Top 10 books in second languages

Dan Vyleta is the son of Czech refugees who emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s. After growing up in Germany, he left to attend university in the UK where he completed a Ph.D. in History at King’s College, University of Cambridge. He now calls Canada his home.

His debut novel Pavel & I has gathered international acclaim and has been published in thirteen countries, and translated into eight languages.

His second novel, The Quiet Twin, was published by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins in February 2011.

At the Guardian he named a top ten list of books written a second language. One novel on the list:

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Conrad, aka Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, is the patron saint of exophonic authors. A latecomer to English – he only mastered it in his 20s – Conrad reads like he taught Greene and Maugham how to write. The Secret Agent is perhaps his funniest book, a wonderful exposé of the interdependency of the intelligence community and domestic terrorists which surely must have left its stamp on Le Carré.

Read about the other titles on Vyleta's list.

The Secret Agent also appears among Jessica Stern's five best books on who terrorists are, Adam Thorpe's top ten satires, and on John Mullan's list of ten of the best professors in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue