Adrian Nathan West is an American writer, critic, and translator. He has published the novel-essay The Aesthetics of Degradation (2016) and the novel My Father’s Diet (2022).
Biography West is a literary translator from several languages, primarily Spanish, German, Catalan, and French. He is known for his translation of When We Cease to Understand the World, by Chilean author Benjamín Labatut, which was supported by an award from English PEN, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and the National Book Award for Translated Literature, and also selected by Barack Obama for his annual Summer Reading List in 2021. He has also received the Austrian Cultural Forum's Translation Prize in 2017 for his translation of Josef Winkler's The Abduction and the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award in 2024 for his translation of Open Heart by Elvira Lindo. He is the English-language translator of Swiss author Hermann Burger.
In 2022, he was recognized for his exceptional contributions to literature with an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Personal life West lives between Spain and the United States with the cinema critic Beatriz Leal Riesco. He is a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Bibliography As author
As translator
Vargas Llosa, Mario (2023, translated/1st American Edition 2026). I Give You My Silence
References
External links Official website "Advice to Writers" "Benjamín Labatut and Adrian Nathan West on When We Cease to Understand the World" "Revelation is Absurd: A Conversation with Adrian Nathan West" "Body and Soul: An Interview with Adrian Nathan West" "The Market for Abuse and Humiliation: A Conversation with Adrian Nathan West"