Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisAnother incredible novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Alchemist.Centuries before, on the eve of the invasion of Accra, the citizens gathered. A man stood before them and invited the people share their fears that he might offer hope and comfort.His extraordinary insights on courage, solitude, loyalty and loss were transcribed and passed on.A timeless and powerful exploration of personal growth, everyday wisdom and joy.Trade Review‘One of the few to deserve the term “publishing phenomenon”’ Independent on Sunday ‘His books have had a life-enhancing impact on millions of people.’ The Times ‘His writing is like a path of energy that inadvertently leads readers to themselves, toward their mysterious and faraway souls.’ Le Figaro ‘Coelho’s writing is beautifully poetic but his message is what counts… he gives me hope and puts a smile on my face.’ Daily Express ‘An exceptional writer.' USA Today

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Book SynopsisThe dramatic climax of The Sea of Fertility tetraology.It is the 1960s and Honda, now an aged and wealthy man, discovers and adopts a sixteen-year-old orphan, Toru. Honda believes that the boy is the reincarnation of the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels, each of whom died at the age of twenty. Honda raises and educates the boy, he makes him his heir, and watches him, waiting. But Toru is also watching Honda...''A surpassingly chilling, subtle and original novel'' New York Times''Mishima''s ritualistic suicide in 1970 will always overshadow his work, but his dark saga of 20th-century Japan is mesmerising'' Guardian Trade ReviewA major literary creation * New York Times *This tetralogy is considered one of Yukio Mishima's greatest works. It could also be considered a catalogue of Mishima's obsessions with death, sexuality and the samurai ethic. Spanning much of the 20th century, the tetralogy begins in 1912 when Shigekuni Honda is a young man and ends in the 1960s with Honda old and unable to distinguish reality from illusion. En route, the books chronicle the changes in Japan that meant the devaluation of the samurai tradition and the waning of the aristocracy * Washington Post *One of the great writers of the twentieth century * Los Angeles Times *Japan's foremost man of letters * Spectator *Mishima's novels exude a monstrous and compulsive weirdness, and seem to take place in a kind of purgatory for the depraved -- Angela Carter

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Book Synopsis''Rich, authentic and entertaining'' New StatesmanDiscover the darkly funny follow-up to cult classic Death and the PenguinViktor - last seen in Death and the Penguin fleeing Mafia vengeance on an Antarctica-bound flight booked for Penguin Misha - seizes a heaven-sent opportunity to return to Kiev with a new identity. Clear now as to the enormity of abandoning Misha, then convalescent from a heart-transplant, Viktor determines to make amends. Viktor falls in with a Mafia boss who engages him to help in his election campaign, then introduces him to men who might further his search for Misha, said to be in a private zoo in Chechnya. What ensues is for Viktor both a quest and an odyssey of atonement, and, for the reader, an experience as rich, topical and illuminating as Death and the Penguin.Trade ReviewDelicious – when Viktor finally finds Misha it is as if Woody Allen had gone to meet Kurtz * Spectator *There is more magic in his realism than in a library of witches and wizards * Scotland on Sunday *Rich, authentic and entertaining * New Statesman *This grotesque post-Soviet world is tinged with Dostoevskian absurdity * Independent *Death and the Penguin was praised for its brutal humour, tender humanity and all-out guts. Penguin Lost is a sequel equally superlative and twice as readable * Ink *

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Book SynopsisA beautiful, funny, vital novel of teenage years and teenage mistakes from the international phenomenon, Karl Ove Knausgaard.* Karl Ove Knausgaard''s dazzling new novel, The Morning Star, is available to pre-order now *Fresh out of high school, Karl Ove moves to a remote fishing village to work as a teacher. He has no interest in the job itself - or in any other job for that matter, his sole aim is to save money and start writing. All goes well to begin with but as the nights grow longer, his life takes a darker turn. Drinking causes him blackouts, his repeated attempts at losing his virginity end in humiliation, and to his own great distress he develops romantic feelings towards one of his 13-year-old students. And all the while the shadow of his father looms large.''Beautifully human... Being drawn into Knausgaard''s world is an ineluctable pleasure''The TimesTrade ReviewFires every nerve ending while summoning in the reader the sheer sense of how amazing it is to be alive -- Jeffrey Eugenides * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisCalled the book lost and found in time' by its author, Skylight is one of Saramago's earliest novels. The manuscript was lost in the publishers' offices in Lisbon for decades, and is only now being published in English. Lisbon, late-1940s. The inhabitants of an old apartment block are struggling to make ends meet. There's the elderly shoemaker and his wife who take in a solitary young lodger; the woman who sells herself for money, clothes and jewellery; the cultivated family come down in the world, who live only for each other and for music; and the beautiful typist whose boss can't keep his eyes off her. Poisonous relationships, happy marriages, jealousy, gossip and love Skylight brings together all the joys and grief of ordinary people.Trade ReviewA fluid and imaginative translation by Margaret Jull Costa… A masterly creation: pessimistic without being bleak, lyrical without being sentimental… Saramago tears back that curtain to reveal not only the stage on which life is performed but also backstage, under unflattering working lights; to show humanity at its most anxious, its most vulnerable and most true -- James Runcie * Independent *For admirers of his work...the rescue of this novel from oblivion is something to be grateful for. The translator, Margaret Jull Costa, as ever, does a splendid job * Times Literary Supplement *Not only does it illuminate the slow development of a radically original artist, but it is an interesting novel in its own right -- Ursula Le Guin * The Guardian *This is one of Saramago’s early works but his eye for psychological nuance and his gift for sympathy are already in evidence * New Statesman *Skylight is a deeply affecting novel, the work of an already adroit writer who marshals his characters with assurance * Evening Standard *

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Book SynopsisJon is on the run. He has betrayed Oslo's biggest crime lord: the Fisherman. Hiding out in a shepherd's cabin in the wilderness, all that stands between him and his fate are Lea, a bereaved mother and her young son, Knut. But while Lea provides him with a rifle and Knut brings essential supplies, the midnight sun is slowly driving Jon to insanity.Trade ReviewA perfectly-formed thriller, written in pure, unadorned prose, that pierces the heart with its icy brilliance -- Deirdre O'Brien * Sunday Mirror *A thrilling tale -- Cole Moreton * Mail on Sunday *Another success for Nesbo -- Geoffrey Wansell * Daily Mail *A short, lyrical tale where every word counts and the slow paces helps to build the tension[…] another brilliant thriller from the master storyteller -- Jon Coates * Daily Express *Short, brisk, emotionally compelling and stylishly written * Belfast Telegraph Morning *

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Book SynopsisSmurov, a fussily self-conscious Russian tutor, shoots himself after a humiliating beating by his mistress'' husband. Unsure whether his suicide has been successful or not, Smurov drifts around Berlin, observing his acquaintances, but finds he can discover very little about his own life from the opinions of his distracted, confused fellow-émigrés. Nabokov''s shortest novel, The Eye is both a satirical detective story and a wonderfully layered exploration of identity, appearance and the loss of self in a world of word-play and confusion.

