Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the most detailed and wide-ranging comparative study to date of how European literatures written in less well known languages try, through translation, to reach the wider world. Through case studies of over thirteen different national contexts as diverse as Bosnian, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Serbian, it explores patterns and contrasts in approaches to supply-driven translation, cultural diplomacy, institutional support and international gate-keeping, while examining the particular fates of poetry, women’s writing and genre fiction, and the opportunities arising from trans-medial circulation, self-translation and translingualism and a more radical critique of power balances in the translation and publishing industries. Its comparative approach challenges both the narratives of uniqueness that arise from discrete national approaches and the narrative of tragic marginalization that prevails in world literary approaches. Instead, it uses an interdisciplinary mix of literary, historical, sociological, gender- and translation-studies approaches to illuminate the often pioneering, innovative thinking and strategies that mark these literatures as they take on the inequalities of globalization.Trade ReviewReviews'This volume is a welcome addition to the fast-growing literature on translation studies, and on world literature.'Theo D'haen, Emeritus Professor at Leuven University and Leiden University ‘Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations covers a lot of ground and one leaves it with a heightened respect for translators and for the multitude of European literatures.’ Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Translation StudiesTable of ContentsRajendra Chitnis and Jakob Stougaard-NielsenIntroduction1. David NorrisThe Global Presentation of Small National Literatures: South Slavs in Literary History and Theory2. Zoran MilutinovićTranslators as Ambassadors and Gatekeepers: The Case of South Slav Literature3. Ondřej VimrSupply-Driven Translation: Compensating for Lack of Demand4. Rajendra ChitnisLiterature as Cultural Diplomacy: Czech Literature in Britain, 1918-385. Irvin WoltersExporting the Canon: The Mixed Experience of the Dutch Bibliotheca Neerlandica6. Olivia HellewellCreative Autonomy and Institutional Support in Contemporary Slovene Literature7. Richard MansellStrategies for Success?: Evaluating the Rise of Catalan Literature8. Gunilla Hermansson and Yvonne LefflerGender, Genre and Nation: Nineteenth-Century Swedish Women Writers on Export9. Paschalis NikolaouTranslating as Re-telling: On the English Proliferation of C.P. Cavafy10. Jakob Stougaard-NielsenCriminal Peripheries: The Globalization of Scandinavian Crime Fiction and its Agents11. Paulina DrewniakLiterary Translation and Digital Culture: The Transmedial Breakthrough of Poland’s Witcher12. Josianne MamoTowards a Multilingual Poetics: Self-Translation, Translingualism and Maltese Literature13. Rhian AtkinDoes Size Matter? Questioning Methods for the Study of ‘Small’Svend Erik LarsenCoda: When Small is Big and Big is Small

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Book SynopsisEmilia Pardo Bazán, the most prolific and influential Spanish female writer of the nineteenth century, was a very controversial figure, vilified for her embracement of naturalism and her robust feminist stance.When Insolación was published in 1889 it provoked a litany of negative comments and personal insults. This subtle, psychological novel, drawing on many aspects of its author's personal life, deals with the relationship between Asís, a respectable Galician widow, and Pacheco, a feckless womaniser from Andalucía. Although they scarcely know each other, Asís accepts Pacheco's invitation to visit the San Isidro Fair, where a heady cocktail of sun, alcohol and revelry causes her to behave in an uncharacteristic manner.Insolación explores the conflict between Asís's self-recrimination and concern for the 'qué dirán' and her nascent sexuality. Finally, despite her determination to banish Pacheco from her mind and her intention to go back to Galicia, the couple sleep together and decide to marry.The perceived promiscuity of this work of fiction scandalised the reading public as well as many leading critics. Pereda considered Asís's behaviour reprehensible and Clarín dismissed the novel as a pseudo-erotic boutade. Nowadays, Insolación is recognised as an important novel.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Foreword2. Emilia Pardo Bazán3. The social and political background4. The intellectual and literary context: romanticism, realism, costumbrismo and naturalism5. Insolación: genesis and reception6. Structure and narrative viewpoint7. Language and translation8. BibliographyInsolación / Sunstroke

