The 2021 CAT Holiday Gift Guide
Here we are again steadily approaching the holidays. In the spirit of the season and of celebration, we offer this: a gift guide from all of us here at the Center.
Another pandemic year, another pandemic holiday season. We’re thankful to focus on more manageable—and more exciting!—things for the moment. This Holiday Gift Guide for example. Featuring book recommendations from the CAT staff, a mix of our own books and books from publishers we admire, here’s hoping our Holiday Gift Guide makes your holiday shopping just a little bit easier and a lot more literary.
All things considered, we had a phenomenal year thanks to books such as The Interim by Wolfgang Hilbig (translated from German by Isabel Fargo Cole); Kaya Days by Carl de Souza (translated from French by Jeffery Zuckerman); and Slipping by Mohamed Kheir (translated from Arabic by Robin Moger). Cuíer: Queer Brazil and Elemental: Earth Stories joined the Calico Series. Elvira Navarro’s Rabbit Island, translated by Christina MacSweeney, landed on the National Book Award for Translated Literature longlist. We had the incredible opportunity to publish two English-language debuts: Maria Judite de Carvalho’s brilliant Empty Wardrobes, translated by Margaret Jull Costa, and Bruno Lloret’s category-defying Nancy, translated by Ellen Jones, which taught us that an x on a page is never just an x on a page.
Throughout this list you’ll find links to independent booksellers. We encourage you to support them this holiday. It’s been another tough year for booksellers, and we need them for many, many more. Thank you, as ever, for reading through it all with us! We promise we’ve got good things coming in 2022. Stay tuned.
Michael Holtmann, Executive Director & Publisher
Slipping by Mohamed Kheir, translated from Arabic by Robin Moger (Two Lines Press)
“Oh, how I treasure this slim book. Although Mohamed Kheir throws you into the middle of things—you might not know how to situate yourself at first in this disorienting Egyptian road novel—each vignette is beautifully evocative and strange; I loved encountering these magical spaces. Seif, the book’s protagonist, a seasoned journalist, pieces together a narrative that offers a moving glimpse of life after the Arab Spring.”
The Annotated Arabian Nights, translated from Arabic by Yasmine Seale (Liveright)
“As an admirer of beautiful books, this new translation of the Arabian Nights, which features comprehensive annotations and gorgeous artwork, much of it from Persia and the Arab World, is a staggering achievement. I’m fascinated by Paulo Lemos Horta’s literary scholarship—his book Marvellous Thieves: Secret Authors of the Arabian Nights is stirring reading—and Jasmine Seale’s translation positively sings.”
CJ Evans, Editor-in-Chief
Lion Cross Point by Masatsugu Ono, translated from Japanese by Angus Turvill (Two Lines Press)
“We’ll be publishing Masatsugu Ono’s wonderful At the Edge of the Woods, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, in the spring, and it gave me an excuse to re-read Lion Cross Point. It’s a small story with a sad premise: a young boy has lost his mother and brother (perhaps to domestic violence, we don’t know) and must move to the coast to live with an aunt he barely knows. From there, though, he finds a community that ranges from local guys on the corner to the ghosts of his ancestors, all striving to make a new home for him. I find it nice, these days, to read a book that rests on the dark reality of life, but still manages to make space for hope, gathered from the people around us.”
Harrow by Joy Williams (Knopf)
“Joy Williams has been one of my favorite writers forever—she’s unafraid to turn suddenly in the middle of a plot and allow her characters to go someplace completely unexpected (like life, but not like many books). Harrow has her perfect mix of strange images, characters that are weird in every way but entirely believable, and just enough post-apocalyptic wasteland to keep things interesting. It also includes this sentence, which I think might be perfection: “Indeed the balconies did not look as if they would suffer to be enjoyed.”