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Book SynopsisBased on a real-life love triangle and later made into François Truffaut''s famous New Wave film, Henri-Pierre Roché''s Jules et Jim is a paean to youth set in free-spirited Paris before the First World War. Jules and Jim live a carefree, bohemian existence: they write in cafés, travel when the mood takes them, and share the women they love without jealousy. Like Lucie, flawless, an abbess, and Odile, impulsive, mischievous, almost feral. But it is Kate - with a smile the two friends have determined to follow always, but capricious enough to jump in the Seine from spite - who steals their hearts most thoroughly. Henri-Pierre Roché was in his mid-seventies when he wrote this, his autobiographical debut novel. The inspiration for the legendary film directed by François Truffaut, it captures perfectly with excitement and great humour the tenderness of three people in love with each other and with life.This Penguin Modern Classics edition is translated by Patrick

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Book Synopsis“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The GuardianInspector Maigret finds himself caught in the middle of a husband and wife duo’s case of “he said/she said”—with murderous consequences An unusually quiet day for Inspector Maigret at the Quai des Orfèvres is disturbed by a visit from mild-mannered toy salesman Xavier Manton. Maigret is taken aback by Manton’s revelation that he suspects his wife of plotting to poison him. And when he receives a visit from Madame Manton expressing her own grave concerns later that day, he finds himself deeply conflicted, unsure of whom to trust. Maigret heeds the advice of his seniors and begins investigating the couple—and with every turn, new complications arise. When the case comes to aTrade ReviewOne of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories * Guardian *A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness * Independent *The most addictive of writers . . . a unique teller of tales * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOne of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories * Guardian *A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness * Independent *The most addictive of writers . . . a unique teller of tales * Observer *

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Book Synopsis'His artistry is supreme' John Banville'There was no lack of picturesque individuals in a neighbourhood like Quai de Valmy. But he had seldom encountered the kind of inertia he had seen in that woman. It was hard to explain. When most people look at you, there is some sort of exchange, however small. A contact is established, even if that contact is a kind of defiance. With her, on the contrary, there was nothing.'The discovery of a dismembered body in the Canal Saint Martin leads Maigret into a tangled, baffling case involving a taciturn bistro-owner and a mysterious inheritance. 'One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories' Guardian'Trade ReviewNot just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor. -- Boyd Tonkin * The Times *One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories. * Guardian *One of Simenon's masterpieces ... Simenon's subject is how people who are pushed to the edge push themselves over it; the force of the sleuthing is that of psychoanalysis, not police interrogation. -- Adam Gopnik * The New Yorker *One of Simenon's masterpieces . . . photographic . . . a superior stylist . . . . . . Simenon's subject is how people who are pushed to the edge push themselves over it; the force of the sleuthing is that of psychoanalysis, not police interrogation -- Adam Gopnik * New Yorker *One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere. -- John Banville * Financial Times *A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness * Independent *Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor -- Boyd Tonkin * The Times *The most addictive of writers . . . a unique teller of tales * Observer *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPraise for Georges Simenon:“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The Guardian “These Maigret books are as timeless as Paris itself.” —The Washington Post “Maigret ranks with Holmes and Poirot in the pantheon of fictional detective immortals.” —People “I love reading Simenon. He makes me think of Chekhov.” —William Faulkner “The greatest of all, the most genuine novelist we have had in literature.” —André Gide “A supreme writer . . . Unforgettable vividness.” —The Independent (London) “Superb . . . The most addictive of writers . . . A unique teller of tales.” —The Observer (London) “Compelling, remorseless, brilliant.” —John Gray “A truly wonderful writer . . . Marvelously readable—lucid, simple, absolutely in tune with the world he creates.” —Muriel Spark “A novelist who entered his fictional world as if he were a part of it.”lle —Peter Ackroyd “Extraordinary masterpieces of the twentieth century.” —John Banville"Gem-hard soul-probes . . . not just the world's bestselling detective series, but an imperishable literary legend . . . he exposes secrets and crimes not by forensic wizardry, but by the melded powers of therapist, philosopher and confessor" ― Times (London)"Strangely comforting . . . so many lovely bistros from the Paris of mid-20th C. The corpses are incidental, it's the food that counts." ― Margaret Atwood"One of the greatest writers of the 20th century . . . no other writer can set up a scene as sharply and with such economy as Simenon does . . . the conjuring of a world, a place, a time, a set of characters - above all, an atmosphere." ― Financial Times"Gripping . . . richly rewarding . . . You'll quickly find yourself obsessing about his life as you tackle each mystery in turn."-- Stig Abell ― The Sunday Times (London)

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe great modern novel of the comic-pathetic illusion of freedom * London Review of Books *

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Book Synopsis''Beautiful and deep ... a sumptuous treat for any book lover'' The Independent''Food for short story lovers everywhere'' Irish Times*A major celebration of the French short story and Spectator Book of the Year*The short story has a rich tradition in French literature. This feast of an anthology celebrates its most famous practitioners, as well as newly translated writers ready for rediscovery. The second volume takes the reader through the tumultuous twentieth century in the company of writers including Simone de Beauvoir and Maryse Condé, Patrick Modiano and Virginie Despentes, covering world wars, revolutions, and the horrors of the motorway service station. Along the way we meet electronic brains, she-wolves, a sadistic Cinderella, ancestors, infidels, dissatisfied housewives and lonely ambassadors, all clamouring to be heard. Funny, devastating and fresh at every turn, this is the place to start for lovers of French literature, new and old.Edited and with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness, academic, writer and translator.Trade ReviewBeautiful and deep ... a sumptuous treat for any book lover. -- Martin Chilton * The Independent *Outstanding. -- Philip Hensher * The Spectator Books of the Year 2022 *A French version of The Thousand and One Nights ... Both volumes tell us something new about writing in French ... Such a creative arrangement forces us to rethink what we expect a short story to be or do ... Perhaps all short fiction reminds us that the end is nigh, in which case not the least of Patrick McGuinness's achievements is that of showing us how to read and live accordingly. -- Annabel Kim * Times Literary Supplement *Patrick McGuinness's magisterial anthology teems with universes from each of its 84 authors ... There is so much to discover in these stories - both history and food for short story lovers everywhere. * Irish Times *It's hard to imagine a better introduction to French literature than this glorious two-volume bran tub of short fiction ... outstanding masterpieces all ... There's a welcome playfulness throughout. -- John Self * The Guardian *Impeccably edited by Patrick McGuinness. The first volume stretches from the 16th century to the early 20th century ... Volume two takes us from there to the early 21st century, featuring more women and non-white authors than the first volume. Treat yourself: buy both. -- Tomiwa Owolade * Sunday Times *What a collection it is ... Both volumes fizz with the enthusiasm with which McGuinness has assembled stories that range across centuries and continents ... This will surely turn out to be the definitive anthology of French-language short fiction. -- Charlie Connelly * The New European *Tales with a certain ooh la la ... an eclectic, often steamy collection charting the history of the French short story [with] some gems by less famous figures ... high marks for quality and variety. -- Matthew Reisz * The Observer *

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Book Synopsis''There were some weeks that were painful, nerve-racking. At the office or at home, in the middle of a meal, he would suddenly find his forehead bathed in sweat, a tightness in his chest, and at those times, feeling everyone''s eyes on him was unbearable.''During a chance meeting on the train from Venice to Paris, a stranger asks Justin Calmar to deliver a briefcase for him to an address in Switzerland. Soon this ordinary family man will become hopelessly, fatally, ensnared in a world of guilt, lies and paranoia.Originally published in 1965, shortly after Simenon moved into the new home he had built in Épalinges, Switzerland, this chilling novel is a powerful exploration of the fragility of the human psyche.

