Fiction in translation

Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis"Despite the hordes of people packing the theatre that day, I can't remember a single face."An extended meditation on the world of Korean cinema, the blockbuster versus the independent artist, its trends and its characters and role in society, as seen through the eyes of a film enthusiast narrator and their interactions with those around them, each on their own journey.

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Book Synopsis"The bloodstains on the linoleum were impossible to remove completely."A madcap, sci-fi, found-family caper set in a world where a small group of people, known as 'monsters', have developed odd special powers or traits necessitating their voluntary, or less voluntary, incarceration while the state works out what to do with them and which builds to a wonderfully comic set-piece, charmingly told with tenderness and wry humour.

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Book Synopsis"I simply shrugged at her like a westerner, which did nothing to temper the bottled-up shame and simmering anger within me."A cranky woman of letters ends up investigating after a story submitted for a writing competition at a government sponsored magazine is pulled from publication by its author, and in doing so finds a story of her own.

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Book Synopsis"Met her again today. I finally got my hands on her, but still can't believe what she put me through all that time. Attaching her face here. K-Bot.jpg"A story of a young student's tribulations and those of the people around her which says a lot about the process of coming of age in contemporary Korean society more broadly.

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Book Synopsis"Are you referring to the 'strange and sorrowful coincidences'? That's what I call them. I don't know what you've heard, but they're no ordinary, everyday thing, just so we're clear."A young woman rumoured to be possed of a strange supernatural ability and a young man take a walk. As she tells him her story it emerges that he has a specific request of her concerning a problem of his own. A charming tale of unlikely friendship found.

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Book Synopsis"If I had to choose the richest person whom I would call a friend, I would pick Han Seung-hui."A reconnection with an old friend leads to an intriguing party invite with surprising results and, through this simple tale and the progress of a single relationship, but from separate and very different worlds, a deeper story is told of contemporary society and class.

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Book Synopsis"My name is きょうこ, Kyoko, I am Korean ... I have something important to tell you."A subtly disorienting story of reminiscences between a mother and daughter as they each in their own way struggle with the effects of the mother's encroaching dementia. As they each try to piece together the fragments of a traumatic history, through doing so they tell a wider story of Korea itself.

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Book SynopsisGrinding monotony. A diary of panic. The life of the home. A unique collaboration between Creative Writing students at UEA and students of Translation Studies at the University de Alcalá, Unmasked Writings/Historias desconfinadas is a series of five chapbooks mapping the emotional angles of the pandemic and giving voice to the long moments of introspection we all cultivated during the hardest months of this crisis. Each text is presented both in the original English and the translated Spanish.This is volume two, No Date on the Calendar / Sin fecha en el calendario.Cartoons by Willa Froy, translated by Soledad Benavente CeballosUnprecedented by Aayra Khawaja, translated by Javier Romero CastañedaWeekly Routine by Ryan Lenney, translated by Roberto Matei

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Book SynopsisStrained relations. Imposed reconnections. Fragile last missions. A unique collaboration between Creative Writing students at UEA and students of Translation Studies at the University de Alcalá, Unmasked Writings/Historias desconfinadas is a series of five chapbooks mapping the emotional angles of the pandemic and giving voice to the long moments of introspection we all cultivated during the hardest months of this crisis. Each text is presented both in the original English and the translated Spanish.This is volume three, Love From Afar/Amor a distancia.Can I Call You Back by Charlotte Brammer, translated by Silvia Sánchez TudelaIsolation Alone by Milly Barton, translated by Beatriz López Quiroga and Alumdena de Agustín PorrasThings Past Redress by Siobhan Horner, translated by Ángela Muro Arpón and Claudia Medrano González

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Book SynopsisA digital invasion, and loving a child. Life and death in the garden. Encountering another's spirit. A unique collaboration between Creative Writing students at UEA and students of Translation Studies at the University de Alcalá, Unmasked Writings/Historias desconfinadas is a series of five chapbooks mapping the emotional angles of the pandemic and giving voice to the long moments of introspection we all cultivated during the hardest months of this crisis. Each text is presented both in the original English and the translated Spanish.This is volume four, Isolated Intimacies / En la intimidad de las historias.An Evening Discourse by Soe Thet San, translated by Candelas Bayón CentiagoyaBuffet of Death by Henry Johns. translated by Julia Martínez YolbaNightwalks by Denise Kuehl, translated by Rebeca Busto Acedo and Marta Rodrigo Rodríguez

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Book SynopsisPoetic reflection on disjointed life. A diary of a village approached by pandemic. A unique collaboration between Creative Writing students at UEA and students of Translation Studies at the University de Alcalá, Unmasked Writings/Historias desconfinadas is a series of five chapbooks mapping the emotional angles of the pandemic and giving voice to the long moments of introspection we all cultivated during the hardest months of this crisis. Each text is presented both in the original English and the translated Spanish.This is volume five, Contactless/Miradas-19.After Noon by Andre Hughes, translated by Aída López MilánContactless by Christopher Perry, translated by Aída López Milán

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Book Synopsis“...it suddenly rushed out onto the road, as if chased, and leapt straight into my arms. That is how I ended up taking it home.”An enthralling selection of shorter stories in which, among many other things besides, we encounter death as a supernatural beast-presence trapped inside a box only to escape and cause mayhem in a local village; a darkly comic fable concerning a father and his son set in a world where children take on the forms of different animals as part of their 'formal education'; and a series of micro fiction 'stations', or vignettes, recounting different scenes, characters or dreams on an implied narrative journey.