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Book SynopsisEmilia Pardo Bazán, the most prolific and influential Spanish female writer of the nineteenth century, was a very controversial figure, vilified for her embracement of naturalism and her robust feminist stance.When Insolación was published in 1889 it provoked a litany of negative comments and personal insults. This subtle, psychological novel, drawing on many aspects of its author's personal life, deals with the relationship between Asís, a respectable Galician widow, and Pacheco, a feckless womaniser from Andalucía. Although they scarcely know each other, Asís accepts Pacheco's invitation to visit the San Isidro Fair, where a heady cocktail of sun, alcohol and revelry causes her to behave in an uncharacteristic manner.Insolación explores the conflict between Asís's self-recrimination and concern for the 'qué dirán' and her nascent sexuality. Finally, despite her determination to banish Pacheco from her mind and her intention to go back to Galicia, the couple sleep together and decide to marry.The perceived promiscuity of this work of fiction scandalised the reading public as well as many leading critics. Pereda considered Asís's behaviour reprehensible and Clarín dismissed the novel as a pseudo-erotic boutade. Nowadays, Insolación is recognised as an important novel.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Foreword2. Emilia Pardo Bazán3. The social and political background4. The intellectual and literary context: romanticism, realism, costumbrismo and naturalism5. Insolación: genesis and reception6. Structure and narrative viewpoint7. Language and translation8. BibliographyInsolación / Sunstroke

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the most detailed and wide-ranging comparative study to date of how European literatures written in less well known languages try, through translation, to reach the wider world. Through case studies of over thirteen different national contexts as diverse as Bosnian, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Serbian, it explores patterns and contrasts in approaches to supply-driven translation, cultural diplomacy, institutional support and international gate-keeping, while examining the particular fates of poetry, women’s writing and genre fiction, and the opportunities arising from trans-medial circulation, self-translation and translingualism and a more radical critique of power balances in the translation and publishing industries. Its comparative approach challenges both the narratives of uniqueness that arise from discrete national approaches and the narrative of tragic marginalization that prevails in world literary approaches. Instead, it uses an interdisciplinary mix of literary, historical, sociological, gender- and translation-studies approaches to illuminate the often pioneering, innovative thinking and strategies that mark these literatures as they take on the inequalities of globalization.Trade ReviewReviews'This volume is a welcome addition to the fast-growing literature on translation studies, and on world literature.'Theo D'haen, Emeritus Professor at Leuven University and Leiden University ‘Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations covers a lot of ground and one leaves it with a heightened respect for translators and for the multitude of European literatures.’ Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Translation StudiesTable of ContentsRajendra Chitnis and Jakob Stougaard-NielsenIntroduction1. David NorrisThe Global Presentation of Small National Literatures: South Slavs in Literary History and Theory2. Zoran MilutinovićTranslators as Ambassadors and Gatekeepers: The Case of South Slav Literature3. Ondřej VimrSupply-Driven Translation: Compensating for Lack of Demand4. Rajendra ChitnisLiterature as Cultural Diplomacy: Czech Literature in Britain, 1918-385. Irvin WoltersExporting the Canon: The Mixed Experience of the Dutch Bibliotheca Neerlandica6. Olivia HellewellCreative Autonomy and Institutional Support in Contemporary Slovene Literature7. Richard MansellStrategies for Success?: Evaluating the Rise of Catalan Literature8. Gunilla Hermansson and Yvonne LefflerGender, Genre and Nation: Nineteenth-Century Swedish Women Writers on Export9. Paschalis NikolaouTranslating as Re-telling: On the English Proliferation of C.P. Cavafy10. Jakob Stougaard-NielsenCriminal Peripheries: The Globalization of Scandinavian Crime Fiction and its Agents11. Paulina DrewniakLiterary Translation and Digital Culture: The Transmedial Breakthrough of Poland’s Witcher12. Josianne MamoTowards a Multilingual Poetics: Self-Translation, Translingualism and Maltese Literature13. Rhian AtkinDoes Size Matter? Questioning Methods for the Study of ‘Small’Svend Erik LarsenCoda: When Small is Big and Big is Small

