One morning in October 2018, I logged into Twitter, I scrolled through my feed and my first thought was “what depressing times we live in.”
I stopped to read an article shared by Cristina Rivera Garza, a Mexican novelist whose work I love. The article, written by the journalist, Sophie Baggott, can be found here.
Sophie (Baggott) argues that “the number of novels by women that reach English remains shockingly low, therefore she wanted to read as many books written by women from as many countries as possible.”
Sophie says:
My starting point – a realisation that anglocentric and male-dominated reading habits were blinkering my worldview – feels a long way back. Sure, the publishing industry’s gender bias is old news, but I was shocked to learn that male authors dominate more than two-thirds of the translated fiction market.
I loved the premise of this idea, to read a novel written by a woman from every country in the world, so I can recognise a great idea when I see one.
So, this morning I tweeted the following:
“Just read Sophie Baggotts’s blog and I too would like to follow the same goal! “To make my way through books written by women from every country in the world.” I live in Dar, Tanzania. I am from London. I can read in English, Spanish and French. Any suggestions?”
Ten minutes later, I received my first recommendation from a friend. She said:
“❤️ this. I recommend Une si longue lettre by Mariame Ba for your Senegalese novel! I have the English translation of you want to borrow it, but I recommend reading it in French if you can.”
Une si longue lettre isn’t available in French on Kindle and I can’t get it in French in hard copy here. So I will start with the English version and get the book in French on my next trip back to the UK.
I look forward to receiving your suggestions and travelling around the world through the lens and pen of one female novelist at a time!
J x
Women Writers Worldwide 