Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisA time capsule is unearthed from a school playground - containing a threat of deaths to come. As Freyja and Huldar look for the writer, the murders start...Trade ReviewTHE RECKONING is another chilling, atmospheric tale from the undisputed Queen of Icelandic Noir. I loved it. -- Simon KernickThere's no waffle in The Reckoning: it is brutal, baroque and ends with a brilliant last-minute twist. * Evening Standard *One of the best books I've read for a long time: dark, creepy, and gripping from beginning to end. -- Stuart MacBride, author of the Logan McRae seriesIt's addictive, bleak, and will give you thrills and chills in equal measures. * Cosmopolitan Magazine *Yrsa Sigurdardóttir has with her large-scale and genuinely intelligent stories attempted to find the core of Iceland's distinctive society, and thus pushed the Icelandic crime novel tradition many steps forward. -- Arne DahlYrsa Sigurðardóttir's incredible gift of mixing the macabre and the poignant, together with the astute observations of the ordinary life, sprinkled with a dark sense of humour, keeps on giving in buckets. Her imagination knows no bounds, turning the most ordinary objects into deadly weapons... The nuanced writing encompasses the thriller's overwhelming sense of doom as it explores the failings of the society to protect victims. -- Crime ReviewA dark story by a brilliant author. A densely plotted, multifaceted and compelling book. Exceeds most novels in the thriller genre. -- Erik Axl SundPraise for THE LEGACY * : *Iceland's outstanding crime novelist * Daily Express *Yrsa remains the queen of Icelandic thriller writers. * Guardian *If you like your crime fiction dark and engaging, look no further. THE LEGACY is as brutal as it gets. A cracking start to a new series by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. * Mari Hannah, author of the DCI Kate Daniels series *

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Book SynopsisA Swedish crime writer as thrilling as Mankell, a detective as compelling as Wallander . . . A dark and sinister case from the past comes back to haunt Chief Inspector Van Veeteren in the final novel in the Van Veeteren series, The G File by Håkan Nesser.1987. Verlangan, a former cop turned private detective is hired by a woman to follow her husband Jaan 'G' Hennan. A few days later, his client is found dead at the bottom of an empty swimming pool.Maardam police, led by Chief Inspector Van Veeteren, investigate the case. Van Veeteren has encountered Jaan 'G' Hennan before and knows only too well the man's dark capabilities. As more information emerges about G's shadowy past, the Chief Inspector becomes more desperate than ever to convict him. But G has a solid alibi - and no one else can be found in relation to the crime.2002. Fifteen years have passed and the G File remains the one case former Chief InspectoTrade Review'Fifteen years earlier, a woman hired a detective to follow her husband, known as G to the police. Days later, she was dead. G was tried and cleared of her murder, but now, all these years later, the private detective disappears, leaving a note hinting he knows how G got away with murder. This is the final book in the series, but Nesser resists a showy finale, allowing his detective nearly to be outsmarted by an immensely clever criminal. * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisBeautiful Emma Bovary dreams of love and riches but her marriage to Charles, a dull country doctor, is far from satisfying. In an attempt to escape the narrow confines of her life, she embarks on a series of passionate affairs, hoping to find the romantic ideal she always dreamed about in the arms of other men, but it soon becomes clear that she is hurtling towards tragedy . . . Gustave Flaubert’s daring portrait of adultery caused a national scandal when Madame Bovary was first published, and this masterpiece of realist literature has lost none of its impact today. This beautiful Macmillan Collector’s Library edition of Madame Bovary is translated by Eleanor Marx Aveling and features an afterword by the playwright, screenwriter and actor, Peter Harness. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much-loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector’s Library are books to love and treasure.

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Book SynopsisIn The Things We’ve Seen, his most ambitious and accomplished novel to date, Agustín Fernández Mallo captures the strangeness and interconnectedness of human existence in the twenty-first century. A writer travels to the small uninhabited island of San Simón, used as a Franquist concentration camp during the Spanish Civil War, and witnesses events which impel him on a wild goose chase across several continents. In Miami, an ageing Kurt Montana, the fourth astronaut who secretly accompanied Neil Armstrong and co. to the moon, revisits the important chapters in his life, from serving in the Vietnam War to his memory of seeing earth from space. In Normandy, a woman embarks on a walking tour of the D-Day beaches with the goal of re-enacting, step by step, another trip taken years before. Described as the novel David Lynch and W. G. Sebald might have written had they joined forces to explore the B-side of reality, The Things We’ve Seen is a mind-bending novel for our disjointed times.Trade Review‘Mallo’s imagination never falters. To stay with him means loosening all limitations we might wish to impose on a text. The reward is an audacious adventure.... This is, indeed, a dream of a book.’ — Declan O'Driscoll, Irish Times‘There are certain writers whose work you turn to knowing you’ll find extraordinary things there. Borges is one of them, Bolaño another. Agustín Fernández Mallo has become one, too. This novel, which ranges across the world and beyond it, is hugely ambitious in scope. It’s a weird, recursive, paranoiac, funny, menacing and thrilling book.’ — Chris Power, author of A Lonely Man‘Charmingly voracious and guided by fanatical precision and wit, Mallo ties the loose threads of the world together into intricate, charismatic knots. This is the expansive, omnivorous sort of novel that threatens to show you every thought you’ve ever had in a new and effervescent light, along with so many others you couldn’t have dreamed.’ — Alexandra Kleeman, author of Intimations‘Some great works create worlds from which to look back at ourselves and recalibrate; The Things We’ve Seen takes the world as it is and plays it back through renewed laws of physics. Rarely has a novel left me with such new eyes, an X-ray view of the present.’ — DBC Pierre, author of Meanwhile in Dopamine City‘The most original and powerful author of his generation in Spain.’ — Mathias Enard, author of Compass‘The Things We’ve Seen confirms Fernández Mallo as one of the best writers in Spanish, with an absolutely unique style and fictional world.’ — Jorge Carrión, New York Times in Spanish‘A strange and original sensibility at work – one that combines a deep commitment to the possibilities of art with a gonzo spirit and a complete absence of pretention.’ — Christopher Beha, Harper’s

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Book SynopsisStill little known in the West, Persian poetry offers extraordinary riches. While celebrating the beauty of the world in poems about love, wine and poetry itself, or telling anecdotes of everyday life, Persian poetry set these themes in the wider religious and philosophical context of Islam. Omar, Rumi, Saadi, Sanai, Attar, Hafez and Jami – the great lyric and didactic poets of medieval Persia – are all represented in this selection of translations spanning almost two hundred and fifty years.

