Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisWhen Ellinor addresses her best friend Anna, she does not expect a reply. Anna has been dead for forty years, killed in the same skiing accident that claimed Henning: Ellinor’s first husband and Anna’s lover.Ellinor instead tells her that Georg has died – Georg who was once Anna’s, but whom Ellinor came to love in her place, and whom she came to care for, along with Anna’s two infant sons. Yet with Georg’s death Ellinor finds herself able to cut the ties of her assumed life with surprising ease.Returning to the area of Copenhagen where she grew up, away from the adopted comfort of the home she shared with Georg, Ellinor finds herself addressing her own history: her marriage to Henning, their seemingly charmed friendship with the newly-wed Anna and Georg, right back to her own mother's story – a story of heartbreaking pride.Because there are some secrets – both our own and of others – that we can only share with the dead. Secrets that nonetheless shape who we are and who we love. Often I Am Happy by Jens Christian Grøndahl is a profoundly moving work of fiction.Trade ReviewIn Danish novelist Grøndahl’s stunning latest, a recently widowed 70-year-old woman reexamines her life and past decisions . . . A compassionate and often edifying commentary on the elasticity of love, the strength it takes to move forward after a death, and the power of forgiveness. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *This atmosphere of nonchalance, of indifference, of cracked glass, is the signature atmosphere of Jens Christian Grøndahl . . . Often I Am Happy is [among Grøndahl’s works] one of the most condensed, most suffused with grief and mixed beauty . . . His characters, so perfectly drawn, nevertheless thrive only as they disappear. The real, in the work of this great novelist, also has about it something of the haziness of memory. * Livres Hebdo *

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Book Synopsis'With the open-hearted rashness that belongs to every true writer, Saviano returns to tell the story of the fierce and grieving heart of Naples.' Elena FerranteIn Naples, a new kind of gang rules the streets: the ‘Paranze’, the ‘Children’s Gangs’, groups of teenage boys who divide their time between Facebook or playing Call of Duty on their PlayStations and patrolling the streets armed with pistols and AK-47s, terrorizing local residents in order to mark out the territories of their Mafia bosses.From the author of ZeroZeroZero comes the eye-opening The Piranhas, which tells the story of the rise of one such gang and its leader, Nicolas – known to his friends and enemies as the ‘Maharajah’. But Nicolas’s ambitions reach far beyond doing other men’s bidding: he wants to be the one giving orders, calling the shots, and ruling the city. But the violence he is accustomed to wielding and witnessing soon spirals out of his control . . .Trade ReviewWith the open-hearted rashness that belongs to every true writer, Saviano returns to tell the story of the fierce and grieving heart of Naples. -- Elena FerranteThriller of the Month . . . Saviano’s characterisation, dialogue and set-pieces are first-rate, but what sets the book apart (as with Gomorrah) is his quasi-anthropological portrayal of a micro-society, with a mix of influences that ranges from Call of Duty, porn and mafia movies to Catholic ritual. * Sunday Times *Very impressive . . . I admire Roberto [Saviano] a lot. -- Leila SlimaniA kind of Instagram-era Godfather, pungent with trashtalking and squalid detail. * Metro *The children of Gomorrah . . . in Mr Saviano’s Naples, not even the playgrounds are safe. * The Economist *This is an Italy everyone should see . . . Readers will be rewarded. * Literary Review *A frightening but thrilling novel, alternatively poetic and brutal. * The Herald *The Piranhas is a tragic story, desperate and devastating [...] Saviano both shocks and mesmerises as this tragic tale unfolds. It’s a heart breaking tale and a salutary lesson. * Nudge-book magazine *Dramatic, musical, poetic * El Mundo *A shocking and thrilling book * De Morgen *No matter what Saviano is saying or denouncing, he is, above all, telling a story. This is his natural genius. The Piranhas once again demonstrates this eloquently. * La Repubblica *

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Book SynopsisCousin Bette (1846) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Part of Balzac’s La Comédie humaine sequence, the novel is recognized as being the author’s last fully-realized work, and features several characters who appear elsewhere throughout his legendary series. It has inspired several film and television adaptations, as well as earned comparisons to Shakespeare’s Othello and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Bette Fischer, a 42-year-old woman whose bitterness at remaining unmarried—despite several proposals by men she deemed unworthy—drives her to ruin the reputations and lives of her extended family. After rescuing the young sculptor Wenceslas Steinbock from suicide, Bette develops a complex affection for the man. When he falls in love with Hortense, the daughter of Bette’s cousin Adeline, she hatches a plan to gain revenge for this perceived personal slight. She recruits the young and beautiful Valérie Marneffe—an unhappily married woman—to seduce Adeline’s husband, Baron Hector Hulot, whose uncontrolled desires and extensive vanity both test his family’s loyalty and stretch their finances to the furthest possible limit. Cousin Bette is an intense psychological drama and character study that burns with the fire of Balzac’s critique of French society. While exposing the depths of human immorality—particularly where money is made the center of personal relationships—Balzac manages to remind us that what makes us human is not what drives us apart, but the lengths to which we will go to cultivate love despite our basest impulses. To read Cousin Bette is to observe the hopes, flaws, and desires of the people of nineteenth century France, but to ultimately judge ourselves. This final masterpiece of Honoré de Balzac is a testament to the skill and dedication of one of history’s finest literary minds. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Honoré de Balzac’s Cousin Bette is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisEugénie Grandet (1833) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Written as Balzac began to formulate the grand scale of his La Comédie humaine sequence, Eugénie Grandet was eventually tied into the universe of his epic realist masterpiece, a holistic vision of nineteenth-century French society which sought to observe the consequences of the political, religious, and economic shifts of the Revolution and in its aftermath. This novel looks to the moral failings of a particular nouveau riche family, whose accumulation of wealth has quickly erased any sense of their working-class origins. After the Revolution, master cooper Felix Grandet married the daughter of a successful merchant, ascended in the political and social life of the town of Saumur, and quietly amassed an immense wealth through industry and inheritances from his wife’s family. Now an old man, Felix possesses a fortune he feels no inclination to use, not even to improve the daily lives of his ailing wife and young adult daughter Eugénie, who faces frequent incursions from local suitors intent on marrying her to attain her father’s wealth. When Felix’s nephew Charles arrives from Paris with a letter from the patriarch’s estranged brother Guillaume, tragic circumstances force him to choose between habitual greed and the immense pressure of performing what for anyone else would be a basic act of generosity. Eugénie Grandet is a powerful story of fortune, power, and the ease with which these lead to moral failure. Published at the dawning of Balzac’s most productive and critically-acclaimed period, this novel is not only a good introduction to his lengthy La Comédie humaine sequence, but an irreplaceable work of nineteenth-century realist literature. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Honoré de Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisKokoro (1914) is a novel by Natsume Sōseki. Set during a period of modernization in Japan, Kokoro is a story of family, faith, and tragedy that explores timeless themes of isolation and identity. Spanning generations, Kokoro is a classic novel from one of Japan’s most successful twentieth century writers. Tradition and change, life and death—such are the subjects of Sōseki’s masterful, understated tale of unassuaged guilt. On vacation with a friend, the narrator meets an older man who becomes a patient mentor for the young student. Soon, he begins visiting Sensei and his wife at their home in Tokyo, where they live an affluent, simple life. As the years go by, the narrator becomes aware of a secret from Sensei’s past, which his mentor promises to reveal when the time is right. When his father falls ill—around the time of the end of Meiji society—the narrator returns home to be closer to his family. As he tries to remain positive around so much sorrow, he begins to miss his Sensei, who is now getting old himself. As his father prepares to leave the mortal world, the narrator receives a lengthy letter from Tokyo, containing his Sensei’s story within. As one era merges into the next, he reads of the suffering and mistakes his Sensei experienced and incurred on his path through life, drawing them closer and leaving the narrator with some wisdom to remember him by. Eminently human, Kokoro is a beloved story of isolation, morality, and conflict from a master of Japanese fiction. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Natsume Sōseki’s Kokoro is a classic work of Japanese literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisWhat happens when adults are as lost as the children they're supposed to be protecting? From the author of the Richard and Judy Book Club Pick No and Me ‘Packs a hefty emotional punch. It reminded me of Leila Slimani’s terrific Lullaby’ Bookseller ‘Narrated with punch and pace. You’re kept reading helplessly to the desperate cliffhanger finish’ Daily Mail Thirteen-year-old Théo and his friend Mathis have a secret. Their teacher, Hélène, suspects something is not right with Théo and becomes obsessed with rescuing him, casting aside her professionalism to the point of no return. Cécile, mother of Mathis, discovers something horrifying on her husband’s computer that makes her question whether she has ever truly known him. Respectable facades are peeled away as the four stories wind tighter and tighter together, pulling into a lean and darkly gripping novel of loneliness, lies and loyalties.Trade ReviewThe latest literary sensation * Daily Telegraph *Delphine de Vigan coils these stories together in a taut, intense novel of secrets, lies and the unknowable depths of others * Tatler *Delphine de Vigan’s dark family thrillers are a cult sensation * i Weekend *One of the finest writers of psychological fiction in France today * France Magazine *Short and achingly affecting * Saga Magazine *De Vigan’s sure grasp of the trauma that comes with abuse and the horrible dilemmas that build up around seeking help make this noteworthy fiction * i *It’s a deceptively simple novel, an impression enhanced by the unfussy prose, shorn of literary flourish or artifice, but a powerful, thought-provoking one * Country & Town House *Frighteningly honest, precise and thrilling -- Praise for 'Based on a True Story', Julie Myerson * Observer *The novel casts a spell of enchantment ... Utterly brilliant -- Praise for 'Based on a True Story' * Spectator *