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Book SynopsisClémentine Mélois is a writer, artist, and member of Oulipo. Her first published work, Cent titres (2014), is a cult classic. She has gone on to subvert children’s literature and – more recently – the photo-story genre. Sinon j’oublie (2017) – Otherwise I Forget – is a unique work embroidered around a selection of her collection of ‘found’ shopping lists. After a short foreword – exposing her interest in this universal but throw-away form of writing – we find images of 100 shopping lists accompanied by her imagined insight into the lives and minds of their authors. The result is a delightful panoramic view of contemporary France in the guise of an (autobiographical) novel. This is the first of her works to be translated for an Anglophone readership. More accessible than other of her works, universal in appeal, and full of humanity, Otherwise I Forget is a wonderful and deceptively simple introduction to the work of this highly original writer and artist.

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Book SynopsisClémentine Mélois is a writer, artist, and member of Oulipo. Her first published work, Cent titres (2014), is a cult classic. She has gone on to subvert children’s literature and – more recently – the photo-story genre. Sinon j’oublie (2017) – Otherwise I Forget – is a unique work embroidered around a selection of her collection of ‘found’ shopping lists. After a short foreword – exposing her interest in this universal but throw-away form of writing – we find images of 100 shopping lists accompanied by her imagined insight into the lives and minds of their authors. The result is a delightful panoramic view of contemporary France in the guise of an (autobiographical) novel. This is the first of her works to be translated for an Anglophone readership. More accessible than other of her works, universal in appeal, and full of humanity, Otherwise I Forget is a wonderful and deceptively simple introduction to the work of this highly original writer and artist.

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Book SynopsisNow in paperback, the touching, timely story of an Iraqi refugee in Germany. In our era of mass migration, much of it driven by war and its aftermath, A Slap in the Face could not be more timely. It tells the story of Karim, an Iraqi refugee living in Germany whose right to asylum has been revoked in the wake of Saddam Hussein's defeat. But Hussein wasn't the only reason Karim left, and as Abbas Khider unfolds his story, we learn both the secret struggles he faced in his homeland and the battles with prejudice, distrust, poverty, and bureaucracy he has to endure in his attempts to make a new life in Germany. As he erupts in frustration at his caseworker and finally forces her to listen to his story, we get an account of a contemporary life upended by politics and violence, told with warmth and humor that, while surprising us, does nothing to lessen the outrages Karim describes.Trade Review"Khider is a master of the comically grotesque. . . . A Slap in the Face is a vivid and often moving portrayal of the prejudice, economic exploitation and simple unfairness facing those seeking to find a European haven from war and persecution." * Times Literary Supplement * "Khider is a master in mirroring existential despair in small moments of absurd and other comedy." * Frankfurter Rundschau * "Abbas Khider's novel, A Slap in the Face (Seagull Books, 2019) opens with an intense, and at first impression, violent scene. Karim Mensy, an Iraqi refugee, ties up a German immigration official for the sole reason of having an audience to listen to his hidden story. It is a palpably tense introduction which sets the pace for Karim's narrative unfolding against a backdrop of perpetual injustice, discrimination, exploitation and navigating the trajectories for survival. . . . Khider has written a book that is at once crude and sensitive, interspersed with humour that only lasts a few seconds before the reader realises that the elicited smiles are all at the expense of the oppressed, in this case, the refugees." * The New Arab *

