30 Notable Books by Women in Translation for 2025

Reader. Dreamer. Writer.

Every year August is celebrated as Women in Translation month. This was an initiative launched in 2014 by book blogger and scholar Meytal Radzinski. The idea is simple; to dedicate the month to read books written by women in other languages that are translated into English. If you are looking for new notable books by women in translation 2025, here you go.

Books by Women in Translation 2025

This is a mix of everything—most of the books by women in translation on this list are on my radar. I’ve read some of these (you might see reviews on my socials) and a few are anticipated releases. Note that this is a personal list of titles that appeal the most to me, or have been recommended by my trusted sources. This is by no means a definitive list of translations published in 2025. I encourage you to look for more lists curating books by women in translation. This list includes a mix of genres—literary, dystopian, horror and more. I hope you find some good choices to add to your reading pile this month. Comment if I have missed a translation that you are keen to read in 2025.
Onto the list,

1. The Dilemmas of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto

Translated from Japanese by Brian Bergstrom
“Five wickedly funny stories spotlighting clear-eyed and “difficult” women who are navigating their identities as workers and women in contemporary Japan—a feminist, anti-capitalist modern classic.”

Short Stories

2. Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq

Translated from Kannada (India) by Deepa Bhasthi
Heart Lamp is the winner of the International Booker Prize 2025. “In 12 stories, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India.”

Short stories, Literary fiction

3. There’s No Turning Back by Alba de Céspedes

Translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein
This coming-of-age novel was banned by the Italian Fascist regime when it was first published in 1938, about eight women with radically different backgrounds who attend the same college in Rome.

Historical fiction

4. Make Me Famous by Maud Ventura

Translated from French by Gretchen Schmid
Taking place between New York, Paris, Los Angeles, and the South Pacific, this novel explores one woman’s complicated mind, and her relentless pursuit of fame. “Daisy Jones and the Six meets Patricia Highsmith.”

Literary fiction/Thriller

5. Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami

Translated from Japanese by by Asa Yoneda
Shortlisted for International Booker Prize 2025, Under the Eye of the Big Bird is “an inventive and immersive speculative novel about a future in which humans are nearing extinction.”

Speculative fiction, Dystopian fiction

Also Read: Modern Japanese stories

6. There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem

Translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
In 1980s Réunion, the legacy of postcolonialism, a little girl makes tries to escape her sadistic parents’ reign of terror. Monsters lurk beneath the surface of vibrant island life, ready to pounce at the slightest disturbance.”

Historical fiction

7. The Owl, the River, the Valley by Arupa Patangia Kalita

Translated from Assamese (India) by Mitra Phukan
“Contemporary women in Assam take centerstage in issues like surrogacy, migration, living in a colonial legacy, employment, and history.”

Short stories, Literary fiction

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8. Restoration by Ave Barrera

Translated from Spanish by Ellen Jones and Robin Myers
“A novel of obsession, reclamation, and romance gone very, very wrong.”

Literary fiction
To be published in August, 2025

9. The Colony by Annika Norlin

Translated from Swedish by Alice E. Olsson
Winner of the Vi Literature Award and Swedish Radio’s Novel Prize, two of Sweden’s biggest literary awards. About contemporary society and its alternatives—Emelie leaves town to spend a few days in the country and meets seven people there.

Literary fiction

10. Counterattacks at Thirty by Sohn Won-Pyung

Translated from Korean by Sean Lin Halbert
“The Devil Wears Prada meets The Office in this witty, humane, and ultimately transformative story of a group of young workers who rebel against the status quo.’

11. Elevent Percent by Maren Uthaug

Translated from Danish
“An inverse The Handmaid’s Tale that asks: What if women took over the world?”

Dystopian fiction

12. A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre

Translated from French by Mark Hutchinson
“The story of an intense friendship between the narrator and his close childhood friend, Fanny, who suffers from profound psychological disorders.” Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.

