Fiction in translation
Open Letter The Incompletes
Book SynopsisA world-spanning intellectual thriller by a contemporary Argentinian master.
£13.49
Open Letter The Teacher
Book SynopsisThe story of a Holocaust survivor who spent her life trying to disappear, based on true events.
£13.49
Archipelago Books January
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£14.39
Hermits United The Peking Opera Reform
Book Synopsis‘I had seen so many men celebrated and then disgraced, and so many men disgraced and then rehabilitated, that for a long time I kept the hope of someday being held worthy of the history of our country. The wheel had turned, and would turn. Undoubtedly, I would not be there to witness it. I recited to myself the words that men condemned to die defiantly utter on the scaffold: “In twenty years, I shall be a handsome young man again, one of the brave…”’ In this enigmatic novella, one hears of the life of a litterateur before, during, and after the Great Revolution. The Peking Opera Reform was awarded Prix Décembre in 2013. This work is translated from the French, La réforme de l’opéra de Pékin (Payot & Rivages, Paris, 2013).
£11.99
IUDICIUM Verlag GmbH Magie
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£20.70
Rixdorf Editions Papa Hamlet: 2021
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£9.99
Twisted Spoon Press Boys and Murderers: Collected Short Fiction
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£9.50
Twisted Spoon Press The Legs of Izolda Morgan: Selected Writings
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£14.25
Twisted Spoon Press Miruna: A Tale
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£10.00
Twisted Spoon Press Aberrant
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£10.45
Twisted Spoon Press Blaugast
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£11.16
World Editions The Dutch Maiden
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£11.39
University of Chicago Press Norte A Novel Emersion Emergent Village resources
Book SynopsisThree unconnected people travel north, each passing in isolation over one of the most troubled and controversial dividing lines in the world: the Mexico?US border. But in a melee of language and blood, their stories and the stories of those they meet of a young serial killer, a waitress and graphic novelist and her lover (and former professor), and an outsider artist in a mental institution gradually begin to coalesce. Daring in both its protagonists and its structure, Edmundo Paz Sold n's Norte is a fast-paced, vivid, and operatic blending of distinct voices. Together, they lay bare the darkness of the line over which these souls like so many others have passed. A prominent member of a new generation of Latin American writers, Paz Soldan stands in defiant opposition to the magical realism of the past century, instead grounding his work in political, economic, and historical realities. Norte is no exception; it is a tale of displacement and the very human costs of immigration. Shocking with its violence even as it thrills with its language, confounding rather than cowering under the clich of the murderous, drug-dealing immigrant, Norte is a disquieting, imperative work an undeniable reflection of our fragmented modern world.
£20.43
The University of Chicago Press Doña Barbara
Book SynopsisDona Barbara is a beautiful and mysterious woman - rumored to be a witch - with a ferocious power over men. When her cousin Santos Luzardo returns to the plains in order to reclaim his land and cattle, he reluctantly faces off against Dona Barbara, and their battle becomes simultaneously one of violence and seduction.Trade Review"Remarkable.... From its first pages it reveals why it made Romulo Gallegos famous.... If Senor Gallegos is one-half as good a President as he is a novelist, Venezuela is a lucky land." (New York Times) "An exciting heroic tale of the life of Venezuelan plainsmen, master and peons, ranchers and cowboys and horse thieves." (New Republic)"
£17.40
The University of Chicago Press Exemplary Tales of Love and Tales of Disillusion
Book SynopsisAt the height of Maria de Zayas' popularity in the mid-eighteenth century, the number of editions in print of her work was exceeded only by the novels of Cervantes. This book gathers a representative sample of seven stories, featuring Zayas' signature topics - gender equality and domestic violence.
£28.00
McGill-Queen's University Press Hunter with Harpoon
Book SynopsisA new English translation of an acclaimed 1970 novel reveals a stark, powerful story, an Inuit worldview, and the unique voice of Markoosie Patsauq.Trade Review"Both a pivotal work of Indigenous fiction and an effort to acknowledge and correct injustices, Hunter with Harpoon is a testament to the resilience of the Inuit people." Foreword Reviews«Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut priorise l’écrit en inuktitut pour sa valeur en soi et dans ses propres termes. Enfin, la collaboration entre Henitiuk, Mahieu et Patsauq contribue à donner une visibilité à un auteur à la langue riche et vivante et à une culture littéraire proprement inuit.» Anthropologie et Sociétés
£17.09
Columbia University Press Tales of Moonlight and Rain
Book SynopsisContains nine gothic tales that are Japan's celebrated examples of the literature of the occult. They subtly merge the world of reason with the realm of the uncanny and exemplify the period's fascination with the strange and the grotesque. They were also the inspiration for Mizoguchi Kenji's brilliant 1953 film "Ugetsu".Trade ReviewChambers's edition of Tales of Moonlight and Rain is well worthwhile... Highly Recommended. The Complete Review A shining new version of a living Japanese classic. Japan Times Japan scholars and people who just like weird, spooky stuff should enjoy this new edition of Akinari's classic. -- Brad Quinn Daily Yomiuri Chambers's new translation is a lucid addition to the handful of previous versions. -- James Lasdun's The GuardianTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Tales of Moonlight and Rain Preface Book One Shiramine The Chrysanthemum Vow Book Two The Reed-Choked House The Carp of My Dreams Book Three The Owl of the Three Jewels The Kibitsu Caldron Book Four A Serpent's Lust Book Five The Blue Hood On Poverty and Wealth Bibliography
£64.01
Columbia University Press Running Mother and Other Stories
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGuo's compassion, insight and understated style shine through, tying his characters' lives to the contemporary cultural questions with grace and skill. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Guo's impressionistic style hones in on the details of everyday life... [and] captures moments of rare beauty. -- Melissa McClements Financial Times Guo refreshingly and poignantly portrays the political reverberations of Taiwan's turbulent 20th century. -- Paul Mozur Far Eastern Economic Review A very valuable publication, and an important addition [to] Columbia's indispensable Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan series. -- Bradley Winterton Taipei TimesTable of ContentsForeword: Summer 1961 Introduction: Guo Songfen, Taiwan's "Lost" Modernist Moon Seal Wailing Moon Running Mother Clover Snow Blind Brightly Shine the Stars Tonight
£27.00
Columbia University Press The Curious Tale of Mandogis Ghost
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£60.00
Columbia University Press The Curious Tale of Mandogis Ghost
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£17.60
Columbia University Press A Room Where The StarSpangled Banner Cannot Be
