Book Club

We meet online once a month during Trinity's term time to discuss a piece of recently translated literature. New members are always welcome and may attend as and when it suits. Admission is free. The books are available at good bookshops and public libraries.

'Silver' and 'Gold' Friends of the Centre receive an advance copy of our book club choices in the post each month: find out more about this here.

CAUTIONARY NOTE TO BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS: it has come to our attention (October 2025) that emails are being sent out - allegedly from our Centre - asking for payments in return for promoting books. This is a scam! Our book club is completely independent and we do not engage with requests to promote individual books or writers, or accept payments. If you receive one of these emails, please block and report the sender!

We are now on a break between terms and will meet again in February 2026. The books and dates for Hilary Term 2026 are listed below:

Heart Lamp
by Banu Mushtaq,
translated from the Kannada
by Deepa Bhasthi

Book your place here

The Deserters
by Mathias Énard,
translated from the French
by Charlotte Mandell

Book your place here

Not a River
by Selva Almada,
translated from the Spanish (Argentina)
by Annie McDermott

Booking details will be posted nearer the time

Forgottenness
by Tanja Maljartschuk,
translated from the Ukrainian
by Zenia Tompkins

Booking details will be posted nearer the time

2025 book club

The Plains by Federico Falco
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Jennifer Croft
Before the Queen Falls Asleep by Huzama Habayeb
translated from the Arabic (Palestine) by Kay Heikkinen
Jellyfish Have No Ears by Adèle Rosenfeld
translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Morning and Evening by Jon Fosse
translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
There's No Turning Back by Alba de Céspedes
translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem
translated from the French (La Réunion) by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint Loubert
The Rainbow by Yasunari Kawabata
translated from the Japanese by Hadyn Trowell

2024 book club

Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior
translated from the Portuguese (Brazil) by Johnny Lorenz
The Living and the Rest by José Eduardo Agualusa
translated from the Portuguese (Angola) by Daniel Hahn
Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga
translated from the French (Rwanda) by Mark Polizzotti
Things I Didn't Throw Out by Marcin Wicha
translated from the Polish by Marta Dziurosz
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Greek Lessons by Han Kang
translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won
Kinderland by Liliana Corobca
translated from the Romanian (Moldova) by Monica Cure

2023
book club

First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami
translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel
Abigail by Magda Szabó
translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix
My Pen is the Wing of the Bird: New Fiction by Afghan Women
translated from Pashto and Dari by various translators
The Leash and the Ball by Rodaan Al Galidi
translated from the Dutch by Jonathan Reeder
Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
Em by Kim Thúy
translated from the French by Sheila Fischman
Standing Heavy by GauZ'
translated from the French by Frank Wynne

2022
book club

Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
The Fig Tree by Goran Vojnović
translated from the Slovene by Olivia Hellewell
Waiting for the Waters to Rise by Maryse Condé
translated from the French by Richard Philcox
Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk
The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter
translated from the French by Frank Wynne
Jasmine Days by Benyāmin
translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib
The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
translated from the Danish by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman

2021
book club

Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg
translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee
(watch the recording here)
Storm Birds by Einar Kárason
translated from the Icelandic by Quentin Bates
The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre
Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan
translated from the Russian (Armenia) by Lisa C. Hayden
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop
translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis
The Perfect Nine: the Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 
translated from the Gikuyu by the author
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
translated from the Farsi by Anonymous

2020
book club

s

Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
translated from French (Congo) by Helen Stevenson
Resistance by Julián Fuks
translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Daniel Hahn
Go Went Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
translated from German by Susan Bernofsky
The Dregs of the Day by Máirtín Ó Cadhain*
translated from Irish by Alan Titley
Disoriental by Négar Djavadi
translated from French by Tina Kover
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison
The Doll by Ismail Kadare
translated from Albanian by John Hodgson

*Watch a recording of our book club's interview with Alan Titley about his translation of The Dregs of the Day here

2019
book club

Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Among the Lost by Emiliano Monge
translated from Spanish (Mexico) by Frank Wynne
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans
translated from Dutch (Belgium) by David McKay
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
translated from Finnish by David Hackston
The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
translated from Japanese by Margaret Mitsutanida
Small Country by Gaël Faye
translated from French (Burundi) by Sarah Ardizzone
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
translated from Arabic (Oman) by Marilyn Booth
Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
translated from Arabic (Syria) by Leri Price
The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti
translated from Italian by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre
At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong
translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell

2018
book club

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
translated from Danish by Misha Hoekstra
The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenström
translated from Afrikaans by J.M. Coetzee
Affections by Rodrigo Hasbun
translated from Spanish (Bolivia) by Sophie Hughes
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov
translated from Russian by Andrew Bromfield
In the Beginning Was the Sea by Tomás González
translated from Spanish (Colombia) by Frank Wynne
Beijing Comrades by Bei Tong
translated from Chinese by Scott E. Meyers
The Impostor by Javier Cercas
translated from Spanish by Frank Wynne
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima
translated from Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt
Petite Fleur by Iosi Havilio
translated from Spanish (Argentina) by Lorna Scott Fox
The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge
translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman

2017
book club

A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman
translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
The Evenings by Gerard Reve
translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett
K by Bernardo Kucinski
translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Sue Branford
Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada
translated from German by Susan Bernofsky
Fish Have No Feet by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
translated from Icelandic by Philip Roughton
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
translated from Spanish (Argentina) by Megan McDowell
A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa
translated from Portuguese (Angola) by Daniel Hahn
Ghachar Gochar by Vivek Shanbhag
translated from Kannada by Srinath Perur
The House with the Stained-Glass Window by Zanna Sloniowska
translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
The Queue by Basma Abdel Azizm
translated from Arabic (Egypt) by Elisabeth Jaquette

2016
book club