steady hands, these shards tell the story of how...
The door
Szabó, Magda
Paper Book
"A young writer, struggling for success, employs an elderly woman called Emerence to be her housekeeper.From their first encounter it is clear that Emerence is no ordinary maid.Although everyone in the neighbourhood knows and respects her, no one knows anything about her private life or has ever...
Scattered all over the earth
Tawada, Yōko
Paper Book
Welcome to the not-too-distant future: Japan, having vanished from the face of the earth, is now remembered as "the land of sushi." Hiruko, its former citizen and a climate refugee herself, has a job teaching immigrant children in Denmark with her invented language Panska (Pan-Scandinavian):...
A country for dying : a novel
Taïa, Abdellah
Paper Book
An exquisite novel of North Africans in Paris by "one of the most original and necessary voices in world literature" WINNER OF THE 2021 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE Paris, Summer 2010. Zahira is 40 years old, Moroccan, a prostitute, traumatized by her father's...
The neighborhood : a novel
Vargas Llosa, Mario
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE A thrilling tale of desire and Peruvian corruption swirls around a scandalous exposé that leads to murder From the Nobel Laureate comes a politically charged detective novel weaving through the underbelly of Peruvian...
Mother River
Xue, Can
Paper Book
The thirteen stories in this collection are vintage Can Xue. Similar to her novels (The Last Lover, Frontier) and other collections (Vertical Motion) the focus is less on what happens and more on the experience of reading. Mother River is a short bildungsroman of a young man who decides to become a...
The picture bride
Yi, KÅ­m-i
Paper Book
Winner of the Nautilus Award for Historical Fiction "Lee Geum-yi has a gift for taking little-known embers of history and transforming them into moving, compelling, and uplifting stories. The Picture Bride is the ultimate story of the power of friendship--a must read...
Six four
Yokoyama, Hideo
Paper Book
*Shortlisted for the 2016 CWA International Dagger* READ THE MILLION-SELLING JAPANESE CRIME PHENOMENON, NOW A UK BESTSELLER. SIX FOUR. THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD...
Last rituals : a novel of suspense
Yrsa Sigurdardottir.
Paper Book
At a university in Reykjavík, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest. Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim's family isn't convinced that the right man is in custody. They ask Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, an...
We : a manifesto for women everywhere : 9 principles for a more meaningful life
Anderson, Gillian
Paper Book
Imagine a sisterhood - across all creeds and cultures. An unspoken agreement that we, as women, will support and encourage one another. That we will remember we don't know what struggles each of us may be facing elsewhere in our lives and so we will assume that each of us is doing our best... ...

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