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPraise for Levy Hideo:Have we failed to catch the calm but earnest tone that echoes like music through Levy Hideo's prose? With his unique literary voice, this writer clearly represents a new kind of novelist for Japanese literature. As a superior symbol of mutual understanding between two languages and two nations, this accomplishment surely rivals the work of Masao Miyoshi. -- Oe Kenzaburo Asahi Shimbun A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard opens up a new frontier in contemporary Japanese exophonic literature for readers in the West. It demystifies the linkage, dear to the Japanese, of a nation to its language. Levy Hideo's moving exploration of the multilingual, transcultural experiences of the young Ben tells the timeless tale of a boy coming of age in the context of a globalizing world, in which boundaries of language, nationality, and home are blurred. -- Faye Yuan Kleeman, University of Colorado, Boulder An engaging coming-of-age novel that resonates with Nobel Prize winner Oe Kenzaburo's A Personal Matter in its exploration of the complexities of sexual identity and the longing for cultural hybridity. Christopher D. Scott's conscientious translation evokes the grittiness of his young protagonist's quest yet also the compassion and tenderness of Levy Hideo's novel. -- Ann Sherif, author of Japan's Cold War: Media, Literature, and the Law Discovering this book is like meeting a fascinating person. Never before and never since have I encountered such a magical book. As a freshly peeled fruit, the language's flavor is raw and alive: ripe with intellect and replete with seeds. Seventeen-year-old Ben Isaac escapes from the confines of the American consulate in Yokohama where his father works and slips into the urban jungle of civilization called Tokyo. The characters written on the signs around him--some readable, some not--shine with a mysterious appeal for Ben, luring him into the city. The deeper he goes, the narrower the rooms and alleyways become, in inverse proportion to the world of the protagonist's memories, which come alive and spread outward to China, America, and the past his parents' generation lived through. Full of intense longing and pointed social critique, this is a tale that crosses many borders. -- Tawada Yoko, author of The Naked Eye though this was Levy's first novel, he already had a firm grasp of the novelist's art -- David Cozy Japan Times
£16.19
Columbia University Press River of Fire and Other Stories
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRiver of Fire and Other Stories tracks the career of one of South Korea's most consummate writers, subtly suggesting the violent undertones of life under military dictatorship and the malaise of urban life, and coming to a close with a moving meditation upon aging. The themes here are universal, yet their expression is unique to the controlled precision and delicate interior description that are so characteristic of O Chonghui's style. A highly enjoyable read. -- Janet Poole, University of Toronto A strong addition to any international fiction collection, not to be overlooked. Midwest Book Review A wonderful collection of stories... a great writer, great translators and a beautiful-looking book - it all makes for an excellent addition. Tony's Reading ListTable of ContentsThe Toy Shop Woman One Spring Day A Portrait of Magnolias River of Fire Morning Star Fireworks Lake P'aro The Release The Old Well Afterword
£17.09
Columbia University Press The Matchmaker the Apprentice and the Football
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewZhu's quirky rogue's gallery is both entertaining and revealing, as murderers ('The Football Fan') and apostates (all the rest) illuminate the volatile period that preceded contemporary China's espousal of capitalist enterprise-if not democratic reform. Publishers Weekly Zhu Wen's plotting is brilliant, and his writing is cinematic and evocative. These eight stories are both funny and complex, and offer a true insight into the life of the modern Chinese. -- Tom Zelman Star Tribune This collection of dark tales by Zhu Wen offers an unflinching social commentary on post-communist China, though it could as easily be read as that of universal human nature. -- Su Hsing Loh Asian Review of Books A fascinating, often bleakly amusing, snapshot of China's urban anomie. -- Sam Sacks The Wall Street Journal A solid, well-written collection... [that] certainly offers some interesting glimpses of life in modern China. Worthwhile. -- M.A.Orthofer The Complete Review Sly humor... suffuses these stories, which, unlike some of the lives [Zhu Wen] describes, are never dreary. -- Alison McCulloch The New York Times Book Review [The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan] will appeal to readers looking for a more vivid, more human picture of modern China... Funny and inventive. -- David Wolf Prospect Compelling and entertaining. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom Los Angeles Review of Books A hilarious, touchingly candid look at modern urban China. -- Farisa Khalid PopMatters Zhu Wen offers a quick, observant account of contemporary Chinese society. World Literature TodayTable of ContentsA Note About Chinese Names and Romanization Acknowledgments Da Ma's Way of Talking The Matchmaker The Apprentice The Football Fan Xiao Liu Mr. Hu, Are You Coming Out to Play Basketball This Afternoon? Reeducation The Wharf
£48.29
Columbia University Press The Matchmaker the Apprentice and the Football
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewZhu's quirky rogue's gallery is both entertaining and revealing, as murderers ('The Football Fan') and apostates (all the rest) illuminate the volatile period that preceded contemporary China's espousal of capitalist enterprise-if not democratic reform. Publishers Weekly Zhu Wen's plotting is brilliant, and his writing is cinematic and evocative. These eight stories are both funny and complex, and offer a true insight into the life of the modern Chinese. -- Tom Zelman Star Tribune This collection of dark tales by Zhu Wen offers an unflinching social commentary on post-communist China, though it could as easily be read as that of universal human nature. -- Su Hsing Loh Asian Review of Books A fascinating, often bleakly amusing, snapshot of China's urban anomie. -- Sam Sacks The Wall Street Journal A solid, well-written collection... [that] certainly offers some interesting glimpses of life in modern China. Worthwhile. -- M.A.Orthofer The Complete Review Sly humor... suffuses these stories, which, unlike some of the lives [Zhu Wen] describes, are never dreary. -- Alison McCulloch The New York Times Book Review [The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan] will appeal to readers looking for a more vivid, more human picture of modern China... Funny and inventive. -- David Wolf Prospect Compelling and entertaining. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom Los Angeles Review of Books A hilarious, touchingly candid look at modern urban China. -- Farisa Khalid PopMatters Zhu Wen offers a quick, observant account of contemporary Chinese society. World Literature TodayTable of ContentsA Note About Chinese Names and Romanization Acknowledgments Da Ma's Way of Talking The Matchmaker The Apprentice The Football Fan Xiao Liu Mr. Hu, Are You Coming Out to Play Basketball This Afternoon? Reeducation The Wharf
£16.19
Columbia University Press Trees Without Wind
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewElegant and spare, Trees Without Wind is a valuable, authentic work that lays bare the corruption of the Cultural Revolution. -- Alice Stephens Washington Independent Review of Books
£19.80
Columbia University Press The Lost Garden
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA beautifully written novel, from a prominent and prolific Taiwanese writer, including multiple themes of love, gender, sex, capitalism, as well as ethnic identity and Taiwan's historical and political memory. This expertly executed translation is long overdue. -- Yenna Wu, University of California, Riverside Encoded with an impressive array of tantalizing allegorical meanings, complete with a fantastical re-envisioning of Taiwan's local history and its ancestral ties with China, Li Ang's The Lost Garden has often been read as a political parable. Yet the novel boasts other arresting features as well, among them the author's daring treatment of female sexuality-taken here as the core of the relentless war between the sexes-in the mise en scene of a modish urban romance. -- Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, University of Texas at Austin This novel's dense sensuality-from its tropical flora to its frenetic lust-weaves time and space into mesmerizing patterns, like the looping paths of the title garden itself. -- Joseph Allen, author of Taipei: City of Displacements Stories of an old Chinese garden replanted with native Taiwanese species, a sultry island with a buried past, and liaisons between old money and nouveau riche hint at torrid energies and hidden traps in Taiwan's postwar past. -- Jeffrey Kinkley, author of Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political Novel An exploration of contemporary Taiwan through the lens of the past, this novel hits many poignant notes as it threads its way. Kirkus Reviews The lush, descriptive narrative immerses the reader in the humid garden of the title that sits at the core of the novel, standing for history, desire, and family. World Literature Today Ably translated... a consistently compelling read. Midwest Book Review A knowing and astute novel. -- Bradley Winterton Taipei Times Lin and Goldblatt's translation of The Lost Garden is a significant accomplishment that succeeds in presenting this masterpiece to English readers... Li's portrayal of post-World War II Taiwan is both sophisticated and penetrating. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Striking in its ambitious reach and political slant... The Lost Garden is a distinctive contribution to the literature of place, and its translation into English gives welcome access to a country and culture often obscured by its neighbours, China and Japan. -- Francesca Rhydderch Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsWhat Separates Us from China Translator's Note The Lost Garden