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Book Synopsis“He asks what she thinks. She says it's hard to imagine the same thing he imagines. No matter how close you are, it is impossible to get into someone else's head.”Another wonderfully varied selection of shorter stories this time featuring the tribulations of a successful filmmaker, a young couple who visit a nudist beach while on holiday and gain a new perspective, a woman who has lost her husband and an insurance salesman who finds himself obsessed with the voice of a client on the phone.

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Book Synopsis“That spring, as if by agreement, we got it into our heads that something should finally happen, something should change.”A selection taken from the memoirs of a youth spent growing up in a small town - its fascinations with fads, fashions, slang and bands; its successful/disastrous explorations of personal style and taste; what's cool, what's not cool; all pitched at the question and at times painful process of working out who we are in the world.

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Book Synopsis“Rasma hated her dreams; they made her sick — she rested best when she fell into complete silence and darkness."Rasma is a taxi driver with a mysterious past, a mysterious present, an uncertain future, and a complex relationship with a 'double'. We follow her through a series of encounters personal and professional - some troubling, some comic, some profound - as she struggles with her sense of identity and belonging while trying to make ends meet.

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Book Synopsis“So it was that a happy historical coincidence came to be: sex came into my life after the fall of the Soviet Empire…"Two charged and psychologically intriguing short stories that experiment entertainingly within a contemporary gothic mode. In one, a doctor relates his dark fascination with a patient as things fall apart; in the other a sexual awakening has tragic and transgressive consequences; both, in lucid prose, speak emblematically of shifts or breakdowns of social orders more broadly.

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Book Synopsis2022 edition of the UEA MA Translation creative writing course anthology

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Book SynopsisHow can you tell who's insane when the world has gone mad? Originally translated into English by Robert Kee in 1957, the new edition includes an Introduction by Sinclair McKay and an Afterword by Chris Maloney. Who can tell exactly where the difference lies between those of us who imagine ourselves sane and those we call insane? As Dr Robert Vossmenge tries to practice psychiatry in Germany in the early 1930s, he finds himself at odds with his profession as it increasingly falls under the influence of the Nazi regime and its aim to rid German society of those it considers undesirables. He tries to stay out of trouble by keeping a low profile, but when he strikes up a friendship with a Luthern pastor, he begins to question his assumptions about what constitutes sanity in a world where the people in charge seem to be insane. Though he quietly wages a one-man campaign against the German war effort while serving as a Luftwaffe doctor, Vossmenge is ultimately forced to chose between survival and standing for his beliefs. The Sanity Inspectors is a gripping account of the challenge of trying to be a good man in an evil system. Always amusing and often frightening.--The Boston Globe Clear and fast moving, with humor that refuses to be repressed.--The Indianapolis Star Fiction.

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Book SynopsisSex, lies, and scientific history collide in 1993 Havana.It was as if we’d reached the minimum critical point of a mathematical curve. Imagine a parabola. Zero point down, at the bottom of an abyss. That’s how low we sank.The year is 1993. Cuba is at the height of the Special Period, a widespread economic crisis following the collapse of the Soviet bloc.For Julia, a mathematics lecturer who hates teaching, this is Year Zero: the lowest possible point. But a way out appears: the search for a missing document that will prove the telephone was invented in Havana, secure her reputation, and give Cuba a purpose once more. What begins as an investigation into scientific history becomes a tangle of sex, friendship, family legacies, and the intricacies of how people find ways to survive in a country at its lowest ebb.Trade ReviewEnglish PEN (Award)Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-monde (Winner)Insular Book Award (Winner)"A breezy, engaging and cunningly plotted tour of a resilient city and culture. (4 stars)" —The Arts Desk"A terrifically enjoyable read." —Irish Times"Equal parts historical novel, comedy of errors and detective story, Suárez portrays with extraordinary voluptuousity and suggestiveness one of the toughest periods of this Caribbean island." —El Mundo"An astonishing novel." —Le Figaro Littéraire"'The Name of the Rose' Cuban-style...A masterpiece." —Marie Claire"A brilliant, intense mystery." —BookBlast"A delightfully unusual detective story." —Shiny New Books"Suarez’s prose, and Christina MacSweeney’s translation, is conversational, beautifully written and manages wonderfully to evoke Havana as a city in crisis without the situation seeming hopeless." —The Sock Drawer"A magisterial and innovative demonstration of first-person narration." —Reading in Translation"Suárez’s sharp, engaging prose grows organically out of a clear and unique narrative voice." —Necessary Fiction"Quirky, poignant, and very relevant for our times." —Lucy Writers"Havana Year Zero is like a set of Russian dolls; its many layers fit together in a firm and satisfying way." —Lunate"Suárez’s kaleidoscopic take on recent Cuban history is worth a look." —Publishers Weekly"‘Havana Year Zero’, is one of those few precious books that humbly offers up sentences that you take forward into the world, sharp bifurcating sentences, dissecting sentences, that swiftly bring sense to confusion, order to chaos. " —Callum Churchill, Mr B's Emporium"Suárez applies chaos theory to Cuba." —Le Temps"A brilliant, joyful and beautiful novel." —Leer"The original plot, narrated like a mathematical conundrum, and the apocalyptic portrait of Havana in 1993 are two of the great attractions of this novel." —La Libre Belgique"With incisive and restrained language, Suárez portrays a country ravaged by the economic crisis." —Le Matin d'Algérie"Rich in the ingredients typical of the best literature: a good story, with rhythm and flow, but also sensibility, elegance, intelligence and a sense of humour." —Duas margens

