The Most Translated Love Stories on Goodreads
Key Takeaways
- Love stories possess a profound ability to resonate with readers worldwide, transcending cultural boundaries.
- As the publishing industry becomes increasingly global, best-selling love novels are being translated into a range of languages, offering accessibility and familiarity to diverse readers.
Love, often referred to as a universal language, possesses the remarkable ability to transcend cultural boundaries. However, for love stories to truly resonate with readers, authors must present them in a language that is accessible and relatable. To gain insights into love stories with global reach, we conducted a survey, examining the number of translations available on Goodreads for a variety of popular books on this subject. We specifically excluded works in the public domain.
Our survey uncovered a rich assortment of genres, ranging from young adult fiction to fantasy, magical realism, women's fiction, romance novels, and erotic romance. These books captivated readers with both heartwarming and heart-wrenching endings.
| Title | Author | Year | Number of Languages Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Fault in Our Stars | John Green | 2012 | 51 |
| Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel García Márquez | 1985 | 48 |
| Twilight | Stephenie Meyer | 2005 | 46 |
| Fifty Shades of Grey | E. L. James | 2011 | 44 |
| Me Before You | Jojo Moyes | 2012 | 42 |
| To All the Boys I've Loved Before | Jenny Han | 2014 | 38 |
| Bared to You | Sylvia Day | 2012 | 38 |
| The Notebook | Nicholas Sparks | 1996 | 37 |
| It Ends with Us | Colleen Hoover | 2016 | 37 |
| Eleanor & Park | Rainbow Rowell | 2012 | 37 |
| Like Water for Chocolate | Laura Esquivel | 1989 | 37 |
| The Time Traveler’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger | 2003 | 36 |
| Love Story | Erich Segal | 1970 | 36 |
| Call Me by Your Name | André Aciman | 2007 | 36 |
| The Duke and I | Julia Quinn | 2000 | 36 |
| The Viscount Who Loved Me | Julia Quinn | 2000 | 34 |
| The Light We Lost | Jill Santopolo | 2017 | 33 |
| Beautiful Disaster | Jamie McGuire | 2011 | 32 |
| Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | Becky Albertalli | 2015 | 31 |
| Beach Read | Emily Henry | 2020 | 30 |
| The Hating Game | Sally Thorne | 2016 | 30 |
| Outlander | Diana Gabaldon | 1991 | 29 |
| The Kiss Quotient | Helen Hoang | 2018 | 29 |
| The Love Hypothesis | Ali Hazelwood | 2021 | 27 |
| Devil in Winter | Lisa Kleypas | 2006 | 27 |
| Vision in White | Nora Roberts | 2009 | 26 |
| Something Borrowed | Emily Giffin | 2004 | 25 |
| On Dublin Street | Samantha Young | 2012 | 25 |
| The Spanish Love Deception | Elena Armas | 2021 | 23 |
| Red, White & Royal Blue | Casey McQuiston | 2019 | 22 |
| The Bride | Julie Garwood | 1989 | 22 |
| The Princess Bride | William Goldman | 1973 | 21 |
| A Knight in Shining Armor | Jude Deveraux | 1989 | 20 |
| Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake | Sarah MacLean | 2010 | 20 |
| Lord of Scoundrels | Loretta Chase | 1995 | 15 |
| Shanna | Kathleen E. Woodiwiss | 1997 | 15 |
| Morning Glory | LaVyrle Spencer | 1989 | 14 |
| Dearest Rogue | Elizabeth Hoyt | 2015 | 12 |
| Flowers from the Storm | Laura Kinsale | 1992 | 11 |
| Slave to Sensation | Nalini Singh | 2006 | 11 |
| Once and for All | Sarah Dessen | 2017 | 11 |
| Get a Life, Chloe Brown | Talia Hibbert | 2019 | 9 |
| Long Shot | Kennedy Ryan | 2018 | 8 |
| The Wedding Date | Jasmine Guillory | 2018 | 7 |
| Ice Planet Barbarians | Ruby Dixon | 2015 | 5 |
| Seven Days in June | Tia Williams | 2021 | 4 |
| The Proposal | Jasmine Guillory | 2018 | 4 |
It is important to acknowledge that our results are clearly biased by the penetration of Goodreads and its parent company, Amazon, in different regions, though this regional skew should be present across all books. For instance, the abundance of German translations may be attributed to Germany's status as one of Amazon's largest markets. [Source: Statista]
| Language | Number of Works |
|---|---|
| English | 47 |
| German | 44 |
| French | 43 |
| Italian | 42 |
| Spanish | 41 |
| Polish | 40 |
| Portuguese | 40 |
| Turkish | 40 |
| Hungarian | 39 |
| Croatian | 37 |
| Czech | 37 |
| Bulgarian | 35 |
| Romanian | 35 |
| Russian | 35 |
| Slovenian | 35 |
| Dutch | 34 |
| Serbian | 33 |
| Slovak | 33 |
| Danish | 32 |
| Greek | 32 |
| Hebrew | 29 |
| Indonesian | 29 |
| Chinese | 28 |
| Thai | 28 |
| Swedish | 27 |
| Finnish | 25 |
| Lithuanian | 25 |
| Estonian | 24 |
| Vietnamese | 22 |
| Latvian | 20 |
| Norwegian | 20 |
| Ukrainian | 19 |
| Japanese | 18 |
| Persian | 18 |
| Korean | 16 |
| Georgian | 15 |
| Macedonian | 15 |
| Arabic | 14 |
| Norwegian Bokmål | 14 |
| Catalan; Valencian | 9 |
| Icelandic | 9 |
| Azerbaijani | 7 |
| Mongolian | 6 |
| Albanian | 5 |
| Filipino; Pilipino | 5 |
| Bosnian | 4 |
| Armenian | 3 |
| Bengali | 3 |
| Malay | 3 |
| Marathi | 3 |
| Romansh | 3 |
| Hindi | 2 |
| Sinhala; Sinhalese | 2 |
| Afrikaans | 1 |
| Basque | 1 |
| Burmese | 1 |
| Gujarati | 1 |
| Kurdish | 1 |
| Malayalam | 1 |
| Telugu | 1 |
In conclusion, love stories possess a remarkable capacity to deeply resonate with readers worldwide. With the publishing industry and specifically the romance genre becoming increasingly globalized, bestselling love stories are swiftly being translated into a diverse array of languages. This trend is particularly prominent for stories set in contemporary settings, which offer a relatable backdrop to readers from various cultural backgrounds.