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Book Synopsis'One of the finest writers of psychological fiction in France today' FRANCE MAGAZINE 'The latest literary sensation' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A cult sensation' i 'Dark, smart, strange, compelling - and tremendously French' HARRIET LANE Marie owes Michka more than she can say - but Michka is getting older, and can't look after herself any more. So Marie has moved her to a home where she’ll be safe. But Michka doesn’t feel any safer; she is haunted by strange figures who threaten to unearth her most secret, buried guilt, guilt that she’s carried since she was a little girl. And she is losing her words – grasping more desperately day by day for what once came easily to her. Jérôme is a speech therapist, dispatched to help the home’s ageing population snatch and hold tight onto the speech still afforded to them. But Michka is no ordinary client. Michka has been carrying an old debt she does not know how to repay – and as her words slide out of her grasp, time is running out. Delicately wrought and darkly gripping, Gratitude is about love, loss and redemption; about what we owe one another, and the redemptive power of showing thanks.Trade ReviewPoignant * Observer *A slim but powerful meditation on the nature of gratitude …. As with all the best fiction, what is ordinary has been elevated to the extraordinary … The beating heart of this novel is the exquisite empathy it demonstrates for the elderly and the process of aging … There is a gentle magnificence at work in its pages * Irish Times *Tender, poignant and heartfelt, this slender volume packs a huge emotional punch … [a] generous novel that celebrates communication, connection and courage * Daily Mail *With Gratitude, she has made a bold choice of subject matter … She is swimming energetically against the tide, because this is literary terrain neglected – not to say shunned – by many other novelists … The novel steadily accumulates into a moving tale of how unfinished business can be dealt with without diminishing the dignity of old age * i paper *A short, elegant novel * Saga *Taut and poignant ... There's sadness in this simple tale * Sunday Telegraph *Praise for Delphine de Vigan: ‘Delphine de Vigan's dark family thrillers are a cult sensation * i *A moving portrait of aging, devotion and love ... It stayed in my thoughts long after reading * Eurolit Network *The latest literary sensation ... It has people in a word-of-mouth frenzy I’ve not seen since Gone Girl * Daily Telegraph *One of the finest writers of psychological fiction in France today * France Magazine *You’re kept reading helplessly to the desperate cliffhanger finish * Daily Mail *Taut and fascinating ... A moving tribute to the power the bonds of love * Guardian *A taut, intense novel of secrets, lies and the unknowable depths of others * Tatler *Dark, smart, strange, compelling – and tremendously French -- Harriet LaneI’ve never read a book that makes the complex relationship between reality and fiction both as visible, and at the same time so opaque, as here. I was captivated. * Independent *de Vigan plays with the tropes of the psychological thriller, but her work is steeped in philosophical ruminations -- Joanna Briscoe * Guardian *Frighteningly honest, precise and thrilling * Observer *

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Book Synopsis'A searing tale of seduction and betrayal, both wryly comic and deeply serious' Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend 'Intimate, irreverent, fast-paced and raw' Sunday Times Lucas Pereyra, an unemployed writer in his forties, embarks on a day trip from Buenos Aires to Montevideo to pick up a fifteen thousand dollar advance in cash. This small fortune might solve his problems, most importantly the unbearable tension in his marriage. While his wife spends her days at work and her nights out on the town – with a lover, perhaps – Lucas is stuck at home all day staring at the blank page, caring for his son Maiko and fantasizing about the one thing that keeps him going: the Uruguayan woman he recently met at a conference and who he longs to see on this trip. The Woman from Uruguay is the surprising and moving story of one transformative day in Lucas’ life. An international bestseller, it is the masterpiece of one of Latin America’s most beloved writers, translated by Man Booker International winner Jennifer Croft. 'At once a picaresque comedy and a penetrating study of a man on the verge of middle age' Colm ToibinTrade Review'This story of lust and middle-aged angst resonates long after the novel has ended ... Intimate, irreverent, fast-paced and raw ... Reminiscent of Geoff Dyer in elegiac mode, or the angry, funny, rueful work of Luke Brown ... A deeply unconventional love letter' * Sunday Times *The Woman from Uruguay is at once a picaresque comedy and a penetrating study of a man on the verge of middle age who is trying to deal with fatherhood, money, marriage and love. Lucas's vivid presence in this book is created by his rich way of observing the world. As he travels from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, over seventeen hours, a whole world comes into being, a complex sensibility gets dramatized -- Colm ToibinBeautifully written and translated, The Woman from Uruguay is a work of exquisite style, shrewd philosophical insight, and deftly controlled suspense. A searing tale of seduction and betrayal, both wryly comic and deeply serious. * Sigrid Nunez, author of THE FRIEND and WHAT ARE YOU GOING THROUGH *The Woman from Uruguay is a gem; as perfectly formed as a tide-washed pebble, brimming with astute observations and insight into the foibles of masculinity. I loved it * Graeme Macrae Burnet *Shrewd, funny and involving .. Unfolding over the course of one day, this slim, witty and wryly heart-warming book is both a comic treat and a deftly insightful piece of literary fiction * Daunt, Books of the Week *A tender meditation on desire and the fragility of the human heart, translated elegantly by Man Booker International winner Jennifer Croft … [a] profound novel * Chicago Review of Books *A perfect novel. A triumph from beginning to end. The novel’s style, that carries the soft irony of a writer in command of his narrative voice, its extension, its verbal prowess, its impeccably paced rhythm and, of course, the theme: a marital crisis written from the perspective of an Argentine man in his mid forties who is facing an existential crisis. * El Pais (Spain) *[Pedro Mairal] displays his full talent in a wisely structured novel, outstanding in its narrative rhythm and in the twists and turns of the plot, where humor emerges at the same time a tragedy takes shape surrounding an enigma . . . A story about love and its imponderables. * Página 12 (Argentina) *Eminently readable ... Witty ... Mairal gives his character the gift of frankness, and in his uncomfortable admissions and meandering reflections, Lucas, too, comes to accept the limits of his agency and the ineluctable force of reality * Claie Messud, Harper's *I wasn’t able to put the book down. * María Dueñas *A perfect novel. * Edmundo Paz Soldan *A bittersweet meditation on love, desire and ageing ... A psychologically astute novella … Pitch-perfect * Guardian *Mairal shines a fresh light into the cave of being middle aged. Hidden inside a mountain of adult responsibilities, Mairal's narrator revolts in known ways, with infidelity and travel, and yet Mairel's acute insights and the lyrical precision of Jennifer Croft's translation, cast a new glow on the unexpected pleasures to be found in the middle of life. An absolute delight of a novel -- Idra Novey, author of Those Who KnewThe loss and recovery of desire, the ambition of everlasting adventures, the earthquake of becoming a father, the flight forward . . . all these things occur in a single day (. . .), interwoven in the brilliant prose of Pedro Mairal, one of the best Latin American writers of our time. * Leila Guerriero *

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of A Nearly Normal Family - now a major Netflix TV series. The Woman Inside is a breathless page-turner from an international master of suspense, this is a story about dependency, justice, and the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.'The darkness dwells, the desperation grows between the characters and the walls close in until you're caught in the trap' - Lars Kepler, author of The SpiderThree 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 . . .What readers are saying about The Woman Inside:‘The Woman Inside was my first novel from author Edvardsson. It certainly won’t be my last. Five stars’‘The last sentence left me breathless’‘I loved how the layers of the story were revealed and I am always a fan of multi POV’‘This book is over 10 hours long and I am telling the truth when I say I didn’t press pause’‘This was a very fun thriller, great for fans of Lisa Jewell and Sally Hepworth’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, No. 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 The Sicilian Method, Andrea Camilleri's twenty-sixth novel in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series, Montalbano finds his answers to a murder in a theatrical play.Mimi Augello is visiting his lover when the woman's husband unexpectedly returns to the apartment. Hurriedly, he climbs out the window and into the downstairs apartment, but from one danger to another. In the dark he sees a body lying on the bed. Shortly afterwards another body is found and the victim is Carmelo Catalanotti, a director of bourgeois dramas with a harsh reputation for the acting method he developed for his actors: digging into their complexes to unleash their talent, a traumatic experience for all. Are the two deaths connected? Catalanotti scrupulously kept notes and comments on all the actors he worked with as well as strange notebooks full of figures, dates and names . . .Inspector Montalbano finds all of Catalanotti's dossiers and plays, the notes on the characters and the notes on his final drama, Dangerous Turn. It is in the theatre where he feels the solution lies.Trade ReviewMontalbano’s colleagues, chance encounters, Sicilian mores, even the contents of his fridge are described with the wit and gusto that make this narrator the best company in crime fiction today * Guardian *Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . Simply superb * Sunday Times *One of fiction’s greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe’s greatest crime writers * Daily Mail *One of the best of the long running series, vibrant, sharp and very funny * Crime Time *