£63.00
Columbia University Press The Lost Garden
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA beautifully written novel, from a prominent and prolific Taiwanese writer, including multiple themes of love, gender, sex, capitalism, as well as ethnic identity and Taiwan's historical and political memory. This expertly executed translation is long overdue. -- Yenna Wu, University of California, Riverside Encoded with an impressive array of tantalizing allegorical meanings, complete with a fantastical re-envisioning of Taiwan's local history and its ancestral ties with China, Li Ang's The Lost Garden has often been read as a political parable. Yet the novel boasts other arresting features as well, among them the author's daring treatment of female sexuality-taken here as the core of the relentless war between the sexes-in the mise en scene of a modish urban romance. -- Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, University of Texas at Austin This novel's dense sensuality-from its tropical flora to its frenetic lust-weaves time and space into mesmerizing patterns, like the looping paths of the title garden itself. -- Joseph Allen, author of Taipei: City of Displacements Stories of an old Chinese garden replanted with native Taiwanese species, a sultry island with a buried past, and liaisons between old money and nouveau riche hint at torrid energies and hidden traps in Taiwan's postwar past. -- Jeffrey Kinkley, author of Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political Novel An exploration of contemporary Taiwan through the lens of the past, this novel hits many poignant notes as it threads its way. Kirkus Reviews The lush, descriptive narrative immerses the reader in the humid garden of the title that sits at the core of the novel, standing for history, desire, and family. World Literature Today Ably translated... a consistently compelling read. Midwest Book Review A knowing and astute novel. -- Bradley Winterton Taipei Times Lin and Goldblatt's translation of The Lost Garden is a significant accomplishment that succeeds in presenting this masterpiece to English readers... Li's portrayal of post-World War II Taiwan is both sophisticated and penetrating. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Striking in its ambitious reach and political slant... The Lost Garden is a distinctive contribution to the literature of place, and its translation into English gives welcome access to a country and culture often obscured by its neighbours, China and Japan. -- Francesca Rhydderch Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsWhat Separates Us from China Translator's Note The Lost Garden
£19.80
Columbia University Press Klotsvog
Book SynopsisKlotsvog is a novel about being Jewish in the Soviet Union and the historical trauma of World War II—and it’s a novel about the petty dramas and demons of one wonderfully vain woman. Maya Abramovna Klotsvog has had quite a life, and she wants you to know all about it.Trade ReviewMasterful . . . The storytelling is sumptuous throughout, and Klotsvog is also memorable for its bold grasp on the legacy of anxiety . . . Between the suffering of the past and the fear of the future, Khemlin shows how our relationship with love can be determined by our reckoning with ancestral pain. -- Yelena Moskovich * Times Literary Supplement *Maya Abramovna Klotsvog is materialistic and manipulative. She’s a kind of Soviet Becky Sharp, in a 1950s version of Vanity Fair, trying to survive in a hostile world. . . . In giving voice to this complex, wounded character, Khemlin invites us to empathize even as we judge and to better understand our own common, terrified, irrational humanity. -- Phoebe Taplin * Los Angeles Review of Books *In many ways, Khemlin has written the picaresque novel for the Soviet Era. . . . Maya Klotsvog’s life recalls a Jewish adage mentioned in the novel, 'The house is burning but the clock still keeps time.' We see a life that moves forward even while it smolders. Her survival is triumphant, as is this novel. -- Austin Sanchez-Moran * Jewish Book Council *Khemlin has created an unforgettable character and opened a window onto a world more people should know about. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *Funny and enraging, moving and deeply felt. . . . A subtle, nuanced take on one apparently selfish woman and the difficult choices she makes. * Kirkus Reviews *Klotsvog is a story of everyday darkness told by the ultimate unreliable narrator. Armed with endless justifications, Maya’s compelled by the power of what she sheds, whether it’s her Jewish heritage, her Ukrainian roots, her failed relationships, or her self-awareness. Yet part of what makes her confusing and compelling is the core of practical ambition, survivorship, and threat that lies beneath her vanity. As Maya vibrates on a frequency between ruthless self-determination and charming narcissism, Klotsvog infects its audience with a compulsion to determine which dominates. * Foreword Reviews *This singular novel is simultaneously an intimate portrait of a woman who does not see the consequences of her actions and an exploration of the corrosive effects of anti-Semitism on individuals and society. Set after World War II, it feels eerily timely. A most necessary read. -- Aviya Kushner, author of The Grammar of God and language columnist at The ForwardThrough the defensive, abject, yet utterly seductive voice of its untrustworthy narrator, Klotsvog entices us to enter the suspect schemes and shameless denials that characterize the dailiness of Soviet Jewish lives. As a novel, it is so utterly honest, it will make you cringe. -- Marianne Hirsch, author of The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the HolocaustLike some of her predecessors—Jewish writers born in small Ukrainian towns—the talented Margarita Khemlin infused the lives of her characters with grand ambitions and luminous failures. A valuable and welcome addition to the growing body of Jewish-Russian literature in English translation. -- Maxim D. Shrayer, author of A Russian Immigrant and editor of Voices of Jewish-Russian LiteratureTruly a masterpiece of Russian fiction. -- Brian Horowitz, author of Empire Jews: Jewish Nationalism and Acculturation in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century RussiaTable of ContentsForeword by Lara VapnyarTranslator’s NoteKlotsvog
£48.29
Columbia University Press Klotsvog
Book SynopsisKlotsvog is a novel about being Jewish in the Soviet Union and the historical trauma of World War II—and it’s a novel about the petty dramas and demons of one wonderfully vain woman. Maya Abramovna Klotsvog has had quite a life, and she wants you to know all about it.Trade ReviewMasterful . . . The storytelling is sumptuous throughout, and Klotsvog is also memorable for its bold grasp on the legacy of anxiety . . . Between the suffering of the past and the fear of the future, Khemlin shows how our relationship with love can be determined by our reckoning with ancestral pain. -- Yelena Moskovich * Times Literary Supplement *Maya Abramovna Klotsvog is materialistic and manipulative. She’s a kind of Soviet Becky Sharp, in a 1950s version of Vanity Fair, trying to survive in a hostile world. . . . In giving voice to this complex, wounded character, Khemlin invites us to empathize even as we judge and to better understand our own common, terrified, irrational humanity. -- Phoebe Taplin * Los Angeles Review of Books *In many ways, Khemlin has written the picaresque novel for the Soviet Era. . . . Maya Klotsvog’s life recalls a Jewish adage mentioned in the novel, 'The house is burning but the clock still keeps time.' We see a life that moves forward even while it smolders. Her survival is triumphant, as is this novel. -- Austin Sanchez-Moran * Jewish Book Council *Khemlin has created an unforgettable character and opened a window onto a world more people should know about. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *Funny and enraging, moving and deeply felt. . . . A subtle, nuanced take on one apparently selfish woman and the difficult choices she makes. * Kirkus Reviews *Klotsvog is a story of everyday darkness told by the ultimate unreliable narrator. Armed with endless justifications, Maya’s compelled by the power of what she sheds, whether it’s her Jewish heritage, her Ukrainian roots, her failed relationships, or her self-awareness. Yet part of what makes her confusing and compelling is the core of practical ambition, survivorship, and threat that lies beneath her vanity. As Maya vibrates on a frequency between ruthless self-determination and charming narcissism, Klotsvog infects its audience with a compulsion to determine which dominates. * Foreword Reviews *This singular novel is simultaneously an intimate portrait of a woman who does not see the consequences of her actions and an exploration of the corrosive effects of anti-Semitism on individuals and society. Set after World War II, it feels eerily timely. A most necessary read. -- Aviya Kushner, author of The Grammar of God and language columnist at The ForwardThrough the defensive, abject, yet utterly seductive voice of its untrustworthy narrator, Klotsvog entices us to enter the suspect schemes and shameless denials that characterize the dailiness of Soviet Jewish lives. As a novel, it is so utterly honest, it will make you cringe. -- Marianne Hirsch, author of The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the HolocaustLike some of her predecessors—Jewish writers born in small Ukrainian towns—the talented Margarita Khemlin infused the lives of her characters with grand ambitions and luminous failures. A valuable and welcome addition to the growing body of Jewish-Russian literature in English translation. -- Maxim D. Shrayer, author of A Russian Immigrant and editor of Voices of Jewish-Russian LiteratureTruly a masterpiece of Russian fiction. -- Brian Horowitz, author of Empire Jews: Jewish Nationalism and Acculturation in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century RussiaTable of ContentsForeword by Lara VapnyarTranslator’s NoteKlotsvog
£12.99
Columbia University Press City Folk and Country Folk
Book SynopsisAn unsung gem of nineteenth-century Russian literature, City Folk and Country Folk is a satire of Russia’s aristocratic and pseudo-intellectual elites in the 1860s. Sofia Khvoshchinskaya, writing under a male pseudonym, centers her story on a common-sense, hardworking noblewoman and her self-assured daughter living on their small rural estate.Trade ReviewA single man of property comes to a country village-unsettling young and older ladies. The village is in Russia, soon after the emancipation of the serfs; Ovcharov is a hypochondriac intellectual. "A comical people," he reflects at one point, and the women and the reader must agree. Admirers of Jane Austen will delight in this charming satire. -- Rachel Brownstein, The Graduate Center at CUNYTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction by Hilde Hoogenboom Notes on the Translation City Folk and Country Folk Notes
£12.34
Columbia University Press The Little Devil and Other Stories
Book SynopsisAlexei Remizov was one of the greatest writers of the Russian Symbolist movement. In the thirteen stories collected in this volume, his exceptional stylistic achievements are on full display. The Little Devil and Other Stories includes works from across Remizov’s career encompassing his thematic preoccupations and stylistic experimentation.Trade ReviewThe Little Devil and Other Stories offers a dazzling range of the little-known symbolist writer’s work. The beautiful translation by Antonina W. Bouis captures the nuances of every selection, including the tour de force—Bouis’s sensitive rendering of “Princess Mymra.” A book for fans of Remizov and readers discovering him. -- Anna Vassilieva, translator of The Road to HomeAntonina Bouis gives a generous selection of the shorter prose of Alexei Remizov, a leading exponent of modernist fiction in Russia, whose work has remained largely inaccessible to readers in English-speaking countries. The translator is to be congratulated on the clarity with which she has rendered into English the stories of this most Russian of Russian writers. -- Roger Keys, cotranslator of Sisters of the CrossIn the stories there are connivers, inseparable lovers, destiny, the will of human beings, the confusion of fate, death, long cold winters, shoemakers, the revolution, peasants, and a long suffering grandmother . . . The stories are rich, the writing is beautiful and certainly there is an audience for it. * Book Stalker *I was in awe of Remizov's boundless imagination, his elaborate set-pieces, and his dazzling imagery. -- Ian Mond * Locus Magazine *Includes fascinating reworkings of classic Russian fairy tales, as well as semi-autobiographical and historical pieces interwoven with necromancy and magical realism. * Locus Magazine, New & Notable Books Selection *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Bebka2. Petushok the Cockerel3. The Sacrifice4. The Little Devil5. The Profaner6. Princess Mymra7. Panna Maria8. The Kind Guard9. The Venerable Lis10. Martin Zadeka11. Savva Grudtsyn12. About Pyotr and Fevronia of Murom13. Grigory and Ksenia
£48.29
Columbia University Press Sisters of the Cross
Book SynopsisThe first English translation of this remarkable 1910 novel by Alexei Remizov, Sisters of the Cross is a masterpiece of early modernist fiction. It tell the story of a poor clerk who rebels against the suffering and humiliation afflicting his own life and the women he encounters in the tenement building where he lives in Petersburg.Trade ReviewA seminal novel by one of the most important of the Symbolist writers. . . . Whether you read it to get a sense of Petersburg in the pre-revolutionary era, or to savor the poeticism of Remizov’s prose, you won’t be disappointed. * Russian Life *In gorgeous prose, the novel blends together the seemingly disparate narratives of its individual characters to form a harmonious whole. The narrative sings of age-old dichotomies—rich and poor, truth and illusion, love and lust. Phrases, sentences, and even entire paragraphs occasionally resurface throughout, like motifs in a symphony of human suffering. * Foreword Reviews *Dark and beguiling; Remizov is a writer worth knowing about, and this slender volume makes a good start. * Kirkus Reviews *An assured and vivid translation by Roger Keys and Brian Murphy. . . . Sisters of the Cross freely blends the symbolic with the explicit, the arcane with the colloquial, and the spiritual with the profane, depicting life in all its irrationality and absurdity. -- Bryan Karetnyk * Times Literary Supplement *Remizov's sketches and episodes offer a vividly drawn good cross-section of Russian life at the beginning of the twentieth century. -- M.A. Orthofer * The Complete Review *Now that Sisters of the Cross is accessible in a skilled translation, those teaching undergraduate courses have the opportunity to assign what is arguably Remizov’s finest work as well as an excellent example of Russian modernist prose. . . . For Anglophone readers with an interest in Russian literature who have not yet come across Remizov, Sisters of the Cross will be a pleasing discovery. -- Barry P. Scherr * Slavic and East European Journal *In Sisters of the Cross, we get an expertly accurate translation of perhaps the only masterpiece of Russian prose before 1917 that remains unknown to Anglophone readers. Keys and Murphy capture Remizov’s teeming, intensely human post-Dostoevskian Petersburg, where the sordid, the surreal, and the spiritual are inextricable. -- Gerald Smith, University of OxfordSisters of the Cross is a tale set in Burkov’s boardinghouse—a microcosm of Petersburg and the whole of Russia—filled with minor civil servants, wronged women, and holy wanderers, accident-prone circus artistes set to conquer the heart of Europe, the indifferent rich, and a Moscow merchant, haphazard patron of the protagonist. All this buzzes and sings, expands and contracts in mesmerizing spirals—until the shock of the last line, a scream for help in an empty world. Wisely, Keys and Murphy preserve the authorial intonation, and thereby achieve simplicity and poetic resonance without losing immediate human interest among the echoes of another culture. -- Avril Pyman, University of DurhamAn English translation of Alexei Remizov’s Sisters of the Cross has long been overdue. Roger Keys and Brian Murphy successfully tackle the challenges of Remizov’s unique and quirky style, which fuses archaic and folkloric traits with a modernist flair reminiscent of surrealism. -- Adrian Wanner, Pennsylvania State UniversityRemizov reveals the way trauma recurs in the mind, body, and speech of the survivor. He exposes the absurd normalization of sexual violence in Russian society in his time. And he shows how individuals — Marakulin, Father Lis, and others — embody this societal threat. -- Fiona Bell * Los Angeles Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroductionList of Characters Sisters of the Cross