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Book SynopsisMemories of My Melancholy Whores is a powerful novel about a man who so far has never felt love from Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, author of the One Hundred Years of Solitude. ''The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin''On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a newspaper columnist in Colombia decides to give himself ''a night of mad love with a virgin adolescent''. But on seeing this beautiful girl he falls deeply under her spell. His love for his ''Delgadina'' causes him to recall all the women he has paid to perform acts of love. And so the columnist realises he must chronicle the life of his heart, to offer it freely to the world. . . ''Márquez describes this amorous, sometimes disturbing journey with the grace and vigour of a master storyteller'' Daily Mail''Márquez is wonderful on the transformative and redemptive powers of love. . . storytelling magic'' Tatler''Márquez writes in this lyrical, magical language that no-one else can do'' Salman RushieTrade ReviewMárquez describes this amorous, sometimes disturbing journey with the grace and vigour of a master storyteller * Daily Mail *Profoundly haunting … one of literature's great figures pushes back the years and gives us fiction of the very highest order * TLS *There is not one stale sentence, redundant word or unfinished thought * The Times *

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Book SynopsisBestselling Japanese crime writer Keigo Higashino returns with another compelling and complex mystery that can only be solved by Detective Galileo, the much loved sleuth introduced in The Devotion of Suspect X, The Salvation of a Saint and A Midsummer's EquationTrade ReviewI set out to discover more Japanese murder mysteries. It wasn't long before I got to Keigo Higashino, and I've read nobody else since. His books are so cleverly put together. His Detective Galileo novels, in which a temperamental physics professor helps the police to solve apparently unsolvable cases, are particular smashers * Dan Rhodes, author of Sour Grapes *Fans of golden age puzzles will wish this one could go on forever * Kirkus Reviews *Stellar...a flawless blend of police procedural and fair-play detection * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Realistic characters and beguiling descriptions...those looking for an uncommon mystery will be delighted * Library Journal (starred review) *

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Book SynopsisMo Yan's collection of eight darkly humorous short stories - surrealistic political fables, ghost stories, tales of failed and perverse love, and stories about the destructive effects of superstition and ignorance. Mo Yan addresses serious concerns of contemporary China with a light touch.

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Book Synopsis**Sunday Times Best Books of 2018**Funny, irreverent and scathing GuardianVirginie Despentes is a true original, a punk rock George Eliot ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN, author of You Too Could Have a Body Like MineRock star Alexandre Bleach might be dead, but he has a secret. It''s a secret that concerns several people, but the only person who can unlock it is Vernon Subutex, former record shop proprietor turned homeless messiah and guru, last seen hallucinating and feverish on a bench in the parc des Buttes Chaumont.Aïcha wants to know the truth behind the death of her mother, Vodka Satana. And if she finds the bastards responsible, she wants to make them pay, whatever Céleste thinks of her plan.Céleste wants Aïcha to get a grip and stop hanging around with Subutex''s gang of disciples. The Hyena wants to find the Bleach tapes. She wants to untangle her complicated feelings about Anaïs, her boss'' assistant. AnTrade ReviewAlternative Paris at its most compassionate, angry and funny . . . Spiky rants on the sick state of bourgeois society enliven and provoke - it's all très cool * The Sunday Times, "Best books of the last five years" *Funny, irreverent and scathing * Guardian *Virginie Despentes is a true original, a punk rock George Eliot with a keen taste for the pitiable innards of her characters: no one else has her slyly penetrating eye, her spiky sense of humor, her razor wit that cuts like wire through the accumulated crud of our age's default thought patterns. In her masterful hands,Vernon Subutex becomes a droll, hilarious, insightful record of our unfortunate times -- ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN * author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine *Vernon Subutex Two presents Paris in all its glory and its grime. Sharply translated by Frank Wynne, this is the best multi-volume fiction series since Elena Ferrante * 1843 *Virginie Despentes continues her picaresque tour de force with the same driving energy sustained by vicious wit, exasperation, stark insight and compelling empathy . . . In her seething Paris of messed-up losers and relentless operators, Despentes exposes a universal society gone mad on greed, fear and ruthlessness * Irish Times *Truthful, brash, brilliant and shocking. I was both appalled and mesmerised -- Victoria Hislop * The Week *Virginie Despentes Vernon Subutex trilogy savages contemporary life . . . Vernon Subutex Two is equally good and is my book of the year * The Sunday Times, "Best Books of 2018" *Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever read . . . [It] has dupes and assholes and racists and the people they hate and a stunning diversity of internal monologues and trans true love. Like the last decade, it searches for a happy ending that isn't merely personal and can't find it . . . These novels with their depth and detail kick TV's sorry ass -- Nell Zink * Bustle, "Best Books of the 2010s" *It's bastards across the board in Virginie Despentes's brilliantly unshackled trilogy Vernon Subutex . . . What keeps you reading is the voice - acerbic, unconstrained, bitterly funny and, despite the book's intimations of enlightenment, perpetually pissed off. * Wall Street Journal *A satire on fading punk politics . . . Despentes at her most compassionate, and hopeful * The White Review *Like William S. Burroughs updated for the age of WhatsApp, Vernon Subutex Two straps our current world to a chair and interrogates the hell out of it * The Millions *A sexed-up epic * Publisher's Weekly, starred review *

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Book SynopsisEVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY, SOMETIMES . . .Lorenzo Cuni is a fourteen-year-old loner. His wealthy parents think he is away on a school skiing trip, but, in fact, he has stowed away in a forgotten cellar. He plans to live in perfect isolation for a week, keeping the adult world at bay. Then a visit from his estranged half-sister, Olivia, changes everything.Trade ReviewExuberant and audacious. * * Observer * *The new Italian word for talent is Ammaniti. * * The Times * *A fearsomely gifted writer. * * Independent * *A master storyteller. * * Guardian * *The story of a young boy who's heading towards adulthood. This book amazed me -- Bernardo BertolucciNear perfect [...] this small gem of storytelling has the balance just about right. * * Scotland on Sunday * *Ammaniti's matter-of-fact, unadorned prose captures Lorenzo's angst-ridden, incomprehending world-view with a confident clarity, and as resolution back in the present day beckons, he plots the course of their filial relationship with a deft, understated skill -- Bram E Gieben * * The Skinny * *Me and You is a slim volume which takes only a couple of hours to read. But thanks to the skilfully presented Lorenzo and the poignant reconciliation of the boy with his half-sister, it lingers in the memory for much, much longer -- Alastair Mabbott * * The Herald * *

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Book Synopsis1958. In a dorm room in Moscow, a young writer is woken by the sound of angry voices on the radio. Through the fog of a hangover he hears the news that a novel called Doctor Zhivago has earned its author the Nobel Prize. There is uproar. The author, Boris Pasternak, faces exile, the press hound him and demand that he refuse the award. A few days earlier the young writer found a copy of this book - could those simple pages really be so dangerous?Based on Ismail Kadare''s own experience, Twilight of the Eastern Gods is a portrait of a city, a story of youthful disenchantment and a reminder of the incredible importance of the written word.Trade ReviewIsmail Kadare is this generation's Kafka * * Independent * *Compelling . . .absorbing . . .deeply personal . . . With a new transation of Twilight of the Eastern Gods, Ismail Kadare is finally receiving the recognition he deserves * * New Statesman * *Kadare writes . . . with a light of touch and with consummate literary skill. This is the work of a strange and mysterious master * * Sunday Business Post * *One of the most compelling novelists now writing in any language * * Wall Street Journal * *Enigmatic and beguiling . . . pockmarked with brilliance * * The National * *Fascinating . . . Twilight of the Eastern Gods is reflective of a culture of paranoia and suspicion, in which anyone who made a wrong move or uttered anything that might be deemed subversive could expect reprisals * * Herald * *One of the world's greatest living writers -- Simon Sebag MontefioreLike Coetzee's Youth . . . For its poetry, its pastiche and its tonic bitterness, this is a book that was worth redeeming . . . It smacks gorgeously of the bitchiness that pervaded Soviet literature * * The Times * *Skilfully mixes the personal and the political . . . [Kadare is] a forceful example of how to function as a writer under communism * * Independent * *His fiction offers invaluable insights into life under tyranny . . . great writer, by any nation's standards * * Financial Times * *There are very few writers alive today with the depth, power and resonance of this remarkable novelist * * Herald * *One of the most important voices in literature today * * Metro * *Kadare is one of Europe's most consistently interesting and powerful contemporary novelists, a writer whose stark, memorable prose imprints itself on the reader's consciousness * * Los Angeles Times * *Frequently hilarious . . . Puts me in mind of Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives locked in a freezer, or a version of Adelle Waldman's The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. set in a Brooklyn where it was always snowing, all the young writers in the city lived in the same building, everyone regularly consumed debilitating quantities of vodka and each was suspected of being a government informer . . . I intend to keep laying an annual £20 bet of Mr. Kadare [to win The Nobel Prize for Literature] for as long as he lives * * New York Times * *Highly atmospheric * * Times Literary Supplement * *The personal, against a political backdrop, is drawn out slowly and mesmerisngly * * Glasgow Sunday Herald * *Kadare's sexual desire shines brightly against the dull torpor of the cold war * * Guardian * *

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Book SynopsisA bracing and tender novel about sons, fathers and the hidden legacies of heartbreak.

