Read Harder 2026: Read a genre (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) book in translationLike this list

23 items

• The Road to the City

  Ginzburg, Natalia

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  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.”

• The Queue

  Abdel Aziz, Basma

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  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.

• I Who Have Never Known Men

  Harpman, Jacqueline

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  French post-apocalyptic fiction. A young girl is the only hope for a group of women kept caged underground.

• Roadside Picnic

  Strugatsky, Arkady • Strugatsky, Boris

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  Russian science fiction. Schuhart sells alien artifacts on the black market.

• The Three-body Problem

  Liu, Cixin

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  Chinese science fiction. Kind of first contact, kind of history, kind of video game, and some science.

• Kairos

  Erpenbeck, Jenny, 1967-

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  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.

• Vita Nostra

  Di︠a︡chenko, Marina

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  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.

• Fever Dream

  Schweblin, Samanta, 1978-

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  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…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Creak on the Stairs

  AEgisdottir, Eva Bjorg

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  Icelandic mystery. The first in another terrific dark Nordic mystery series. For fans of Nesbo or Mankell.

• The Redemption of Time

  Baoshu, 1980-

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  Chinese science fiction. With the blessing of Cixin Liu, Baoshu has written a follow-up to Liu’s Three-Body Problem saga.

• The Book of Denial

  Chávez Castañeda, Ricardo, 1961-

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  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…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Red Queen

  Gómez-Jurado, Juan

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  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.

• Our Beautiful Darkness

  Ondjaki, 1977-

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  Angolese romance. Translated from the Portuguese. Two teenagers share their lives and dreams during a blackout.

• Playing Wolf

  a Novel

  Říhová, Zuzana, 1981-

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  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.

• Out

  Kirino, Natsuo

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  Japanese Mystery / Horror. A stay-at-home mom strangles her abusive husband. The coverup leads to more crime.

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

  Tokarczuk, Olga, 1962-

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  Polish mystery. Someone is murdering a lot of people in a small Polish village.

• Vagabonds

  Jingfang, Hao

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  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.

• The Love of Singular Men

  Heringer, Victor

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  Brazilian romance. Two boys fall in love in 1970s Brazil, but their lives are changed by an act of violence.

• The Passion According to G.H.

  Lispector, Clarice

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  Portuguese horror. Can a crushed cockroach lead to an existential crisis?

• Tokyo Express

  a Novel

  Matsumoto, Seichō, 1909-1992

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  Japanese mystery. Two bodies wash up on the beach, clearly a lovers’ suicide pact. Or is it?