Notable authors recently translated into English

Every few years, the Nobel Prize in Literature gives a non-English-speaking author a few days in the limelight, but it is rare that his or her works reach the kind of audience that they deserve. Of course, limited exposure can largely be blamed on the language barrier–publishers sometimes wait years, watching sales for a particular book in its native language before buying rights to a translation, and then even once they’ve been translated, they are hard to find. Unless we’re talking about Steig Larson.

If you’ve come across others, please share!

Some recent favorites:

Ismail Kadare (Albanian)–The Palace of Dreams

Orhan Pamuk (Turkish)–The Black Book and The Museum of Innocence

Carlos Ruíz Zafón (Spanish)–The Shadow of the Wind and The Angels Game

Pascal Mercier (Swiss)–Night Train to Lisbon