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Book Synopsis'The darkness dwells, the desperation grows between the characters and the walls close in until you're caught in the trap.' - Lars KeplerA breathless page-turner from an international master of suspense, The Woman Inside by M. T. Edvardsson is a story about dependency, justice, and the sometimes fine line between right and wrong. Three young people.Bill, a widower and single dad, is in a financial mess with bills to pay when he rents out a room in his apartment to Karla.Karla left home to study law and to earn some money begins working as a cleaner at the palatial home of Steven and Regina Rytter. But inside their house it is clear that something is wrong with the doctor and his wife, who never leaves her bedroom.Jennica is single and careerless when she meets Steven on Tinder. But just as she thinks her luck is changing, it soon becomes clear that Steven is hiding secrets of his own . . .Two murders.By the end of the summer Steven and Regina Rytter will be found dead in their home and the questions will begin . . .One truth.Ordinary people will do things they never thought possible when faced with extraordinary circumstances, and the truth is that the woman inside may hold the key to it all . . .Praise for A Nearly Normal Family:‘Deceptive and riveting’ - Karin Slaughter, bestselling author of Girl, Forgotten‘Taut page-turner *****’ - The Sun‘A cracking read!’ - T. M. Logan, bestselling author of The Vacation‘A compulsively readable tour de force’ - Wall Street Journal‘A canny, intensely suspenseful legal thriller’ - Scott Turow, author of Presumed InnocentTrade ReviewA super well-composed chamber drama, where the darkness dwells, the desperation grows between the characters and the walls are closing in until you're caught in the trap. -- Lars Kepler, #1 internationally bestselling author of The SandmanA deceptive and riveting novel. A Nearly Normal Family will make you question everything you know about those closest to you -- Karin Slaughter on A Nearly Normal FamilyTore through this in a matter of days! Deadly secrets, divided loyalties and a dysfunctional family under unbearable strain as layers of deceit are peeled away one by one. A cracking read! -- T M Logan on A Nearly Normal FamilyAn utterly compelling premise with wonderful writing. The characters . . . are so achingly real that one holds one’s breath with them. This is a layered, intelligent novel that will force any parent to consider exactly how far they would go to protect their child -- Fiona Cummins on A Nearly Normal FamilyA canny, intensely suspenseful legal thriller -- Scott Turow on A Nearly Normal FamilyAny parent . . . and every teenager . . . will be gripped by this book. I couldn't put it down and the author skillfully keeps you guessing until the very last line -- Michelle Frances on A Nearly Normal FamilyPage-turner . . . peels away the compromises we make with ourselves to be the people we believe our beloveds expect, revealing just how flimsy those pretenses can be - one of the top seven thrillers for the summer -- The New York Times on A Nearly Normal Family

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Book SynopsisIn La Vita Nuova, Italy's greatest poet recounts the famous story of his passionate love for Beatrice. The drama of their relationship unravels through stunning poetry and prose in this, one of the most celebrated love stories in history.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. From the first time the poet sets eyes on Beatrice, he proclaims that ‘love quite governed my soul’ and his devotion to her knows no end. By recalling each meeting with Beatrice this short book is at once a heartfelt account of youthful love and a religious allegory. La Vita Nuova serves as an important precursor to Dante’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.This edition is the English translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti from the original Italian. It was first published in The Early Italian Poets in 1861 and then reissued in 1874 by Dante and his circle. It was met with great acclaim acknowledging Rossetti’s skill as a meticulous and poetic translator.

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Book SynopsisThe Prize-winning International Bestseller When a mother allows her thirty-something daughter to move into her apartment, she wants for her what many mothers might say they want for their child: a steady income, and, even better, a good husband with a good job with whom to start a family.But when Green turns up with her girlfriend Lane in tow, her mother is unprepared and unwilling to welcome Lane into her home. In fact, she can barely bring herself to be civil. Having centred her life on her husband and child, her daughter’s definition of family is not one she can accept. Her daughter’s involvement in a case of unfair dismissal involving gay colleagues from the university where she works is similarly strange to her.And yet when the care home where she works insists that she lower her standard of care for an elderly dementia patient who has no family, who travelled the world as a successful diplomat, who chose not to have children, Green’s mother cannot accept it. Why should not having chosen a traditional life mean that your life is worth nothing at all?In Concerning My Daughter, translated from Korean by Jamie Chang, Kim Hye-jin lays bare our most universal fears on ageing, death and isolation to offer, finally, a paean to love in all its forms.'An admirably nuanced portrait of prejudice . . . one that boldly takes on the daunting task of humanizing someone whose prejudice has made her cruel.' - The New York TimesTrade ReviewAn acerbic and wise book. -- Catherine Taylor * Irish Times *An admirably nuanced portrait of prejudice . . . one that boldly takes on the daunting task of humanizing someone whose prejudice has made her cruel. -- Imogen West Knights * The New York Times *I can't help but be moved by a story about women meeting, fighting, helping each other, looking after one another, and raising their voices against the prejudice and criticism they are subject to. -- Cho Nam-joo, author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982Concerning My Daughter is one of the best character studies I've read in years - thoughtful, complicated and surprisingly kind, it raises important questions about ageing, family, and both the cost and the value of change. -- Jessie Greengrass, author of An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk and Sight Concerning My Daughter is a work that is unafraid of the human body in all its contradictions, at once philosophical and practical in its treatment of the aging body, the gendered body, the body’s capacity for acts of caretaking, protest, and love. Urgent, timely, tender. -- Yoon Choi, author of SkinshipConcerning My Daughter provides desperate narratives of its female characters. It’s the story of a mother and a daughter, but it goes beyond the relationship and is also ahead of our time. By accompanying the women’s journey overcoming pain and suffering in their lives, we will see our stereotypes broken in the end. The great power smashing our fixed old ideas! This book is filled with such energy. -- Kyung-sook Shin, author of Please Look After Mom and Violets

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Book Synopsis'The stories are cool, meticulously crafted, pithy and mordantly amusing . . . [an] extremely powerful book. Highly recommended' Irish Times'Psychologically raw . . . [von Schirach's] unfussy prose is icily effective' Financial Times'One of the most distinctive voices in European literature' Daily TelegraphA young lawyer puts aside her sense of justice to succeed at her new firm. A man who values silence is driven to murder by his noisy neighbours. A cheated wife seeks revenge.How do you decide what punishment fits the crime?Our narrator is a man you'd never want to meet unless you really needed him. A nameless criminal defence lawyer, he coolly narrates the fate of twelve characters who cross his path. In spare, gripping prose, he tells their stories, uncovering the loneliness and alienation, desire and desperation which drive their choices and shape the consequences they face. Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, Punishment masterfully treads the line between fiction and truth, each meticulously crafted story crackling with white-knuckle suspense and vivid characters who stay with you long after the final page. Translated from the German by Katharina HallTrade ReviewThe stories are cool, meticulously crafted, pithy and mordantly amusing . . . this is an unsettling, affecting, extremely powerful book. Highly recommended -- Declan Hughes * Irish Times *Translated with economical elegance by Hall . . . and informed by insider knowledge . . . it's a chilling insight into a flawed justice system, the people who work in it and the guilty and guileless who find themselves judged * Daily Mail *Psychologically raw . . . delivered in a crisp translation by Katharina Hall, his unfussy prose is icily effective . . . it suggests that all justice systems are flawed, that they are all just processes. And, with immense empathy, von Schirach's stories show what happens to people when they are processed. -- Christian House * Financial Times *An impressive page-turner with substance and bite * Bookmunch *Thrilling and edgy, often carrying a twist in the tale * To the Ends of the Word blog *