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Book SynopsisIn this inspiring story, Andreï Makine looks back on a childhood friendship which changed his life. Set in 1970s Siberia, in the declining years of the Soviet Empire, My Armenian Friend offers a poignant evocation of ordinary lives as well as a window into Makine's own evolution as a writer.In an orphan school, a young Russian boy befriends Vardan, an Armenian child who, because mature and sensitive, is tormented by schoolyard bullies. When the Russian boy meets Vardan's Armenian family, he falls under their spell. In his eyes, their home is a kingdom transported from afar, which is adorned, aromatic, and beautiful despite how little the family possesses. Their neighbourhood is in a place of exile but is one of community, made up of former prisoners, exhausted adventurers and others who have been uprooted from their homes. As he grows closer to Vardan, the Russian boy learns to recognise a people forced indefinitely to live on the margins, but who, despite persecution, hold on to their culture and cherish the memories they have of their homeland and its history. Even in a brutally inhospitable Siberia, they recreate a transformative "kingdom of Armenia".Trade ReviewPowerful, poignant, perfectly-pitched . . . Makine illuminates a fascinating corner of history - brings it to life through finely-drawn characters. It's a short tale of great significance. I found it unforgettable. . . a fine piece of writing -- Michael PalinA thoughtful coming-of-age story -- David Mills * Times *Andreï Makine's most moving novel * Figaro *My Armenian Friend is full of heartbreak, heroism, cruelty redeemed by friendships that live inthe memory forever, ravishing glimpses of nature, incredible courage. . . and above all, love -- Jilly CooperOne of Makine's best books; a wonderful novel on exile * France Inter *Vintage Makine: as limpid and beautiful as a deep mountain pool -- Kate McLoughlin, Professor of English Literature, Oxford UniversityMakine makes the ordinary resonate with meaning and significance, thereby enhancing the reader's life . . . [He] is a stylist of great precision, beautifully rendered by his long-time translator, Geoffrey Strachan * The Tablet *

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Book SynopsisTracing the Great War through the Millennium Bug, 1999 through 1900, Dadaism through Scientology through Sierra Leonean bicycle riding and back, award-winning Czech author Patrik Ourednik explores the horror and absurdity of the twentieth century in an explosive deconstruction of historical memory.Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century opens on the beaches of Normandy in 1944, comparing the heights of different forces’ soldiers and considering how tall, long, or good at fertilizing fields the men’s bodies will be. Probing the depths of humanity and inhumanity, this is an account of history as it has never been told: “engaging, even frightening.” At once recreating and uncreating the twentieth century, Ourednik explores the connections across the decades between the disparate figures, events, and politics we thought we knew.Patrik Ourednik’s Europeana merits the author’s reputation as a giant of post-1989 Czech literature. Now translated into 33 languages, the book is a masterwork of cubism, a polymorphic monologue of statistics and movements and fine print and discoveries that evokes the deadpan absurdity of Kafka and the gallows humor of Hašek. Ourednik has created a mesmerizing, maddening account of the past, and his interrogation of “truth” and objectivity resonates now more than ever.

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Book Synopsis*A GUARDIAN BEST TRANSLATED NOVEL OF 2023**A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2023 FINALIST**A WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS BEST TRANSLATED BOOK OF 2023*"A powerful story of mothers and daughters" Guardian"A haunting, mysterious tour de force" Lucy Scholes, Prospect"I was hypnotised from the first word to the last" Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit Hutch"[A] fiercely intelligent story: everyone is complex and full of shadows, as life is" Mariana Enríquez, author of The Dangers of Smoking in BedWhen Gilles Principaux walks into Maître Susane's legal practice seeking representation for his wife, his presence triggers memories from her childhood she had long buried. Gilles' wife is charged with drowning their three children, a case that will be splashed across the news media in Bordeaux and beyond. So why has he entrusted his wife's fate to her small, unremarkable practice?Maître Susane can't shake the feeling that she has met him before, that something happened between them one afternoon when she was barely ten and he was fourteen, something sinister she has never known how to remember. But Gilles seems so at ease her in presence that Maître Susane begins to believe that her memory must be playing tricks on her.Haunted by a past that both escapes and consumes her, Maître Susane fights to hold on to her memory, her identity and the chance she's been given to avenge herself.Translated from the French by Jordan Stump.Trade ReviewA novel of concentric haunting, summoning ghosts into the room with prose that shimmers, cuts, and sings. Unflinching and restrained, Vengeance is Mine sails its readers into uncharted psychological waters. I was hypnotised from the first word to the last -- Tess Gunty, author of The Rabbit HutchIn this disquieting, quietly beautiful novel, Marie NDiaye writes about an unimaginable crime placing around it a world of confusion, trauma, and memories of a past that cannot be trusted. There's more questions than answers in this fiercely intelligent story: everyone is complex and full of shadows, as life is -- Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of NightNDiaye balances external and internal revelations to create a powerful story of mothers and daughters, and of what happens when a parent's unconditional love breaks down -- John Self * Guardian *[NDiaye] is a master at agitating, probing and upending expectations...In 'Vengeance Is Mine,' NDiaye circles a familiar configuration of ideas: trauma and memory, class anxiety, isolation and otherness, the warped savagery of domestic life, the rupture between parents and their children. But she also considers the texture of justice - what it means, how it's determined and who enacts it...Appreciating this moody, sensual and sometimes feverish prose requires submission - to the grooves of language, the performance of storytelling -- Lovia Gyarkye * New York Times Book Review *The magnificence of [NDiaye's] writing, in all its shocks of perception, makes you feel that by rights her name should come with the same pantheonic glow that attends, say, Annie Ernaux or Elena Ferrante -- Hermione Hoby * 4Columns *The central ideas in "Vengeance Is Mine" are, thrillingly, as difficult to pin down as the identities of its characters. In one light, it's a scathing look at the simmering desperation provoked by France's rigid structures of authority and power. But it's also an uber-feminist rewriting of a plot made familiar by texts from "Medea" to Leïla Slimani's bestseller "The Perfect Nanny" (2018) [published as "Lullaby" in the UK], in which oppression, writ large, drives a woman to horrifying violence against the children in her care. And, read in a less outraged mood, it's just a quiet book about a quiet woman, quietly fragmenting - no more, no less...[NDiaye] is a poet of uncertainty. Her ability to simultaneously embody all the fractured parts of a character's mind makes aspects of Susane's spiral that might otherwise seem unbelievable - can she really not know whether she is the mother of Rudy's child? - come across as engrossingly, utterly human * Washington Post *In her novels, Ndiaye plunges her characters, usually women, into a visceral experience of difference, often without naming what that difference is... her texts still inspire a paranoia about how to read her protagonists, catching us in a game of complicity * Vulture, New York Magazine *A haunting, mysterious tour de force -- Lucy Scholes * Prospect *Vengeance Is Mine might present an answer to how the "trauma plot" - in which a character works through a damaging experience from their past - can remain fresh * Financial Times *The result is a complex knot of guilt, fear and obsession, which compresses a great deal into 240 pages without ever seeming clotted -- John Self * Guardian *NDiaye's award-winning writing is dreamy, elusive, and brilliant, shifting genres and forms...Vengeance is Mine is, to my mind, one of NDiaye's very best novels, with a devastating plot and a continual sense of surprise. It rewards repeat reading and careful attention -- Adam Dalva * Words Without Borders *NDiaye's award-winning writing is dreamy, elusive, and brilliant, shifting genres and forms...Vengeance is Mine is, to my mind, one of NDiaye's very best novels, with a devastating plot and a continual sense of surprise. It rewards repeat reading and careful attention -- Adam Dalva * Words Without Borders *

