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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Celestial bodies : a novel
Alharthi, Jokha
Paper Book
We know you remember : a novel
Alsterdal, Tove
Paper Book
From Swedish crime sensation Tove Asterdal: immerse yourself in the long summer days of this claustrophobic community as detective Eira Sjodin takes on a case guaranteed to keep you guessing to the end.
I want to die but I want to eat tteokbokki
Baek, Sehee
Paper Book
**THE SEQUEL I WANT TO DIE BUT I STILL WANT TO EAT TTEOKBOKKI OUT NOW** THE PHENOMENAL SUNDAY TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER | TRANSLATED BY INTERNATIONAL BOOKER SHORTLISTEE ANTON HUR 'Will strike a chord with anyone who...
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
'A superbly poised, psychologically astute and subtle novel of mental unravelling.' Ian McEwan, author of AtonementTo be a content moderator is to see humanity at its worst -- but Kayleigh needs money. That's why she takes a job working for a social media platform whose name she isn't allowed to...
Humankind : a hopeful history
Bregman, Rutger
Paper Book
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - FROM THE 2025 BBC REITH LECTURER A Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and Daily Express Book of the Year 'Hugely, highly and happily recommended' Stephen Fry 'You should...
The good son
Ch ng, Yu-j ng
Paper Book
'For fans of Jo Nesbo and Patricia Highsmith' A. J. Finn, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window YOU WAKE UP COVERED IN BLOOD THERE'S A BODY DOWNSTAIRS YOUR MOTHER'S BODY YOU DIDN'T DO...
The midnight shift
Cheon, Seon-Ran
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
Cho, Nam-ju
Paper Book
The multi-million copy selling, international bestseller Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the South Korean sensation that has got the whole world talking. The life story of one young woman born at the end of the twentieth century raises questions about endemic misogyny and...
The remembered soldier
Daanje, Anjet
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST THE NEW YORK TIMES100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES"The Best Historical Fiction Novels to Read Right Now" PUBLISHERS WEEKLY2025 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'A novel of epic scope that resonates powerfully while wars of tragic loss...
The Meursault investigation
Daoud, Kamel.
Ebook
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<...
Hope : the autobiography
Francis, Pope
Paper Book
The wish of Pope Francis was for HOPE, on which he has been working for six years, to be published posthumously. However, with the Jubilee Year of Hope coming in 2025 and the pressing needs of our times have urged Pope Francis to share this personal legacy now. HOPE is the...
Your second life begins when you realize you only have one
Giordano, Raphaëlle
Paper Book
OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD THE RUNAWAY BESTSELLER Fall in love with the inspiring, emotional and feel-good story of one woman's life-changing journey to happiness. Perfect for fans of Fredrik Backman, Matt Haig and Before the Coffee Gets Cold. 'I...
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
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND NOW A MAJOR RADIO 4 DRAMA 'One of the great novels of the 20th century, and now published in English for the first time' Observer 'A gripping panorama of the human experience' Kenneth Branagh ...
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 : a novel
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
From the author of Strange Weather in Tokyo comes this funny, heartwarming story about love, life, and human relationships that features a delightfully offbeat cast of characters. Objects for sale at the Nakano Thrift Shop appear as commonplace as the staff and customers that handle them....
Under the eye of the big bird : a novel
Kawakami, Hiromi
Paper Book
An inventive and immersive speculative novel about a future in which humans are nearing extinction - from the bestselling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo.
Baron Wenckheim's homecoming
Krasznahorkai, László
Paper Book
The three-body problem
Liu, Cixin.
Paper Book
Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon - soon to be a Netflix Original Series from the creators of Game of Thrones. 1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular...
The djinn's apple
Morani, Djamila
Paper Book
Historical fiction meets crime fiction in The Djinn's Apple, an award-winning YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid period--the golden age of Baghdad. A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript. When Nardeen's home is stormed by angry...
Novelist as a vocation
Murakami, Haruki
Paper Book
A unique look into the mind of a master storyteller. In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the...
Heart Lamp: Selected Stories
Mushtaq, Banu
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...
The cat who saved books : a novel
Natsukawa, So?suke
Paper Book
Grandpa used to say it all the time: books have tremendous power. But what is that power really?Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his...
Suite fran?ise
Nm?irovsky, Irn?e
Paper Book
**AS FEATURED IN HRH THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL'S BOOK CLUB, THE READING ROOM** 'A masterpiece' The Sunday Times In 1941, Ir ne Nemirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through by evoking the domestic lives...
My name is Red
Pamuk, Orhan
Paper Book
Beautiful repackage of the Nobel Prize-winner's classic novel.
Snowglobe
Park, Soyoung
Paper Book
Discover the groundbreaking Korean YA thriller, for fans of Squid Game, Black Mirror and The Hunger Games! WHEN YOU'RE INSIDE, THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING . . . Raised in a climate-ravaged, frozen world, every day is a struggle for survival for...
Frankenstein in Baghdad : a novel
Sa?da?wi?, Ah?mad
Paper Book
  WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION WINNER OF THE KITSCHIES GOLDEN TENTACLE AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE
The last wish
Sapkowski, Andrzej.
Paper Book
Geralt is a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. He...
The most secret memory of men
Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar
Paper Book
Paris, 2018. Diegane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers a legendary book titled The Maze of Inhumanity. It has an immediate hold over him. No one knows what happened to the author, T.C. Elimane, who was accused of plagiarism, his reputation destroyed by the critics. ...
The café with no name
Seethaler, Robert
Paper Book
The German bestselling author of A Whole Life returns with a captivating historical tale set in post-war Vienna
The perfect nanny
Slimani, Lel?a
Paper Book
The number-one bestseller and winner of the Prix Goncourt - a compulsive, riveting and bravely observed exploration of power, class, race, domesticity and motherhood.
The neighborhood : a novel
Vargas Llosa, Mario
Paper Book
A thrilling tale of desire and Peruvian corruption from the world-renowned Nobel Laureate.
Six four
Yokoyama, Hideo
Paper Book
'This novel is a real, out-of-the-blue original. I've never read anything like it' New York Times Book Review THE MILLION-SELLING JAPANESE CRIME PHENOMENON, NOW A UK BESTSELLER. SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER. NAMED IN NEW YORK...

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