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Book SynopsisThe Cook of the Halcyon is the twenty-seventh Inspector Montalbano mystery from the master of Sicilian crime, Andrea Camilleri.Moments later the all-white schooner, which looked like a hospital ship, began to pass ever so slowly before him, as if wanting to show itself off in all its beauty. The name on the prow said: Halcyon.Two deaths – the suicide of a recently fired worker and the murder of an unscrupulous businessman – lead Inspector Montalbano to the Halcyon, a mysterious ship that visits Vigàta’s port each day. With very few crewmen, no passengers and a stern large enough to land a helicopter, it piques the Inspector’s interest straightaway. In the midst of this, a rare trip to Genoa to visit Livia ends with the Vigàta police department in disarray, and Inspector Montalbano’s position as the head of the commissariat in jeopardy. It will be up to Montalbano to fix the damage done.Trade ReviewMontalbano’s colleagues, chance encounters, Sicilian mores, even the contents of his fridge are described with the wit and gusto that make this narrator the best company in crime fiction today * Guardian *Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . Simply superb * Sunday Times *One of fiction’s greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe’s greatest crime writers * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisA tender portrait of grief, fatherhood and a life going to pieces from the bestselling author.'Vivid and moving... It would be hard to find a better writer than Petterson' Irish TimesIn 1992 Arvid Jansen is thirty-eight, divorced and paralysed by grief. More than a year has passed since the tragic accident that took his parents and two of his brothers.Existence has become a question of holding on to a few firm things. Loud, smoky bars, whisky, records, company for the night and taxis home. Or driving his Mazda into the stunning, solitary landscape outside of Oslo, sleeping in the car when his bed is an impossible place to be.Adrift and inept, Arvid feels his life unravelling. Is there any redemption for a man in his situation?'Per Petterson writes about masculinity as well as anyone' Torrey Peters'A rare insight into male vulnerability' Evening StandardTrade ReviewPetterson's spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force * The New Yorker *Petterson is a profoundly gifted novelist -- Richard FordIs there a living writer better at conveying the disconcerting relationship between time and memory?... There is pleasure, too, in watching Petterson shift through the gears from pleasure to unease in one of those gloriously sinuous sentences that have become something of a trademark -- Adrian Turpin * Financial Times *Petterson is remarkably gifted -- James WoodReading a Petterson novel is like falling into a northern landscape painting-all shafts of light and clear palpable chill * Time *

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Book SynopsisAn intoxicating and evocative novel about the all-consuming love affair between two women in Paris and the ruin it leaves in its wake.'Captivating...intense...seductive' GuardianA thirty-something teacher drifts through her life in Paris, raising a daughter on her own, lonely in spite of a new boyfriend. Then one night, at a friend's tepid New Year's Eve party, Sarah enters the scene like a tornado. A talented young violinist, she is loud, vivacious, appealingly unkempt in a world where everyone seems preoccupied with being 'just so'. It is the beginning of an intense relationship, tender and violent, that will upend both women's lives. A literary sensation in France, All About Sarah perfectly captures the pull of a desire so strong that it blinds us to everything else.'All About Sarah moves impressively from the chaos and noise of love, to silence and solitude, like a spun coin settling' ObserverTrade Review[All About Sarah] moves impressively from the chaos and noise of love, to silence and solitude, like a spun coin settling. -- John Self * Observer *A story of desire and desolation. -- Kim Willsher * Guardian *A brief, intense read... compulsive... seductive prose. -- Lara Feigel * Guardian *There are shades of Duras, Nabokov, and Barthes in the intensely living heart of this magnificent novel. * L'Express *

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Book SynopsisGabrielle Levy's The Insomniac Society is the international phenomenon for those having sleepless night's everywhere . . . Five people. One thing in common: none of them can sleep.Claire, who sits awake beside a snoring husband and a little boy who is not hers. Jacques, a psychiatrist at the end of his career whose lonely nights are punctuated only by anonymous phone calls. Michèle, a retiree whose dark secret compels her out of bed and to church. Lena, a young goth who cannot brave the dawn, volunteering at a local café. Hervé, a shy accountant who sits in bed, panicking about his job while scrolling through emails into the early hours. As meetings led by sleep specialist Marie-Hélène draw them together, friendships will be formed and confessions made... but will they discover what's keeping them awake? And more importantly: will they be able to get to sleep?Trade ReviewGabrielle Levy does an admirable job characterising her hodgepodge collection of insomniacs and draws from a varied palette of types, demonstrating how anyone, from any strata of society, can lose their sleep * Buzz Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThirty-something Parisian artist Billie is working towards her next exhibition when she receives the news that her mother, with whom she has had no contact for years, has drowned in the river near her nursing home. In an attempt to understand the circumstances of her death, she returns to V, the village where she grew up in the parched, sun-drenched hills above the Mediterranean. When she arrives there, Billie finds herself reliving memories of another river drowning, 20 years earlier, memories she had tried to obliterate. What happened to Billie's dear friend Lila back then, at the age of 16, and why is Billie stalked by guilt? Sunlight Hours paints a picture of three generations of women, united by the secrets of a river.

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Book Synopsis'Cool, meticulously crafted and mordantly amusing' Irish Times 'A chilling insight into a flawed justice system' Daily Mail A 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 lawyer, he coolly recounts the fates of twelve characters who cross his path, 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, each story in Punishment crackles with suspense, masterfully treading the line between fiction and truth.Trade 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 SynopsisFrom the author of Grey Souls and Brodeck's Report: a chilling island fable of murder, exploitation and complicity"A parable about modern migration that is also the kind of detective story Mikhail Bulgakov might have written: visionary and darkly humourous" Lucy Hughes-Hallet, New Statesman BOOKS OF THE YEAR"A timely and elegant examination of the migrant situation in the Mediterranean from the point of view of a remote, volcanic island" The New European BOOKS OF THE YEARThe Dog Islands are a small, isolated cluster of islands in the Mediterranean - so called because together, when viewed from above, they form the shape of a dog, twisting and baring its teeth against a brilliant blue sea. One of the only inhabited islands (the one that takes the place of one of the dog's teeth) is dominated by a gently smoking volcano, fringed by black volcanic beaches and under the iron rule of the heads of community who are loath to let any outside influence disrupt the quiet way of life on the island.Then one morning, an old woman comes across three bodies that have washed up with the tide: three young black men, who have apparently drowned in their attempt to cross the sea. The initial reaction of the island community is that this tragedy must be covered up, lest any association with the drownings damages the island's tourism industry . . .But the island's deliberate isolation from the realities of the world cannot last for long, and when a visiting detective arrives on the island and starts asking awkward questions, it becomes clear that the deaths of these three men indicate something far more sinister and deeply rotten lying at the heart of this godforsaken fragment of sea-bound land.Translated from the French by Euan CameronEUAN CAMERON is a literary translator from the French and a former publisher. His previous translations include works by Patrick Modiano, Didier Decoin and Paul Morand, as well as biographies of Marcel Proust and Irène Némirovsky. His debut novel, Madeleine, was published in 2019.With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European UnionTrade ReviewA timely and elegant examination of the migrant situation in the Mediterranean from the point of view of a remote, volcanic island that depends on tourism for its survival and lives in fear of negative publicity as a result. -- Charlie Connelly * New European Books of the Year *

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Book Synopsis"Compassionate and complex" Financial Times"Stridsberg writes with chilling poise" New York Times"A haunting portrait of the starkest meanings of love and family. Stridsberg's literary talent left me awestruck" KATE REED PETTY, author of True Story**A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021**Inside me was voiceless silence, above me only bare defenceless sky and beneath me the earth's unrelenting gravity, pulling me downThe moment of Inni's death will never end. Not ever. Murdered one summer's day on a lake shore at the heart of a distant, rain-washed forest, she tells the story of the moment her life was violently extinguished by an anonymous man.But amidst that moment of death lies the story of what came before, and of the lives that carry on afterwards. This is the story of her children, her parents and the chain of choices, tragedies and accidents that lead her to a life on the streets and take her into the wrong crowd, the wrong places and, finally, the wrong car with the wrong person.The Antarctica of Love is the unflinching testimony of a woman on the margins, giving voice to the voiceless and offering an insight into depths of absolute vulnerability, brutality and isolation. Hauntingly beautiful yet at times disturbing, this is a devastating story of unexpected love, tenderness and light in the total darkness.Translated from Swedish by Deborah Bragan-TurnerTrade ReviewThe Antarctica of Love is a shocking and beautiful subversion of the 'dead girl' trope. With fierce dignity, the narrator in this elegiac novel refuses to be reduced to murder victim/sex worker/addict; she is a poet, philosopher, and author of her own life story in this haunting portrait of the starkest meanings of love and family. Stridsberg's literary talent left me awestruck -- Kate Reed Petty * author of TRUE STORY *An elegy to the murdered woman's life, from her point of view . . . [Stridsberg] writes with chilling poise * New York Times *Stridsberg offers a compassionate and complex portrait of a woman damaged by her past, and of those left behind to mourn her death * Financial Times *Excellent . . . Linguistically and structurally beautiful, The Antarctica of Love is a an exploration of our place in the world, how fleetingly we occupy it, and how much of a trace we leave * Translating Women *A deeply moving portrait of a life cut short, free of judgement but rich in insight and compassion . . . Stridsberg's novel is brave, and it couldn't be more relevant * European Literature Network *A disturbingly beautiful book. Stridsberg writes perhaps the most taut and most beautiful prose in Sweden right now * Expressen *A powerful story that ripples through time and across generations and social divides . . . with extraordinary empathy and insight * CrimeReads *A stunning book which paints the portrait of a broken life with honesty and compassion * Kirkus Reviews (starred) *A ruminative, heartrending novel * Publishers Weekly *Already with her second novel - The Faculty of Dreams, which was awarded the 2007 Nordic Council Literature Prize - Stridsberg proved that she is among the finest authors of contemporary Nordic literature ... With her latest work, The Antarctica of Love, Stridsberg has surpassed herself. The Antarctica of Love is a novel that one both rejects and cannot resist. It is brutal and oddly full of light, it is wild and violent, but also full of love and tenderness. * Aftenposten *A shattering read from one of Scandinavia's truly modern storytellers, in prose that appears both more sophisticated and more accessible than previous works * Klassekampen *The book has a linguistic abundance that fires up the reader with energy and the conviction that this novel can be one of the best of the year * Adresseavisen *Gives voice to the unseen . . . A terrible and beautiful novel with unique moral weight. * Vårt Land *Few writers craft such distinct imagery, in such poetic meanderings, with such beauty and precision, as Stridsberg * Svenska Dagbladet *The Antarctica of Love is an utterly brilliant novel * Skånska Dagbladet *Her story becomes inscribed upon our minds, so rich with poetic expressions and prosaic sentences that it is ultimately difficult to comprehend all the horror, since it is wrapped in such powerful words. ... Sara Stridsberg's The Antarctic of Love is this year's most poignant book * LitteraturMagazinet *The Antarctica of Love is Stridsberg's darkest and most powerful novel to date. Here, there is no romanticizing of marginalization ... Here, it's all intense presence and nerve, up until the moment of death itself * SVT Kulturnyheter *An interesting experiment in narrative and emotional detachment -- Rónán Hession * Irish Times *An amazing and almost unbearably precise novel * Dagens Nyheter *Stridsberg's language bears the unbearable, and provides a soft blanket that leads us into the worst - and beyond * Politiken *

