Via social and mainstream media, via email and word of mouth, I asked people to name their favourite European novels of the past 2 decades translated into English. These novels had to brilliant, I explained; they had to be novels we would be talking about in the next century; they should have strong narratives, memorable characters and great writing. In other words, I was asking who are the current Flauberts, Kafkas and Tolstoys? My survey may not be comprehensive or scientific (or alphabetical!) but I think it’s important. 100’s of people replied – a wide range of readers, writers, publishers, translators, booksellers, literary event programmers and fellow journalists – and here are the results.
What do you think? What are your favourites?
The Perfect Waiter – by Alain Claude Sulzer (Switzerland)
The Emperor of Lies – Steve Sem-Sandberg (Sweden)
Suite Francaise – Irène Némirovsky (Ukraine; France)
Your Face Tomorrow – Javier Marias (Spain)
Out Stealing Horses – Per Peterssen (Norway)
New Finnish Grammar – Diego Marani (Italy)
From the Mouth of the Whale – Sjon (Iceland)
Brodeck’s Report – Philippe Claudel (France)
Rings of Saturn & Austerlitz – WG Sebald (Germany)
Atomised& Whatever – Michel Houellebecq (France)
We The Drowned – Carsten Jensen (Denmark)
Sun Alley – Cecilia Stefanescu (Romania)
Blindness – Jose Saramago (Portugal)
Pig Tales – Marie Darrieuressecq (France)
Fame – Daniel Kehlmann (Austria)
The Hundred-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson (Sweden)
Once Upon the River Love – Andrej Makine (France; Russia)
My Struggle – Karl Ove Knausgaard (Norway)
The Sorrow of Belgium – Hugo Claus (Belgium)
The Assault – Harry Mulisch (Dutch)
History: A Novel (La Storia) – Elisa Morante (Italy)
The Half Brother – Lars Saabye Christensen (Norway)
Omega Minor – Paul Verhaeghen (Belgium)
The Old Child – Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany)
Stones in a Landslide – Maria Barbal (Spain; Catalan)
Windows on the World – Frederic Beigbeder (France)
Satantango – László Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
Snow – Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
The Light and the Dark – Mikhail Shishkin (Russia)
The Wall Jumper – Peter Schneider (Germany)
Land of Green Plums – Herta Mueller (Romania; Germany)
Parallel Stories – Peter Nadas (Hungary)