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Book SynopsisYou escaped. But he will never let you go.NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES: A page-turning thriller perfect for fans of Room and Gone GirlA windowless shack in the woods. Lena's life and that of her two children follows the rules set by their captor, the father: meals, bathroom visits, study time are strictly scheduled and meticulously observed. He protects his family from the dangers lurking in the outside world and makes sure that his children will always have a mother to look after them.One day Lena manages to flee - but the nightmare continues. It seems as if her tormentor wants to get back what belongs to him. And then there is the question whether she really is the woman called 'Lena', who disappeared without a trace over thirteen years ago. The police and Lena's family are all desperately trying to piece together a puzzle that doesn't quite seem to fit.'Chilling, original and mesmerising. Hausmann is a force to be reckoned with' David Baldacci'A peerless exercise in suspense' Financial Times'Will haunt you long after the last page' Alice Feeney'Keeps you guessing' Sunday Express'Intelligent and original' Sunday Independent'Outstanding' Publishers Weekly'Claustrophobic, terrifying and fiercely compelling' Daily Mail'Disturbingly good' Lesley Kara'Gripping, suspenseful and beautifully written' Jo SpainTrade ReviewA chilling, original and mesmerizing work. Hausmann is a force to be reckoned with. You can't stop reading * David Baldacci *A peerless exercise in suspense . . . Whether treated as a study in trauma and identity or a dark, well-crafted crime narrative from multiple perspectives, it is a nail-biting fare * Barry Forshaw, Financial Times *Claustrophobic, terrifying and fiercely compelling, this is heartbreaking * Daily Mail *Dear Child is an accomplished thriller, beautifully written, intriguing and very compelling * Peter James *I read Dear Child in one sitting, holding my breath. Such a gripping, suspenseful and beautifully written debut. I loved it! * Jo Spain, author of The Confession *Hausmann makes you care about her characters even while they keep you guessing * Sunday Express *Told from multiple viewpoints which gives a satisfying complexity . . . An intelligent and original book * Sunday Independent *Equal parts mystery, thriller and family story . . . [A] tantalizingly disturbing debut . . . the overall experience is as enthralling as it is thought-provoking. Hausmann creates a dark solar system studded with twinkling stars . . . At the core of Dear Child is the constant hope that characters will be drawn back to people who mean the most to them, no matter how far apart they've been pulled. That glint of optimism is the light guiding readers as they fly through this book * New York Times *German bestseller Dear Child by Romy Hausmann is tipped to be one of the UK's must-reads of the summer * S Magazine *Nothing is quite what it seems in this mesmerising debut * Daily Express *One of the best thrillers I've read this year. Flawlessly plotted with a pace that refuses to let the reader come up for air - not that you'd want to * Stephanie Wrobel, author of The Recovery of Rose Gold *Wow! Such a disturbingly good read. Romy's knack of getting under a character's skin is impressive. I loved it * Lesley Kara, author of The Rumour *If you read only one thriller this year, choose this one. Room meets Gone Girl in this gripping novel, which will haunt you long after the last page * Alice Feeney, author of Sometimes I Lie *Outstanding . . . The multiple points of view and numerous plot twists sustain the breakneck pacing, but the book's real power lies in the author's insightful and sensitive portrayal of the characters involved in the tragedy. This darkly disturbing thriller definitely marks Hausmann as a writer to watch. * Publishers Weekly *A mesmerising and flawlessly plotted debut * Sunday Express S Magazine *

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Book Synopsis"A novel par excellence that is destined to become a classic' of almost byzantine splendour . . . At its best worthy of comparison with Gabriel García Márquez" Catherine Taylor, Irish Times"Afonso Cruz is one of the strongest voices in contemporary Portuguese literature" Antonio Saez Delgado, El PaisAt the age of forty-two, Bonifaz Vogel begins to hear a voice.But it doesn't belong to the mice or the woodworm, as he first imagines. Nor is it the voice of God, as he comes to believe. It belongs to young Isaac Dresner, who takes refuge in the cellar of Vogel's bird shop on the run from the soldier who shot his best friend. Soon Vogel comes to rely on it for advice: he cannot make a sale without first bending down to confer with the floorboards. Thus begins the story of two Dresden families, fractured and displaced by the devastating bombing of the city 1945, their fates not only intertwined, but bound also to that of a life-sized doll commissioned by the artist Oskar Kokoschka in the image of his lost lover.Based on a curious true story, Kokoschka's Doll is an imaginative and playful novel that transports the reader to Dresden, Paris, Lagos and Marrakesh, introducing them to an unforgettable cast of characters along the way.Translated from the Portuguese by Rahul BeryRahul Bery's translations from Portuguese and Spanish have been published in Granta, The White Review, Words Without Borders and the T.L.S. His first full-length translation, Rolling Fields by David Trueba, was published in 2020. From 2018 to 2019 he was translator-in-residence at the British Library.With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European UnionTrade ReviewWhat truly distinguishes Cruz is how he can combine philosophical thinking with surprising writing, rich with imagery. -- Ana Dias Ferreria * Time Out. *Highly recommended for its imaginative, playful character, though it tells many tales of sad love. -- Pedro Mexia * Publico. *A novel par excellence that is destined to become a classic' of almost byzantine splendour . . . At its best worthy of comparison with Gabriel García Márquez. -- Catherine Taylor * Irish Times. *

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Book SynopsisThe fourth novel in a historical series that began with the International Booker-shortlisted The Unseen "Taken together, Jacobsen has given us an epic of Norway's experience of the first half of the 20th century that is subtle and moving" David Mills, Sunday Times"Jacobsen can make almost anything catch the light . . . One of Norway's greatest writers on the working class" Times Literary SupplementA childless island is no island at all.Ingrid Marie Barrøy has returned to the island that bears her name, bringing up her daughter with the other children that came with the war, who will someday raise their own children until an island that was empty is singing once more with life.And soon another will arrive, a child of the war and an orphan of the peace, whom Ingrid will fight to make her own, and whose interests may, in time, collide with those of certain others on the island, forcing her to make a choice she will long regret.The sea brings the island all it has - herring for salting, eider ducks for down - but Ingrid knows, has alwaysknown, that one day it may wish to take something back. But until that day, she continues to live by one simple truth:There is no limit to what you can do with an island, the imagination sets the only limits, as with the sea.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don ShawReviews for The Unseen"Even by his high standards, his magnificent new novel The Unseen is Jacobsen's finest to date, as blunt as it is subtle and is easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work . . . Rendered beautifully into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, The Unseen is a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner" Charlie Connelly, New European."A profound interrogation of freedom and fate, as well as a fascinating portrait of a vanished time, written in prose as clear and washed clean as the world after a storm" Justine Jordan, Guardian"The subtle translation, with its invented dialect, conveys a timeless, provincial voice . . . The Unseen is a blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Financial Times.

