Photo of Sulaiman Addonia by Alexander Meeus. For me, one of the most astounding books of this past year—which may have slipped your attention due to the pandemic—was Silence Is My Mother Tongue…

As 2018 drew to an end, my thoughts increasingly turned to the Eritrean writer Ribka Sibhatu, the first author I decided to work on when I took up literary translation professionally in 2010. Sibhatu…