Literary fiction

14. Blowfish by Kyung-ran Jo

Translated from Korean by Chi-Young Kim
“A melancholic novel about a successful sculptor who decides to commit suicide by artfully preparing and deliberately eating a lethal dish of blowfish.” Set in the heterogeneous urban spaces of Seoul and Tokyo.

Literary Fiction

15. Land of Mirrors by María Medem

Translated by Aleshia Jensen and Daniela Ortiz
“A heartfelt meditation on loneliness, friendship, and the transformative power of love.”

Graphic novel, Magical realism

16. A Perfect Day to Be Alone by Nanae Aoyama

Translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood
“This touching, subtly funny novel evokes the daily struggles and hopes of two women from different generations.”

Literary fiction

17. We Do Not Part by Han Kang

Translated from Korean by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
“The story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history.”

Historical Fiction

18. Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

Translated from German by Michael Hofmann
Winner of the International Booker Prize 2024. “An intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history.”

Literary fiction, Historical fiction

Also Read: Summer Reading List 2025

19. Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

Translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori
Imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination.

Dystopian fiction/Sci-fic

Also Read: Japan Litv : Joy of routine, a strange love and a dystopian tale

20. The Many Lives Of Pauloma Chattopadhyay by Devangi Bhatt

Translated from Gujrati by Mudra Joshi
This is the story of Pauloma Chattopadhyay, a middle-aged housewife living in Kolkata. “When an old earthen vessel in the storeroom of her house transports Pauloma to different worlds (Egypt, Germany, Gujrat), the rules of time and space are suspended, puncturing the mundanity of routine.”

Magical realism

21. Keeru by Fuzia Rafique

Translated from Punjabi by Haider Shahbaz
Keeru has escaped from Pakistan, where he was hounded for his caste, to Canada. He becomes a small business owner in Canada. ‘Told from the perspectives of five characters, each tormented by their past and desperately in pursuit of a home, Keeru tells queer and feminist stories as it overturns familiar tropes about migration and family.”

Literary fiction

22. Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland

Translated from Norwegian
“The world has been overrun by hitherto unknown beasts. Society has the power is gone, cars are abandoned across the highways, and anyone left is hiding from the terrifying creatures—and each other. Thirteen-year-old Abdi and his five-year-old sister Alva are on the run, their last hope to escape through the forest and to the sea.”

YA Horror

23. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

Translated by Martin Aitken
Set in 1700s, based on real witch trials in Northern Jutland, The Wax Child tells the story of a noblewoman accused of witchcraft, narrated by a wax doll tied to her fate.

Horror

24. Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura

Translated from Japanese by Yuki Tejima
“A suspenseful magical realism novel about a mysterious teenage “Go-Between” who arranges meetings between the living and the dead.”

Magical Realism

25. Discontent by Beatriz Serrano

Translated from Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem
About a malcontented young woman in Spain whose carefully crafted office persona threatens to crack when she’s forced to attend her company’s annual retreat.
To be published in September, 2025

26. Mudritha by Jissa Jose

Translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil
Set in contemporary Kerala, Mudritha explores women’s lives: their desires, ambitions, love, anger, and attempts to resist and rise above the encroachment over their bodies and souls.
To be published in 2025.

Literary fiction

27. Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin

Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell
“Guilt, grief and relationships severed permeate this mesmerizing collection – but so do unspeakable bonds of family, love and longing, each sinister and beautiful.”
One of my highly anticipated books by women in translation 2025

Short stories, Literary fiction, Horror

28. On the Banks of the Pampa by Volga

Translated from Telugu by Purnima Tammireddy
The concluding volume in Volga’s trilogy of feminist retellings of the Indian epics tells the story of Sabari from the Ramayana.

29. Discretion by Faïza Guène

Translated from French by Sarah Ardizonne
Moving between Algeria and Paris, Discretion touchingly evokes the realities of a first- and second-generation family as they carve out a future for themselves in France, finding one another as they go along.

Literary fiction

20. House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk

Translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
A woman settles in a remote Polish village—that teems with stories of the living and the dead—where she knows no one.
To be published in December, 2025

Literary fiction