The 100 Best Novels in Translation

Following the great success of Robert McCrum’s selection of the 100 Best Novels in English, Galileo is very happy to announce the next book in this series which takes the same approach but with great works of fiction which have originated in foreign languages.

The selection is made by Boyd Tonkin, who is uniquely placed to choose these 100 titles.  Not only was he Literary Editor of Tbe Independent newspaper but he started the prestigious Independent Foreign Fiction Prize which ran from 1990 until 2015 before becoming part of the Man Booker awards.

He has made an extraordinary selection of ‘classics’ ranging from the well known authors such as Proust, Dostoyesky, Sartre, Cervantes, Nabokov, Marquez, Kundera etc, to name just a handful, to lesser known, but no less deserving, authors writing in languages from every corner of the earth. For each selection he has written a commentary on the plot and theme of the work concerned, as well as writing about the merits of the particular translation(s) into the English language. The works are arranged in date order of publication, and are not ranked in any other way.

The result is a rich tapestry of the best fiction from around the world that will surely accelerate the recent trend towards a more outward looking approach to what we read. It is both a work of reference but as importantly a book that can read from cover to cover with huge enjoyment.

Ian McEwan: “This is a brilliant and extremely useful guide, approachable on every level. Boyd Tonkin opens up infinite worlds of the imagination.”

Author

BOYD TONKIN is a writer, journalist and critic who chaired the judging panel of the UK’s Man Booker International Prize in 2016, and is now Special Adviser to the prize. He writes on books and arts for international media including The Economist, The Financial Times, The Spectator and New Scientist, for the Boundless and Arts Desk websites, and contributes to BBC radio. He is also a Trustee of the Orwell Foundation. At The Independent, where he was Literary Editor and then Senior Writer between 1996 and 2016, he re-founded the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2001, and co-judged it until its merger in 2015 with the Man Booker International Prize. Boyd Tonkin studied literature at Cambridge University, lives and works in London, and has interviewed leading authors, and reported on literary and cultural topics, in 35 countries.