£36.50
Columbia University Press Dust and Other Stories
Book SynopsisYi T’aejun was one of twentieth-century Korea’s true masters of the short story—and a man who in 1946 stunned his contemporaries by moving to the Soviet-occupied North. Dust and Other Stories offers a selection of Yi’s stories across time and place, showcasing a superb stylist caught up in his era’s most urgent ideological and aesthetic divides.Trade ReviewTo read Janet Poole’s sensitive translation of Yi T'aejun’s Dust and Other Stories is to experience both amazed discovery and a profound sense of loss. How could such a remarkable writer have his legacy effaced in his lifetime, and his death go unrecorded? Yet while the darkness about which Yi wrote might have swallowed him whole, Janet Poole has here achieved a reclamation. Dust brings Yi back to the light. -- Susan Choi, author of My EducationReminiscent of comic naturalists like Gogol and Guy de Maupassant, Yi excelled at portraiture. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *This book of short stories captures the precarious daily life of ordinary Koreans under post-war occupation. * International Examiner *Yi T’aejun’s charming stories about everyday Koreans made him one of the country’s most beloved writers. But with the onset of World War II, Yi went from a contemplative chronicler of the world around him to a political firebrand. He defected to the North in 1946, and subsequently his books were banned from publication in South Korea (a prohibition that would last 40 years). Dust, a new collection of Yi’s short stories selected and translated by the Korean scholar Janet Poole, offers a chronological survey of his life’s work to explain how so drastic a transformation came about. -- Kyle Paoletta * Harvard Review *Translator Poole’s impressive introduction not only contextualizes Yi’s significance in the Korean canon but champions the rightful restoration of his erased stature, an unfortunate result of Yi’s 1946 Seoul-to- Pyongyang move. With Korea’s 1950 separation came the censorship of Yi’s work on both sides of the thirty-eighth parallel. . . . Loosely linked by Yi’s alter ego, writer Hyn, these stories capture precarious daily life under occupation, the challenges of liberation, and the ensuing chaos of U.S. military control. Extraordinary as both historical record and illuminating literature, Yi’s stories reveal modern Korea through the voices of young women unbroken by destitution, lonely traitors searching for companionship, aging friends reliving lost youth, jobless men dreaming of comfort, even truculent old women finally lured into literacy. * Booklist (starred review) *An excellent collection of stories and historical insights, showing us that reflecting on past events is far easier than predicting how history will unfold. Of course, it’s also, coincidentally, a rather timely publication. . . . when all Koreans are hoping for another small step towards peace on the peninsula, perhaps Yi’s story is a necessary and telling reminder of the human cost of international politics * Tony's Reading List *Yi T’aejun was among Korea’s most acclaimed short-story writers. . . . This collection, assembled and translated by University of Toronto historian Janet Poole, brings together 12 of his best short fiction, spanning his entire career, written in both the south and the north. -- Sarah Murdoch * The Toronto Star *This book is a must read in post-colonial literary criticism as well as in colonial- and Cold War-period Korean literature. * Acta Koreana *[Yi's] urge to preserve culture and bear witness to history make the thematic positioning of this short-story collection particularly salient in today’s political climate. * World Literature Today *Offers intriguing short stories that look at the effects of the colonial era and liberation on writers and teachers, as well as observations about life in North Korea in the years just after the partition. * Korean Quarterly *In its critical selection and introduction of Yi T’aejun’s short fiction, Dust stands alongside Poole’s Eastern Sentiments in bringing before an English-language readership the masterworks of this important author, here in a superb translation that does justice to the nuanced complexity of Yi’s prose. -- Christopher Hanscom, University of California, Los AngelesIn this sensitive, nuanced, and eminently readable translation, Janet Poole brings us a full spectrum of short stories by a writer whose work has been sorely underrepresented and unavailable. This volume is an absolute must-have for anyone wanting to study Korean literature or, in these urgent times, gain insight into the rifts between North and South Korea. -- Heinz Insu Fenkl, State University of New York at New PaltzThis eloquent book masterfully restores the quiet, nostalgic voices of Yi T’aejun’s fiction while also positing a connection between early North Korean literature and its colonial antecedent. Poole’s judicious selection of midcentury short stories is an important contribution to Korean literature in translation. -- Samuel Perry, Brown UniversityDust and Other Stories is an evocative collection by one of Korea’s modernist masters that explores some of twentieth-century Korea’s tortured relations: those between art and life, the individual and history, and the private and public. Poole’s deep knowledge of this era and her profound empathy for the writer breathe life into colonial Korea’s most memorable characters. -- Dafna Zur, Stanford UniversityTable of ContentsTranslator’s AcknowledgmentsTranslator’s IntroductionOmongnyŏMr. Son, of Great WealthThe Rainy SeasonThe Broker’s OfficeThe Frozen River P’aeA Tale of RabbitsThe HuntEvening SunUnconditionedBefore and After Liberation: A Writer’s NotesTiger GrandmaDustGlossary
£63.00
Columbia University Press The Man Who Couldnt Die
Book SynopsisIn the chaos of early 199s Russia, a paralyzed veteran’s wife and stepdaughter conceal the Soviet Union’s collapse from him in order to keep him—and his pension—alive, until it turns out the tough old man has other plans. Olga Slavnikova’s The Man Who Couldn’t Die is an instant classic of post-Soviet Russian literature.Trade ReviewDarkly sardonic . . . . oddly timely, for there are all sorts of understated hints about voter fraud, graft, payoffs, and the endless promises of politicians who have no intention of keeping them. It is also deftly constructed, portraying a world and a cast of characters who are caught between the orderly if drab world of old and the chaos of the 'new rich' in a putative democracy. . . . Slavnikova is a writer American readers will want to have more of. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Rather than celebrate the crumbling of walls, Slavnikova’s novel shows us all the Lenin statues still in place. It portrays a culture chained to old realities, unable to establish a new understanding of itself. This is a funhouse mirror worth looking into, especially in today’s United States with its alternative facts, unpoetic assertions, and morbid relationship with the past. -- Leeore Schnairsohn * Los Angeles Review of Books *The Man Who Couldn’t Die, lucidly translated by Marian Schwartz, will resound with American readers. Bristling with voter fraud, fake news, and the cozy top-and-tail of media moguls and politicians, Slavnikova’s book is fluent in new language of the damaged reality principle. -- Olivia Parkes * The Baffler *The Man Who Couldn’t Die is a Gogolian portrait of the Kharitonovs, a Moscow family who 'had not been handed any party favors at capitalism’s kiddie party' after the fall of the Soviet Union. -- Natasha Randall * Times Literary Supplement *The Man Who Couldn’t Die is an overlooked masterpiece of post-Soviet prose by one of contemporary Russia’s most important authors. It reveals how Slavnikova’s descriptions (and Schwartz’s English equivalent) belong alongside those of Vladimir Nabokov, Iurii Olesha, and Nikolai Gogol as truly revolutionary in Russian prose. -- Benjamin Sutcliffe, Miami UniversityThe Man Who Couldn’t Die is a wonderful depiction of a society in flux, and of the people caught up in these waves of change. * Tony's Reading List *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Mark LipovetskyThe Man Who Couldn’t Die