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Book SynopsisByobu reveals a rich inner world, one driven by its meticulous attention to our rich outer one."a story’s existence, even if not well defined or well assigned, even if only in its formative stage, just barely latent, emits vague but urgent emanations."Byobu's every interaction trembles with possibility and faint menace. A crack in the walls of his house, marring it forever, means he must burn it down. A stoplight asks what the value of obedience is, what hopefulness it contains, and what insensible anarchy it defies. In brief episodes, aphorisms, and moments of spiritual turbulence and gentle scrutiny, reside a wealth of habits, worries, curiosities, pleasures, peculiarities, and efforts to understand.Representative of the modesty and complexity of Ida Vitale’s poetic universe, Byobu flushes the world with meaning and playfully offers another way of inhabiting the every day.Trade Review"the best book of 2021 just arrived. Search no further. All the other contenders tapped out while this masterpiece was being completed." —ABC Cultural"Vitale’s prose is drop dead gorgeous and Byobu an enchanting mix of the wise, the ruminative, and the poetic." —Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop"A fascinating glimpse into the poet’s intricate world." —Morning Star"Extraordinary... giving due attention to Vitale’s prose will bring you reassurance and optimism" —Lunate**********Praise for Ida Vitale Winner of Miguel de Cervantes Prize (2018). Named by BBC as one of the 100 most influential women of 2019. Winner of Reina Sofía Prize for Latin American Poetry (2015). ‘In Byobu , the veteran Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale gives us a holy fool for the twenty-first century. The responses of her childish everyman to the contemporary life she’s constructed for him are puzzled yet direct, wry yet fresh. A series of exquisitely rendered vignettes see him struggle, existentially alone, to make sense of park life, insomnia, or a conference roundtable. But behind the humour and pathos rumbles the entire western philosophical tradition. This complex late masterpiece, published when Vitale was 95, offers plenty of questions but – of course – no answers.’Fiona Sampson MBE FRSL‘An alchemical abecedary in which the ever-insubordinate imagination of Ida Vitale fashions delicate miniatures, origami animals, to a rebellious horology set by tourbillon. The eye as instrument coalesces words into a double play: classical forms and experimentation, contradictio in adiecto , the paradox of language paints the colored screen, biombo , byobú, between ourselves and the mystery. Odilon Redon, Queneau and Calvino meet Voltaire in the hands of master watchmaker Vitale who whispers: linear time is but an illusion.’Valerie Miles‘Byobu offers a journey both mysterious and epiphanic. Signposted by exquisite vocabulary and writing that is not simple, where each word possesses its own weight and music’Babelia‘Ida Vitale is a woman of almost legendary courage. Due to her long and intense life, she has become an exceptional witness of Latin America and its literature.’Salient Women‘Ida Vitale’s writing succeeds like few others in encountering that harmonious figure (…) hidden and woven between the hurtful protrusions of reality, among the amorphous noise of chaos.’El País

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Book SynopsisAn artist races to finish his forgery of a masterpiece while held captive in surreal, menacing splendor.José Federico Burgos is a failed painter turned forger trapped in surreal, an architectural masterpiece hidden behind high walls, an impish vagabond, and some very resourceful, very intimidating twins—Forgery pays homage to greats like Juan Rulfo and Luis Barragán, traversing late 20th Century Guadalajara with the exuberance and eccentricity of an 18th Century picaresque.Trade Review"Ave Barrera eases us into this microcosmos as strange and shocking as it is true, constructing powerful atmospheres imbued with very varied sensations, ranging from dreamlike hallucinations to terror, horror and beauty." —El País"We must pay serious attention to the work of Ave Barrera."" —Cristina Rivera Garza , author of NO ONE WILL SEE ME CRY"The plot flows in an intelligent and audacious way: It surprises by the simplicity and malice in which complex technical aspects are solved."" —Geney Beltrán Félix"A wild ride for protagonist and reader alike." —Kirkus"A fun and entertaining story of a great literary quality." —Milenio"Delightfully written, full of revelations … Such a literary discovery." —Radio 3 (RTVE)