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Book Synopsis"A brilliantly inventive writer" A.S. BYATT"The most important Basque writer of his generation" Times Literary Supplement"Not just a Basque novelist but the Basque novelist" GuardianTheir lives run into each other, like water running over stonesAs the Basque mining town of Ugarte moves from the hazy summer of the 1972 Olympics, through the mining strikes of the turbulent Eighties and into the modern day, her people navigate the silences, secrets, joys and tragedies of their lives.From the story of a traumatised teenage boy at the town's bakery, to the tale of a group of comrades on an army base in the twilight of Franco's dictatorship, the interconnected narratives of Water Over Stones confront the changes time brings to Ugarte's close-knit community, as the lives of its inhabitants run into to each other like water running between stones.This extraordinary novel of friendship, nature, love and the immensity of death shows Bernardo Atxaga's mastery of his craft, and his ability to create places and characters that are impossible to forget.Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Bunstead and Margaret Jull-CostaTrade ReviewA brilliantly inventive writer -- A.S. ByattNot just a Basque novelist but the Basque novelist * Guardian *The most important Basque writer of his generation * Times Literary Supplement *A twisting and rewarding story, and one readers will savor until the lovely finish * Publishers Weekly, starred review *Profound, luminous and strange. This is really a remarkable novel * Shiny New Books *Atxaga holds the attention by his sheer craft, by the complete control he exhibits * Independent *A narrative steeped in poetry in which Atxaga has brilliantly combined reality and fiction -- Jury of the National Spanish Literature AwardA dramatic story that captivates the reader from the first pages to its splendid ending * La Razón *The reader will discover once again the great poetic power of Atxaga, and his incredible ability to build entire and profound universes * El Correo *Atxaga knows how to entertain, move and give autobiography all the charm of fiction * La Vanguardia *

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Book SynopsisSet in post-war Oslo and following on from Echoes of a City, by an author who understands the city like no other."One of Norway's finest writers" GUARDIAN"Profoundly resonant" TLS In Kirkeveien, Oslo, in the year 1956, forty-year-old Maj is worn down by being a homemaker and widowed mother. To the indignation of the Red Cross ladies, she cautiously frees herself from the role she has otherwise fulfilled to the letter. She finds a job that she turns out to be more than good at, and some kind of love, too. Her friend Margrethe is sick of her marriage to the antiquarian bookseller, Olaf Hall, but cannot think of divorce. Jesper gets a girlfriend who opens the door to a new, more liberated environment of vegetarianism and politics. And his best friend Jostein realises that his talent for making money will allow him access to a world that is larger and richer than that of the Oslo slaughterhouse.Friendship is a beautifully orchestrated story about people and their dreams, about social conventions, personal constraints and what it takes to have the courage to realise oneself. In this book brimming with human insight, as in Echoes of the City, in each of these characters we recognise something of ourselves.Trade ReviewSaabye Christensen's writing is rich and elegant, and always easy to read. Burlesque humour that borders on farce, with an underlying layer of melancholy. From the outset, the reader might feel that the book flows a bit too easily, but before you notice the writer has grabbed hold of you and doesn't let go until the last page has been turned * Adresseavisen *Eminent is a big word. Even so, it comes to mind assessing the second volume of this memoir novel, Echoes of the City . . . Lars Saabye Christensen is a master storyteller who is both sharp and affectionate. * Weekendavisen *I just have to repeat how impressed I am with Lars Saabye Christensen. It's like he's just sitting there, almost improvising on his keyboard and suddenly he's composed yet another masterpiece * Dagbladet *A book filled with sorrow and wistfulness for a time torn between faith in the future and the community's need for social control. It's Lars Saabye Christensen on home turf. It's the author at his best * Bok365 *

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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 SynopsisA deserting soldier treks through the torn-up countryside and abandoned villages, trying to distance himself from the atrocities of war.An elderly man sits beneath lime trees, remembering his first sexual encounter one summer night with a female stranger who whispered another man's name.A young woman takes up a job in a care home, spending monotonous days scrubbing floors and yearning to dance at the local nightclub.The artist Franz Marc lives on in an imagined life as a patient at an asylum, before falling victim to Hitler's policy of Gnadentod.Finally, a young Jewish girl, the life she once knew destroyed, holds her memories close as she finds refuge in wreckage of her homeland.And throughout there is the shadowy presence of Viktor - one man or many? A looming figure in Germany's own reckoning with its past.Through these five interconnected stories, Philippe Claudel reflects on Germany's complex history and the experiences of its people, dismantling the idea of "a nation" or "a people" and exploring the malleability of memory.Trade ReviewDark, sober and strong * Le Monde *[Philippe Claudel] manages to instil sweetness into the very heart of the suffering and drama he depicts * Culture Tops *Philippe Claudel leads his readers in a dance between great history and intimate stories, great wars and internal wars with his new novel . . . Characters intersect and reappear like a dream, or a form of haunting, until they find their destiny * Le Journal de Québec *

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Book SynopsisSeven interconnected stories orbit a central novella to create a collection of tales which resonate with the sound of women's voices.A widower struggles to erase his wife's voice from his answering machine. Two old friends meet after a period apart and find they can no longer fit into their habitual rhythm. A woman records herself reading a poem for two sisters who obsessively collect voice recordings.At the heart of Canoes is "Mustang", in which a woman moves with her family to the suburbs of Denver, where her partner takes up a research post. As her husband and child fit seamlessly into their new lives, she remains aloof, consumed by a feeling of not belonging, and observing as her loved ones change and adapt to these alien surroundings.In this moving and deeply poetic collection, Maylis de Kerangal casts light on the balance between life and death, exploring the traces we leave upon each other's lives and creating space for women of all ages to be heard.Translated from the French by Jessica MooreTrade ReviewWhen a new book by de Kerangal translated by Jessica Moore land son the mat during Women in Translation Month, it's clear that somewhere up above the thick blanket of summer cloud the stars are aligning -- Charlie Connelly * The New European *The beauty of Kerangal's poetic, multi-layered stories, full of sensory detail and expertly translated by Jessica Moore, lies in their emotional resonance. Anyone dealing with change cannot fail to be moved -- Lucy Popescu * Financial Times *De Kerangal's work is the translation of voice into the material for text. [...] And translation, in one form or another, is central to Canoes: translation from one country to another, from old pasts to new presents. Then there is the matter of translation and its consequence - transformation - as the task of the writer * Times Literary Supplement *De Kerangal is a wonderfully attentive writer with an ear for the most apposite word (a challenge elegantly met by Jessica Moore, who translated the book from the French) as this pitch-perfect collection reveals * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisThe third Terra Alta Investigation - the final novel in the acclaimed crime series by one of Europe's leading writers

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Book SynopsisCBC BOOKS - CANADIAN FICTION TO READ IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2023Peter Greenaway meets Angela Carter: a Gothic tale of secrets and revenge When the curtain rises on Malmaison, it reveals a once-enchanting estate, quietly falling into darkness and ruin, and at the heart of it, a father, one of a long line of fathers who have flourished at the expense of those around them. The silence seems peaceful, but lurking under it is a deep malevolence, scores of ugly and violent secrets kept by cast-off mistresses and abandoned daughters. Ever-greedy, the father brings in Aliénor, a woman who promises to make the lands give even more of themselves; the plants will flourish, the animals will multiply, each feast will be more sumptuous than the last. The father thinks the stage is set to satisfy his every desire, but Aliénor will bring a new script, one in which the hunters are hunted and a new reign will begin.Trade Review"There’s a timeless quality to Sing, Nightingale: a gothic, poetic work about decaying patriarchal secrets and their antidote – hidden in a rural French estate. This feminist revenge tale, with a smattering of magic realism, is beautifully constructed. Perfect for lovers of Angela Carter or Cécile Coulon to delve into on dark nights." – Zoe Grams, Quill & Quire 'Books of the Year 2023'“In dense, almost lyrical prose, Poitras (and her translator Rhonda Mullins) bring readers into a world that’s like a gothic fairy tale, weaving a story of death and decay, of secrets and illusions and a place where blood flows into the dirt.” – Roz Milner, Broken Pencil“Poitras’s prose is precise and evocative.” – Marcie McCauley, Event"Arguably, all books aim to transport readers to another world, but not all books can do this as self-reflexively and immersively as Sing, Nightingale by Marie Hélène Poitras (translated from the French by Rhonda Mullins)." – Hollay Ghadery, CAROUSEL Magazine“I’m not sure I’ve read a book quite so fecund, so bursting with life (and sex) as Sing, Nightingale by Quebec writer Marie Helene Poitras (superbly translated from the Québécois by Rhonda Mullins) … Along with the sumptuous prose, the musical interludes and the moments of metafiction, Sing, Nightingale is a passionate, full-throated deconstruction of the patriarchy that is well worth your time.” – Ian Mond, Locus Magazine“A tale that is both beautiful and cruel, like only fairy tales can be. One that is deep and rich in what is found within and between the lines, like only fairy tales can be. […] This is already quite an achievement, and then Marie Hélène Poitras adds […] a sensuality that stretches out in every direction. […] A novel that is beautiful in content and form, to be read and discussed.” – Sonia Sarfati, Sélection Reader’s Digest“Marie Hélène writes both the marvelous and the contemptable, the magical and the horrific. She writes about the question of origins and the silence offered up as an answer.” – Natalia Wysocka, Le Devoir“Marie Hélène Poitras offers readers yet another surprise by taking us where we least expected to go: into an enchanted, sinister forest like the woods of fairy tales… and the nursery rhymes that have left children quaking for centuries, without truly understanding their deep, dark meaning.” – Chantal Guy, La Presse“Poitras (Griffintown) delivers a gloomy and lyrical fairy tale set in and around Noirax, a fictional French village…This is a feast for lovers of gothic lit." – Publishers Weekly"Fans of dark, fairy-talelike worlds will enjoy Sing, Nightingale tremendously." – Leah von Essen, Booklist“Sing, Nightingale is, by design, a disconcerting book: At times it seems to take place in the distant past, but mentions of modern technology crop up throughout. The text is peppered with quotations from playfully cruel French nursery rhymes. And Poitras constantly describes food in a way that is both sumptuous and unsettling. . . The overall effect is one of decadence laced with a creeping sense of horror." – Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post“An enticing visitor spells doom—or a new beginning—for a distinguished but troubled family line in Marie Hélène Poitras’s novel…Sing, Nightingale is a twisted, haunting tale of jealousy, murder, and vengeance in the countryside.” – Foreword Reviews"Poitras’ work serves as a tuning fork; we feel its vibrations within us. We recognize the frequency, buried deeply in our psyches. It is a story that is immediately familiar, yet utterly unique, unfolding with the ineffable logic of a dream, of a memory of events which we have not yet experienced." – Robert J. Wiersema, The Toronto Star"Poitras’ prose is rich, steeped in the senses, suffused with painting, perfume, and culinary decadence." – Dean Garlick, Montreal Review of Books