£12.99
Columbia University Press The Nose and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThe tales collected in The Nose and Other Stories are among the greatest achievements of world literature. They showcase Nikolai Gogol’s vivid, haunting imagination: an encounter with evil in a darkened church, a downtrodden clerk who dreams only of a new overcoat, a nose that falls off a face and reappears around town on its own.Trade Review[A] first-rate collection . . . Admirers of Gogol and his odd sensibilities will devour this excellent gathering. * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *While they deal in subjects including witchcraft, demonic influence, and madness, Gogol’s stories are as humorous as they are bizarre . . . The Nose and Other Stories is filled with ill-fated characters, strange happenings, and satirical commentary. * Foreword Reviews *Since much of Gogol’s humor depends on linguistic play, he has proven resistant to adequate translation. . . Fusso’s ear for humor makes all the difference. * New York Review of Books *Crazy, colorful, delightful, and sad, Gogol’s short stories are among the great gems of Russian literature. Susanne Fusso’s scholarly and stylish new translations bring them alive once again and make this selection a pleasure to read. -- David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of EverythingThe first major English translation of Gogol’s stories in more than twenty years, The Nose and Other Stories captures his humor and complexity brilliantly. This volume will prove to be a great read for students and Russian literature enthusiasts alike. -- Bruce Holl, Trinity University[A] really wonderful collection of Gogol’s writings, and essential for any lover of his work. * Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings *An erudite, modern translation of [Gogol’s] work that shows clearly how this strange writer became a defining influence on Russian literature and beyond. * Paperback Paris *In a move that preserves a sense of foreignness in the English translation, Fusso employs something closer to a literal translation than the more idiomatic one used by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky in their 2011 rendering of Gogol’s stories. Fusso maintains the pacing and eeriness of Gogol’s narrative flow while also stretching out some of the language . . . Such choices in translation create a subtle nod to the linguistic distance Russian readers would have experienced reading Gogol’s prose. * The Nation *Susanne Fusso does excellent work making the Russian-to-English prose accessible, readable, and unfussily poetic. * Jason Half's Blog *[Fusso's] translation captures all of Gogol’s magic. * Evilcyclist's Bookshelf *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction, by Susanne FussoNotes on the TranslationTable of Ranks1. The Lost Letter2. Viy3. The Portrait (1835 version)4. Nevsky Avenue5. Diary of a Madman6. The Carriage7. The Nose8. Rome (A Fragment)9. The OvercoatNotes
£41.73
Columbia University Press Stravaging Strange
Book SynopsisThis book presents three tales that encapsulate Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s gift for creating philosophical, satirical, and lyrical phantasmagorias. It also includes excerpts from his notebooks—aphoristic glimpses of his worldview, moods, humor, and writing methods—and reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong companion, Anna Bovshek.Trade ReviewIf H. G. Wells had been a poet, if Emily Dickinson were born a Slav, and if they had teamed up to write darkly hilarious, meandering novellas of fantastic realism, they might have equaled the bleak wit of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. Joanne Turnbull’s deft, dazzlingly inventive translation and Caryl Emerson’s lucid and moving introduction reveal the human side of this brilliant, tragically frustrated talent. -- Muireann Maguire, author of Stalin's Ghosts: Gothic Themes in Early Soviet LiteratureKrzhizhanovsky is unmatched for the droll humor with which he fictionalizes philosophers, from Kant to the imaginary Katafalaki. “Logic for children,” he wrote in his notebook; yes, children of the universe, old as we are, and still bewildered. I am so grateful for his gentle pathos in the face of great odds. -- Ange Mlinko, author of Venice: PoemsSince his rediscovery in the waning days of the Soviet Union, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky has completely overturned the canon of Russian literature. Joanne Turnbull and Nikolai Formozov’s blistering translations of these three novellas, which provoke frequent guffaws of delight and horror, show us why. -- Benjamin Paloff, author of Lost in the Shadow of the Word: Space, Time, and Freedom in Interwar Eastern EuropeIt is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century. -- Robert Chandler, The Financial TimesKrzhizhanovsky is often compared to Borges, Swift, Poe, Gogol, Kafka, and Beckett, yet his fiction relies on its own special mixture of heresy and logic...phantasmagoric. -- Natasha Randall, BookforumKrzhizhanovsky takes the reader through realms of magic and science alike. It’s like little else you’ll encounter anywhere—politically resonant fables where people and places turn malleable at a moment’s notice. -- Tobias Carroll * Words Without Borders *[A] richly rewarding read with great depths to mine for the dedicated reader. -- Axie Barclay * Seattle Book Review *Just brilliant. -- Karen Langley * Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings *Would Krzhizhanovsky have dared write something so esoteric if he expected to be published? There is an exhilarating sense that the deeper his obscurity ran, the wilder his intellectual frolics became. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *This collection of playful metaphysical tales and memoirs, by and about the Kyiv-born author Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, will delight admirers and enchant new readers. -- Muireann Maguire * Times Literary Supplement *This lively, thought-provoking new translation represents an important step in bringing [Krzhizhanovsky’s] work into being for Anglophones. -- A. J. DeBlasio * Choice Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction, by Caryl EmersonStravaging “Strange”CatastropheMaterial for a Life of Gorgis KatafalakiKrzhizhanovsky’s Notebooks and Loose-Leaf NotesAfterwordNotes
£41.73
Columbia University Press To the Stars and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThis book brings together remarkable short stories by the Russian Symbolist Fyodor Sologub that explore the lengths to which people will go to transcend the mundane. Renowned as one of late imperial Russia’s finest stylists, Sologub bridges the great nineteenth-century novel and the fin-de-siècle avant-garde.Trade ReviewSologub's prose is beautiful: limpid, clear, balanced, poetical, but with a keen sense of measure. . . . -- Dmitri Svatopolk-Mirsky, author of A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900[Sologub’s] vivid, honed, stinging style . . . combines simplicity and elegance, coldness and fire, tenderness and austerity. . . . His anguishing conceptions more and more convincingly lift the cover of enchantment that all of reality turns out to be. He is the singer of death: but he sings of death with all the tenderness of a prayer, all the ardor of passion; he speaks of death the way a passionate lover speaks of his beloved. -- Andrei Bely, author of PetersburgAlternately funny and frightening, charming and chilling, Sologub's short fiction remains curiously undervalued. Fusso's excellently selected and masterfully translated collection, accompanied by an exemplary introduction and copious notes, finally allows readers of English to appreciate the full power of Sologub's relentlessly double vision and the depth of his literary craft. -- Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Amherst College[A] richly painted world . . . The stories collected in To the Stars contain echoes of Baudelaire, Huysmans and Wilde. . . [Fusso's] English versions capture not just the morbid corporeality of Sologub’s prose, but also its radiant poetry and extravagant wordplay. -- Philip Ross Bullock * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Susanne FussoSelected Works About Sologub in EnglishNote on Transliteration and Translation Issues1. To the Stars (1896)2. Beauty (1899)3. In Captivity (1905)4. The Two Gotiks (1906)5. The Youth Linus (1906)6. In the Crowd (1907)7. Death by Advertisement (1907)8. The White Dog (1908)9. The Saddened Fiancée (1908)10. The Sixty-Seventh Day. A Novella (1908)11. The Road to Damascus (1910) (written with Anastasia Chebotarevskaya)12. The Kiss of the Unborn Child (1911)13. The Lady in Shackles. A Legend of the White Nights (1912)14. Little Fairy Tales (selection, 1898–1906)NotesPublication History of the Stories