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Book SynopsisUn juego intertextual que atraviesa la Ciudad de México con el espíritu de Juan Rulfo y Gabriela Cabezón Cámara.José Federico Burgos es un pintor frustrado devenido falsificador, atrapado en un esplendor surrealista y algo alarmante que involucra una obra maestra flamenca, un vagabundo pícaro y dos hermanos mellizos tan intimidantes como ingeniosos. Él bebe demasiado alcohol, deambula por la zona y, cada día que pasa sin lograr copiar la pintura, se acerca un poco más hacia lo que realmente sucede tras los altos muros del jardín.En homenaje a grandes como Juan Rulfo y Luis Barragán, Puertas demasiado pequeñas de Ave Barrera recorre la Guadalajara de fines del siglo XX con la exuberancia y excentricidad de una novela picaresca del siglo XVIII. Una travesura magnífica y lúdica que se adentra en asuntos como la identidad, el arte y la amistad; un retrato audaz, divertido e íntimo del México contemporáneo digno de El Bosco. The Spanish language edition of The Forgery_. A failing artist turned forger, an architectural masterpiece hidden behind high walls, an impish vagabond, and some very resourceful, very intimidating twins—Forgery pays homage to greats like Juan Rulfo and Luis Barragán, traversing late 20th Century Guadalajara with the exuberance and eccentricity of an 18th Century picaresque._An artist races to finish his forgery of a masterpiece while held captive in surreal, menacing splendor.José Federico Burgos is a failed painter turned forger trapped in surreal, an architectural masterpiece hidden behind high walls, an impish vagabond, and some very resourceful, very intimidating twins—Forgery pays homage to greats like Juan Rulfo and Luis Barragán, traversing late 20th Century Guadalajara with the exuberance and eccentricity of an 18th Century picaresque.Trade Review"Una obra acerca del poder que le otorgamos a las cosas, una discusión sobre el fondo y la forma de la obra artística, un muestrario de la conducta humana, sobre todo cuando linda con la locura." —El Economista"Ave Barrera nos introduce en un espacio silencioso y vacío, tan material como abstracto: el de la creación artística. Logra meternos con extrema naturalidad en este microcosmos tan raro y chocante como verdadero, gracias a la construcción de poderosas atmósferas —¬las que emanan de esos espacios tan singulares, con sus personajes y también con sus objetos, luces, tonos…— que desprenden muy variadas sensaciones, y que recorren un abanico que abarca desde las alucinaciones oníricas hasta el espanto y el horror y la belleza." —El País"Hay que poner mucha atención al trabajo –escrito y por escribir– de Ave Barrera"" —Cristina Rivera Garza , autora de NADIE ME VERÁ LLORAR"La trama fluye de manera inteligente y audaz: sorprende por la sencillez y malicia con que se resuelven aspectos técnicos complejos. Así, la novela atrapa por la fluidez y contundencia con que se desarrollan los hechos, el humor permanente que le imprime su narrador-personaje, y la intriga picaresca sobre los intentos de un millonario excéntrico y un pintor muerto de hambre de Guadalajara para falsificar un cuadro renacentista y así estafar a unos herederos en Europa."" —Geney Beltrán Félix"Un relato ameno, divertido y poseedor de una gran calidad literaria." —Milenio"Ave apenas empieza a volar." —Diario Xalapa"La novela me ha gustado muchísimo; Ave Barrera es capaz de crear un ambiente muy inquietante. Está deliciosamente escrita, llena de hallazgos. (…) Me ha parecido todo un descubrimiento." —Radio 3 (RTVE)Praise for Ave Barrera

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Book SynopsisThe weird, fetid, familiar discomfort of family is front and centre in these short stories of all the ways we remain a mystery to each other.The mysteries of kinship (families born into and families made) take disconcerting and familiar shapes in these refreshingly frank short stories. A family is haunted by a beast that splatters fruit against its walls every night, another undergoes a near-collision with a bus on the way home from the beach. Mothers are cold, fathers are absent—we know these moments in the abstract, but Adaui makes each as uncanny as our own lives: close but not yet understood.Trade Review"haunting….Adaui’s poetic prose elevates the poignancy of these mostly somber stories" —Publishers Weekly"A kaleidoscopic collection that takes a sharp, dark look at family and how we survive it." —Kirkus"A softly beguiling book that pulls the reader into its complexity and investigation of deeply vicious themes." —The Arts Desk"Brief, incendiary tales, flaring into being." —Irish Times"With this book Katya Adaui consolidates her position as one of the most subtle and original Peruvian writers in recent years." —El País"Adaui belongs to a resurgence of women storytellers who have restored the pleasure of reading stories that leave us suffering from their sweet intoxication." —WMagazín

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Book SynopsisWhat happens when two revolutionaries are left with nothing to believe in, not even each other?Never Did the Fire unfolds in the humdrum of everyday working class existence, making the afterlife of an agitator that of anyone living next door. For one old couple, brought together years ago in an underground cell, the revolution has ended in a small apartment, a grinding job caring for the bodies of the unwell well-to-do, and all the aches and pains that go with a long life and a long marriage. Untethered from the political action that defined them, and mourning the loss of their child, their bonds dissolve, but the consequences of their former life, and their dependence on each other, won't let them go.A literary icon in Chile and a major figure in the anti-Pinochet resistance, Diamela Eltit is at the height of her powers in this novel of breakdowns. Never Did the Fire evokes the charged air of Chile's violent past, and the burdens it carries into the present-day, when the structures we built, and the ones we succumbed to, no longer offer us any comfort or prospect of salvation.Trade Review"Never Did the Fire will be a first-rate literary experience for any reader." —El País"One of the greatest merits of Diamela Eltit’s work is the way she narrates failure from the interior of her language." —Letras Libres************Praise for Diamela Eltit Guggenheim Fellowship, 1985 Prize José Nuez Martín, 1995 for Los vigilantes Nominated to Altazor Award 2001 in the category of literary essay with Emergencias. Escritos sobre literatura, arte y política Prize Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso 2010 Nominated to Altazor Award 2011 with the novel with Impuesto a la carne Finalist in the Prize Rómulo Gallegos 2011 with Impuesto a la carne Finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2012 Altazor Award 2014 in the fiction category for Fuerzas especiales Simón Bolívar Professor at University of Cambridge (2014) National Prize for Literature (Chile), 2018 "Her novels are radical projects that dispute the public space, the national interpretation and the role of genres under authoritarian conditions. (...) Her writing has an avant-gardist’s freedom of forms, a political reaffirmation of margins, and an exploratory and rebellious edge." Julio Ortega, BOMB magazine‘One of the most brilliant literary voices in the region (…). Eltit writes furiously.’BBC Mundo