Sarah Coolidge, Editor
Elemental: Earth Stories (Two Lines Press)
“Where else can you read about radioactive stones, flying communists, and a mountain that thinks and feels, as it’s detonated to pieces? Elemental pushes our understanding of eco-lit into new terrain by seeking out stories as diverse in style as the landscapes they describe, from the almost uninhabitable terrain of northern Norway to Madagascar’s sweltering countryside. Beyond introducing you to the rich prose of eight authors translated into dazzling English, this collection is also sure to reinstate your sense of wonder at the Earth and all we still have yet to understand about it.”
Love by Hanne Orstavik, translated from Norwegian by Martin Aitken (Archipelago Books), and Life in Space by Galina Rymbu, translated from Russian by Joan Brooks and others (Ugly Duckling Presse)
“It’s been getting cold(er) here in the Bay Area, so I’ve been particularly drawn to books best enjoyed under a thick quilt, books that get under your skin like the cold itself. Two books to absolutely read this winter are Hanne Orstavik’s Love, translated by Martin Aitken (Archipelago Books), and Galina Rymbu’s Life in Space, translated by Joan Brooks and others (Ugly Duckling Presse). Love takes place on a freezing evening in Norway and alternates between the thoughts of a single mother and those of her son, as the evening leads them down separate and disorienting experiences that include a carnival and a strange woman in a white wig. The writing is excellent, as is the translation, and I tore through it in only a couple sittings. While perhaps less obviously wintery, Life in Space dwells in factories, dreary apartments, and other spaces that feel cold from lack of attention. Rymbu’s verse unfurls in unexpected ways and explores the inseparable nature of things: politics and daily life, beauty and gore, sex and war.”
Chad Felix, Sales and Marketing Manager
Rabbit Island by Elvira Navarro, translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)
“Collecting Navarro’s short stories is a bit like luring several feral animals into a trap. Each is bursting with a terrifying energy, the impulse to escape categorization present in their every sentence intensely rendered by Christina MacSweeney. Across Rabbit Island, Navarro’s locales—wild islets off overdeveloped coastlines, mutating cities, smoke-filled hotel rooms—all describe a world of precarity (economic and spiritual), just one her primary fixations. Her characters, predominantly women approaching moments of crisis, navigate their situations cautiously, anxiously, as eventually they—and the reader—are driven to a moment of terrifying, revelatory truth. I think about these stories all the time. Perfect for fans of Bolaño, Carmen Maria Machado, and Valeria Luiselli.”
The Laurels of Lake Constance by Marie Chaix, translated from French by Harry Matthews (Dalkey Archive)
“The great French writer’s novelistic account of her father’s political awakening and eventual collaboration with the Third Reich during the German occupation of France is a brilliantly dark autofiction. If it can be said that autofictions are books in search of their subjects, books in search of their reason for existing, Chaix’s is deeply felt and known from the outset. Still, there’s no shortage of discoveries, and it’s her formal decisions and language, masterfully translated by her late partner, the writer Harry Matthews, that brings the complicated scene into painful focus: ‘On the brink of universal disaster, you put on fancy dress.’”
Jessica Sevey, Production Editor
On Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera, translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press)
“I was quietly moved by Jazmina Barrera’s thoughtful book about lighthouses and how they’ve intersected with her life and the lives of many others—artists, writers, engineers, and those lightkeepers who even now in some places shine their lights for ships and travelers. Combining essay and memoir and brilliantly translated by Christina MacSweeney, this is a jewel of a book; personal and holistic, reflective and universal.”
My Heart by Semezdin Mehmedenović, translated from Bosnian by Celia Hawkesworth (Catapult)
“My Heart is an autobiographical novel about trauma and survival—and a reflection on the writer’s life before and after the Siege of Sarajevo in Bosnia. After suffering a heart attack (at age fifty) he looks back on his experiences that include his harrowing emigration to the United States. The book’s beautiful imagery and observations about love, family, and nostalgia, all masterfully translated by Celia Hawkesworth, make this a powerful, insightful read.”
