Books by Olga Ravn
My Work
by Olga Ravn, translated by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell
“It’s her second novel to be translated into English; her strange, beautiful little novel The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century was a weird and haunting work of science fiction that got under my skin. Like The Employees, the chronology of My Work is scrambled. It’s ostensibly constructed of the pages of a notebook written by the narrator while in some kind of fugue state during the early days of motherhood. It will appeal to mothers, specifically, and more generally to all those interested in experimental narratives.” Read more...
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century
by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
“Its structure is extraordinary. I’ve never read anything like it. It’s as though we’ve raided the filing cabinet of the human resources department on a spaceship where half the workers are humans, and the other half are… I suppose robots, or artificial intelligences contained in humanoid bodies. Each of these people, these spaceship dwellers, have been asked to report on their state of mind to the personnel department, and there’s this wonderful conjunction of fantasy with the most tedious aspects of office life and bureaucracy. It’s so funny.” Read more...
The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Biographer
Interviews where books by Olga Ravn were recommended
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1
At Night All Blood Is Black
by David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis -
2
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories
by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell -
3
When We Cease to Understand the World
by Benjamin Labatut, translated by Adrian Nathan West -
4
The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century
by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken -
5
In Memory of Memory
by Maria Stepanova, by Sasha Dugdale -
6
The War of the Poor
by Éric Vuillard, translated by Mark Polizzotti
The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Best of World Literature: The 2021 International Booker Prize Shortlist, recommended by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Every year the International Booker Prize judges read dozens of novels from around the world, which are newly translated into English. Here Lucy Hughes-Hallett—award-winning author and chair of this year’s judging panel—talks us through the six books that made their 2021 shortlist of the best world literature.
Notable Novels of Fall 2023, recommended by Cal Flyn
Outside it’s autumnal and the nights are drawing in. All the better for admiring the bright lights of publishing’s starriest season, when the shiniest baubles are released in time for the Christmas rush. Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn rounds up the most notable new novels of Fall 2023, including eagerly-awaited books from Zadie Smith and Jesmyn Ward, plus the buzziest new releases in literary fiction and novels-in-translation