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Book SynopsisMount Everest, and all it means to royalty, explorers, imperialists, and two sherpas, perched on a cliffside, waiting for a man on the ledge below to move.A British climber has fallen from a cliffside in Nepal, and lies inert on a ledge below. Two sherpas kneel at the edge, stand, exchange the odd word, waiting for him to move, to make a decision, to descend. In those minutes, the world opens up to Kathmandu, a sun-bleached beach town on another continent, and the pages of Julius Caesar. Mountaineering, colonialism, obligation—in Sebastián Martínez Daniell's effortless prose each breath is crystalline, and the whole world is visible from here.Trade Review"Daniell reveals a fascinating universe in scintillating prose, precisely translated by Croft….It’s a stunner." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"An ambitiously inventive, profoundly intelligent trek through highly personal experiences of lingering imperialism." —Kirkus, starred review"Brilliantly tangential...this book becomes a viewpoint from which we can see the whole world." —The Observer"Daniell uses a neat cast of characters, a sprinkling of sub-tales and a touch of comedy to create a story far broader than the reader might expect, an acerbic dissection of a tired world order and personal history of two very different individuals." —Lunate"Two Sherpas is sheer brilliance, a book that had me hooked in anticipation from its opening pages. It’s a wake up call." —Word by Word**********Praise for Sebastián Martínez Daniell"Daniell reveals a fascinating universe in scintillating prose, precisely translated by Croft….It’s a stunner." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"An ambitiously inventive, profoundly intelligent trek through highly personal experiences of lingering imperialism." —Kirkus, starred review"Brilliantly tangential...this book becomes a viewpoint from which we can see the whole world." —The Observer

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Book SynopsisBrutal and overwhelming, Confession wrestles with the legacy of Argentina’s past and the passions of one young girl.When Mirta López looks out the dining room window, she sees a slim, self-possessed older boy on his way back from school. It’s 1941 in provincial Argentina, and the sight has awakened in her the first uncertain, unnerving vibrations of desire. Naturally, she confesses. But she cannot stop herself.Over thirty years later, in 1977, that same young man is a general, leading the ruling military junta of a country, and a cell of young revolutionaries plot an audacious attack on him, and the regime.Writing from the present into the past, Martín Kohan maps the contours of Argentina’s 20th century, but finds his centre in one woman – devout, headstrong, lit up with ideas of right and wrong – not the grand historical figures of her lifetime’s omnipresent, brutalizing history. And yet, there is great beauty in Confession , its decades and landscapes, and the legacy of love and guilt, pieties religious and civic, that play out in one family and against the background of dictatorship’s traumas.Trade Review"An expertly structured, morally complicated, and surprisingly timely blend of fact and fiction." —Kirkus"Beguiling." —Publishers Weekly"A wonderful book."" —Fiona Mozley , author of ELMET and HOT STEW"The prose of Argentinian writer Martín Kohan, above all in the most recent books, conveys a clinical precision and cool distance. From one novel to another, however, the effects are different."" —Edmundo Paz Soldán , author of TURING'S DELIRIUM and NORTE"Confession delves into Kohan’s poetics in an agile and determined manner, preserving his affectionate distance from the intimate affairs of his characters, as well as his freedom vis-à-vis militant writing" —Latin American Literature Today"A must-read." —Morning Star"A stupendous novel." —El País"One of Argentina’s greatest living writers." —La gaceta literaria"A fantastic writer whose texts question established ideas." —Letras Libres"Kohan works with tradition and with the Borgesian idea of the traitor and the hero. He chooses three situations and explores them minutely." —La Nación"Kohan’s novel understands and helps to understand; it delimits, records, pursues and reaches the most slippery crevices of history." —Letralia"The end result is a fluid, disturbing novel, one that neither resorts to low blows nor commonplaces when it comes to the military regime and the disappeared, but puts its finger on that concept that still causes unease when spoken aloud: civilian complicity." —La primera piedra"Hypnotic prose. A writer who owns a literary universe and a style all his own; a writer of unquestionable solidity." —El periódico"Martín Kohan is becoming an obligatory name in Argentinian literature." —Pagina/12"With a gift for totally natural dialogue, Kohan writes with an elegant lightness, paying great attention to rhythm. His specialty is the measured, exact word. Impeccable" —El Mundo************Praise for Martín Kohan"The worthy successor of Borges, Sábato and Bioy Casares." —Le Devoir"An expertly structured, morally complicated, and surprisingly timely blend of fact and fiction." —Kirkus"Beguiling." —Publishers Weekly"Hypnotic prose. A writer who owns a literary universe and a style all his own; a writer of unquestionable solidity." —El periódico"A must-read." —Morning Star"A stupendous novel." —El País"One of Argentina’s greatest living writers." —La gaceta literaria"A fantastic writer whose texts question established ideas." —Letras Libres"Kohan works with tradition and with the Borgesian idea of the traitor and the hero. He chooses three situations and explores them minutely." —La Nación"Kohan’s novel understands and helps to understand; it delimits, records, pursues and reaches the most slippery crevices of history." —Letralia"The end result is a fluid, disturbing novel, one that neither resorts to low blows nor commonplaces when it comes to the military regime and the disappeared, but puts its finger on that concept that still causes unease when spoken aloud: civilian complicity." —La primera piedra"Martín Kohan is becoming an obligatory name in Argentinian literature." —Pagina/12************

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Book SynopsisAn epistolary, fictional account of one woman moving towards happiness in the black community of Colombia?s Pacific coast.After a long absence, Vel has come home to Chocó ? to the Afro-Colombian community, to her family, to the sea. This is where the Pacific meets the Caribbean, where she?s establishing herself anew. And the record she keeps is a series of letters to a friend, clarifying for herself where she stands, as she describes that homecoming to another. Vel works to build a literary centre, writing career, and festival with and for the people there. But her return to Chocó is also a claim-staking of her decision to pursue happiness now; an account of her immersion in the towns and rivers and forests she came from; and a redefinition of her relationship to sex and love in real time. And Tidal Waters is a vision of how creating something (for your community, for yourself) is a way of reading and writing your way into a known place and a new self.