Winona Wagner, Business Manager
A Change of Time by Ida Jessen, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken (Archipelago Books)
“This is such a gorgeously atmospheric story of cold weather, simplicity, and love. Ida Jessen’s A Change of Time is the loving study of a woman with new found freedom, grappling with her self-realization. Set against the backdrop of rural Denmark in the early twentieth century, her life, and the book, are so simple, and yet they ring with a poignant humanity. All this rendered so beautifully into English by Martin Aitken.”
Erin Branagan, Communications Director
Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa (Two Lines Press)
“This book has stayed with me long after finishing it, I think because there are so few books that place women’s experience front and center in the unique way Carvalho has. Her exploration of what Kate Zambreno terms “how a woman can become a piece of furniture,” the kind of woman who “exists in the service to others but not to herself” in her introduction to the book feels both timeless and extremely timely given our current moment. The main character’s loss of self makes for a dark mood, and yet this book grips you to the last page.”
Abigail by Magda Szabó, translated from Hungarian by Len Rix (New York Review of Books)
“I read Szabó’s The Door a few years ago and loved the sense of mood and immersion in a specific place and time (Cold War-era Hungary), plus the details of a neighborhood drama. Abigail remains her most popular book in Hungary but was only published in English translation by NYRB in 2020. It tells the story of Gina, a teenage girl sent away to a strict boarding school in the Hungarian countryside as World War II rages in the background, recounting her rebellion and experiences there. The publisher calls it ‘a thrilling tale of suspense’ with echoes of Jane Austen and J.K. Rowling.’”
Olivia Sears, Founder
Cuíer, Calico Series (Two Lines Press)
“What a joy to have such a variety of queer voices all clamoring together in a single raucous volume—young poets mingling with renowned storytellers, gathered from all over Brazil. The stories, poems, and photographs offer readers glimpses of joy and sadness and rebellion and eroticism and rage. This is a book so many of us needed to read in our youth. It’s a collection that will energize and bring solace to all humans but especially to those hungry to read about queer experience outside our borders. (If you’re lucky enough to speak Portuguese you can read it all in the original as well!) Extra bonus: Cuíer is a truly gorgeous volume to display on your holiday coffee table (at least in San Francisco) and makes a great gift for anyone who loves a leafy chartreuse!”
Allegria by Giuseppe Ungaretti, translated from Italian by Geoffrey Brock (Archipelago Books)
“As winner of the 2021 National Translation Award for Poetry, this gorgeous new translation shouldn’t need a shout-out, but poetry books can always use a little more amplification. Reading this moving book in Italian in college made me want to become a translator. Lucky for all you readers, you don’t need to learn Italian to read one of Italy’s most treasured poets because Geoff Brock has rendered it in beautiful and heart-breaking English.”
Kelsey McFaul, Public Fellow
My Heart Hemmed In by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump (Two Lines Press)
“I read My Heart Hemmed In in October, and it’s quietly building unease—conjured by dense city fog, mysteriously festering wounds, and an aggressively culinary neighbor—was perfect for Halloween, or any month where it’s cold enough to curl up under a blanket to read. NDiaye crafts a woman’s re-assessment of her choices and relationships with exceptionally-keyed suspense and Jordan Stump’s English translation drips with sticky, surreal paranoia. Only these two, I think, could make me feel haunted by a steaming loaf of homemade bread with butter.”
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Dusapin, translated from French by Annesa Abbas Higgins (Open Letter)
“I picked up Winter in Sokcho, written by Elisa Shua Dusapin and translated from French by Annesa Abbas Higgins, in East Bay Booksellers this summer. This slim novel takes place in the the wintry off-season in a resort town on the border of South and North Korea. A French graphic artist engages a young woman as a tour guide to show him the ‘authentic’ Korea. Like the artist’s thin line drawings, the novel sketches an atmosphere of chilly landscapes, neon fish markets, and potenitally-deadly cuisine in spare, restrained detail as the characters’ relationship unspools under the shadow of war. Just recently, Winter in Sokcho received this year’s National Book Award for Translated Literature.”
