Recs if you like The Picture Bride...

you can enter a space. you are a regular guy, you can enter a room. you are a regular guy, you can do that transaction. you are a regular guy, you know how to answer the phone. you are a regular guy, you know what sleep is. you are a regular guy, you know what it means to be you.

all of these books have regular people as the protagonist doing all sorts of things, from kissing to killing!

as always, open to all suggestions!

The University of Rochester found that only 3 percent of books published in the US are in translation. I want to create lists of recently published (fiction) literature (2022-2025) in translation from different languages, out of curiosity. Will mostly be sourced from the university's database, which goes up to 2024, and then sourced from publishers for 2025 (won't be comprehensive for 2025). Feel free to suggest titles, from the last 5/10 years if you like them, or other languages of interest!

The term picture bride refers to the practice in the early 20th century of immigrant workers (chiefly Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean) in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Brazil selecting brides from their native countries via a matchmaker, who paired bride and groom using only photographs and family recommendations of the possible candidates. (Wikipedia)

Non-fiction or fiction stories based on historically accurate happenings in Korea (will update when find more - have not read all books added, but a bunch of them)