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Book SynopsisPreviously unpublished stories by the bestselling author of Alone in Berlin. In September 1925, Hans Fallada handed himself in to the police. Not yet a bestselling author, Fallada had repeatedly embezzled funds to finance his alcohol and morphine addictions. Desperate to escape his demons, he sought a prison cell. Now court documents from Fallada’s imprisonment have recently been uncovered, and with them a never-before-seen collection of short stories. Through complex characters at odds with society, Fallada explored the lived the lives of women and male outsiders. These stories reveal to a new generation of readers Fallada’s immense gifts and his intense inner battles.Trade Review‘Fallada is extraordinary … These stories of love and hate, sadism and masochism, are compelling in isolation. But what makes them remarkable is that they prefigure his final works.’ -- Geordie Williamson * The Saturday Paper *‘Psychologically acute.’ * i newspaper *‘A precious treat for Fallada fans: Lilly and her Slave tells a MeToo story from 1920s Berlin.’ -- Marc Reichwein * Literarische Welt *‘These tales from the estate of Hans Fallada are a gem for fans, as are the circumstances of their discovery.’ * Welt am Sonntag *

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE Do you ever feel like you’re not speaking the same language? Swedish immigrant Kristin won’t talk about her pregnancy. Her Brazilian-born Scottish boyfriend Ciaran won’t speak English at all; he is trying to immerse himself in a språkbad or ‘language bath’, covering their Edinburgh apartment in post-it notes to teach himself Swedish. As this young couple is forced to confront the thing that they are both avoiding, they must reckon with the bigger questions of the world outside, and their places in it.Trade Review‘A novel brimming with ideas and promise.’ -- Lucy Knight * The Sunday Times *‘One of the gentlest and most patient, humane, and quirky things I have read in a long time ... Hugely original.’ -- Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy‘Unique and playful.’ * Foyles *‘I really really loved How We Are Translated ... so brilliant on language, communication, distance, the ways we speak past/around/beyond each other.’ -- Nell Stevens‘How We Are Translated is the most contemporary of novels; set somehow both in the now and in the distant past; in one city that could be many cities, and in two different languages, though also in defiance of language, with as much focus on the silences between words as the words themselves. It’s a novel that maintains just the right balance of oddity, intimacy, and illumination. It’s a novel that anyone interested in the future of the English novel needs to read!’ -- Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither‘With echoes of Ali Smith and George Saunders, How We Are Translated explores themes of identity and intimacy with admirable sensitivity and wit.’ -- Julianne Pachico, author of The Anthill‘How We Are Translated is a layered work about home, language, barriers, and belonging. Johannesson’s unusual and refreshing prose crackles with truth — burning along beautifully.’ -- Alice Bishop, author of A Constant Hum‘Our bodies and languages are made new to us again through Jessica Gaitán Johannesson’s wild and playful novel. Laying bare the absurdity of the idea of a common tongue, she takes us on an adventure through private and public languages — those which ebb and flow between lovers or arise out of necessity in a workplace obsessed with authenticity. How We Are Translated gets at the heart of how language holds us, tears at us, and can bring us close in spite of, or because of, its inevitable imperfections.’ -- Saskia Vogel, author of Permission‘Jessica Gaitán Johannesson has a very fresh voice that packs everything with so much new meaning that you won’t think about language or communication the same way again … I’ve never read anything quite like How We Are Translated before, but I very much hope that Gaitán Johannesson will follow her debut with more of the same.’ * Shiny New Books *‘An incredibly creative, entertaining, and thought-provoking novel … fizzing with ideas, wry humour, and linguistic contradictions.’ -- Nic Bottomley * Bath Life *‘A novel that you might end up reading in one sitting … this is writing with breathing space, with room for the ever-shifting spectrum of life.’ -- Saskia Hayward and Matthew Leigh * Bath Magazine *‘Eccentric, but likeable ... In Gaitán Johannesson’s novel, Swedish words and phrases appear in one column with their English translation in another ... The innovation is effective. The way a foreign word looks, together with its literal translation, seems to tell us something specific, not only about another culture but about humanity generally.’ -- Miranda France * TLS *‘This is an excellent book for those who love Edinburgh, the oddities of language, and other people’s drama. One of the best books that I have read recently. It is full of moments which would be pivotal in anyone’s life and they are described with the kind of dry self-deprecation I can't help but adore.’ -- Cecilie * The Portobello Bookshop *‘Johannesson's tender and madcap debut explores themes of family, history, and language [with] a spiritedness reminiscent of the work of Elizabeth McKenzie … a delightful romp.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘Concepts of ethnicity, intimacy, and identity are woven into Jessica Gaitán Johannesson’s quirky, contemplative novel … Poignant, perceptive, and clever, How We Are Translated is a novel about the human beings who exist beyond ideals of diversity, and about the emotional implications of language.’ * Foreword, starred review *‘Well-written.’ -- Alastair Mabbott * The Herald *‘How We Are Translated is a gentle and meditative look at relationships—romantic, cultural, familial. Gaitán Johannesson creates a soft world populated by simultaneously mundane and quirky characters. This is a tender story handled with soft, deft hands.’ -- Laura Graveline * Brazos Bookstore *‘Fans of Anne Carson and Maggie Nelson will like How We Are Translated. This is a beautiful book, both inside and out … a meditation on self: how a self is both lost and found in language and translation, and how a self is both lost and found in the body and all the body, especially the female body, can and can’t do.’ -- Samantha * Bear Pond Books *

