Cultures in Translation: A Conversation with Authors Jean Kwok, Etgar Keret, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras
On April 14th as part of NYPL’s World Literature Festival, authors Jean Kwok, Etgar Keret, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras engaged in a provocative and insightful talk about their work, the relationship between culture and language, and the impact of literature in translation. In conversation with NYPL staff Kelly Yim, Sherri Machlin, and Julie Anne Korpi, and one another, the authors shared their diverse perspectives as storytellers, writing from an intimate knowledge of their own cultures that defy barriers and reach audiences throughout the world.
You can watch the recording of the conversation below and also find links to the authors' works in our catalog along with similar titles we recommend.
Jean Kwok: Books and Suggested Reading
Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of Girl in Translation, Mambo in Chinatown, and Searching for Sylvie Lee, which was a Read with Jenna Today show Book Club pick and a Belletrist pick. Her work has been published in twenty countries and is taught in schools across the world. She has been selected for numerous honors including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award, an Orange New Writers title and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. She immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood. She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and earned an MFA from Columbia University. She currently lives in the Netherlands.
Girl in Translation
by Jean Kwok
Caught between the pressure to succeed in America, her duty to their family, and her own personal desires, Kimberly Chang, an immigrant girl from Hong Kong, learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.
Mambo in Chinatown
by Jean Kwok
Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Wong, having grown up in New York's Chinatown as the older daughter of a Beijing ballerina and a noodle maker, is torn between her family duties in Chinatown and her escape into the world of ballroom dancing.
Searching for Sylvie Lee
by Jean Kwok
A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women—two sisters and their mother—in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge.
Crying in H-Mart: A Memoir
by Michelle Zauner
Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Michelle Zauner pens this unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean-American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity in this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance.
Beautiful Country
by Qiang Julie Wang
This memoir, from a Chinese woman who arrived in New York City at age seven, examines how her family lived in poverty out of fear of being discovered as undocumented immigrants and how she was able to find success.
Etgar Keret - Books and Suggested Reading
Etgar Keret is an internationally acclaimed Israeli writer and filmmaker. Known for his short stories, rarely extending beyond three or four pages, Keret fuses the bizarre with the banal, and offers a window on a surreal world that is both dark and comic.
Fly Already
by Etgar Keret
This collection of stories includes the tale of a suitor who attempts to impress a girl with marijuana and a boy who narrates a post-apocalyptic world where the army collects prizes for continuous fighting.
Pizzeria Kamikaze
by Etgar Keret; art by Asaf Hanuka
Mordy wanted to get away. Now in an afterlife for all victims of suicide, he still has to attend a crappy job in a place no more or less crappy than the place he came from. But he's shaken from the mundane after he runs into his former roommate and discovers that his beloved ex-girlfriend is there too, which sets Mordy up for a much needed road trip through an absurdist and fantastical landscape to find her.
The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories
by Etgar Keret
Keret covers a remarkable emotional and narrative terrain—from a father’s first lesson to his boy to a standoff between soldiers caught up in the Middle East conflict to a slice of life where nothing much happens.
No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
by Miranda July
Presents a collection of short works featuring sympathetic protagonists whose inherent sensitivities render them particularly vulnerable to unexpected events.
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
by Lorrie Moore
In this moving, poignant novel we share a grown woman’s bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth.
Ingrid Rojas Contreras - Books and Suggested Reading
Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her first novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree was the silver medal winner in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and Zyzzyva, among others. She lives in California.
Fruit of the Drunken Tree
by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
A novel set against the violence of 1990s Columbia follows a sheltered girl and a teen maid, who forge an unlikely friendship as the families of both struggle to maintain stability amidst Bogotâa's rapidly escalating violence.
Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the LatinX Diaspora
edited by Saraciea J. Fennel
Sparking dialogue and hope, 15 original stories by best-selling and award-winning authors (including Ingrid Rojas Contreras) as well as up-and-coming voices question the different myths and stereotypes about the Latinx diaspora.
Eartheater
by Dolores Reyes
A woman from a slum in contemporary Argentina teams up with a withdrawn police officer when she develops a compulsive urge to eat dirt that triggers visions of murdered and missing people, including her own mother.
Signs Preceding the End of the World
by Yuri Herrera
A streetwise heroine travels from Mexico to the USA via the mythical and criminal underworlds in a search for her brother.
For Young Readers
A selection of books for children inspired by these authors.
Jumbies
by Tracey Baptiste
In a spine-tingling tale that is rooted in Caribbean folklore, 11-year-old Corinne must call on her courage and an ancient magic to stop an evil spirit and save her island home.
Long-Haired Cat-Boy Cub
by Etgar Keret; illustrated by Aviel Basil; translated by Sondra Silverston
When a small boy is left by his busy father to entertain himself at the zoo, his imagination carries him to an airship, where he helps the captain put sad zoo animals back into their natural environment and teaches him about the traits of the rare long-haired cat-boy cub.
Sadiq and the Fun Run
By Siman Nuurali; art by Anjan Sarkar
Sadiq's friends are all signing up to play football. When Sadiq asks his parents to sign him up too, they say he's too young. They suggest he try a different sport—running. From the start, Sadiq has a bad attitude about Run Club. Can his coach convince him that being tough and competitive doesn't always mean tackling and hitting?
Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.