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Book SynopsisIncludes Flaubert's Dictionary of received ideas.Trade Review"Novelists should thank Flaubert the way poets thank spring; it all begins again with him." —James Wood "Why should we read Bouvard and Pécuchet? They are we, and we are they." —Rick Prelinger, SF MOMA

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Book SynopsisCount d''Orgel is handsome, charming, and carefree, a model of cool aristocratic aplomb. His wife, the Countess, is beautiful and pure and loves her husband more than anything in the world. But from the moment the d''Orgels meet and befriend the clever young François de Séryeuse backstage at the circus, all three of these supremely civilized and witty people are caught up in an ever more intricate and seductive dance of deception and self-deception. At Count d''Orgel''s masquerade ball, the real disguises are those of the human heart.Completed just before Raymond Radiguet''s death at the age of twenty, Count d''Orgel''s Ball is a love story that is as disturbing as it is delicious.

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Book SynopsisFrom one of China's foremost authors, Jia Pingwa's Happy Dreams is a powerful depiction of life in industrializing contemporary China, in all its humor and pathos, as seen through the eyes of Happy Liu, a charming and clever rural laborer who leaves his home for the gritty, harsh streets of Xi'an in search of better life. After a disastrous end to a relationship, Hawa "Happy" Liu embarks on a quest to find the recipient of his donated kidney and a life that lives up to his self-given moniker. Traveling from his rural home in Freshwind to the city of Xi'an, Happy brings only an eternally positive attitude, his devoted best friend Wufu, and a pair of high-heeled women's shoes he hopes to fill with the love of his life. In Xi'an, Happy and Wufu find jobs as trash pickers sorting through the city's filth, but Happy refuses to be deterred by inauspicious beginnings. In his eyes, dusty birds become phoenixes, the streets become rivers, and life is what you make of it. When he meets the beautiful Yichun, he imagines she is the one to fill the shoes and his Cinderella-esque dream. But when the harsh city conditions and the crush of societal inequalities take the life of his friend and shake Happy to his soul, he'll need more than just his unrelenting optimism to hold on to the belief that something better is possible.Trade Review"The writing, in Harman's translation, is a delight—rich and lively." —New York Times Book Review "Interwoven with references to China's tumultuous political history and rich artistic tradition, Pingwa's novel captures a nation undergoing change and brutally illustrates what that change might actually cost…[An] optimistic yet heartbreaking tale of the life of Hawa 'Happy' Liu." —Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Although the characters suffer the socioeconomic upheavals of contemporary China, they accept their plights and muddle through…" —Kirkus Reviews "Easy read…Enjoyable." —Library Journal "Nicky Harman's free-flowing translation of Jia's prose swiftly ferries the reader through the four hundred and fifty-page novel, capturing its Rabelaisian-like humor and colorful tableaus of migrant workers with their diverse personalities, aspirations, and shortcomings." —Asian Review of Books "This is an incredibly beautiful book, a story of the triumph of the human spirit which transcends time and space…Translating is always a tricky task, with the non-native reader often missing out on the finer nuances of wordplay and language-specific puns, but Nicky Harman manages to preserve Pingwa's natural style and frequent mixing of the rustic idiom, by juxtaposing American slang with formalized British English. It is a technique that may have jarred in other hands, but Harman pulls it off with the practiced ease of the experienced translator. The result is as close as the English reader can get to the author's original presentation and intent." —The Indian Express "Sometimes a good book highlights our similarities, sometimes our differences. Sometimes it stays inside its borders, sometimes it strays across. The rare book manages all of the above, and sometimes deceptively so…Enter Pingwa's Happy Dreams…It was too good for me, did its job too well, for which Harman also certainly enjoys a heaping helping of praise." —Words Without Borders "Happy Dreams…is Happy Liu's story. It is also the story of modern China, where the flow of labor from rural to urban areas has continued unabated for decades and is arguably the largest such migration in history. The China depicted in Happy Dreams is not one that will be familiar to Western tourists who are typically shielded from the country's underside. Xi'an is known for its terra-cotta warriors, after all, not for the small army of men and women who scavenge trash from every corner of the city. Those with more than a superficial knowledge of the country, however, will recognize the novel's brutal honesty." —Washington Independent Review of Books "Hawa 'Happy' Liu is an endlessly optimistic man on a mission. He wants to find the recipient of the kidney he donated. Set in contemporary China, Happy Dreams is a charming story about the power of positivity." —HelloGiggles "Happy Dreams explores the lives of the people we don't always see. Through Happy's eyes, Jia Pingwa shows us the hope living, literally, amongst the garbage of a city, and how treacherous urban life can be for those unsure how to navigate it."—Angela Amman "The minutiae of life in a city of China as a trash picker. Interesting small adventures in this story. The topic of friendship with its ups and downs is one I enjoyed from this story." —vvb32 Reads

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Book SynopsisCandid and unfettered, Sven Popović’s Last Night is a playfully existential meditation on youth and the search for the self.Acclaimed in his native Croatia, Popović’s unique blend of intimacy and contemplation has garnered him a following in the alternative literary scene of Zagreb—and beyond. With an intellectualism that never takes itself too seriously, an unaffected fluidity of form, and a keen eye for the smallest, strangest moments that color our lives, his stories weave an offbeat tapestry of urban life.Last Night is the first short story collection from Sven Popović, whose writing was previously featured in Dalkey Archive Press’s Best European Fiction 2017, and his first full work to be released in English. Slickly translated by Vinko Zgaga, Popović’s sometimes-dreamlike, sometimes-conversational vignettes offer a shrewd, original outlook on life’s absurdities.Trade Review"Like all great writers, Sven Popovic is not only a master storyteller but also a conjurer of atmospheres. Reading this book is like hanging out with friends during one of those long and dreamy European summer days, where night and day eventually merge into each other and you are taken in by the subtle surrealism of youth. A book, yes, but more importantly a powerful experience.” —Carlos Fonesca, author of Natural History and Austral "Sven's stories are not burdened by reality, as much as reality isn’t burdened with our generation. It’s hard to talk about generations, but if there is a cohesive thread that binds these forever-post-forever-inbetween people (who, instead of Proust’s Madelaines have toilet seats of rundown bars), Popović found it. These stories are permeated with melancholy and irony, they wear a tired sneer that never goes into cynicism, and they ask the following question: who is that “we” that we talk about? This is literature that dares to do what a lot of contemporary fiction shrinks away from—dream.” —Lana Bastašić, author of Catch the Rabbit

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Book SynopsisSizzling international bestseller available in English for the first time in 25 years.

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Book SynopsisFollows Samir's search for Brahim, the father whose heart was always yearning for his homeland, Lebanon.

