Our Women in Translation Bookclub choices 2025

Our Women in Translation book club offers a monthly feminist fiction gathering (with the very occasional poetry or memoir digression), celebrating and exploring translated works by women writers the world over.

Why women in translation? Because less than 31% of books translated into English are written by women, and only 36% of books translated into English are from non-European countries - as the Women In Translation Project puts it, every story counts.

The WiT Book Group provides a free, friendly and gentle environment in which opinions are shared and new appreciations can be discovered. It's a place for curious minds and relaxed conversation hosted by poet and translator Annie Rutherford. Come and join us – all are welcome.

The bookgroup alternates between online and in-person meet-ups with exact dates and times listed below - more online in winter, more in person as the weather improves!

On the afternoon of each book club we'll send everyone the link to join the chat in the evening. We read and discuss one book each month, so we invite readers to sign up for individual discussions - although there is a core group of regulars, new faces join each discussion and some people dip in and out depending on whether the book grabs their attention.

Please support the bookshop & the book club by ordering your books through Lighthouse, use the code LONG-VICTORIOUS-WIT for bookclubbers 10% off.

Book club dates are as follows (sessions tend to last 75 mins, booking links for later dates will be added in due course):

• Feb: Monday 24th, 8pm (online):

Greek Lessons by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won

• March: Monday 31st, 6.30pm (in-person at Lighthouse):

My Pen is the Wing of a Bird by eighteen Afghan writers, with an introduction from Lyse Doucet and an afterword by Lucy Hannah.

• April: Monday 28th, 8pm (online):

Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou, translated by Lina Protopapa

• May: Monday 26th, 6.30pm (in-person at Lighthouse):

Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani

• June: Monday 30th, 6.30pm (in-person at Lighthouse):

They Fell Like Stars from the Sky and Other Stories by Sheikha Halawy, translated by Nancy Roberts. This title is reprinting and will not be available in time for the book club. We have done a reshuffle and it will now be:

Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat, translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp and Sue Copeland

• July: Monday 28th, 8pm (online):

The Wolves of Staro Selo by Zdravka Evtimova, translated by Yana Ellis

• August: Monday 25th, 6.30pm (in-person at Lighthouse):

Ada's Realm by Sharon Doua Otoo, translated by Jon Cho-Polizzi

• September: Monday 29th, 6.30pm (in-person at Lighthouse):

To Hell with Poets by Baqytgul Sarmekova, translated by Mirgul Kali

• October: Monday 27th, 8pm (online):

Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi, translated by David Boyd and Lucy North

• November: Monday 24th, 8pm (online):

Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro, translated by Cory Stockwell

• December: Monday 15th, 6.30pm (in-person at Lighthouse):

The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken