Archipelago Books

Full disclosure that I know the owner of this wonderful enterprise for works in translation. As has been documented on the literary website Three Percent (
), only three percent of all books published in the U.S. are translated books from abroad. Advocating and publishing works from around the world not only promotes greater cultural diversity but also opens one’s mind to new ways of thinking and relating with the world.
Archipelago Books is part of a larger grassroots movement of literature in translation (some other ventures I will mention is U. of Rochester’s Open Letter, Dalkey Archives, the website Quarterly Conversation, and Words without Borders). Some of my favorite books by Archipelago include The Novices of Sais (an ethereal floating and whimsical book that is accompanied by Klee drawings), Cortazar’s Astronaut of the Cosmoroute and the forthcoming Karl O. Knausgaard’s A Time for Everything.
I love many books by American authors (Edward Jones, Rick Moody, Nicholson Baker, and many more), but reading only American authors is like reading only domestic news. There’s so much more, and Archipelago is a great place to start reading international literature.