The Brown Brontë

  August is Women in Translation Month, a month dedicated to recognising women’s writing translated into English. I read several languages, but not all of them as well as I would like, and I often feel like I’m missing out on incredible writing just because it happens to be in a language I don’t know. In an ideal universe I would be equally fluent in any language I fancy, and devour beautiful, powerful, striking fiction from all over the world. But alas, I’m not the polyglot I would like to be, and so reading books in translation is the next-best thing. Here I share with you some of the titles which I’ve read in the past year and a couple of others which I included just because. Prayers For the Stolen, Jennifer Clement, translated by Jennifer Clement: Told through the eyes of Ladydi, a sixteen-year-old girl living in rural southern Mexico, in a community living under the shadow of cartels. The menfolk in her tiny village have mostly fled to the US and the women disguise their y

I was so excited to receive a copy of this book to review; it was a perfect book to read for South Asian Heritage Month, as it delves into a history that many of us know nothing about.  Imtiaz has been adopted by the Joseph family, who live in an interesting house consisting of a community hub for refugees on the ground floor called the Hearth, and a whimsical home on the 'Top Deck', designed like a ship. She isn’t sure what to make of her new sister, Usha, who seems distracted and withdrawn after the death of her grandmother, Kali Ma. But when their Hearth and home are threatened by locals who don’t want refugees in the area, the two girls are drawn into a journey to uncover the hidden history of the house - and of the ayahs of long ago who once took refuge there. In this middle-grade historical mystery with a sprinkling of the supernatural, Sita Brahmachari takes you on a wonderful odyssey of secrets, unravelling mysteries of the past and bringing forgotten histories to