The For Reading Addicts community is always a great place to go for reading suggestions, which is why we include you all in our polls. This month we’ve asked people to name their favourite translated novels; we don’t like to make the questions too easy! As you readers will know, translated works covers a massive breadth of literature, and as expected you answered in kind!
We can’t think of many lists that will include both Dostoevsky and Jo Nesbo, but that’s the great thing about our community. And so, according to your votes here are 40 of your favourite translated novels.
Millennium Trilogy – Stieg Larsson
The top three in our list were so close in votes there was barely anything between them, but coming in number one with the most of your votes is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the rest of the Millennium Trilogy from the late Steig Larsson.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo US
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo UK
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
Dumas received many, many mentions and makes the list twice, but it’s the dramatic, suspenseful Count of Monte Cristo that takes second place in our list.
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
As we said, there was barely anything between the top three and we complete that with the beautiful 2001 novel, The Shadow of the Wind, a worldwide bestseller.
Beowulf – Anonymous
This Old English epic poem has seen many, many translations over the years. Originally written in the West Saxon dialect of old English, some time between 700-1000 AD, it contains 3182 alliterative lines and is the oldest surviving long poem in English.
1Q84 –Haruki Murakami
Another epic, originally released in three volumes in Japanese, the novel quickly became a sensation and reached one million sales in the month of release. Murakami is another author that makes the list more than once.
Related:
Harry Hole Series – Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbo’s crime novels have been translated the world over, and the Harry Hole series is a particularly favourite with English readers.
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
It had to be there didn’t it? No list of favourite translated novels would be complete without Tolstoy’s epic War and Peace. The author also makes the list a little further down too.
The Neverending Story – Michael Ende
Though the movie popularity far outstripped the book, The Neverending story is a beautiful tale by German author Michael Ende and takes 8th place in our top ten.
The Witcher- Andrzej Sapkowski
The Witcher is a series of fantasy short stories from Polish author Andrzej Sapowski. The series has been translated into various languages, including English and the popularity of the books have spawned a series of video games, role play games and comics.
The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher US
The Last Wish: Introducing the Witcher UK
Divine Comedy – Dante
Another epic poem for our top ten and translated very many times is Dante’s Divine Comedy. Completed in 1321 it’s considered to be the preeminent work of Italian literature.
13. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
14. Les Miserables -Victor Hugo
15. Madam Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
16. The Art of War – Sun Tzu
17. Odyssey – Homer
18. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
19. All Quiet on the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque
20. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
And the final 20 (in no particular order, all these books received the same amount of votes), making up the top 40 books voted by you are:
Fruits Basket – Natsuki Takaya
Gabriela Clove and Cinnamon – Jorge Amado
A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman
Candide – Voltaire
Don Quixote – Cervantes Saavedra
The Three Muskateers – Alexandre Dumas
Lolita – Vladimir Nabakov
The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbary
Birds without Wings – Louis de Bernieres
The Elder Edda – Various
On a Winter’s Night a Traveller -Italo Calvino
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Verne
The House of Spirits – Isabel Allende
Crime and Punishment – Dostoevsky
The Wallander Series – Henning Mankell
Norwegian Wood -Haruki Murakami
Night -Eli Wiesel
Blindness – Jose Saramago
Portrait in Sepia -Isabel Allende
in the Name of the Rose -Umberto Eco
That’s quite an eclectic list, we hope it offered you some new books to try, and maybe reminded you of a few old favourites too.
10 of 2024’s Most Anticipated Reads
The For Reading Addicts Book of the Year 2023
Are You Willing to Unite Against Book Bans?
Roald Dahl Censorship Creates Grotesque Versions of Classics
For Reading Addicts Book of the Year 2022
Hey, I just wanted to point out that it’s “Musketeers”, not Muskateers, and “The Name of the Rose”, not “In the Name of the Rose”
Cheers
Nina