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Book SynopsisFrom the international bestselling author of The Phone Box at the Edge of the World: a powerful, moving novel of grief, hope, friendship and love based around a real archive on an island in Japan, where people travel to record their heartbeats.To find what you have lost, you must listen to your heart . . . On the peaceful Japanese island of Teshima there is a library of heartbeats, a place where the heartbeats of visitors from all around the world are collected. In this small, isolated building, the heartbeats of people who are still alive or have already passed away continue to echo.Several miles away, in the ancient city of Kamakura, two lonely souls meet: Shuichi, a forty-year-old illustrator, who returns to his home-town to fix up the house of his recently deceased mother, and eight-year-old Kenta, a child who wanders like a shadow around Shuichi's house.Day by day, the trust between Shuichi and Kenta grows until they discover they share a bond that will tie them together for life. Their journey will lead them to Teshima and to the library of heartbeats . . .PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR AND THE PHONE BOX AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD:'Absolutely breathtaking' Christy Lefteri, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo'A moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief' Sunday Times'Strangely beautiful, uplifting and memorable, it's a book to savour' Choice, Book of the Month'A poignant, atmospheric novel' Daily Mail'A striking haiku of the human heart' The Times'Beautiful. A message of hope for anyone who is lost, frightened or grieving' Clare Mackintosh'Incredibly moving. It will break your heart and soothe your soul' Stacey Halls'Mesmerising . . . beautiful . . . a joy to read' Joanna Glen, Costa shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope'Spare and poetic, this beautiful book is both a small, quiet love story and a vast expansive meditation on grieving and loss' Heat'A perfect poignant read' Woman & Home

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Book Synopsis"I had been called to pick up Jeje from a karaoke bar in Jongno district..."A deftly expressive short modern love story concerning the misadventures of Hyoung and Jeje as they navigate the Seoul underworld in search of something more from life with lots to say about our contemporary moment; how people use and are used by others, but find solace in each other despite.

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"An outstanding addition to an impressive oeuvre" Times Literary SupplementArthur Daane, a documentary film-maker and inveterate globetrotter, wanders the streets of Berlin, a city whose recent past provides the perfect backdrop for his reflections on life and the universe as he collects images for his latest project - a film that will show the world through his eyes.With his circle of friends - a philosopher, a sculptor and a physicist - Daane discusses everything from history to metaphysics and the meaning of our contemporary existence, often over a hearty meal. Then, one cold winter's day, Daane meets the history student Elik Oranje and his world is turned upside down. And when she unexpectedly leaves the city for Spain, Daane is compelled to follow.All Souls' Day is an elegiac love story, a poignant and affecting tale in which the city of Berlin plays a prominent role, by one of Europe's major contemporary writers.Translated from the Dutch by Susan Massotty"Displays with admirable lucidity the workings of a humane, civilized, and consistently interesting mind" Kirkus Reviews"One of the most remarkable writers of our time" ALBERTO MANGUEL

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Book SynopsisThe thrilling new standalone suspense novel from Sweden's answer to Val McDermid and Sunday Times Book of the Month author, Anders de la Motte.**DON'T MISS DEEDS OF AUTUMN. AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**'Tightly plotted and dark with psychological suspense, intriguing characters and vivid milieus that never stop delivering' KATRINE ENGBERG, author of the Korner and Werner seriesIT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A NIGHT TO REMEMBERWINTER 1987Laura is excited to spend Christmas as usual with her beloved aunt Hedda and her friends. But her festive mood soon turns sour as she finds both old faces and new are keeping secrets from her. When a fire claims the life of her best friend, the scars of that night will remain with Laura for the rest of her life.TODAYWith her aunt's death, Laura inherits the cabin village Hedda used to manage and is forced to return to the town she hasn't set foot in since the tragedy. Laura's presence stirs up repressed emotions in the small community and it isn't long before a series of arson attacks casts suspicion on her. Though Laura is desperate to leave, she learns her aunt discovered something about that fateful night not long before she died.BUT SOMEONE WANTS THE PAST TO STAY BURIED . . .PRAISE FOR ANDERS DE LA MOTTE:'For fans of the hugely successful CWA Gold Dagger-winning The Dry by Jane Harper' VASEEM KHAN'One of Sweden's most talented crime fiction authors' ERIK AXL SUNDTrade ReviewAnders de la Motte has quickly become one of my favourite crime writers. His writing is tightly plotted and dark with psychological suspense, intriguing characters and vivid milieus that never stop delivering * Katrine Engberg, author of the Korner and Werner series *An involving, stand-alone suspense novel * Choice *

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Book SynopsisIn a rundown apartment building, in an unnamed city in Uruguay, a father and daughter close themselves off from the world."The world is this house," says Clara, and the rooftop becomes their last recess of freedom. A pet canary is their only witness. As Clara’s connection to the outside is stripped away—the neighbor who stops coming by, the lover whose existence is only known by a pregnancy—desperation and paranoia take hold. It's a stifling embrace, and we are there with her, our narrator, dreading what we know the future holds.Trade Review"Trías deftly turns her brief fiction into universal parable." —Shelf Awareness"An exceptional novel." —ABC Cultural"Like a constrictor slowly suffocating its prey, Trías already has you well within her grasp long before you even know what’s happening." —Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop"A chilling tour-de-force by one of the most exciting and subversive voices writing today in Latin America." —Morning Star"A short and powerful read, it demands to be re-read and scrutinised." —Lunate"what is most striking about the book is the intensity of the claustrophobia and paranoia" —The Publishing Post"Many read Rooftop like a disturbing love story between a father and his daughter, but this novel is much more than that. It is the genesis of the themes that will be at the centre of everything that Trías would move on to write: fear, violence, loss and freedom." —WMagazín"Masterfully written, with a simplicity and honesty that reminds us of the prose of Flannery O’Connor." —Revista de Letras**********Praise for Fernanda Trías'Fernanda Trías appears from the antipodes of the sterile literature currently in vogue, to show us she is one of the most interesting authors writing in Spanish today.’—Mario Levrero , author of Empty Words