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Book SynopsisFrom Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, New York Times bestselling author and Russia’s greatest living absurdist, comes an elaborate family drama, social satire, and burlesque of twists, coincidences, and hijinks. Kidnapped is a madcap crime spree that caroms from crisis to crisis, through lands real and imagined. It tells the tale of Sergei Sertsov, not one but two boys from Moscow with more than just a name in common, and the women who go to great lengths to protect them. The story unfurls in a whirlwind of deceit and double crossing—babies are switched at birth, documents forged, palms greased, identities assumed, deaths faked, and authorities duped. Across decades and continents, the narrative veers from a trade office in tropical Handia, to Russia as it plunges through perestroika and into post-Soviet free fall, to a mansion in opulent Montegasco at the start of the twenty-first century. With a dizzying array of characters and settings, Kidnapped is a hilarious saga of determined women triumphing over their many oppressors to save the people they love. Trade Review"The best novel of the year, in every page there’s more wit and talent than in the whole contemporary Russian prose, everyone forgive me. Written with much physiology, humor, the novel is at times scaring, always fascinating and precise from a playwright’s perspective." —Dmitry Bykov, the nationally-rewarded author of The Living Souls and The Evacuator "The scope is epic – the world of Petrushevskaya has no division between important and secondary events, main characters and the rest; each character is measured in scale of fate, the light from cosmos flowing equally though everyone <…> The new moment in this apotheosis of the “matriparchy” is that the great mother, the main hero in Petrushevskaya’s fiction, includes this time both mothers and grandmothers who save other’s children not only from death but also from the orphan-hood." —colta.ru "It seems, they (Petrushevskaya's characters) appear strange to us only. Petrushevskaya as the author completely believes in the story that we read as a funny soap-opera-type nonesense. What is more – the author is ready to feel sorry for everyone involved in this roll of human passions. This very inexorable love and tenderness towards her characters has always brought up a suspicion about some author’s secret knowledge." —syg.ma

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Book SynopsisFrom political fictionalist Alisa Ganieva: a neo-noir portrait of a legal system in which everything is broken and no one is innocent. Offended Sensibilities chronicles a series of sudden deaths that occur among officials of a provincial Russian town. The events follow a notorious blasphemy law banning forms of expression that offend the sensibilities of religious believers – a law passed after Pussy Riot’s infamous 2013 church-side protest that resulted in their arrest. With this novel, Ganieva moves beyond the Dagestani setting of her previous award-winning books, published in English by Deep Vellum: The Mountain and the Wall and Bride and Groom. In Offended Sensibilities, Ganieva seeks to address nationalism, Orthodox religiosity, sexuality, and political corruption. Suffused with a light touch and at times rollicking sense of humor, this timely, entertaining and thought-provoking novel can be read as an allegory for the current political, social, religious, and cultural climate in Russia today.

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Book SynopsisA brilliant, feminist twist on the Book of Genesis from Carmen Boullosa. What if everything they’ve told us about the Garden of Eden was wrong? Faced with what appears to be an apocryphal manuscript containing ten books and ninety-one parts, Eve decides to tell her version of the story of Genesis: she was not created from Adam’s rib, nor was she expelled for taking the apple from the serpent; the story of Abel and Cain isn't true, neither are those of the Flood and the Tower of Babel...In brilliant prose, Carmen Boullosa offers a take on the Book of Genesis that dismantles patriarchy and rebuilds our understanding of the world—from the origin of gastronomy, to the domestication of animals, to the cultivation of land and pleasure—all through the feminine gaze. Based on this exploration, at times both joyful and painful, The Book of Eve takes a tour through the stories we’ve been told since childhood, which have helped to foster (and cement) the absurd idea that woman is the companion, complement, and even accessory to man, opening the door to criminal violence against women. Boullosa refutes this entrenched, dangerous perspective in her foundational and brazen feminist novel.

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Book Synopsis"An unflinching and deeply humane masterwork by a writer of astounding talent and courage."—Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange ParadiseMysterious men are rounding up street children and enrolling them in a so-called “rehabilitation program,” designed to indoctrinate them for the military-backed regime’s imminent crackdown on its opponents. Across town, thousands of protesters encamp in a city square demanding the return of the recently deposed president.Reminiscent of recent clashes in Egypt and reflective of political movements worldwide where civilians face off against state power, Abdel Aziz deftly illustrates the universal human struggles between resisting and succumbing to an oppressive regime.Here Is A Body is a courageous and powerful depiction of the state cooptation of human bodies, the dehumanization of marginalized groups, and the use of inflammatory religious rhetoric to manipulate a narrative.Trade Review"An unflinching and deeply humane masterwork by a writer of astounding talent and courage."—Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise"Refusing silence in Egypt. . . . Here is a Body is urgent . . . sprawling . . . [with a] conscientious impulse to record."—The New York Review of Books"Dynamic and powerful writing, brilliantly translated by Jonathan Wright."—Banipal"I loved Here Is a Body. It's absolutely brilliant!"—Beth Baron, CUNY"Abdel Aziz explores the deepest aspects of what it is to be a human being: If you can’t trust your own eyes, friends, history, and memories, who—what—do you become? . . . Names and locations may be superfluous in a world of soulless governments and capitalistic opportunists, but in Here Is a Body, Abdel Aziz stirringly shows us, and demands of us: to witness, name, and remember."—World Literature Today"Haunting . . . bracing . . . This potent novel about powerful regimes and their constant rhetoric is nonetheless hopeful about powerless voices within those regimes who recognize their own manipulation. Here is a Body handles religion, politics, community, and family with provocative vitality."—Foreword Reviews"A disturbing but vital read"—Arab News"Nuanced"—The World Today, Chatham HousePRAISE FOR THE QUEUE:“The Queue...has drawn comparisons to Western classics like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Trial by Franz Kafka. It represents a new wave of dystopian and surrealist fiction from Middle Eastern writers who are grappling with the chaotic aftermath and stinging disappointments of the Arab Spring.”—The New York Times“An effective critique of authoritarianism...People...will always find a way to control other people in one way or another, should it suit them. Perhaps with the publication of The Queue, the lesson will begin to finally sink in.” —Carmen Maria Machado, NPR“Full of mysterious and troubling detail...Abdel Aziz delivers a striking portrait of an authority that claims all power while rejecting all responsibility, that forces people to hear and speak untruths and to embrace their own oppression.”—The Nation“Basma Abdel Aziz’s novel is not simply an exegesis on the state of her homeland, but a much more universal evocation of the relationships between hegemonic power and grassroots dissent. It feels both fitting and faintly tragic that she had to resort to the literature of dark fantasy to convey it.” —Toronto Globe and Mail“Although this is a novel, if you follow events in today’s Egypt, it’s not far from the truth. A brave effort.” —New York Post"The Queue was written before the military coup that pub Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in power, but it has proved prophetic...This is a study of totalitarian logic with the plainness of a Kafka parable.”—Harper's“Abdel Aziz illustrates how life in an authoritarian state is normalized not just by the government, but by the people.”—Think Progress“Offers a window into how the revolution failed...underlining, above all, the solidarities and divisions oppression creates, even as it allows for the stories of people who are otherwise often overlooked to be told...[The Queue] points to the errors in thinking that make change impossible.” —Music & Literature“Weird and wild...a Kafkaesque tale of a modern Egypt.” —BookRiot“Equal parts dystopia, satire, and allegory...A distinctly Egyptian version of its Orwellian counterpart, much more real and all the more absurd for it...The nature of truth, its official invocations, its power and its danger, lies at the heart of this work.”—Los Angeles Review of Books“[Abdel Aziz] brings her careful observations of power, pain and Egyptian society to a remarkable debut.”—Qantara“An Orwellian tale about life in a Middle Eastern country after a series of unsuccessful protests.” —Men's Journal“[A] trenchant political fantasy...Mahfouz meets Orwell, with a particularly interesting look at the lives of Egyptian women from a variety of class backgrounds." —The Forward“One of the most exciting post-Revolution novels written in Egypt.” —The New Inquiry“The sense of total repression that people feel from authoritative states is chillingly detailed...It seems hugely significant...that it’s a woman who has written this book, dared to point her finger in the eyes of authority in spite of what...are very genuine threats to her own well-being.”—Counterpunch“Insightful, multilayered.”—ArabLit“Timely.” —SF Signal“The Queue is the world we live in without letting ourselves to know it…the most chilling aspect of this novel is how normal it all feels…” —Okayafrica“[Abdel Aziz's] characters are multi-faceted...The sense of Egypt wafts through the pages with mint tea, cafes, heat and vivacious personalities.”—Arab News“A surreal version of modern-day Egypt.” —Kirkus“An arresting portrayal of totalitarian control.” —Library Journal“Captures a sense of futility and meaninglessness...Aziz ultimately suggests the worst while leaving the smallest space for hopeful interpretation, a fitting metaphor for Egypt after the Arab Spring.” —Publishers Weekly“Abdel Aziz is redefining Arabic women’s literature.” —El-Fagr“[The Queue] skillfully paints the image of an authority with the power to turn human beings into indistinguishable copies of one another. Written with satire, the novel moves between dystopia and reality—or a world that seems like reality. With her first novel, Abdel Aziz has clearly secured an important position on the map of contemporary literature in the Arab world.” —Al-Mogaz“Abdel Aziz creates a world parallel to the one in which we live, one where the characters reveal to us the nature of human beings and the choices they make in life.” —Al-Itihad