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Book Synopsis"One of the great novels to have been written in our language" MARIO VARGAS LLOSA"Beautifully written and gripping" GuardianHe thought that memories were invisible like light, and just as smoke made light show, there must be a way for memories to be seen... In October 2016, the real-life Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera is attending a retrospective of his films in Barcelona. It's a difficult time for him: his father, Fausto Cabrera, has just died; his marriage is in crisis; and his country has rejected peace agreements that might have ended more than fifty years of war. In the course of a few turbulent and intense days, Sergio will recall the events that marked the family's life, and especially his father's, his sister Marianella's and his own. From the Spanish Civil War to the exile of his republican family in Latin America, and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla movements of 1960s Latin America, not only will do we discover a series of adventures extraordinary by any standards, but also a devastating portrait of the forces that for half a century turned the world upside down and created the one we now inhabit. Retrospective is a revelatory and unforgettable novel.Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLeanTrade ReviewOne of the great novels to have been written in our language -- Mario Vargas Llosa * El Pais *The story of their political indoctrination, active deployment, growing unease and ultimate disillusionment is both fascinating and terrifying -- Melissa Harrison * Guardian *Hours and hours of recordings and conversations over the years have resulted in an extraordinary novel of adventures and nightmares, a ruthless exploration of the delusions of political utopianism and moral totalitarianism, an excursion into the dark and buried side of history when history becomes political faith -- Jordi Gracia * El Pais *A true international writer -- Yiyun Li * New York Times *A fascinating novelistic narration of the adventures of the family of the filmmaker Sergio Cabrera, that travels through the twentieth century and three continents, from the flight of his father and grandfather in the Spanish Civil War to his own participation in the Colombian guerrilla after a Kafkaesque and bizarre revolutionary training in China * La Vanguardia *It bites, it hits, it hurts pain, it makes sparks fly. Literature struggles to become life and life struggles to be told. Such an incredible book! -- Manuel RivasWritten with an enviably full style and a superb control of the novelist's impulses * La Vanguardia *A lucid and subtle metaphor for how ideologies marked the private lives of the twentieth century * El Cultural *Vásquez is a Colombian writer with the talent to keep a magician's equilibrium between reality and fiction. . . . Beautifully written and gripping -- Gioconda Belli * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis"The limitless possibilities of fiction are brilliantly utilised . . . Ingenious" Irish Times"Agualusa's funny and lively tale turns increasingly ominous ahead of an explosive conclusion" Guardian***A Financial Times Fiction in Translation Book of the Year 2023***Daniel lives with artist Moira on her native Island of Mozambique. They are awaiting the birth of their child, while also organising the island's first literary festival. But as soon as the first festival guests arrive, the coast is hit by a cyclone.The island is spared, but the bridge to the mainland is left impassable, and telephone and internet connections are severed. The islanders - and the writers who have come for the festival - are cut off from the outside world. Left to their own devices, the authors forge new bonds and make the best of a situation that gets stranger each day. Some believe they're in an intermediate realm, a kind of limbo, and some have no choice but to write, as the boundaries between reality and fiction, past and future, and life and death begin to blur.Where do we go when it's all over? Perhaps to a small island. This is a novel about the nature of life and of time, and the extraordinary power of imagination and the written word, capable of creating anything and regenerating everything.Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel HahnTrade ReviewThe limitless possibilities of fiction are brilliantly utilised in José Eduardo Agualusa's novel The Living and The Rest . . . Ingenious. -- Declan O'Driscoll * Irish Times *Agualusa's funny and lively tale turns increasingly ominous ahead of an explosive conclusion. I give it four stars - and a half -- John Self * Guardian *Perfect for those who like their beach reads served with a spritz of postmodernism. * Strong Words *

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Book SynopsisA breathtaking novel of grief, love, creativity and a young woman's queer and artistic awakening.In the days after her mother's death from breast cancer, Oksana, a young queer poet, decides to return her mother's ashes to their working-class hometown in Siberia. It is a journey home that will take her through the raw, almost dreamlike emotions of early grief through to an acceptance of the wound that death leaves behind.As she navigates the rituals of parting, Oksana feels her way through memory and heartache with a wry humour, reflecting on her complex relationship with her mother and on her own experiences of love, loss, sexuality and the search for home.Powerful, lyrical and precise, this extraordinary debut is a novel which blurs the line between reality and creation. Wound is both an exploration of grief and a journey towards love, happiness and creative fulfilment.Translated from the Russian by Elina Alter"This is not just an amazing novel, extremely frank, extremely accurate and extremely addictive, but, perhaps, a book about finding happiness" The Blueprint"Wound is a poet's novel . . . a primer on feminist thought for readers with Pushkin in their veins" European Review of BooksTrade ReviewIt is heartening to see public recognition of Vasyakina, a feminist activist and a lesbian, whose work does not hide but rather publicises her orientation and her politics...Elina Alter does justice to Vasyakina's style, whose clarity and unpretentiousness results in a work of great inner power -- EUGENE OSTASHEVSKY * author of The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi *Wound is a poet's novel, structured like "a pebble dropped into water" . . . a primer on feminist thought for readers with Pushkin in their veins * European Review of Books *From very personal experiences, Vasyakina has written a frank text about memory, her own sexuality, the relationship between mother and daughter * Forbes Russia *Wound is a story about how wounds can heal. To do this, they need to grope, understand and speak. This is not just an amazing novel, extremely frank, extremely accurate and extremely addictive, but, perhaps, a book about finding happiness * The Blueprint *This book is impossible to swallow or read in one gulp. I, who always read very quickly, only needed twenty pages. Then I had to step back, catch my breath, look at the surrounding objects, return to the familiar world - which, it seemed, would never be the same again. There is such density, concentration of thoughts and feelings in the text, that one wants to live and realize each fragment separately * Snob *It is the rare and therefore especially valuable ability to see the forest, while distinguishing individual trees in it, and to generalize without falling into the sin of superficial simplification, which makes Oksana Vasyakina's Wound one of the most important texts published in Russian in 2021 * Meduza *In this moving, poetic autobiographical novel, family trauma is inseparable from national history. Returning to Siberia with her mother's ashes, a daughter revisits the primal scenes of four generations. In the process, she invents a new way of existing as a queer woman from the Russian provinces -- SOPHIE PINKHAM * author of Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine *Deeply moving, Wound flows from a faith in the emancipatory power of literature that has become all too rare. One of the most refreshing young voices I've encountered in contemporary literature -- JESSI JEZEWSKA STEVENS * author of The Exhibition of Persephone Q and The Visitors *Acutely necessary. Wound is a bold, human, powerful meditation on how a language of love and death takes shape -- POLINA BARSKOVA * author of Living Pictures *In Vasyakina's magnificent Wound, a woman goes on a pilgrimage to bury her mother's ashes in the small Siberian town of her birth, a place where lesbians 'didn't exist.' Urn under arm, the prodigal daughter returns: a queer in Putin's Russia, a poet who first glimpses herself whole-'soft and agape'-in the gaze of her girlfriend. The narration pivots through time in Elina Alter's resonant translation. 'Poetry is my method of forgetting in such a way that what I forget becomes known to others.' I remain awed by the expansive emotional geography of this book, which reads like a novel yet tastes like a poem. -- ALINA STEFANESCU * author of Dor *Oksana Vasyakina's Wound is a rare work of towering honesty and lyricism. Few writers can hold such poise amidst the wilderness of human emotion and render language both brutal and magnanimous -- Yelena MoskovichLyrical and profound, this one is a truly special book by one of Russia's boldest voices * Glamour *raw and hypnotic * New York Times *A seriousness of purpose is explored through prose, poetry and an essay on the links between weaving and writing with some comparative thoughts on the difficulties of mother/daughter relationships... Only an author of great skill could hold such disparate material together while also questioning her own method throughout the process. But Vasyakina successfully folds the untidy past into the unsettled present, demonstrating how inseparable they are to the person she is... -- Declan O'Driscoll * Irish Times *This is a study of grief and an accounting of a coming-to-consciousness as a queer subject in a repressive state. It also left me feeling joyful, grateful, enlightened - and lighter.... [Wound] is a novel to savour and to recommend to queer and straight friends alike, precisely for how it explores the possibilities of discontinuity * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisA beautifully written Christmas tale, brimming with humanity and hope, by best-loved author, Timothée de Fombelle. On a quiet Christmas night, a swallow takes flight from Africa, searching for something it cannot quite name. A disenchanted driver sits alone in his yellow truck, yearning to be home. And a man walks through the snowy streets, feeling utterly alone. But when the three destinies meet, it seems their search for hope, belonging and kindness has finally ended. An atmospheric and heart-warming story, perfect for this very special time of year.