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2022 Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize Shortlisted for the Premio Valle-Inclan prize for its translation A recently divorced man trying to enjoy himself in one of the trendier districts of Buenos Aires finds himself at the centre a series of strange coincidences. These blips in causality are at first easily rationalised, but soon escalate from the merely implausible to the impossible to the cataclysmic. More, each accident of fate, piling one atop the other, drags a new, rambling tale in its wake, until the very ground beneath the man's feet seems likely to buckle beneath the weight of so many shaggy dogs. And yet, with master storyteller Cesar Aira holding their leashes, what better vacation from reality could any reader-or divorce-desire?Trade Review'The Divorce outlines the process for those wishing to comprehend or to experience the expansive possibilities of a single moment. That is his wondrous gift, and The Divorce is the personification of that gift . . . It is certain that The Divorce will leave you breathless.' Patti Smith ----'Once you've started reading Aira, you don't want to stop.' Roberto Bolano ----'By the time this miraculously dense book has reached its conclusion, Aira has wheeled through the gothic novel, noir, sci-fi, family saga, social satire. It is almost impossible to believe the text occupies only 115 pages . . . Reading The Divorce is like witnessing an explosion, or the birth of an alphabet.' David Kurnick, Public Books ----'His unpredictability is masterful.' Rivka Galchen ----'Sui generis is really the only way to accurately describe Cesar Aira. He's by turns a realist, a magical realist and a surrealist - and therefore not really any of them. Anything can happen in an Aira novel, and almost everything does.' Tyler Malone, Los Angeles Times

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A dark psychological thriller with a killer twist, that has topped the bestseller charts in its native IsraelWinner of the Prix Mystère de la Critique 2021Longlisted for the CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation 2021*TRANSLATED BY MAN BOOKER WINNER JESSICA COHEN*Three tells the stories of three women: Orna, a divorced single-mother looking for a new relationship; Emilia, a Latvian immigrant on a spiritual search; and Ella, married and mother of three, returning to University to write her thesis. All of them will meet the same man. His name is Gil. He won't tell them the whole truth about himself - but they don't tell him everything either. Tense, twisted and surprising, Three is a daring new form of psychological thriller. It is a declaration of war against the normalisation of death and violence. Slowly but surely, you see the danger each woman walks into. What you won't see is the trap being laid - until it snaps shut.

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Book SynopsisThe risky ventures of a village full of aspiring writers and a vile publisher.

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Book SynopsisA prime number is inherently a solitary thing: it can only be divided by itself, or by one; it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia also move on their own axes, alone with their personal tragedies. As a child Alice''s overbearing father drove her first to a terrible skiing accident, and then to anorexia. When she meets Mattia she recognises a kindred spirit, and Mattia reveals to Alice his terrible secret: that as a boy he abandoned his mentally-disabled twin sister in a park to go to a party, and when he returned, she was nowhere to be found.These two irreversible episodes mark Alice and Mattia''s lives for ever, and as they grow into adulthood their destinies seem irrevocably intertwined. But then a chance sighting of a woman who could be Mattia''s sister forces a lifetime of secret emotion to the surface. A meditation on loneliness and love, The Solitude of Prime Numbers asks, can we ever truly be whole when we''re in love with another?Trade ReviewMoving...masterful...elegantly discreet * Times Literary Supplement *A very accomplished book...A melancholic, but strangely beautiful, read. Shaun Whiteside's translation is exemplary and the acute descriptions of teenage competitiveness, angst and aspiration bring to mind Alan Warner's writing. * Guardian *In clear, heartbreakingly precise prose, the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Premio Strega (the Italian Man Booker) explores how trauma and guilt can capsize emotional stability and leave the vulnerable in a wash of unease and loss...a stunning achievement * Daily Mail *The year's most important début * La Repubblica *The story is mesmerising * Good Housekeeping *

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Book SynopsisIgor is confident his old Soviet policeman's uniform will be the best costume at the party. But he hasn't gone far before he realises something is wrong. The streets are unusually dark and empty, and the only person to emerge from the shadows runs away from him in terror. After a perplexing conversation with the terrified man, who turns out to be a wine smuggler, and on recovering from the resulting hangover, Igor comes to an unbelievable conclusion: he has found his way back to 1957 Kiev. And it isn't the innocent era his mother and her friends have so sentimentally described. As he travels between centuries, his life becomes more and more complicated. The unusual gardener who lives in his mother's shed keeps disappearing, his best friend has blackmailed the wrong people, and Igor has fallen in love with a married woman in a time before he was born. With his mother's disapproval at his absences growing, and his adventures in each time frame starting to catch up withTrade ReviewKurkov is a master story teller, using a simple lean style for a narrative that reads like a fable or myth, rich in invention, brought to life by the deadpan depiction of local people and local events * The Bay, Swansea *Kurkov masters the details superbly, writes with constant consummate wit and soufflé lightness -- Tom Adair * Scotsman *Some see him as a latter day Bulgakov; to others he’s a Urkanian Murakami… With a characteristic mix of realism and fantasy it [The Gardener from Ochakov] will delight fans… Kurkov combines the mundane details of life in modern Ukraine (minibus taxis, tins of sprats and bottles of moonshine) with surreal elements from thrillers and sci-fi: knife wielding gangsters, or quantum leaps in the midnight suburbs. The plot rattles along like a Kiev commuter train, regularly stopping for vodka, salami and salted cucumbers… -- Phoebe Taplin * Guardian *Quickly becomes an absorbing rollercoaster, an understated fantasy with an unlikely but likeable hero -- Matthew Dennison * The Times *More than a clash of ages… It’s also a tale about fathers and sons and what they need from each other -- Lesley McDowell * Glasgow Sunday Herald *

