I found lists and guides, and friends and followers began sending me recommendations. By the end of 2020, a full 20% of my reading was books in translation. And I wasn’t at all finished: my to-read list of books in translation had grown exponentially. Which, truly, was fantastic: it means I’d carry this goal of reading books in translation long into the years to come.
This list focuses in particular on queer books in translation: whether that mean novels that feature a queer protagonist, novels that focus on queerness, or both. My main restriction as I searched, unfortunately, was simply availability. There is already a limited amount of queer literature in some countries due to censorship, fear, homophobia, and laws against homosexuality. Add onto that the small ratio of books that are translated into English each year, and consider how many of those translations will be queer literature, and then consider how many volumes are still in print, and availability even of those translated works of queer lit can be low. I found many gems that were on backorder or unavailable.
But I persevered, because I wanted to find a global list of must-read queer books in translation. I wanted to discover queer literature from all around the world, written in languages different from my own — from Marathi to French to Icelandic. I have read every book on this list, and worked hard to make a list that will allow us as readers to hear from queer authors all around the world.
Homophobia is a common content warning for many of these books, and so I have not listed it individually for each one. Please note that while I took great care to list content warnings, sometimes things fall through the cracks. Please do additional research on the recommended titles if needed.
For more books in translation, check out the In Translation archives! To find more LGBTQ books, try the LGBTQ category.
Content warnings for issues of sexual assault and suicidal thoughts.
Content warnings for issues of homophobic language, laws, and violence.
Content warnings for reproductive restriction, suppression, depression, suicide.
Content warnings for violence, homophobic repression and language, internalized homophobia, sudden death, and grief.
Content warnings for alcoholism, homophobia, someone publicly outed, mention of parental sexual abuse, difficult coming out stories, depression, and gender dysphoria.
Content warnings for homophobic violence and language, internalized homophobia, racist language, parental and domestic abuse, animal cruelty, and ableism.
Content warnings for violence, racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia.
Content warnings for excessive focus on gender binary, later corrected in afterword.
Content warnings for homophobic language and suicide.
Content warnings for violence, abuse, suicidal thoughts and actions, self-harm.
Content warnings for rape, torture, radicalization.
Content warnings for antisemitism and Nazism.
Strong content warnings for sexual violence, rape, and abuse, as well as homophobic and racist language.
Content warnings for suicide, overdose, homophobic language, self-harm, BDSM, a person being outed.
Content warnings for death, and racism from side characters.
Content warnings for animal cruelty, self-harm, reckless drug use.
Content warning: homophobic violence, body horror, gothic horror, self-harm, suicide, internalized homophobia, sexual assault.
Content warnings for sexual assault and corrective rape.