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Book SynopsisGood dad or good assassin? Can he be both?From the internationally bestselling author of BULLET TRAIN: A seemingly ordinary family man tries to juggle his home life with his job as a hitman.*SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA DAGGER AWARD FOR BEST THRILLER*Kabuto is an ordinary guy; stressed with work, hassled by his wife and disrespected by his teenage son. No wonder he visits his doctor so often. Except the Doctor' is actually his handler, and Kabuto is a hired assassin. Because although he may seem like a small man at home, Kabuto is really good at killing people.But Kabuto is worn out with the business of murder. So he's trying to pay his way out with a few last jobs. But when the final assignment puts his unsuspecting family in danger, Kabuto realises he is going to need every deadly skill he knows to keep them alive.PRAISE FOR KOTARO ISAKA:Showcases Isaka's Tarantinoesque blend of offbeat wit and stylised violence' <

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Book Synopsis'Gorgeously quirky' Stylist 'Evocative and humorous' Observer 'Beguiling' GuardianIt's been a tough day. She's been dumped. Twice. She's accidentally killed a goose. And now she's suddenly responsible for her best friend's deaf-mute son. But when a shared lottery ticket turns the oddly matched pair into the richest people in Iceland, she and the boy find themselves on a road trip across the country. With cucumber hotels, dead sheep, and any number of her exes on their tail, Butterflies in November is a blackly comic and uniquely moving tale of motherhood, friendship and the power of words. Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir was born in Iceland in 1958, studied art history in Paris and has lectured in History of Art. Her earlier novel, The Greenhouse (2007), won the DV Culture Award for literature and was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Award, and her other titles have been translated into 16 languages. She currently lives and works in Reykjavik as the director of the University of Iceland's Art Museum. 'Beautifully crafted and translated... Carefully observed, sensuously written, and often darkly comic' BooktrustTrade ReviewFunny and wistful... very moving, layered and optimistic -- Isabel Berwick Financial Times Evocative and humorous Observer [Butterflies in November] has many bleak moments, but plenty of funny ones too... we warm to Olafsdottir's clear-eyed, quirky heroine Daily Mail Playfully self-conscious... reflecting on the relationships between reading and experience Guardian Brilliantly written, and the main protagonist is such a fascinating character. The author... takes mudane subjects in life... and makes them quirky, fun, adorable and bizarre. You'll savour each page of this book Company Sadness and humour coexist beautifully in Butterflies in November Metro The darkly comic narrative touches and captivates at every turn The Lady Gorgeously quirky Stylist The prose is beautifully crafted and translated... Carefully observed, sensuously written, and often darkly comic - Butterflies in November is a moving story of self-discovery and motherhood. Highly recommended. Booktrust A comic, but also moving, story of divorce, escape and unplanned parental responsibilities Choice At once light, comical and uniquely moving. It is a legacy of life's mistakes; a deliciously unaffected commentary on the nature of relationships and motherhood; a feast of dramatic, rough-hewn landscapes, succulent local delicacies and peculiar customs. You will cry, you will laugh... and you will learn something new about the nature of love. Mumsnet What a fantastic novel! ... Just do yourself a favour and read this book Newbooksmag, 5-star reader review, and 5-star group read score Uplifting ... funny ... an addictive read PA Blackly funny and deeply moving Bookanista A funny, moving and occasionally bizarre exploration of life's upheavals and reversals Financial Times (Books of the Year) Amazingly different, witty, hilarious black comedy read...a must read which will bring a smile as you travel along with her and her young companion Lovereading Stunning story that holds you captive with its gentle intrigue and humour. A delightful, quirky book that you will love Lovereading A novel deeply indebted to feminine literary tradition...Laced with cynicism and irony... nevertheless a truthful and poignant study of a twenty-first century woman Lovereading Strangely addictive read, beautifully written Lovereading

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Book SynopsisIn the small town of Crozon in Brittany, a library houses manuscripts that were rejected for publication: the faded dreams of aspiring writers. Visiting while on holiday, young editor Delphine Despero is thrilled to discover a novel so powerful that she feels compelled to bring it back to Paris to publish it. The book is a sensation, prompting fevered interest in the identity of its author - apparently one Henri Pick, a now-deceased pizza chef from Crozon. Sceptics cry that the whole thing is a hoax: how could this man have written such a masterpiece? An obstinate journalist, Jean-Michel Rouche, heads to Brittany to investigate. By turns farcical and moving, The Mystery of Henri Pick is a fast-paced comic mystery enriched by a deep love of books - and of the authors who write them.Trade Review"A delight with a novel premise." — CrimeReads"The Mystery of Henri Pick is so ridiculously French that if it started smoking Gitanes while you read it, you wouldn’t be entirely surprised." — The Sunday Times Culture magazine"This book is light, funny and erudite: a delight." — The Guardian"A charming literary caper... A playfully droll satire of the French publishing scene and a completely delightful jeu d’esprit." — The Daily Mail"Written with humour, wit and intelligence, it's set in a world of books and publishing. I really enjoyed it." — TripFiction"The Mystery of Henri Pick manages the great gap between levity and profundity, between humour and seriousness. A beautiful farce." — Le Figaro Littéraire

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Book SynopsisThis is a story of silenced histories, of dark secrets in a land of midnight sun. Finnish Lapland, 1947: Inkeri arrives in remote Enontekiö on a journalistic assignment, but her real motivation is more personal - this is where her husband was last seen before he disappeared during the war. As her probing questions meet with silence and hostility, Inkeri begins to investigate the fault-lines in this small community. Her burgeoning friendship with a young Sámi girl helps her piece together why the town does not want to dwell on the past, as traces of disturbing crimes emerge from the pristine landscape of snow and ice.Trade Review'Reveals so much more about a war we thought we knew that it feels like a potted epic' - Guardian'Evocative... an amalgam of detective story and history, which absorbs the reader from start to finish' - TLS'A beautifully written novel and a thriller that will keep readers turning the page to find out the truth about this disgraceful chapter of Finnish history' - Harvard Review'A strong, intense thriller plot... depicts the controversial landscape of 1940s Lapland ambitiously and beautifully' - Helsingin Sanomat'Beautiful... a chapter in history that has rarely been visible in fiction... Rautiainen succeeds in describing the history of Finland's colonization and also gives a voice to the Sami' - Loostas

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Book SynopsisOVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD''A mesmerising reading experience for all of us seeking a meaningful life' JAPAN TIMESWhat he experienced that day wasn’t life-changing . . . It was life-making.Tomura is startled by the hypnotic sound of a piano being tuned in his school. It seeps into his soul and transports him to the forests, dark and gleaming, that surround his beloved mountain village. From that moment, he is determined to discover more.Under the tutelage of three master piano-tuners – one humble, one jovial, one ill-tempered – Tomura embarks on his training, never straying too far from a single, unfathomable question: do I have what it takes?Set in small-town Japan, this warm and mystical story is for the lucky few who have found their calling – and for the rest of us who are still searching. It shows that the road to finding one’s purpose is a winding path, often filled with treacherous doubts and, for those who persevere, astonishing moments of revelation.Mega-bestselling winner of the Japan Booksellers Award, selected by bookshop staff as the book they most wanted to hand-sell: A tender and uplifting novel for fans of A WHOLE LIFE by Robert Seethaler.[Contains 5 exquisite hand-drawn illustrations]