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Book Synopsis‘A sexy, sensational novel with intoxicating vengeance and an unexpected tenderness’ No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author Karin SlaughterTrade Review‘A sexy, sensational novel with intoxicating vengeance and an unexpected tenderness – The Golden Cage is tensely and skillfully drawn’ Karin Slaughter ‘Lackberg’s new embrace of a terrifying revenge scenario furnishes visceral psychological crime.’ Financial Times ‘The queen of Swedish noir’ iNews ‘Smart, unflinching… [a] novel of female empowerment and triumph over the patriarchy.’ New York Times Book Review ‘The Golden Cage is a fast-paced psychological thriller about betrayal, sex, money, and a scorned wife’s revenge à la Gone Girl.’ Buzzfeed ‘Sexy, scandalous, and terrifying, this is the kind of suspense story you gobble up in one sitting.’ Real Simple ‘Insightful, addictive – and twisted!’ In Touch ‘A sexy, deliciously dark journey.’ Los Angeles Times ‘The doyenne of Swedish crime fiction serves up a propulsive tale… There’s enough haute couture, Cava, and hot sex to sate a devotee of romance fiction, but the real satisfaction comes in watching our heroine reclaim her fierceness.’ O Magazine ‘Läckberg has made a career out of writing ingenious psychological suspense stories … The Golden Cage tells a nasty tale about entrenched male domination in a supposedly enlightened society; great wealth and the soul rot it can breed; and the payback — oh, the sweet, sick payback of a woman used and spurned, rising up from the discard pile.’ Washington Post "A fabulous, frothy novel." New York Post ‘A twisty tale set squarely inside the world of the very rich and very fabulous." Glamour US ‘Sexy… exquisite… scorching… Läckberg reinforces her position as the thriller queen of Scandinavia.’ Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA kind of miracle Not only made me laugh (again and again) but brought tears to my eyes' Jonathan FranzenOne of the most brilliant satirical novels about life in East Berlin' New York TimesThomas Brussig's classic German satire, translated into English for the first time and introduced by Jonathan Franzen, is a comedic, moving account of life in East Berlin before the Fall of the Berlin WallThe Short End of the Sonnenallee, is a satire set, literally, on the Sonnenallee, the famed boulevard of the sun in East Berlin.Within this boulevard lives Michael, an adolescent who faces daily ridicule whenever he steps out of his apartment building and comes into view of the observation platform on the West side. Look, a real Zonie. Can we take your picture? Hopelessly in love with the most beautiful girl on the street, Michael is batted away in favour of the Western boys who are free to cross the border. What chance does Michael have, and how much trouble will he get into by pursuing her?Laugh-Trade Review‘One of the most brilliant satirical novels about life in East Berlin, in the shadow of the wall’ New York Times ‘Gentle comedy … The fullness of Eastern lives, and their human ordinariness – despite the emptiness and abnormality of the background against which they were lived – is the subject of Brussig’s funny, rueful book’ Telegraph ‘The slim episodic novel The Short End of the Sonnenallee, which was set around the mid-1980s among East Berlin adolescents and evokes their world of feelings and experiences right down to the unfussy syntax, is the purest, brightest, most tender poetry of resistance’ Die Zeit

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of the bestselling Suite Française.Le Bal is a sharp, brittle story of a girl who sets out to ruin the mother she hates. The Kampfs have risen swiftly up the ranks of 1930s Parisian society. Painfully aware of her working-class roots, and desperate to win acceptance, Madame Kampf decides to throw a huge ball to announce her arrival to society. Her daughter Antoinette, who has just turned fourteen, dreams of attending, but Madame Kampf is resolved not to present her daughter to potential admirers. In a fury of adolescent rage and despair, Antoinette exacts a swift and horrible revenge...Snow in Autumn pays homage to Némirovsky''s beloved Chekhov and chronicles the life of a devoted servant following her masters as they flee Revolutionary Moscow and emigrate to a life of hardship in Paris. As the crisis pushes the family to the brink of dissolution, Tatiana struggles to adapt to life in Paris and waits in vain for her cherishTrade ReviewWith its cool, understated prose and sharp psychological accuracy, this is perfect for a train journey... A reminder of what good writing can achieve in a very few words * The Times *A cruel, sophisticated tale making the terrible beautiful without diminishing for one moment the horrors of displacement and war * Guardian *A genuine artist -- Julian BarnesThis book is a masterpiece * Sunday Express *It is quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth... We are lucky to have this book * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWritten in alternating chapters, W or the Memory of Childhood, tells two parallel tales, in two parts. One is a story created in childhood and about childhood. The other story is about two people called Gaspard Winckler: one an eight-year-old deaf-mute lost in a shipwreck, the other a man despatched to search for him, who discovers W, an island state based on the rules of sport. As the two tales move in and out of focus, the disturbing truth about the island of W reveals itself. Perec combines fiction and autobiography in unprecedented ways, allowing no easy escape from these stories, or from history.Trade ReviewPerec was a haunted writer, haunted by his Jewish ancestry, by the Holocaust that coincided with his own orphaned childhood, by the death of his father in 1940 and his mother's disappearance in Auschwitz. Writing, for him, was an act of exorcism * Sunday Times *A strange and complicated book, a work of tremendous, silenced emotion * Observer *His brilliant and profound memoir-fantasy deserves to be recognised for what it is: a masterpiece * Guardian *The childhood story of 'W' carries Perec's confused conception of the concentration camps...bewilderingly sad * Independent *Perec was a polymathic genius, and his early death in 1982 (he was only 45) robbed France of its most dazzling experimental writer, one who tried everything and failed at nothing...He has, deservedly, become a cult in France, particularly with young Parisians, who instinctively (and rightly) identify him as the super-zapper, the biographer of their fragmented consumer culture, of which he was himself the creation. * Glasgow Herald *

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Book SynopsisA NEW TRANSLATION BY ADAM THORPEA great novel that is also an inexhaustible pleasure to read'' GuardianEmma Bovary is an avid reader of sentimental novels; brought up on a Normandy farm and convent-educated, she longs for romance. At first, Emma pins her hopes on marriage, but life with her well-meaning husband in the provinces leaves her bored and dissatisfied. She seeks escape through extravagant spending sprees and, eventually, adultery. As Emma pursues her impossible reverie she seals her own ruin. Madame Bovary is one of the greatest, most beguiling novels ever written.Thorpe''s new translation is stunning and heartily recommendedScotsmanThorpe''s new translation is to die for'Independent[Thorpe's] hard work has yielded beauty. The rhythms are perfectly judged, unexpected enough to make the reader attend to every word'Robert Chandler, TLSTrade ReviewMagnificent. I insist everyone reads Adam Thorpe's new translation. * Vogue *A handsomely bound hardback edition that perfectly befits the beautiful new translation therein... we are pretty confident that Thorpe's bash at Bovary is a contender for the new best English version out there. Sensitive and musical, and simply and wittily annotated, it's got "new classic" written all over it. Plus it's dressed in this really elegant embroidered design by Karen Nichols, so everything gangs up and makes it basically a must-buy. * Dazed and Confused *Flaubert's 1856 novel begins with marriage and what follows is the archetypal tale of a desperate housewife * Daily Telegraph *Mesmerising * Independent *The most scandalous novel of all time * Playboy *

