August is Women in Translation (WIT) Month.  Launched in 2014 by Meytal Radzinski, WIT Month was created in response to Radzinski’s observation that only 30% of books published in translation were by women.  Translated works allow us to be more inclusive of writers from different cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds.  Over the years, Radzinski has included and emphasized works from marginalized women (and transgender, nonbinary, or intersex) writers.

2023 Translated Books by Women Writers

The Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes, Translated by Ann Goldstein

Italian-Cuban feminist Alba de Céspedes’s classic domestic novel, which centers the inner life of a dissatisfied housewife living in postwar Rome.

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You Will Never Be Found by Tove Alsterdal, Translated by Alice Menzies 

In this Nordic noir, Detective Eira Sjodin races to solve a disappearance that hits chillingly close to home.

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Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, Translated by Megan McDowell 

A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in this debut novel from the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.

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Evil Flowers by Gunnhild Øyehaug, Translated by Kari Dickson

A collection of playfully surreal stories about love, death, and metamorphosis.

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Ada’s Room by Sharon Dodua Otoo, Translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi

A kaleidoscopic novel spanning generations and continents, that reveals the connections between four women in their struggle for survival.

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I Went To See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin, Translated by Anton Hur

An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom; centering on a woman’s efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets.

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First Comes Summer by Maria Hesselager, Translated by Martin Aitken 

Winding seamlessly between the psychological and the mythological, the spellbinding story of a young woman’s dangerous passion as it plays out over the course of an eerie summer.

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Mothers’ Instinct by Barbara Abel, Translated by Susan Pickford

Soon to be a major US motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, Mothers’ Instinct is a dark, twisty domestic thriller in which the bond between two couples—best friends and next-door neighbors—mutates in dangerous and deadly ways in the wake of a tragic accident.

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My Men by Victoria Kielland, Translated by Damion Searls

Based on the true story of Norwegian maid Belle Gunness, 19th-century America’s most notorious serial killer with a body count of at least 14 men. My Men is a fictional account of one broken woman’s descent into inescapable madness.

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Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica, Translated by Sarah Moses 

A collection of nineteen dark, wildly imaginative short stories from the author of the award-winning TikTok sensation Tender Is the Flesh.

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Watch Us Dance by Leila Slimani, Translated by Sam Taylor

The rebellions within an interracial family play out against the countercultural rebellions of the 1960s in this sexy, stylish, sophisticated new novel by the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny and In the Country of Others.

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My Husband by Maud Ventura, Translated by Emma Ramadan

In this suspenseful and darkly funny French bestseller, one woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband—but can their marriage survive her passionate love?

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The Forest Brims Over by Maru Ayase, Translated by Haydn Trowell

A woman turns herself into a forest after long being co-opted to serve as the subject of her husband’s novels—this surrealist fable challenges traditional gender attitudes and exploitation in the literary world.

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How to Love Your Daughter by Hila Blum, Translated by Daniella Zamir

The seemingly inexplicable estrangement between a woman and her grown daughter opens up a troubling question: What damage do we do in the blindness of love?

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The End of August by Yu Miri, Translated by Morgan Giles

From the National Book Award winning author, an extraordinary, ground-breaking, epic multi-generational novel about a Korean family living under Japanese occupation.

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The Details by Ia Genberg, Translated by Kira Josefsson

An acclaimed Swedish author makes her English language debut with this intoxicating novel in the vein of Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti, about a woman in the throes of a fever remembering the important people in her past, her memories laid bare in vivid detail as her body temperature rises.

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The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa, Philip Gabriel

In the much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling and beloved The Travelling Cat Chronicles, seven cats weave their way through their owners’ lives, climbing, comforting, nestling, and sometimes just tripping everyone up in this uplifting collection of tales by international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa.

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What do you think of these translated books by women writers?

Have you read any of these 2023 translated books by women writers?  What are some of your favorite 2023 translated books written by women?  Let me know your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions about books by women in translation in the comments below!