£48.29
Columbia University Press Longing and Other Stories
Book SynopsisJun’ichirō Tanizaki is one of the most prominent Japanese writers of the twentieth century. This book presents three powerful stories of family from the first decade of Tanizaki’s career. Written in different genres, they are united by a focus on mothers and sons and a concern for Japan’s traditional culture in the face of Westernization.Trade ReviewThough Tanizaki was prolific, by now most of his major works have found their way into English. That there are still delights to be uncovered, however, is confirmed by the arrival of Longing and Other Stories . . . the stories are satisfying in themselves and additionally pleasing for their hints of an emergent mastery. -- Brad Leithauser * Wall Street Journal *Tanizaki enthralls with sharp, human(e) observations. -- Terry Hong * Booklist *A kind of master class in voice . . . The world of literature is much richer now that Longing and Other Stories is available for English readers. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *This is a beautiful and immaculate Japanese short story collection from one of Japan’s greatest writers. -- Willow Heath * Books and Bao *A fine and nicely varied little sampler of Tanizaki's early writing. -- M.A. Orthofer * Complete Review *These three early works by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki explore family bonds—the mother-son relationship in particular—using different angles and styles: dreamy and lyrical, painfully realistic, tragically fraught. In stories rendered with elegant precision by the veterans Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy, Tanizaki masterfully probes the complexities of the human heart. -- Juliet Winters Carpenter, translator of Minae Mizumura’s An I-NovelAmong the most original and insightful novelists of twentieth-century world literature, Tanizaki creates richly idiosyncratic characters embodying the paradoxes of modern life. As deftly translated by veteran Tanizaki specialists Chambers and McCarthy, his short fiction will fascinate and delight readers. -- Keiichiro Hirano, award-winning author of A ManChambers and McCarthy capture well distinctly different voices in these early Tanizaki stories exploring three modes of storytelling. Lyrical dream-memory, naturalistic fictionalized self-revelation, and ironic commentary on conventional social morality presage the author’s later writing. The afterword draws on the translators’ deep knowledge of Tanizaki’s work to enhance our understanding. -- Phyllis Lyons, translator of Tanizaki’s In Black and White: A NovelVivid yet hazy, nostalgic and soothing yet disturbing, Tanizaki’s tale of longing for the mother is made available in this beautiful translation, together with two other strikingly different “mother” narratives. This book expands and enriches the Tanizaki corpus in English. -- Tomoko Aoyama, author of Reading Food in Modern Japanese LiteratureIn all of these three very different stories we hear Tanizaki’s distinctive voice and enjoy the products of his overwrought imagination. This translation is a valuable addition to the canon. -- Lesley Downer * Times Literary Supplement *There’s a tremendous sense of loss shared by all three of the stories collected in this volume, with regret lurking close behind. Whether focusing on a dreamer wandering through a mythic landscape or a man becoming acutely aware of his own flaws, Tanizaki creates characters whose psychologies resonate and whose flaws are engaging. -- Tobias Carroll * Words Without Borders *A brilliantly efficient introduction to [Tanizaki’s] work. -- Anna Hollingsworth * Shiny New Books *Longing and Other Stories provides not only three thematically-linked stories to the canon, the afterword also adds an excellent resource of accessible scholarship and close-reading. -- Alison Fincher * Asian Review of Books *Such brilliant storytelling . . . Tanizaki’s luminous and lucid prose forces the reader into an existential dilemma faced by the author and his characters, one of children torn between the old world and the new. -- Ella Kelleher * Asia Media International *A heady accomplishment . . . Longing and Other Stories blends artful translation, gorgeous prose, and round, imperfect human people that are truly terrifying. -- Caren Gussoff Sumption * Locus Magazine *Tanizaki was a master of different styles and voices, a skill in evident display in these new translations by Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy . . . this short collection really runs the gamut of mother-son relationships, allowing these disparate stories to achieve something close to unity of theme. Authors often return to the same topic over the course of their careers but few have the breadth of talent to take such fresh approaches each time. -- Iain Maloney * Japan Times *The translators … have rendered the English seamlessly. Moreover, by taking all three stories from early in the author’s career, they give us a valuable window on to his development. They also showcase his inventiveness in tackling entirely different modes of narrative. -- Mark Robinson * Mekong Review *This is literature for the soul at its finest. * Asia Media International *Table of Contents1. Longing2. Sorrows of a Heretic3. The Story of an Unhappy MotherTranslators’ AfterwordAcknowledgments
£54.40
Indiana University Press A Jewish Refugee in New York
Book SynopsisBy depicting one woman as a Jewish refugee in the US during WWII, A Jewish Refugee in New York provides keen insight into the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place and reveals the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York.Trade ReviewMolodovsky's novel adds further dimension to our ever-growing understanding of the diverse ways postwar Jewish literature responded to the destruction of Eastern European Jewish civilization. -- Rachel Rubinstein * In Geveb A Journal of Yiddish Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Anita NorichFrom Lublin to New York: The Journal of Rivke Zilberg, A Young Jewish Refugee / A novel by Kadya Molodovsky
£52.70
Indiana University Press A Jewish Refugee in New York
Book SynopsisBy depicting one woman as a Jewish refugee in the US during WWII, A Jewish Refugee in New York provides keen insight into the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place and reveals the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York.Trade ReviewMolodovsky's novel adds further dimension to our ever-growing understanding of the diverse ways postwar Jewish literature responded to the destruction of Eastern European Jewish civilization. -- Rachel Rubinstein * In Geveb A Journal of Yiddish Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Anita NorichFrom Lublin to New York: The Journal of Rivke Zilberg, A Young Jewish Refugee / A novel by Kadya Molodovsky
£18.04
University of Washington Press One Left