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Book SynopsisA brutal two-punch of savage noir thrillers, collected in English for the first time.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Sakutaro Hagiwara Prize and the Murasaki Shikibu PrizeCaught between two cultures, award-winning author Hiromi Ito tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering with dark humor, illuminating the bittersweet joys of being alive.The first novel to appear in English by award-winning author Hiromi Ito explores the absurdities, complexities, and challenges experienced by a woman caring for her two families: her husband and daughters in California and her aging parents in Japan. As the narrator shuttles back and forth between these two starkly different cultures, she creates a powerful and entertaining narrative about what it means to live and die in a globalized society. Ito has been described as a “shaman of poetry” because of her skill in allowing the voices of others to flow through her. Here she enriches her semi-autobiographical novel by channeling myriad voices drawn from Japanese folklore, poetry, literature, and pop culture. The result is a generic chimera—part poetry, part prose, part epic—a unique, transnational, polyvocal mode of storytelling. One throughline is a series of memories associated with the Buddhist bodhisattva Jizo, who helps to remove the “thorns” of human suffering.Trade Review"The Thorn Puller is a masterpiece... a novel about some of literature’s greatest themes—love, human connection, death, and the meaning of suffering." —Allison Fincher, Asian Review of Books"A brilliantly poetic translation . . . explored with biting humor and sharp wit."—Marissa Moss, New York Journal of Books"In Ito’s literary vision, life unfolds more as a stream of language than a series of plot points. With each phase of life she records, Ito shows how language emerges from the rituals of social reproduction that mark the coming and going of generations, from childbirth to eldercare. "—Eva Rosenfield, Chicago Review "A strong affirmation of life. Working collaboratively with the author, Jeffrey Angles, a recognized poet in both English and Japanese, has done a wonderful job translating this work. Ito is a poet of some renown... “Sometimes I dare to imagine I’m an independent woman,” says the narrator. Despite all the forces clamoring for her attention, she is, and that is both the strength and appeal of this novel."—Erik R. Lofgren, World Literature Today"Overflowing and contradictory, worn down with fatigue, yet brimming with energy, The Thorn Puller combines a confessional story of a woman dealing with family commitments in two countries with vibrant excursions into Japanese folklore and history." —Richard Medhurst, Nippon.com "With ruthless honesty and wicked humor, Ito exposes the frustration and inconvenience of being a caregiver, juxtaposing it with the sorrow of watching a loved one deteriorate." —Foreword Reviews, starred review “Poet Ito makes her English-language fiction debut with a lyrical account of a woman caught between two cultures and her family’s demands … Fans of Japanese literature will enjoy this impressionistic project." —Publishers Weekly"Ito's chameleonic prose confronts mortality, cultural conflicts, religious comforts, and waning relationships, embellished with all manner of welcoming, unfiltered, surprisingly humorous honesty about the universally quotidian, from pimple-popping to good sex."—Terry Hong, Booklist"The Thorn Puller is a beautiful work, sad and soothing all at once. It is a brave work, as Hiromi Ito shares so much of her life with readers. It carries readers into a mystical world of Japanese folklore, classical literature, and myth. At the same time, it is remarkably contemporary, reminding us all of our own frailties and strengths."—Rebecca Copeland, Kyoto Journal"A glorious, immersive read, packed with laugh-out-loud moments and the kind of reflections that anyone who has married across cultures will recognize."—Iain Maloney, Metropolis"Absurdly comedic and heartbreaking... The Thorn Puller is an enjoyable and affecting narrative about the meaning of living and aging in our globalized era."—Bonnie Nadzam, Lion's Roar "With frank, humorous prose that sinuously morphs into the musical cadence of poetry, The Thorn Puller tackles subjects like aging, death, and suffering from a transnational perspective that also illuminates the bittersweet joy of being alive." —Alyssa Pearl Fusek, Unseen Japan "With a great deal of arresting material, The Thorn Puller is a fascinating piece of work."—M.A.Orthofer, The Complete Review"The Thorn Puller is a benchmark book. Some reviews compare Hiromi Ito to Haruki Murakami and Yoko Tawada, but make no mistake, Ito is her own person, with her own style, and she sets her own standard for storytelling that will be a measure for aspiring authors." —Linda Gould, White Enso "Expansive and brilliantly crafted... I was enthralled by The Thorn Puller for its melodic, mesmerising voice, for the wisdom it imparted, and Ito’s inescapable creative genius." —Elizabeth Meehan, Litro Magazine "The sparks of humor fly as Japanese medieval narrative and Judeo-Christian culture collide in modern-day domestic disputes. Ito may have written this book in prose, but we never forget that she's a poet. There is a special music even in the complaints, scolding, arguments, phone conversations, and gossipy moments. As the narrative unfolds, Itō draws not only upon voices of her family members and others around her, she gathers in countless voices, including those of the dead. And how wonderful to find the rhythm of the Japanese reproduced so marvelously in this translation!" —Yoko Tawada, author of The Emissary "Ito's work, which has long drawn us in, reaches a crescendo here, working off a base in fractured daily life: minefields of love and hate, frailty and death, identities and languages heard and unheard, a clash of cultures and religions in the context of the day by day. And all of this she sets against deep images of Japanese lore and literature, ancient and immediately modern, prose transformed into poetry: a contemporary master at the height of her many long-honed powers." —Jerome Rothenberg, editor of the poetry anthology Technicians of the Sacred "When she was young, Hiromi Ito wrote about sex, menstruation, and childbirth. Later she wrote about child-rearing, affairs, and menopause. In The Thorn Puller she has written about parental caregiving and aging. Poets are amazing--their experiences become art, and what's more, Ito has created a completely original literary style, which no one could imitate even if they tried. The Thorn Puller is a great achievement." —Chizuko Ueno, author of The Modern Family in Japan

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Book SynopsisA woman addresses letters to an absent loved one while in the apartment opposite hers, a mysterious female figure keeps on appearing under a landscape painter's brush. Directing her reader and characters with a deftness reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, Lucie Paye dramatises the power of unconditional love and the role of the unconscious in artistic creation. From Paris to Naples, Mauritius and London, Absence traces a poignant search for redemption and truth, among the lies that destroy lives.Trade Review'In this remarkable debut, the story of a painter fixated with a ghostly female figure becomes entwined with the story of a woman seeking to connect with a long-lost son. A delicate tale of artistic obsession and creation, and a moving meditation on longing and loss.' - Angel Gurria-Quintana, Financial Times; 'Enigmatic and magnetic' - Le Matricule des Anges; 'Lucie Paye spins a romantic epic in a world where people take time - to write, to linger in a museum, to be absorbed by a detail that transforms their perception of a painting, of life. A novel that joins the eternal literary quest to penetrate the mysteries of art' - AirFrance Madame; 'In her first novel Lucie Paye sets words to the page with a fine brush... Nothing is overworked, least of all pain. Paye appreciates the half-lights, and her delicate style favours these nuanced feelings. Within these pages is a melancholy and disquiet in the 'Pessoan' sense of the word, but they are never overcast ... 'Painters, like writers, are thieves. They transfer and transport landscapes, in their dreams and in their worlds,' wrote painter Kees van Dongen. Rarely have these words seemed so true as when reading this novel, at the confluence of the two art forms. Paye's novel explores the link between the artist and their work, through the unconscious and the creative process. It also examines the relation of the viewer of a work, projecting emotions and desires onto it - and seeing in it what we want to see. Our personal perspective can distance us from the artist's own intentions. It doesn't matter, the main thing is to have felt something, to have been given access to the things of which, without art, we could never have dreamed.' - Le Figaro Litteraire

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Book SynopsisFables, memories, things he's read, things he's seen, transposed or made up, the stories gathered in Portrait Tales take the reader around the world, hopping through art history, with imaginative flair for the caustic or extravagant, yet always telling detail: from an impossible portrait of Jesus in 50 AD, which somehow brings J.L. Godard into the picture, to the 14th c. Ottoman Empire, to China's Qing Dynasty, the Italian Renaissance, French Rococo, and Louise Bourgeois's mirrors, these historiettes expound the paradoxes, the necessity, and the dangers of seeking truthfulness in art. With gentle but unmistakable irony, they highlight the intricate connexion between art and power.Trade Review'Jean Fremon is a wholly singular artist, a writer who lives in the radiant zone where poetry, philosophy and storytelling meet.' - Paul Auster; 'An antidote to our epileptic times, Jean Fremon's parlance makes the description of art into an art of description, rescued from today's focus on current affairs [...] I only need to read a few pages of Jean Fremon's work to feel comforted - and, even better, to be persuaded that the most revolutionary form of art is figurative.' - Damien Aubel, Transfuge; 'Jean Fremon loves telling stories: stories about painters, stories about paintings; and he does this with finesse and style. A learned, Proustian writer, [Fremon] handles ekphrasis - the art of describing a painting - with subtle precision, in stories leading to meditations on art.' - Le Journal des Arts; 'Jean Fremon is the ideal dinner guest: for his sparkling wit paired with a keen intelligence and sensitivity. Sprinkled with amusing or unexpected anecdotes and illuminating comparisons that span art history, each story is a picture in a rich portrait gallery. Matisse concluded tersely that "a portrait is a quarrel". The ones which Jean Fremon provides here prove him wrong, serving us up a feast with brio.' - La Croix

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Book SynopsisOne morning a librarian finds a reader who has been locked in overnight. She begins to talk to him, a one-way conversation full of sharp insight and quiet outrage. As she rails against snobbish senior colleagues, an ungrateful and ignorant public, the strictures of the Dewey Decimal System and the sinister expansionist conspiracies of the books themselves, two things shine through: her unrequited passion for a researcher named Martin, and an ardent and absolute love for the arts. A delightful divertissement for the discerning bookworm...Trade Review'We're in Anita Brookner territory here ... Sophie Divry brilliantly captures the voice of a frustrated lady librarian past her prime' Katie Law, Evening Standard. * Evening Standard *'It's funny, sad, and agreeably discursive ... There isn't a dull page or even a dull sentence ... In short, this is a very accomplished and delightful debut' Allan Massie, Scotsman. * Scotsman *

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Book SynopsisFate sends two star-crossed lovers, Sasha and Volodenka, on two separate journeys across space and time. Sasha finds herself as a young woman in a time not far from the present day. Volodenka finds himself as a young soldier in a horrific conflict at the turn of the twentieth century. Yet, despite their cosmic schism, their letters still reach one another; as he helps her to come to terms with life and she helps him to come to terms with death. Half male, half female; half exploration of the physical and the immediate, half meditation on the intangible and the infinite, The Light and the Dark is a literary feat as balanced and beautiful as it is prodigious and profound.Trade Review'[A] powerful treatment of love and the vividness of being alive' Sunday Times. * Sunday Times *'A literary masterpiece' Guardian. * Guardian *'Shishkin is the Ian McEwan of Russia' Monocle. * Monocle *