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Book SynopsisNikolai Leskov was born in 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo in Russia. He began his writing career as a journalist living in Kiev, and later settled in St. Petersburg. He published his first piece of fiction in 1862 in The Northern Bee, and continued on to write and publish many short stories and novellas, including The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865), The Sealed Angel (1873), The Enchanted Wanderer (1873), and Lefty (1882). He died in February 1895.Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated works by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Gogol. They were twice awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation prize. They live in Paris.Trade ReviewI don’t know why Nikolai Leskov is not better known: he’s one of the best… You don’t just feel the falling snowflakes and smell the hay – you glimpse where God might be -- Sara Wheeler * Observer *Nikolai Leskov is one of the greatest and most popular of the wonderful group of Russian storytellers who flourished in the nineteenth century * New York Times Book Review *Serious criticism ignored him but his tales succeeded instantly with the public... No-one catches so truthfully the diversity of national character of his time. His variety is astonishing... Leskov has both feet in life -- V.S. PritchettOn Lady Macbbeth of Mtensk: 'Short, sharp and shocking novel...It is a strikingly modern work, a sort of souped-up Madame Bovary in which the anti-heroine, the bored provincial housewife Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, is gripped by an excessive passion for a seductive farmhand. She's hardboiled as any Chandler dame as her ardour for her low-born lover takes her down a jet-black road of cruelty and murder' -- Sunday TelegraphNikolai Leskov fully deserves the privilege of standing in line with such makers of Russian literature as Tolstoi, Gogol, Turgenev and Goncharov. In power and beauty, Leskov's talent cedes only a little to the talent of any one of these men I have named - the creators of the Holy Bible of the Russian land - but in breadth of exposition, in depth of understanding of life's riddles, and in knowledge of the Russian language, he very often surpasses his predecessors and fellow writers -- Maxim Gorky

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Book SynopsisA rich and unforgettable tragic-comic novel of sexual intrigue and political scheming, The House of Ulloa is one of the greatest works of nineteenth-century Spanish literature.The House of Ulloa follows pure and pious Father Julián Alvarez, who is sent to a remote country estate to put the affairs of the marquis, an irresponsible libertine, in order. When he discovers moral decadence, cruelty and corruption at his new home, Julián''s well-meaning but ineffectual attempts to prevent the fall of the House of Ulloa end in tragedy. Combining gothic elements with humour and social satire, The House of Ulloa is the finest achievement of Emilia Pardo Bazán, a prolific writer, feminist, traveller and intellectual, and one of the most dynamic figures of her time.Brilliantly balancing biting satire and gothic undertones, and evoking a rich sense of place, this is a wonderful novel that deserves to be ranked with the other great books of the period. The Countess Emilia Pardo Bazán was born in 1851 and married at sixteen. After separating from her husband, she embarked on an affair with novelist Benito Pérez Galdós. The House of Ulloa (1886) is generally considered as her masterpiece among her many literary works. Professor Paul O''Prey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton, London. Lucia Graves has translated works by Robert Graves, Anaïs Nin, Katherine Mansfield and Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and is the author of a memoir, A Woman Unknown, and a novel, The Memory House.''An absolutely first-rate novelist [...] Bazán''s genius lies in the way she mixes comedy, farce, realism and heightened-pitch hysteria with a dash of gothic [...] People may travel by donkey in this book, but it could have been written yesterday'' - Nick Lezard, Guardian''Pardo Bazán''s mastery of social types and of the political currents that swirled around the liberal revolution are unsurpassed in Spanish literature ... O''Prey and Graves ... avoid awkward literalisms while nonetheless remaining true to the spirit of the original'' New CriterionTrade ReviewAn absolutely first-rate novelist [...] Bazán's genius lies in the way she mixes comedy, farce, realism and heightened-pitch hysteria with a dash of gothic [...] People may travel by donkey in this book, but it could have been written yesterday -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *Pardo Bazán's mastery of social types and of the political currents that swirled around the liberal revolution are unsurpassed in Spanish literature ... O'Prey and Graves ... avoid awkward literalisms while nonetheless remaining true to the spirit of the original -- New Criterion

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Book SynopsisLiterally meaning ''Pillow of Grass'', Kusamakura is Soseki''s portrayal of an artist who opposes convention and logic, and shuns emotional involvement. Soseki''s artist attempts to live as a hermit using other people as his stimuli for his sensations and reflections. The artist fluently and prolifically composes poetry, but finds himself unable to paint - despite befriending a beautiful young divorcee. He remains emotionally distanced from her for a long time and it is only one day when he sees compassion in her eyes that he finds himself able to paint her, but also reconnected with the emotional undercurrents he had hitherto tried to avoid, thereby ending his retreat from the world. Siseko''s beautiful and haikuesque novel is infused with his own musings on art and nature, and helped to establish the novel as a major literary form in Japan.

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains new translations of four of Pushkin's best works of fiction. The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world's greatest short stories, in which Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. The Tales of Belkin are witty parodies of sentimentalism, while Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early experiment with recreating the past. The Captain's Daughter is a novel-length masterpiece which combineshistorical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the devices of the Russian fairy-tale. The introduction provides close readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context.Trade ReviewHe is a great story-teller, the Toby Litt of his day, you might say, and this translation knocks all the others I have seen (two) into a cocked hat. Terrific. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *The Queen of Spades is surely Pushkin's prose masterpiece, one of the greatest short stories ever written and the source of Tchaikovsky's opera. * The Irish Times (Dublin) *Table of ContentsTales of The Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin ; The Queen of Spades ; The Captain's Daughter ; Peter The Great's Blackamoor

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Book SynopsisWriting towards the close of the nineteenth century, Chekhov - himself a country doctor - recorded in his fiction the symptoms of a diseased society. The seven stories collected here are a bleakly savage indictment of a society paralysed by spiritual malaise, and morbidly conscious of evils which can neither be killed nor cured. This volume also contains an Introduction by Ronald Hingley. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Table of ContentsThe Butterfly ; Ward Number Six ; Ariadne ; A Dreary Story ; Neighbours ; An Anonymous Story ; Doctor Startsev