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Through this story the author restores a past that has been erased by history and emphasizes the historical memory of what must never be repeated or forgotten." * Daejon Ilbo *"[An] exceptional novel… Soom captures the agonizing legacy of a dark chapter from the recent past." * Booklist *"The process of directly confronting the comfort women’s hellish experiences is truly painful. However, because the novel is not a product of the author’s imagination but in fact based on historical reality, we cannot turn our heads away. No, we must not." * Donga Ilbo *"Though it is fiction, Kim Soom’s novel is steeped in fact. One Left dignifies its subjects as an authentic memorial that makes an indelible mark on history." * Foreword Reviews *"It may seem cliché to state that a novel is necessary. But this one really is." * Asian Review of Books *"This is a painful, powerful literary indictment of the systemic subjugation of Korean comfortwomen, whose own #MeToo movement has yet to be fully reckoned with, decades after the fact." * Bookmonger *"This Korean novel dramatizes, with indelible force, the utter dehumanization of women confined to authoritarian patriarchal imprisonment." * The Arts Fuse *"[A] landmark — the first novel dedicated to depicting comfort women, a topic that invokes as much weariness as it does outrage among today’s public. Though a work of fiction, Kim Soom’s story is based on exhaustive research and testimonies given by actual comfort women...By rendering this topic in the form of a novel, Kim injects a new sense of emotional urgency in recognizing these very real and hauntingly painful experiences." * International Examiner *"[S]ynthesizes acute personal memories with painful history, straddling the line between fact and fiction. The result is a gut-wrenching narrative." * Korean Herald *"All credit then, to author, translators and publisher for bringing this important book to us." * London Korean Links *"In their even, experienced hands the translation avoids any temptation toward melodrama or obscenity, especially tricky and crucial given the raw, violent subject at hand... For English readers, one must note commensurate, masterful sensitivity to every word and nuance in the translation." * Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature (TSWL) *"[T]he first Korean novel devoted exclusively to the subject of the “comfort women.” In direct opposition to the Japanese government’s efforts to suppress the memory of its sex slave camps, Kim chooses to deploy language like a scalpel, crafting her narrative from the testimonies of dozens of Korean survivors... Granting dignity to the few living survivors is a matter of urgency, as highlighted by the fictional construct of One Left." * Ploughshares *"In this a telling of a tragic history from the perspective of one elderly former sex slave who sees herself as “the last one,” Kim revitalizes energy for this irreconcilable injustice in a new generation of readers." * Korean Quarterly *
£110.48
Yale University Press Oblomov
Book SynopsisSet at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when idleness was still looked upon by Russia's serf-owning rural gentry as a plausible and worthy goal, Ivan Goncharov's "Oblomov" follows the travails of an unlikely hero, a young aristocrat incapable of making a decision. This title presents the translation the novel.Trade Review"[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent.”—Anton Chekhov -- Anton Chekhov“Oblomov is a truly great work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long, long time. I am in rapture over Oblomov and keep rereading it.”—Leo Tolstoy -- Leo Tolstoy"Offers a fine example of sly and compassionate satire, a very rare genre indeed"—Michael Wood, London Review of Books -- London Review of Books"You can't help but be captivated by the 'rapture' that Tolstoy spoke of when reading and rereading it."—Ron Rosenblum, Slate, A Slate Best Book of 2008 -- Slate“The combination of Goncharov's edits and Schwartz’s translation left me thumbing back to the copyright page to confirm 1862, not 1962, as this translation sparkles with contemporary lyricism and humor."—Karen Vanuska, Quarterly Conversation -- Quarterly Conversation“Long before Jerry Seinfeld and Samuel Beckett, there was Ivan Goncharov, a minor government official in czarist Russia, and his classic novel about an ordinary Russian aristocrat mired in his own extraordinary inertia.”—Chris Lehman, Bookforum -- Bookforum
£27.50
Yale University Press Swanns Way
Book SynopsisThe foremost Proust scholar of our time offers a brilliantly revised and annotated edition of the first volume of the twentieth century's most acclaimed novelTrade Review“A perfect entry point to begin the journey of a lifetime . . . a more engaging version.”—Mayank Austen Soofi, Live Mint"For William C. Carter, the dean of American Proust studies, to agree to do a new edition of the Scott Moncrieff translation of Swann’s Way is a coup for readers. The new version corrects numerous thematic and lexical errors, and preserves much of Scott Moncrieff’s celebrated style. Carter’s very readable revision is wisely and discreetly annotated, and it offers as accurate a translation as possible. It is also an unmitigated delight to read."—Allan H. Pasco, Hall Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas"No one has grasped the interplay of Proust's life and work better than William Carter. He has now applied that knowledge to the iconic but flawed translation of In Search of Lost Time by Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff, correcting Scott Moncrieff's faults-- his outright errors and his idiosyncratic Victorianisms--and providing essential notes to Proust's many cultural references. The result is a volume of enormous use to both first-time readers and those who are returning to Proust for further understanding and pleasure."—Harold Augenbraum, Editor, Collected Poems of Marcel Proust"In this thoroughly revised, updated and annotated version of Swann’s Way, William C. Carter, the prominent expert of Marcel Proust’s life and work, offers American readers the most accurate and valuable rendition of Scott Moncrieff’s translation to date. When appropriate and without altering the beauty of Moncrieff’s version, Carter has modernized it, made it compatible with U.S. spelling, and perceptively restored the French original’s simplicity as well as its intended meaning. Unobtrusive and yet detailed notes in this first volume of Proust’s monumental novel will guide general readers, students, and scholars alike in appreciating a text that has captivated millions of readers worldwide for the past hundred years."—Catherine Perry, University of Notre Dame“My favorite translation of Proust is Proust’s first English translator, Scott Moncrieff, but updated and corrected and annotated by one of the greatest Proustians alive today, William C. Carter . . . of whom I’m an enormous fan. . . . Beautifully annotated . . . An invaluable resource.”—Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris
£22.00
Yale University Press The Lair
Book SynopsisNow available for the first time in English, Manea's acclaimed novel of émigrés in America, free yet imprisoned by the pastTrade Review“An intelligent, erudite, inexhaustible story-teller, in his essays as much as in his fiction, Norman Manea is above all a witness, someone who has lived to tell the tale. In [The Lair], as in all his work, we find the defining experiences of the twentieth century—the death camps, deportation, totalitarianism (both Fascism and Communism), marginalisation, deracination, exile, self-regeneration—filtered through the sensibility of one of its most astute survivors.”—Costa Bradatan, Times Literary Supplement A New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice”“[An] acclaimed novel of love, isolation and the disorientation of being submerged in another culture.”—GrantaLonglisted by Three Percent for their 2013 Best Translated Book in FictionA New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice” * New York Times *“Compelling.”—Tess Lewis, Arts Fuse -- Tess Lewis * Arts Fuse *“Great imaginative energy. . . . An elaborate, intricate, delicate narrative structure, balanced just so. . . . The Lair shows us life as a richly incomplete and unresolved experience.”—Reginald Gibbons, TriQuarterly -- Reginald Gibbons * TriQuarterly *
£10.99
W. W. Norton & Company Diary of a Superfluous Man
Book SynopsisA vivid picture of nineteenth-century Russian society, but above all the poignant story of a man whose mortality becomes the only aspect of life that he shares with his fellow man.
£10.41
University of California Press Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery
Book SynopsisA novel that tells the story of a young Muslim who, when his life is threatened, finds sanctuary in a community of Coptic monks.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Pronunciation Glossary Introduction Chapter One: The Miqaddis Bishai Chapter Two: Aunt Safiyya Chapter Three: The Outlaws Chapter Four: Al-naksa Epilogue
£22.50
Johns Hopkins University Press Gemini
Book SynopsisGemini is a novel of extraordinary proportions, intricate images, and profound thought, in which Michel Tournier tells his fascinating story with an irresistible humor.Trade ReviewAstonishing; an El Dorado of ideas. New Statesman
£24.75
MP-NCA Uni of North Carolina Ugo Foscolos Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis A Translation
Book SynopsisUgo Foscolo's Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, written between 1799 and 1815, was the first true Italian novel. Jacopo's tragic love for Teresa and his subsequent suicide recall The Sorrows of Young Werther. In addition to being an intensely political novel, this work also expresses the author's romantic conception of nature as a mirror of human emotions.
£22.46