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE A joyful family saga about free will, forgiveness, and how we are all interconnected. In October 1989, triplet babies are born into chaos in a Swedish hospital. Over two decades later, the siblings are scattered around the world, barely speaking. Sebastian is in London working for a mysterious scientific organisation and falling in love. Clara has travelled to Easter Island to join a doomsday cult. And the third triplet, Matilda, is in Sweden, practising being a stepmother. Then something happens that forces them to reunite. Their mother calls with worrying news: their father has gone missing and she has something to tell them, a twenty-five-year secret that will change all their lives … 'Hilarious' CLAIRE LOMBARDO 'Playfully experimental' THE GUARDIAN 'Magnificent' THE TELEGRAPHTrade Review‘A wild 529-page trip … magnificent.’ -- Amber Medland * The Telegraph *‘Playfully experimental … enjoyable … funny.’ -- Suzi Feay * The Guardian *‘This is a prismatic, hilarious, and deeply intelligent novel overflowing with wisdom about the complexities of being alive — I read it ravenously, and with pen in hand.’ -- Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had‘With gorgeous prose and a wry wit, Amanda Svensson offers readers at once a novel of family, love affairs, the search for meaning, of grief and of sibling rivalry — of triplets with a twist.’ -- Donna Freitas, author of The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano‘A brilliant vision of family and modern life, both as we know it and as it can only be imagined by one of Sweden’s finest writers — as translated by one of our finest translators, Nichola Smalley. A playful, tender, and funny gem.’ -- Saskia Vogel, author of Permission‘Big, playful, and very strange.’ -- Gayle Lazda * London Review Bookshop *‘In her new novel Amanda Svensson portrays with both sincerity and humour, how there is a system to the madness and a madness in the system. It is a winding work that establishes her among the great storytellers with a totally unique voice.’ -- Jury statement from the Per Olov Enquist Literary Prize‘[W]ith a devoted passion for narration and a steadfast belief in the intrinsic value of fiction, Amanda Svensson portrays triplets Sebastian, Clara, and Matilda. The story of their lives in different corners of the world evolves into a supreme literary work, which expands the reader’s senses in the face of the possibilities of reality, just by being so unabashedly fictitious.’ -- Jury statement from the Tidningen Vi’s Literary Prize‘[A] novel about serious contemporary issues such as climate and fear, but that also makes you smile.’ -- Jury statement from the Svenska Dagbladet Literary Prize‘A verbose, kooky, surrealistic, and simply wonderful novel with major existential questions.’ * Svenska Dagbladet *‘A classic family saga, which recalls Thomas Mann and Zadie Smith, but also has the intricacy and ambition of the intellectual mystery à la Marisha Pessl or Donna Tartt. Svensson pours art and science, literature, and politics into the brew, until she has achieved an entertaining bildungsroman that is far removed from the egocentric autofiction that is said to be dominating contemporary literature … Svensson carries out her almost perilously demanding literary project with a lightness that is impressive.’ * Expressen *‘There is such an enormous amount of energy and vitality in Amanda Svensson’s prose, an energy that is instantly recognisable from her previous books. There is not a single stale sentence, not a single dull repetition or artificial response. She seamlessly moves between the novel’s different moods and she can be insanely funny without losing any of the fundamental sincerity.’ * Östersunds-Posten *‘A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding is composed like a rich kind of symphony, with a diverse set of voices and places that together move from cacophony to harmony. This is a book that, to use the author’s own words, makes you feel alive.’ * Göteborgs-Posten *‘The Freudian term unheimlich appears early in the novel, pre-empting the doubles and doublings, shadows and ghosts, recurring images and disappearing persons that haunt the book. It is oddly comforting that against such an uncanny backdrop the banalities and joys of the world continue — characters still fall in love, quarrel, sit in discomfort and make amends. The beauty of Svensson’s work is in this precise balance: she maintains compelling emotional resonance amid a truly wild and sprawling world. … A truly delightful study of the contours of family, the limits of free will, and the end of the world as we know it, A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding is expansive and expanding.’ -- Leah Jing McIntosh * The Saturday Paper *‘Chaos and the search for order duel in Svensson’s intelligent debut.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘In Amanda Svensson’s novel A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding, a shocking secret forces three siblings to reevaluate their places in their family and the world … A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding is a dynamic novel about methods of coping in a world where nothing is certain.’ * Foreword Reviews *‘[A System So Magnificent] is joyous and funny.’ * ANZ LitLovers *‘Svensson writes beautifully... it's a pleasure simply to follow along.’ * The Complete Review *‘All families are dysfunctional, but some raise it to an art form, as Amanda Svensson so deftly outlines in her admirable novel A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding … While all of her main characters are deeply — really deeply — flawed, Amanda Svensson has you rooting for them through their highs and lows.’ * Book Page *‘At the heart of Svensson’s tumultuous epic lies a perennial query: Are our lives simply random intersections of space and time, or are they part of a grand master plan of the universe, where we are all but cosmic marionettes and nothing is coincidence?’ * The New York Times *‘Brilliant … a sprawling family epic exploring complex questions about the power of one’s mind and the impact of one’s choices … This sharp and expansive novel takes up love, loss, truth, and beauty and will challenge readers to decide if they agree when Matilda asserts: “We're all living in different worlds. It's up to each of us to decide what form that world takes”.’ * Shelf Awareness *‘Amanda Svensson’s raucous, sprawling debut takes on the enigmas of our origins, riddles of human consciousness and animal cognition, doomsday cults, and the most bedevilling of mysteries — the minds and choices of our closest intimates.' -- Jury statement from the International Booker Prize 2023

