For readers seeking to traverse borders through literature, 2025 offers a particularly rich selection of translated fiction. From the haunting prose of a Nobel laureate to searing narratives from postwar Iraq, this year's standout works demonstrate the vital power of stories in translation to connect us with diverse human experiences.
A Nobel Laureate's Mesmerising Return
Han Kang, the Korean writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024, returns with a profound new novel titled We Do Not Part. Translated by e yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, the book masterfully blends the surreal elements of The Vegetarian with the political depth of Human Acts. The story follows Kyungha, a writer grappling with a health crisis, who agrees to care for a hospitalised friend's pet bird. That friend, Inseon, is a filmmaker dedicated to exposing historical massacres in Korea.
The narrative pivots around a breathtaking sequence, described as existing "between dream and reality", where Kyungha, blinded by snow, stumbles towards Inseon's rural home and finds herself in ghostly company. As the pace slows and physical pain converges with psychic anguish, the story becomes utterly immersive. Critics are suggesting this may be Han Kang's finest work to date.
Time Loops and Philosophical Thrills
Danish author Solvej Balle presents a uniquely philosophical take on the time-loop narrative in On the Calculation of Volume I and II, translated by Barbara J Haveland. This is no comic Groundhog Day. Protagonist Tara Selter, a book dealer, finds each day repeating the eighteenth of November. Her journey is one of quiet introspection as she seeks to understand her place in the world and how lives can subtly drift.
Initially, she attempts to simulate the passage of seasons by travelling between warm and cold cities. This is just the beginning of a planned septology. By the end of the second volume, tantalising cracks begin to appear in the hermetic world Balle has constructed, leaving readers eager for the next five instalments.
Cinema and Complicity Under the Nazis
German author Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin, delivers a gripping historical epic in The Director. The novel explores the real-life moral dilemma of acclaimed film director GW Pabst. After working in 1930s Hollywood, surrounded by sycophants and egos like Fritz Lang, Pabst returns to Europe to visit his ill mother. Trapped in Austria after war breaks out, his artistic ambition collides with grim reality: he can only make films with the approval of the Nazi regime.
Kehlmann transforms this biographical quandary into a full-blooded and entertaining saga. The narrative is stolen by a cast of vivid secondary characters, from Pabst's fascist-sympathiser son, Jakob, to the "skull-like smile" of Leni Riefenstahl, and even a surprising cameo from prisoner of war PG Wodehouse as a chapter narrator.
Scandinavian Fire and Fury
In stark contrast to Balle's cool reflection, Danish writer Asta Olivia Nordenhof offers a hot and eccentric energy in Money to Burn/The Devil Book, translated by Caroline Waight. This is another ambitious septology-in-progress, loosely orbiting a tragic 1990 passenger ferry fire that killed 159 people—a potential insurance scam.
Harnessing rage against capitalism, which it labels "a massacre", the books spiral into interconnected tales of love, rape, mental illness, and art. The prose is energising and thrilling, akin to "a normal novel with all the boring bits taken out". Nordenhof actively involves the reader, writing: "I mean really / I can't / do the whole thing / by myself."
Laughter in the Face of Horror
Finally, Hassan Blasim's Sololand, translated by Jonathan Wright, presents three essential novellas of life in and exiled from postwar Iraq. Here, laughter is wielded as the best response to horror. The opening story sets the tone: a pharmacist closes her shop, weary of Islamic State fighters asking for Viagra—a darkly comic detail that chills upon reflection of its potential use.
In another tale, a young man managing a militia leader's email account falls for a female admirer. Elsewhere, the brutal reality of fundamentalism invades even literature, as library books are soaked with blood dripping from an IS killing floor above. Blasim's work is a powerful testament to the survival of stories amidst chaos, making it all the more crucial to read.
This quintet of translated works for 2025 proves that some of the most compelling and urgent storytelling continues to reach English-language audiences through the skilled work of translators. Each book offers a distinct portal into another world, reminding us of literature's unique capacity for empathy and understanding.