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Book SynopsisThree Tales offers an excellent introduction to the work of one of the world''s greatest novelists. A Simple Heart is set in the Normandy of Flaubert''s childhood, while Saint Julian and Herodias draw on medieval myth and the biblical story of John the Baptist for their inspiration. Each of the tales invites comparison with one or other of Flaubert''s novels, but they also reveal a fresh and distinctive side to the writers''s genius. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade Review`A. J. Krailsheimer's new translation adheres more faithfully to Flaubert's idiosyncratic sentence structures...authentically captures the original's elliptical nature, with its ghostly authorial voice.' * Sunday Telegraph *`Intensely brilliant prose from the acclaimed author of Madame Bovary. These classic tales reflect Flaubert`s talent as a witty narrator and in particular A Simple Heart presents a wonderfully evocative portrait of 19th Century France.' * Wales on Sunday *Table of ContentsA Simple Heart ; The Legend of Saint Julian The Hospitaller ; Herodias

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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 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''The father of contemporary European detective fiction'' Ann Cleeves''He hadn''t seen her arrive. She had stopped on the pavement a few steps away from him and was peering into the courtyard of the Police Judiciaire, where the small staff cars were parked. She ventured as far as the entrance, looked the officer up and down, then turned round and walked away towards the Pont-Neuf''When an old lady tells Maigret someone has been moving things in her apartment, she is dismissed as a fantasist - until a schocking event proves otherwise. ''One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century'' GuardianTrade 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 SynopsisTrade ReviewThis morose little gem boasts its share of sensuous depravity * Wall Street Journal *Mishima was one of literature's great romantics, a tragedian with a heroic sensibility, an intellectual, an esthete, a man steeped in Western letters who toward the end of his life became a militant Japanese nationalist * New York Times *Mishima is the Japanese Hemingway * Life Magazine *A writer of immense energy and ability * Time Out *A sexually and psychologically complex novel... in a honed translation by Andrew Clare -- Damian Flanagan * TLS *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE''Repetition made a great and, as I have since learned, lasting impression on me'' W. G. SebaldFilip Kobal, an Austrian teenager, is on the trail of his missing older brother Gregor, who he never knew. All he has is two of Gregor''s books: a school copy book, and a dictionary in which certain words have been marked. As he enters Slovenia on his journey, Filip discovers something else entirely: the transformative power of language to describe the world, and the unnerving joy of being an outsider in a strange land.''One of the most moving evocations I have ever read of what it means to be alive, to walk upon this earth'' Gabriel JosipoviciTranslated by Ralph ManheimTrade ReviewHandke's eminence, displayed in a substantial oeuvre of plays, novels and poems, is reaffirmed brilliantly by [Repetition] -- Publisher's WeeklyKnifelike clarity of evocation ... Handke is a kind of nature poet, a romantic whose exacerbated nerves cling like pained ivy to the landscape -- John Updike

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Book Synopsis''You''ll get used to things, you''ll see. But you have to watch very carefully what you say and what you do.''Adil Bey is an outsider. Newly arrived as Turkish consul at a run-down Soviet port on the Black Sea, he receives only suspicion and hostility from the locals. His one intimacy is a growing, wary relationship with his Russian secretary Sonia, who he watches silently in her room opposite his apartment. But this is Stalin''s world before the war, and nothing is as it seems. Georges Simenon''s most starkly political work, The People Opposite is a tour de force of slow-burn tension.''Irresistible... read him at your peril, avoid him at your loss'' Sunday TimesTrade ReviewA unique teller of tales ... What interested Simenon was the average man losing control of his own fate * Observer *

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Book Synopsis''A breath of fresh cold air . . . a dangerous edge to gladden fans of Lisbeth Salander'' Boyd TonkinThe first in the Rebecka Martinsson series from the million-book bestselling author, for fans of Stieg Larsson, The Bridge and The Killing TV series.A church in the glittering frozen wastes of northern Sweden. Inside, a sacrifice: the body of a man - slashed to pieces, hands severed, eyes gouged out.The victim''s sister is first to discover the body and she soon finds herself the police''s only suspect. Terrified and confused, she calls on an old friend: hot-shot city lawyer Rebecka Martinsson.Can Rebecka dig beneath the surface of the community that she once fled, and find the truth? ''A chilling plot knee-deep in blood-spattered snow'' Jim Kelly''A labyrinthine conspiracy, superlative storytelling'' IndependentA nail biting, suspense-filled mystery'' Sunday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Through this story the author restores a past that has been erased by history and emphasizes the historical memory of what must never be repeated or forgotten." * Daejon Ilbo *"[An] exceptional novel… Soom captures the agonizing legacy of a dark chapter from the recent past." * Booklist *"The process of directly confronting the comfort women’s hellish experiences is truly painful. However, because the novel is not a product of the author’s imagination but in fact based on historical reality, we cannot turn our heads away. No, we must not." * Donga Ilbo *"Though it is fiction, Kim Soom’s novel is steeped in fact. One Left dignifies its subjects as an authentic memorial that makes an indelible mark on history." * Foreword Reviews *"It may seem cliché to state that a novel is necessary. But this one really is." * Asian Review of Books *"This is a painful, powerful literary indictment of the systemic subjugation of Korean comfortwomen, whose own #MeToo movement has yet to be fully reckoned with, decades after the fact." * Bookmonger *"This Korean novel dramatizes, with indelible force, the utter dehumanization of women confined to authoritarian patriarchal imprisonment." * The Arts Fuse *"[A] landmark — the first novel dedicated to depicting comfort women, a topic that invokes as much weariness as it does outrage among today’s public. Though a work of fiction, Kim Soom’s story is based on exhaustive research and testimonies given by actual comfort women...By rendering this topic in the form of a novel, Kim injects a new sense of emotional urgency in recognizing these very real and hauntingly painful experiences." * International Examiner *"[S]ynthesizes acute personal memories with painful history, straddling the line between fact and fiction. The result is a gut-wrenching narrative." * Korean Herald *"All credit then, to author, translators and publisher for bringing this important book to us." * London Korean Links *"In their even, experienced hands the translation avoids any temptation toward melodrama or obscenity, especially tricky and crucial given the raw, violent subject at hand... For English readers, one must note commensurate, masterful sensitivity to every word and nuance in the translation." * Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature (TSWL) *"[T]he first Korean novel devoted exclusively to the subject of the “comfort women.” In direct opposition to the Japanese government’s efforts to suppress the memory of its sex slave camps, Kim chooses to deploy language like a scalpel, crafting her narrative from the testimonies of dozens of Korean survivors... Granting dignity to the few living survivors is a matter of urgency, as highlighted by the fictional construct of One Left." * Ploughshares *"In this a telling of a tragic history from the perspective of one elderly former sex slave who sees herself as “the last one,” Kim revitalizes energy for this irreconcilable injustice in a new generation of readers." * Korean Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisPresents the tale of a star-crossed courtship between the young nobleman Calisto and the beautiful maiden Melibea in fifteenth-century Spain.Trade Review"A new English version of Celestina - a surprisingly modern Spanish masterpiece of the Renaissance - by an accomplished American translator. What a treat for readers!" (Edith Grossman, translator of Don Quixote)"