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Book SynopsisA man retires to a sun-baked Turkish town for a quiet life. What he finds is a world of suspicion, paranoia and violence. In a community of shady local officials, corrupt businessmen and a crooked police force, our narrator's life spins into chaos and criminality. The town makes a murderer of him. The question is, who did he kill?Trade ReviewIf Steinbeck had written The Godfather, it might have read like this -- DBC PIERREA deeply compelling and immersive narrative about love, desire, loneliness and landscape. Ahmet Altan is one of the foremost voices in Turkish literature and has much to say to the world -- ELIF SHAFAKAn impassioned, captivating dance, a waltz between death and desire that does not release you for even a single moment -- PHILIPPE SANDSEndgame is a complex and immensely readable book - insightful, disturbing, irritating and riveting -- ANDREA WULFExtraordinary, delicious, wise, I admire Ahmet Altan's novels * * LINN ULLMAN * *His novels and nonfiction have sold millions of copies * * THE NATIONAL * *Great author, great literature: Ahmet Altan reopens the wounds of love and history * * LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE * *

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Book Synopsis'A troubling, hammering and glorious novel' DAVID MITCHELL On the edge of the Antarctic Circle, in the years after World War One, a steamship approaches a desolate island. On board is a young man on his way to assume the post of weather observer, to live in solitude for a year at the end of the earth. But on shore he finds no trace of the man whom he has been sent to replace, just a deranged castaway who has witnessed a horror he refuses to name. The rest is woods, a deserted cabin, rocks, silence and the surrounding sea. Then night begins to fall . . .Trade ReviewA troubling, hammering and glorious novel -- DAVID MITCHELLThrillingly vivid . . . Sánchez Piñol creates a struggle for survival that is, at the same time, a meditation on humanity * * The Times * *Beguiling . . . Piñol's dark tale lingers long after the shivers running down the spine have ceased * * The Scotsman * *A creepily compelling debut from this Barcelona-based author that reads like a sinister version of a Boy's Own survival adventure * * Financial Times * *Remarkable . . . An addictive and unsettling read -- ALAN WARNERA great, creepy, tender read -- YANN MARTELSuperbly controlled and creepy . . . Akin to Lord of the Flies or Heart of Darkness rewritten as pulp-horror schlock * * The Independent on Sunday * *Astonishing . . . There is something of Edgar Allan Poe . . . In general, however, Cold Skin would appear to be an example of that rare thing: an original story which emerged, immaculately and unexpectedly, from its author's subconscious * * Times Literary Supplemant * *Brilliantly suspenseful * * Spectator * *

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Book Synopsis'Gripping . . . twists and turns like a thriller' Sunday Times 'Brave and startling' Financial Times 'Classy . . . suspenseful' The Times 'I loved everything about it' Daily Mail 'Exhilarating' Guardian Dr Eitan Green is a good man. He saves lives. Then, speeding along a deserted moonlit road in his SUV after an exhausting hospital shift, he hits someone. Seeing that the man, an African migrant, is beyond help, he flees the scene. It is a decision that changes everything. Because the dead man's wife knows what happened. And her price is not money. It is something else entirely. A gripping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire. It looks at the darkness inside all of us to ask: what would we do? What are any of us capable of?Trade ReviewGundar-Goshen's gripping second novel twists and turns like a thriller, and it is particularly impressive in its moral ambiguities Sunday Times The great overlooked read of the summer... its real engine, one that never stops thrumming, is the idea that life can change for ever in one nauseating second -- Rachel Cooke Observer The highly anticipated second novel [by Gundar-Goshen]... proves it's not every day a writer like this comes our way Guardian Waking Lions is a classy, suspenseful tale of survival where the good guys and the bad guys are harder to distinguish than you might think. The implications of Gundar-Goshen's work extend far beyond its Israeli setting and shine a penetrating light into the dark corners of our safe lives The Times A literary thriller that is used as a vehicle to explore big moral issues. I loved everything about it Daily Mail An absorbing and atmospheric tale from an exciting literary talent Tatler Tense thriller set among Israel's illegal immigrant community -- Mariella Frostrup Observer's Best Holiday Reads 2016 If there were a literary prize for nail-biting first lines, Israeli writer Ayelet Gundar-Goshen's second novel, Waking Lions, would win...brave and startling Financial Times A sophisticated, angst-filled thriller Spectator A complex and affecting moral thriller New Statesman Waking Lions shows us that there's more mystery in who we think we are than in the narrative of any crime thriller Sunday Herald Tense thriller with serious moral dimension by a critically acclaimed Israeli writer The Sunday Times Crime Club A gripping drama... tense pageturner that should appeal to fans of film noir The Lady What gives Waking Lions its edge is Gundar-Goshen's deja-vu evoking depiction of the mental bunny hops which dominate our waking hours. Her writing on the fluctuations of selfish, guilt-ridden parental love reads like an open wound, its truth just as visceral Big Issue [Ayelet Gundar-Goshen] can take a straightforward genre - the thriller - and use it to explore big moral and political questions about secrets, lies and race in modern-day Israel... we enter a new genre: Israeli noir Jewish Chronicle A gripping novel Jewish News A daring, genre-defying literary creation... [a] remarkable novel, so layered it is with meanings, perspectives and insights Thriller Books Journal Extraordinarily assured...daring Jewish Quarterly Takes real events and fictionalises them to explore themes of self-awareness, intimacy, and the human capacity for good and evil, ignorance and indifference, concealment and deception Bookanista A gripping and tense thriller Jewish Renaissance magazine One of the best crime books to cross my desk in some time Crime Review Waking Lions personalises the situation providing insights into the uncomfortable mix of guilt and anger of the host country coupled with the helplessness and fatalism of the refugees The Bay Ultimately, about humanity. All of that wrapped in a drama that is gripping enough if you don't want to think that far into what it all means... but to be honest, I defy you not to respond to the depth Bookbag [Waking Lions] is a sharp, thoughtful, challenging novel. It makes Ayelet Gundar-Goshen out as a very talented writer indeed The Writes of Woman (blog) The synopsis of Ayelet Gundar-Goshen's second novel, Waking Lions, is like the premise for a movie Elle Thinks (blog) Gundar-Goshen's fine book explores guilt and obligation in a way that left this reader enriched but very, very uncomfortable indeed Shelf Life (blog) If it affects you as it did me you will finish it feeling slightly dirty, spoiled by whatever privileges and comforts you may enjoy, and guilty, definitely guilty in your complicity in looking away from suffering Eve's Alexandria (blog) Such an informative and surprising novel Lizzy's Literary Life (blog) A cleverly-plotted novel with a strong moral and highly contemporary sociopolitical theme Annethology (blog) I couldn't stop reading it, a book I'd recommend to everyone - it's a grenade! SFR Book Club A tense tale of life at the margins of society Bookbag's Top Ten Literary Fiction Books of 2016 A gripping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama... Gripping, provocative, original, it's stayed with me more, perhaps, than any other book I read this year Foyles Top Ten Fiction Titles of 2016 Waking Lions, in a propulsive translation from Hebrew by Sondra Silverstone, yokes a crime story to thorny ethical issues in ways reminiscent of Donna Tartt and Richard Price... it's a rare book that can trouble your conscience while holding you in a fine state of suspense Wall Street Journal Anyone who loves the magic of the printed word should read Waking Lions... Gunnar Goshen has earned, and deserves, a worldwide audience, and this magnificent novel may well be the vehicle for that Bookreporter Waking Lions is a griping, suspenseful and morally devastating drama of guilt and survival, shame and desire Newsweek Vividly imagined, clever, and morally ambiguous... it's a smart and disturbing exploration of the high price of walking away, whether it be from a car accident or from one's own politically unstable homeland NPR's Fresh Air It is a literary achievement for its page-turning exploration of inconvenient empathy and culpability. Gundar-Goshen's description of pain and medicine are tender and startling, but perhaps the novel's greatest strength is the way it considers how we look at each other, the power of our gaze on strangers and on those we love. It's about seeing and being seen, about pride and power. This is a brave novel, socially aware and truly unforgettable Bookpage Immensely suspenseful... alarmingly realistic and superbly written Shelf Awareness This is a profound and moving book, sure to make all of us reassess our view of refugees in our rapidly changing world Winnipeg Free Press Exhilarating... Skillfully translated by Sondra Silverston, Waking Lions is a sophisticated and darkly ambitious novel, revealing an aspect of Israeli life rarely seen in its literature New York Times

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Book SynopsisOn the eve of the Second World War a public attorney, devastated because his Jewish lover has fled without him, runs over a young girl. He is torn by grief at the loss of his girlfriend and guilt about the accident - which is shrouded in a mystery that he attempts to unravel while the world around him collapses. In the meantime, he is watched over by a guardian angel, who whispers him warnings, and by a devil, who does the same... A Guardian Angel Recalls is a thrilling and provocative war novel, from one of the greatest Dutch authors of the twentieth century.Trade Review'Interweaves a bitter, occasionally darkly comic moral fable with an unforgettable account of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands... This should establish Hermans as a modern Dostoyevsky' - Publishers Weekly, starred review'A sly but scorching Dutch masterpiece' - Kirkus (starred review)'Praise for Hermans' novels' - ..'A shocking Dutch classic... remarkable... It takes an hour or two to read, but An Untouched House is the kind of book that stays with you for ever' - Guardian'Hermans is one of the most important European authors of the second half of the twentieth century' - Cees Nooteboom'I decided to politely read five pages. Next thing I knew, I was a hundred pages in. The novel, newly translated by David Colmer, is set in the first days of Hitler's invasion of Holland. The main character, speeding in his car to help a Jewish refugee flee the country, hits and kills a little girl and hides her body. The ensuing story is part thriller, part family novel, part metaphysical investigation, and also, unexpectedly, part comedy. I've since learnt that Hermans is considered one of the great Dutch writers of the 20th century. A Guardian Angel Recalls (Pushkin Press) will give you an idea why.' - Jonathan Franzen

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