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Book SynopsisThe definitive translation of a truly great French novel - Proust's beautiful, atmospheric story of memory and loss.This is the first volume of In Search of Lost Time, one of the greatest French novels of the twentieth century. Travelling back through time, the narrator tells the story of events long since past - his childhood happiness and sadness, and memories brought famously back to life by the taste of a madeleine. His family's friend and neighbour, the aristocratic Swann, weaves through the tale. We learn of Swann's passionate love affair with Odette, a jealous love that creates a model for the narrator's own relationships. All Proust's great themes begin here: time and memory, love and loss, art and the artistic vocation.THE ACCLAIMED FULLY REVISED EDITION OF THE SCOTT MONCRIEFF AND KILMARTIN TRANSLATIONThe best translation available: 'A really major, significant achievement, and one that you should put on your Christmas list immediately' GuardianVINTAGE FRENCH CLASSICS - six masterpieces of French fiction in collectable editions.Trade ReviewMy advice is to plunge straight into Volume 1, Swann's Way there are many who swear the experience has permanently enriched their lives * Daily Mail *One of the cornerstones of the Western literary canon * The Times *Surely the greatest novelist of the 20th century * Sunday Telegraph *As close to being a definitive English version of the great novel as we are likely to get * Scotsman *Proust isn't just the most profound of novelists, but the most entertaining, too. No reader ever forgets his most killingly funny scenes... Proust sinks deepest in readers because the book is so exhaustively analytical, so ceaselessly truthful. Not the least of it is the book's heavenly length, so that it inevitably takes over your life for a long stretch... the experience of reading it becomes, in itself, an unforgettable thing * Independent *

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Book Synopsis'Cixin Liu is the author of your next favourite sci-fi novel' WIRED On his fourteenth birthday, right before his eyes, Chen's parents are incinerated by a blast of ball lightning. Striving to make sense of this bizarre tragedy, he dedicates his life to a single goal: to unlock the secrets of this enigmatic natural phenomenon. His pursuit of ball lightning will take him far from home, across mountain peaks chasing storms and deep into highly classified subterranean laboratories as he slowly unveils a new frontier in particle physics. Chen's obsession gives purpose to his lonely life, but it can't insulate him from the real world's interest in his discoveries. He will be pitted against scientists, soldiers and governments with motives of their own: a physicist who has no place for moral judgement in his pursuit of knowledge; a beautiful army major obsessed with new ways to wage war; a desperate nation facing certain military defeat. Conjuring awe-inspiring new worlds of cosmology and philosophy from meticulous scientific speculation, Ball Lightning has all the scope and imagination that so enthralled readers of Cixin Liu's award-winning Three-Body trilogy. Praise for Cixin Liu: 'Your next favourite sci-fi novel' Wired 'Immense' Barack Obama 'Unique' George R.R. Martin 'SF in the grand style' Guardian 'Mind-altering and immersive' Daily Mail 'A milestone in Chinese science-fiction' New York Times 'China's answer to Arthur C. Clarke' New Yorker Winner of the Hugo and Galaxy Awards for Best Novel Trade ReviewA marvellous mélange of awe-inspiring scientific concepts, clever plotting and quirky yet plausible characters * TLS *A striking, strange and sometimes quite chewy standalone novel about the uneasy alliance between cutting-edge scientific research and the agencies that fund it * SFX *A fascinating piece of speculative fiction... This is unsettling and thoughtful writing... Ball Lightning does what all the best science fiction does - it makes the reader look at the world around them anew, and makes them think about the possibilities of the future' * Big Issue *As elusive as a Venusian scout ship and as deadly as a nest of vipers... Through these characters we learn an awful lot about ball lightning and it shows the author's deep knowledge of physics, cosmology, meteorology and the politics and morality of scientific research' * Starburst magazine *Cixin Liu is one of the most significant authors working in the genre today... Expect inspirational cosmology and philosophy with meticulous scientific speculation; Ball Lightning is likely to enthral you' * Starburst Magazine *

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Book SynopsisA contemporary classic from one of Latin America's most exciting young writers'A stunning vibrant maximalist whirlwind of a novel. Oloixarac's wit and ambition are evident on every page' Hari KunzruBuenos Aires. The mysterious narrator, a student at the School of Philosophy, stalks a middle-aged professor, desperate to reveal that she alone understands his theories. Unable to earn his affection, she instead seduces a former guerilla and toys with him, blurring the lines between prey and predator. At the same university, bored student Kamtchowsky and her boyfriend Pabst's intellectual and sexual misadventures take them through the underground scene of Buenos Aires as they dabble in ketamine, group sex, video games and pornography. And in 1917 Africa, a Dutch anthropologist named Johan van Vliet theorises the development of beast into man, and humanity's longstanding flirtation with beastly acts.Climaxing with an Internet hack that catalogues historical violence, devastation and atrocity

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Book SynopsisAfter being saved from a suicide attempt by the appearance of a literary editor, the journalist and failed novelist Sergei Maxudov has a book suddenly accepted for stage adaptation at a prestigious venue and finds himself propelled into Moscow's theatrical world. In a cut-throat environment tainted by Soviet politics, censorship and egomania - epitomized by the arrogant and tyrannical director Ivan Vasilyevich - mayhem gradually gives way to absurdity. Unpublished in Bulgakov's own lifetime, Black Snow is peppered with darkly comic set pieces and draws on its author's own bitter experience as a playwright with the Moscow Arts Theatre, showcasing his inimitable gift for shrewd observation and razor-sharp satire.Trade ReviewCockrell's light touch often lifts the text on to a playful plane. * Russia Beyond the Headlines * High quality, attractively produced and moderately priced. * East-West Review *

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Book SynopsisJames Joyce’s first published book, which he wrote when he was still in his twenties, Dubliners is far removed from the bold experimentalism of his later work, but is essential for understanding the author’s development as a writer, and endures as a masterly example of the short-story form. Although ranging considerably in tone, mood and milieu, the fifteen short stories included in this collection all centre around the city of Dublin and its inhabitants at the beginning of the twentieth-century. From the unsettling adventure of two truant schoolboys to the crafty schemes of two con-men, from a young woman’s refusal to abandon Ireland and elope with a sailor to a man’s moment of clarity during an annual dance party, these stories offer a moving portrait of an entire world and era which has all but disappeared.Trade ReviewHis writing is not about something; it is that something itself. -- Samuel BeckettIts deep power abides in the inextricability of Joyce’s masterly control of language and the breadth of his vision. -- Eimear McBride

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Book SynopsisRaj is oblivious to the Second World War being fought beyond his tiny exotic island. His mother is his sole company while his father works as a prison guard, so the boy thinks only of making friends. One day, from the far-away world, a ship brings to the island Jewish exiles who have been refused entry to Israel. David, a recently orphaned boy of his own age from Prague, becomes the friend that he has longed for, and Raj takes it upon himself to help David to escape from the prison. As they flee through sub-tropical forests and devastating storms, the boys battle hunger and malaria - and forge a friendship only death could destroy.Trade Review'Sophisticated, confident and beautifully poetic writing that's tender and poignant and consistently captivating ... a remarkable and precise portrait of a childhood that both convinces and moves' Daniel Hahn, Bookseller. * Bookseller *'A lushly beautiful child's-eye tale' Boyd Tonkin, Independent. * Independent *'The rich implications of history ... that lie behind its comparatively simple story would have won the admiration of Margeurite Yourcenar' Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement. * Literary Supplement *

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Book Synopsis"A man went to knock at the king's door and said, Give me a boat. The king's house had many other doors, but this was the door for petitions. Since the king spent all his time sitting by the door for favours (favours being offered to the king, you understand), whenever he heard someone knocking on the door for petitions, he would pretend not to hear..." Why the petitioner required a boat, where he was bound for, and who volunteered to crew for him and what cargo it was found to be carrying the reader will discover as this short narrative unfolds. And at the end it will be clear that what night appear to be a children's fable is in fact a wry, witty Philosophical Tale that would not have displeased Voltaire or Swift.Trade ReviewSaramago writes possibly the most beautiful but certainly the most precise and differentiated Portuguese prose of our time -- Walter Haubrich * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung *Saramago is a writer, like Faulkner, so confident of his resources and ultimate destination that he can bring any improbability to life -- John UpdikeNo candidate for a Nobel Prize has a better claim to lasting recognition than this novelist -- Edmund WhiteHe was the equal of Philip Roth, Günter Grass, Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. His genius was remarkably versatile - he was at once a great comic and a writer of shocking earnestness and grim poignancy -- Harold BloomSaramago is a writer of formidable talent and extraordinary imagination * La Repubblica *

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