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Book SynopsisHåkan Nesser is one of Sweden's most popular crime writers, receiving numerous awards for his novels featuring Inspector Van Veeteren, including the European Crime Fiction Star Award (Ripper Award), the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Prize (three times) and Scandinavia's Glass Key Award. The Van Veeteren series is published in over twenty-five countries and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. Håkan Nesser lives in Gotland with his wife, and spends part of each year in the UK.In addition to the popular Van Veeteren series, his other books include the psychological thriller The Living and the Dead in Winsford and The Barbarotti series.Trade ReviewOne of the best of the Nordic Noir writers. * Guardian *The godfather of Swedish crime. * Metro *One of Sweden’s best crime writers. * Mail on Sunday *A master of suspense. * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisThe last novel by the international superstar and author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.''Kundera is the saddest, funniest, and most lovable of authors.'' TimesAn artist, clearly one of the best to be found anywhere.'' Salman Rushdie''Kundera designs fictions of the highest order.'' Ian McEwanCasting light on the most serious of problems and at the same time saying not one serious sentence; being fascinated by the reality of the contemporary world and at the same time avoiding realism - that''s The Festival of Insignificance.In Kundera''s earlier novel, Slowness, Vera, the author''s wife, says to her husband: ''you''ve often told me you meant to write a book one day that would have not a single serious word in it . . . I warn you: watch out. Your enemies are lying in wait.'' Far from watching out, Kundera finally and fully realises his old aesthetic dream in a novel that we could view as a summati

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Book SynopsisWhere were you the night Lina Stavred went missing? ''A terrific twisting roller-coaster of a thriller.'' PETER JAMES''Intensely gripping.'' CHRIS WHITAKERThe case was closed.Lina Stavred went missing 20 years ago. A local boy confessed to her murder but the body was never found.The records were sealed.Since then, the people of Ådalen have avoided talking about that painful summer, preferring to leave the past untouched. But we know you remember.Now Lina''s murderer has reappeared. This is detective Eira Sjödin's chance to untangle years of well-kept secrets but the truth is something Ådalen would rather forget.Atmospheric, immersive and utterly compelling.' M. W. CRAVENTruly gripping!' J. M. DALGLEISHMidsommar meets Mare of Easttown . . . A police procedural with panache.' O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE

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Book SynopsisBased, like the earlier Impressions of Africa, on uniquely eccentric principles of composition, this book invites the reader to enter a world which in its innocence and extravagance is unlike anything in the literature of the twentieth century. Cantarel, a scholarly scientist, whose enormous wealth imposes no limits upon his prolific ingenuity, is taking a group of visitors on a tour of Locus Solus, his secluded estate near Paris. One by one he introduces, demonstrates and expounds the discoveries and inventions of his fertile, encyclopaedic mind. An African mud-sculpture representing a naked child; a road-mender''s tool which, when activated by the weather, creates a mosaic of human teeth; a vast aquarium in which humans can breathe and in which a depilated cat is seen stimulating the partially decomposed head of Danton to fresh flights of oratory. By each item in Cantarel''s exhibition there hangs a tale - a tale such as only that esteemed genius Roussel could tell. As the inventionsTrade ReviewAn experience unique in literature -- John Ashbery An imagination which joins the mathematician's delirium to the poet's logic - this, among other marvels, is what one discovers in the novels of Raymond Roussel. -- Raymond Queneau Genius in its pure state. -- Jean Cocteau My fame will outshine that of Victor Hugo or Napoleon. -- Raymond Roussel Raymond Roussel belongs to the most important French literature of the beginning of the century. -- Alain Robbe-Grillet The greatest mesmerist of modern times -- Andre Breton Things, words, vision and death, the sun and language make a unique form ... Roussel in some way has defined its geometry -- Michel Foucault

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Book SynopsisThe Battle of Reichenfels has been fought and lost. The army is in flight. The enemy is expected to arrive in town at any moment. A soldier, carrying a parcel under his arm, is wandering through an unknown town. All the streets look the same, and he cannot remember the name of one where he was supposed to meet the man who had agreed to take the parcel. But he must deliver the parcel or at least get rid of itA brilliant work from one of the finest exponents of the Nouveau Roman, In the Labyrinth showcases an inventive, hypnotic style which creates an uncanny atmosphere of déjà vu, yet undermines the reader's expectations at every turn.Trade ReviewRobbe-Grillet is a visual novelist for whom perception is intrinsically fascinating but fraught with uncertainty. * The Daily Telegraph *It is an enormous relief to be shown the world in fresh colours. * The Spectator *Powerful evocation and atmospherics … Christine Brooke-Rose’s translation is faultless. * The Observer *Robbe-Grillet's career was built on a sly and amusing paradox: of using fiction over and over again to undo the conventions of fiction. But how cleverly and engagingly he did it. * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRobbe-Grillet is a visual novelist for whom perception is intrinsically fascinating but fraught with uncertainty. * The Daily Telegraph *Fascinating … It is an intricately clever novel * The Spectator *I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet. * The New York Times *Uses the full apparatus of the thriller … The conception is both inventive and subtle * The Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisThe follow-up to the internationally acclaimed The President''s GardensAl-Ramli is a remarkable storyteller, and in Daughter of the Tigris he creates a dynamic, intricately plotted narrative, brimming with stories and a host of memorable characters Susannah Tarbush, Banipal On the sixth day of Ramadan, in a land without bananas, Qisma leaves for Baghdad with her husband-to-be to find the body of her father. But in the bloodiest year of a bloody war, how will she find one body among thousands? For Tariq, this is more than just a marriage of convenience: the beautiful, urbane Qisma must be his, body and soul. But can a sheikh steeped in genteel tradition share a tranquil bed with a modern Iraqi woman? The President has been deposed, and the garden of Iraq is full of presidents who will stop at nothing to take his place. Qisma is afraid - afraid for her son, afraid that it is only a matter of time before her father''sTrade ReviewAl-Ramli offers laughter, sorrow, and a breathtakingly grim climax. * Mail on Sunday. *Al-Ramli is a remarkable storyteller, and in Daughter of the Tigris he creates a dynamic, intricately plotted narrative, brimming with stories and a host of memorable characters. -- Susannah Tarbush * Banipal *

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