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Book SynopsisA chilling allegorical novella by the masterful Colombian writer who poses timeless questions about violence and subjugation, power and freedom.Imagining the darkest of power imbalances in a dystopian world, in which the most vulnerable are held captive and wherein survival depends on the ability to remain anonymous, identity is a threat. Those who have everything would revel in the humiliation of others and identification brings with it the ultimate punishment. When hiding is no longer possible, the only choice may be to rebel.More frightening than the dystopia of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and with elements of the surreal to rival Kafka's Metamorphosis, Rosero's hypnotic tale builds in tension to deliver a crippling emotional punch.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR THE ARMIES:'This quietly devastating novel speaks gently but strikes deep ... Perfectly pitched and paced, Anne McLean's English version does it due honour' Independent. 'An important and powerful book' Janine di Giovanni, The Times. 'A timeless epic' * El Pais *

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Book Synopsis'Great is the Soviet Union, vast its territories, warm its entrails...' 1959. Whispers of dissidence are spreading in the U.S.S.R. Texts published in the West are circulating in samizdat, tormenting the secret police. Lieutenant Ivanov of the K.G.B, under pressure from his enraged superiors, is handed the case.Leads emerge, flare up, vanish. Years pass. 'Abram Tertz' publishes another short story, a new novel, mocking the competent authority. Shielded by his fierce wife Maria Vasilyevna Rozanova, Andrei Sinyavsky, one of the Soviet Union's most renowned and brilliant figures of resistance, waits in his wired apartment, drinking, sure his days as a free man are numbered.But as Rozanova continues to taunt Ivanov with her cheerful intransigence, a crisis of confidence opens up within the regime's resolve, causing the young lieutenant to wonder, 'are we actually as competent as we claim to be?''With the unique insight afforded by his mother, Rozanova, Gran pays remarkable homage to Andrei Sinyavsky, his father, reimagining the six long years leading up to his infamous arrest, trial and conviction. Framed within a riveting cat-and-mouse dynamic; irreverent and darkly comic, Gran balances a satirical lightness with deeper meditations on dogma and freedom of expression, state control and creative resistance, the ghosts of which, at a time when political criticism is being crushed once again, are as present today as ever before.Trade Review'A masterpiece' * Le Monde *'A funny and touching novel' * Temps *'Iegor Gran recounts this paper chase with a sarcastic tone, ridiculing the actions and words of a regime that promises happiness, but offers terror ... A remarkable portrait of the Soviet Union' * Elle *

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Book SynopsisI lost him. I let go of his hand to do up my shoelaces and I lost him ... As a blizzard rages in the vast, white expanse of the Alaskan wilderness, a woman walks alone with a child. No-one sees her as she stops to tie her laces. Seconds later, the child has vanished. In the snow, every minute counts. Soon, each of the very few neighbours joins the search to find the boy before it's too late. As their hunt intensifies, connections are made, their secrets unearthed, and it seems that freezing to death is not the only danger they fear in this isolated edge of the world.Trade ReviewThe Alaskan wilds are the setting for Marie Vingtras's compelling Blizzard ... a chilling, tense read * Observer *A chilly tale marked by twisted fates . . . the book commands the reader's attention until the end * Kirkus Reviews *What is so striking about Blizzard . . . is Vingtras' immediate and formidable linguistic precision * Le Monde *A perfect structure. . . tension to the very end * Express *A dark but luminous novel * Libération *Standing proudly above everything else is the state of Alaska, majestically menacing in all its snowy glory. It's so well drawn as to induce shivers as you read ... Whatever your reading preferences, I'd recommend adding Marie Vingtras to list of your authors to watch. * Crime Fiction Lover *A rollercoaster read, wrap up warm as Blizzard will chill and thrill ... I could not put this down * Writing.ie *Thrilling and intriguing right from the very first page to the very last. I loved it. -- Michelle TeahanPacy and compelling ... the characters so intriguing and full of secrets ... I was with them every step! -- Jessica Irena Smith

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Book SynopsisIn post-Communist Romania, on the border with Transylvania, the sleepy little town of B. is losing its young people to the West. A young painter returned from Paris and her eccentric great-aunt seem unconcerned with the decline of the town, until a mutilated corpse is found in the family crypt of Prince Vlad the Impaler, better known as Dracula. As the world’s attention turns to B., the mayor and his son take advantage and turn the town into a vampire-inspired theme park. Tourists flock, but beneath the surface ancient horrors live on. Dracula Park by Dana Grigorcea is a breathtaking, atmospheric tale of revenge, extremism and the longing for a strong leader, for a strict, cruel judge - like Dracula.Trade Review‘An incredible writer.’‘A dreamy and rock-hard horror story.’ * Frankfurter Rundschau *‘An artistic Dracula story, an artist novel, a farce, and it’s all told with great eloquence.’ * SWR 2 *‘Topical and worth reading far beyond Romania.’ * SRF 2 *‘As dizzying as it is poetic and entertaining.’ * Die Presse *

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