September Feature: Food for Thought
- Cordelia Shan
- Sep 16
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 19
At Found in Translation, this September we celebrate food in translated literature. Meals in books are never just meals: they carry memory, identity, and desire. Food can be comfort, resistance, intimacy, or even danger — and through translation, we discover how kitchens across the world tell stories of survival, joy, and transformation.
Here is our featured book list for the month:
A Tokyo journalist, Rika, becomes fascinated with Manako Kajii, a woman imprisoned for killing men who were enchanted by her home-cooked meals. As Rika exchanges recipes with Kajii, cooking becomes a way to probe power, femininity, desire, and self-transformation.
Featured Food: Beef stew (a signature recipe), home cooking, meals as seduction and identity.
Sentarō, a man running a failing dorayaki shop, meets Tokue, an elderly woman who teaches him how to make red bean paste with care and patience. Together with a lonely schoolgirl, they form an unlikely bond while confronting social prejudice.
Featured Food: Dorayaki filled with red bean paste; the art of making bean paste as compassion and healing.
A memoir exploring how food shapes memory, identity, and love. Ramqvist reflects on childhood foods and her complicated relationship with eating, tying food to intimacy, family, and longing.
Featured Food: Tangerines, rice pudding, pancakes, Swedish flatbread, pyttipanna (potato, onion, meat hash with pickled beets and fried eggs).
Myriam, a woman with a troubled past, opens a small restaurant in Paris with almost no experience. As she cooks, serves, and lives inside her restaurant, she gradually rebuilds her life and relationships.
Featured Food: Comforting French dishes served in a home-style atmosphere; cooking as healing and reconciliation.
Kotoko discovers a seaside restaurant that serves “remembrance meals,” allowing patrons to reconnect with lost loved ones. Through food, she processes grief for her brother and begins to heal.
Featured Food: Namero-don (minced fish on rice), omelette sandwiches, pickled plum jam, sukiyaki-don — meals tied to memory and comfort.
Dona Flor, a widow, remarries a steady pharmacist but is still visited by the passionate ghost of her first husband. The novel blends humor, sensuality, and the vibrancy of Bahian culture.
Featured Food: Brazilian cuisine, especially stews and dishes Dona Flor teaches in her cooking classes — food as sensuality and tradition.
A collection of sharp, unsettling novellas and stories about alienation, class, gender, and desire in Colombia. The writing highlights bodily experience and social discontent.
Featured Food: The title story centers on the disturbing smell and taste of fish soup, evoking memory, illness, and revulsion.
A father-daughter duo in Kyoto run a hidden restaurant where customers bring them memories of meals they want to taste again. They research and recreate those dishes, restoring forgotten flavors.
Featured Food: Recreated nostalgic meals — childhood bentos, family recipes — food as detective work and emotional healing.
Follows Mauro, a young man with no formal training but a gift for cooking, as he discovers the vocation of becoming a chef. It explores craft, vocation, and the philosophy of food.
Featured Food: French dishes described with sensory precision; cooking as passion and identity.
A collection of poems reflecting on history, memory, and the self in post-war Europe.
Featured Food: Not primarily food-centered, but meals and consumption appear metaphorically as part of bodily and cultural life.
A satirical family saga set in Sichuan Province, centered on a family that owns a famous chili bean paste factory. Secrets, rivalries, and local politics unravel through food and family ties.
Featured Food: Sichuan chili bean paste, spicy dishes — food as both heritage and battleground for power.
The second book of Kamogawa Food Detectives Novel, a nostalgic tale of food, memory, and lost traditions, where recipes from the past are recreated to connect people with forgotten tastes and emotions.
Featured Food: Japanese recipes tied to memory and cultural identity.
A dying food critic looks back on his life through tastes and flavors that defined his existence. Each chapter recalls a dish, showing how food connects to memory, regret, and joy.
Featured Food: Oysters, cheeses, childhood bread, tomatoes, grilled meats — French culinary experiences described with sensual intensity.
A tender, imaginative story where the boundary between books and meals dissolves. The night library serves dinners that allow people to revisit memories, secrets, and forgotten dreams.
Featured Food: Dreamlike dinners paired with books — literature and meals entwined as nourishment for memory.
From the author of The Kamogawa Food Detectives, this collection explores how food brings comfort and small happiness to everyday life. Each dish restores not only taste but also human connection.
Featured Food: A range of nostalgic Japanese meals — cooking as an act of quiet joy.
17. Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies by Laura Esquivel (Mexico)
A modern classic of magical realism. Each chapter begins with a recipe, and Tita’s emotions literally flavor her dishes — joy, grief, and longing seep into every meal.
Featured Food: Quail in rose petal sauce, wedding cakes, spicy beans — recipes where cooking and emotion are inseparable.
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