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.
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...
Scaphandre et le papillon
Paper Book
We had to remove this post
Bervoets, Hanna
Paper Book
WHAT IS "NORMAL"? WHAT IS "RIGHT"? AND WHO GETS TO DECIDE? To be a content moderator is to see humanity at its worst--but Kayleigh needs money. So she takes a job working for a social media platform whose name she isn't allowed to mention. Her task: review offensive videos...
Humankind : a hopeful history
Bregman, Rutger
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The "lively" (The New Yorker), "convincing" (Forbes), and "riveting pick-me-up we all need right now" (People) that proves humanity thrives in a crisis and that our innate kindness and...
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982. [online electronic book]
Cho, Nam-ju, 1978-
Ebook
The runaway bestseller that has sold over one million copies internationally, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is the most important book to have come out of South Korea since Han Kang's The Vegetarian. Kim Jiyoung is the most common name for Korean women born in the 1980s.
Disoriental. [online electronic book]
Djavadi, Negar, 1969-
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...
Hiver ♭a Sokcho
Paper Book
Hope : The Autobiography
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Pope Francis originally intended this exceptional book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now. Hope is the first autobiography...
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...
Red queen
Gómez-Jurado, Juan
Paper Book
"Pacing of the breakneck variety. Short chapters, funny asides, lethally potent descriptions: They all contribute to a frenetic page-turning momentum... you'll have great fun reading it." --The New York Times Book Review The #1 International bestseller is now...
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
Ichikawa, Sa o
LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2025 Born with a congenital muscle disorder, Shaka Isawa has severe spine curvature and uses an electric wheelchair and ventilator. Within the limits of her care home, her life is lived online- she studies, she tweets indignantly, she...
Ahiahia the orphan
Illuitok, Levi
Paper Book
After his parents are brutally murdered, Ahiahia is raised by his grandmother in a camp surrounded by enemies. His grandmother knows that eventually the camp will turn on Ahiahia, just as it did his parents, so she chants a protection chant over the clothing that she lovingly sews for him, over the...
The Kamogawa food detectives
Kashiwai, Hisashi
Paper Book
The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first book in the bestselling, mouth-watering Japanese 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...
Before the coffee gets cold : a novel
Kawaguchi, Toshikazu
Paper Book
*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER* *AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* The first book in the five million-copy bestselling magical realism series If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet? ...
Under the eye of the big bird
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.
The life-changing magic of tidying up : the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing
Kond , Marie
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The book that sparked a revolution and inspired the hit Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo: the original guide to decluttering your home once and for all. ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE--CNN<...
Eurotrash
Kracht, Christian
A probing masterpiece-in-miniature of self-reflection and cultural reckoning. The Times [UK] * 12 Best Books of 2024 Financial Times * Best Books of 2024 [Fiction in Translation] A Vanity Fair "Can't Miss Novel to Read" Literary...
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...
Night train to Lisbon
Mercier, Pascal
Paper Book
Raimund Gregorius teaches classical languages at a Swiss lycée, and lives a life governed by routine. One day, a chance encounter with a Portuguese woman inspires him to question his life--and leads him to an extraordinary book that will open the possibility of changing it. Inspired by the...
Novelist as a vocation /
Murakami, Haruki, 1949-
Paper Book
A charmingly idiosyncratic look at writing, creativity, and the author's own novels, from the beloved and best-selling author of1Q84 and Norwegian Wood. In this engaging book, the internationallybest-selling author and famously private writer Haruki Murakami shares...
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...
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...
Suite Francaise.
Nemirovsky, Irene, 1903-1942.
Paper Book
Suite Françaiseis both a brilliant novel of wartime and an extraordinary historical document. An unmatched evocation of the exodus from Paris after the German invasion of 1940, and of life under the Nazi occupation, it was written by the esteemed French novelist Irène Némirovsky as events unfolded...
The colony
Norlin, Annika
NEW YORK TIMES 100 NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 NPR BEST BOOK OF 2025 BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2025 A mega best-seller in Sweden, with rights sold to over a dozen countries and a TV adaptation underway, Annika Norlin's debut novel The Colony is the biggest Swedish literary...
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...
Employees : A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century
Paper Book
Now in paperback, The Employees chronicles the fate of the interstellar Six-Thousand Ship. The human and humanoid crew members complain about their daily tasks in a series of staff reports and memos. When the ship takes on a number of strange objects from the planet New Discovery, the crew becomes...
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
Geralt the Witcher--revered and hated--holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in this collection of adventures, the first chapter in Andrzej Sapkowski's groundbreaking epic fantasy series that inspired the hit Netflix show and the blockbuster video games. ...
The murmur of bees
Segovia, Sofa?
Paper Book
From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel--her first to be translated into English--about a mysterious child with the power to change a family's history in a country on the verge of revolution. From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a...
Triste tigre
Sinno, Neige
Ebook
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...
In memory of memory.
Stepanova, Mariia
Paper Book
Winner of the 2023 Berman Literature Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Dublin Literary Prize Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Awards: Translated Literature Longlisted for the 2021 Bailie Gifford Prize Winner of the...
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, 1957-
Paper Book
SIX FOUR. THE NIGHTMARE NO PARENT COULD ENDURE. THE CASE NO DETECTIVE COULD SOLVE. THE TWIST NO READER COULD PREDICT. For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their...
Last rituals : an Icelandic novel of secret symbols, medieval witchcraft, and modern murder
Yrsa Sigura?rdt?tir.
Paper Book
The spellbinding debut and international sensation being published in thirty countries featuring Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, a smart, sexy lawyer and investigator whose hunt for a modern murderer points to a very odd--and evil--chapter in Iceland's past After the body of a young German student-...

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