gaia books
THE GOOD
the best writers & translators
THE BAD
Avoid the worst
Reads
THE RARE
venture in the
untranslated
about gaia books
Drawing inspiration from Gaia, the Greek goddess of the Earth, a symbol of fertility and nurturing, this site aims to explore how culture, love, and sexuality are intricately interwoven with what it means to be human. Gaia, who unites all living beings in the web of life, evokes an experience in which cultures, languages and ideas converge. Grounded in the conviction that recognising our shared humanity is the foundation of mutual understanding, this project celebrates human connection and the wonder of nature through film and art, but, especially, books.
Diversity is the raw material of life. When you diversify your reading, your understanding of the world and yourself deepens. Accordingly, this site showcases a wide range of literary voices. Books can entertain, teach and inspire us, but, as Seneca observed, 'What matters is not how many books you own, but how good they are.' However, in order to find the best, someone needs to separate the wheat from the chaff, and that is where Gaia Books can help you. If you would like to broaden your literary horizons, this platform offers a multilingual curated selection of books worthy of your time and curiosity.
Rather than accumulating titles, Gaia Books generally selects books that challenge assumptions, broaden perspectives and deepens the readers' knowledge across fields that range from literature, psychology and neuroscience to philosophy, environmental studies and history. The history selection mainly focuses on colonialism, postcolonialism, decolonisation and neocolonialism, alongside other disciplines than foster intellectual growth, good health and empathy. Is then entertainment excluded? Of course not! There is also a place for humour, relaxation and lightness of the mind.
Are you among those who recognise that great popular fiction and literature can be found beyond the shelves of bestsellers and literary prizes? Do you speak Spanish, French, German or Persian? Explore untranslated literature still not available in the English language.
Not all literary pearls have been written in the language of Shakespeare!
NAVIGATION MENU
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The website presents multiple pathways from a multilingual approach in English, Spanish, French, and German. Posts written in Persian will feature on the blog. I am the editor and translator of this website.
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The main menu offers categories such as Gaia, Books in Translation, Sex Education and Iranology, with their respective subsections, before opening a subcategory, click on the category as it will take you to an introduction to the theme.
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The homepage prominently displays genre tags—Children’s, Romance, Women Writers, Fantasy, Classics, Black Authors,—and encourages visitors to explore them by directly clicking on the titled boxes.
CATALOGUE BY COUNTRY
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Dedicated country-level pages where each country has its own page with a brief context on travelling the country as a book hunter with literary and film recommendations.
BOOK LISTINGS
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The Books in Translation section is subdivided by linguistic spheres where the same book has been published in English, Spanish, French and German. Every sphere is further subdivided into countries which may be expanded progressively.
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Under the subcategory Non-Fiction the section Works offers parallel translations. However, Topics features books that are not necessarily translations but address the same topics in the site's main working languages.
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In Sex Education and Iranology book listings will not correspond to translated works in the working languages. Coincidentally, the same work may be displayed in more than one of these languages. This approach applies to the book listings in the rest of the website.
ARTICLES
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The Articles menu is rich in essays and perspectives that invite the reader to leave thoughtful reflections in the comment boxes.
BLOG
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As on any blog, posts will be labelled with tags that can aid narrowing down any search. The multilingual approach of the blog will remain the same as with the rest of the site, with the addition of Persian.
YOUTUBE
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Once the website's book catalogues reach completion and the written content is translated, I will start uploading videos on Youtube.
about me
I make love to books with ardor, in different languages. It's sexier, and an effective way to acquire a gifted tongue. My fascination about languages, other than Tantra, seduced me long ago. I speak Spanish, English and French (I studied Translation to BA and MA level in London), and I'm learning German. As you can imagine, learning new languages to read foreign literature, and even write it, is like marriage—I'm an aspiring exophonic writer in English. Once immersed in a new tongue, it's a continual labour of love, from which I refuse to get divorced. Did I say four languages? Not quite, I'm on my way to acquiring a fifth, because life learning is a never-ending adventure.
My vision is driven by the idea that books can transform our shadow into light, for they contain the secret of life; the idea that in order to understand the human experience one needs to explore how we originated, and the mechanisms of our miseries and complexities.
Depraved women can be good lovers, especially of the written word. One of my commitments is to fight sexual taboos by disseminating a multidisciplinary education on human sexuality through the best books of their genre. But, ultimately, with my passion for languages, challenge the publishing anglosphere for being chauvinistic and short-sighted. In truth, the English literary world of translation is less enriched than in other countries that have a long tradition in bringing foreign literature to the fore, for its corpus falls short of integrating a comparable volumen of international writers. As a translator and as part of Gaia Books' initiative, I aim to bridge the cultural gap by championing underrepresented literary voices.
Can you read in at least two languages? Then you're a cut above the monolingual reader, but, of course, you know that. Polyglot or not, I hope you find new reads you enjoy on this website and, who knows, one day I may invite you to join a literary orgy at the English, French or Spanish book clubs I run in London or online reading clubs.
Perhaps, you may find inspiration on this platform to venture in the learning of a foreign language, improve your sexual intelligence or read the entire world. Boredom? Never.
Don't hesitate to get in touch.
