Sister Deborah, Scholastique Mukasonga, tr. Mark Polizotti

This is terrific — wry, bristly, surprising. It’s a story about a woman, the titular Sister Deborah (though she will prove to have many names throughout the book) who comes to Rwanda from the US and gains a reputation as a miracle worker, unsettling local power dynamics. It’s also the story of a woman who visits Sister Deborah as a child and tries to learn more about her life as an adult. A mesmerizing book.