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Read Harder 2026: Read a genre (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) book in translation

Pima County Public Library encourages you to expand your reading horizons with Book Riot's 2026 Read Harder Challenge! We hope that the exciting picks on this list provide inspiration to help you complete Challenge #21: Read a genre (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) book in translation.

User from Pima County Public Library

23 items

  • Italian romance. Delia and Nini come from the same small village and feel trapped by the same limitations. The publisher calls it “an almost unbearably intimate novella.”
    Book, 2023New York : New Directions Books, 2023.
  • Egyptian dystopian satire. Everyone’s life is made up of standing in line, asking for permission to do the simplest things, but there’s no one to give permission, so the line grows and grows.
    eBook, 2016Melville House, 2016
  • French post-apocalyptic fiction. A young girl is the only hope for a group of women kept caged underground.
    Book, 2022Oakland, CA : Transit Books, [2022]
  • Chinese science fiction. Kind of first contact, kind of history, kind of video game, and some science.
    Book, 2014New York : Tor Books, 2014.
  • German romance. Set during the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Kairos is the story of a doomed romance between a youth student and a much older man.
    Book, 2023New York : New Directions Publishing Corporation, [2023]
  • Ukrainian speculative fiction. Sasha is offered a spot at the Institute of Special Technologies after completing unnerving assignments for a strange man. At the school she learns that failing an assignment means her family pays the price.
    Book, 2018New York, N.Y. : Harper Voyager, 2018.
  • Argentinian horror. The publisher says, “A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He's not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and…
    Book, 2017New York : Riverhead Books, 2017.
  • Icelandic mystery. The first in another terrific dark Nordic mystery series. For fans of Nesbo or Mankell.
    Book, 2021Orenda Books, 2021.
  • Chinese science fiction. With the blessing of Cixin Liu, Baoshu has written a follow-up to Liu’s Three-Body Problem saga.
    Book, 2019New York : Tor, 2019.
  • Mexican horror. The publisher says, “A horror story and ghost story told as much through art as through text, The Book of Denial is an antidote to our collective silence. By uplifting storytelling as a means of understanding the past and shaping…
    Book, 2024Brooklyn, NY : Unruly, an imprint of Enchanted Lion Books, 2024.
  • Spanish mystery. Antonia is a gifted investigator who refuses to investigate. Jon Gutierrez has to convince her to help solve the murder of an exsanguinated teenager.
    Book, 2023New York : Minotaur Books, 2023.
  • Angolese romance. Translated from the Portuguese. Two teenagers share their lives and dreams during a blackout.
    Graphic Novel, 2024Brooklyn, NY : Enchanted Lion Books, 2024.
  • Czech horror. Bohumil and Bohumila leave Prague for the countryside to try to revive their marriage and family. They’re met with mistrust. Then their son disappears.
    Book, 2025New York : Catapult, 2025.
  • Japanese Mystery / Horror. A stay-at-home mom strangles her abusive husband. The coverup leads to more crime.
    eBook, 2022Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2022
  • Polish mystery. Someone is murdering a lot of people in a small Polish village.
    Large Print, 2020Waterville, Maine : Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2020.
  • Chinese science fiction. Mars has fought and won a war of independence from Earth. Now a group of kids are sent as emissaries, but they find themselves alienated from their old home and their new.
    eBook, 2020S&S/Saga Press, 2020
  • Brazilian romance. Two boys fall in love in 1970s Brazil, but their lives are changed by an act of violence.
    Book, 2023New York : New Directions Paperbook Original, [2023]
  • Japanese mystery. Two bodies wash up on the beach, clearly a lovers’ suicide pact. Or is it?
    Book, 2025New York : The Modern Library, [2025]