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Book SynopsisNow in paperback, the epic tale of a violinist who must navigate the fractious world of early twentieth-century Germany.“Ruven Preuk stands apart from the village, on an August day in 1911, and listens.” Thus begins an epic bildungsroman about the life of Ruven Preuk, son of the wainwright, child of a sleepy village in Germany’s north, where life is both simple and harsh. Ruven, though, is neither. He has the ability to see sounds, leading him to discover an uncanny gift for the violin. When he meets a talented teacher in the Jewish quarter, Ruven falls under the spell of a prodigious future. But as the twentieth century looms, Ruven’s pursuit of his craft takes a turn. In The Last Country, Svenja Leiber spins a tale that moves from the mansions of a disappearing aristocracy to a communist rebellion, from a joyous village wedding to a Nazi official’s threats, from the First World War to the Second. As the world Ruven knows disappears, the gifted musician must grapple with an important question: to what end has he devoted himself to his art? Winner of the 2015 Arno Reinfrank LiteraturpreisTrade Review‘The literal and titular ‘Last Country’ is Germany which Leiber describes with a few literary brushstrokes and casts a panoramic view into its hellish years.” * Spiegel Online *“The Last Country is an exciting book that could be called a Bildungsroman, a novel of the artist or a panorama of a century—all of that. But above all, it is a book about what it means to see how their own desires cannot be fulfilled.” * Die Welt *“Leiber has an eye for people who cannot find a place in life or make a living and hardly have a voice. Leiber gives them voice in her books.” * Deutschlandfunk *“A socially clairvoyant novel.” * Neues Deutschland *

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Book SynopsisNow in paperback, Silke Scheuermann's portrayal of intimacy and estrangement between sisters as they navigate rivalries, addiction, and shared love interests. A young woman who has been living abroad returns to her hometown of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. Her sister Ines—a beautiful, impetuous painter—who still lives there, soon appears and promptly asks for financial help. But the returning sister knew this was coming—it is how their relationship has always worked. And this time, she’s determined that that will change. ​But our plans don’t always hold up to the surprises presented by life—and when the sister finds herself about to drift into an affair with Ines’s lover, the two women grow unexpectedly closer. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf is a tale of disorientation in a modern, fundamentally rootless society that has become increasingly erratic and self-absorbed—it is a powerful exploration of the difficulties of intimacy and addiction.Trade Review"In this debut [. . .] I am aware of the writer’s intentions on every page, what she wants me, her reader, to feel. It is neither manipulation nor a display of tacky craft, but the skill of a writer who can show you the world she wishes to share with you without devious obscurity. This is a surprising feat for a writer who started out as, and still is, a poet." * Asymptote *

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Book SynopsisNow in paperback, a haunting story of trauma, memory, and healing in post-Cold War Romania. Victoria has just recently moved from Zurich back to her hometown of Bucharest when the bank where she works is robbed. Put on leave so that she can process the trauma of the robbery, Victoria strolls around town. Each street triggers sudden visions as memories from her childhood under the Ceausescu regime begin to mix with the radically changed city and the strange world in which she now finds herself. As the walls of reality begin to crumble, Victoria and her former self cross paths with the bank robber and a rich cast of characters, weaving a vivid portrait of Romania and one woman’s self-discovery. In her stunning second novel, Swiss-Romanian writer Dana Grigorcea paints a series of extraordinarily colorful pictures. With humor and wit, she describes a world full of myriad surprises where new and old cultures weave together—a world bursting with character and spirit. Trade Review"All the elements of good literature come together in this book: humour, comedy, tragedy, poetry, melancholy, sadness, misery, and love." —Neue Zürcher Zeitung "Colorful and enlightening, fun and thought-provoking at the same time." —Schweizer Feuilletondienst "An ambitious and high-quality work of literary fiction. A rich and rewarding read with a deep vein of dark humor that will work well on the international stage." —New Books in German * Praise for the German edition *"An Instinctive Feeling of Innocence explores the fragmentation and dissociation resulting from trauma, both immediate and sustained over time. It is a novel about identity, belonging, and self-discovery, but also the deconstruction of a self. . . . Alta L. Price brings it into English in a translation brimming with sensitivity, daring, and grace." * The Scores *

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Book SynopsisA collection of unique, profound, and witty stories that relate animals’ peculiarities to human attitudes.Animals is a collection of short stories in which each story takes a peculiar item about animals that appears, like fables, to shine a spotlight on different aspects of human behavior—like caterpillars digging their own graves, sharks in need of artificial respiration, ducks that keep an eye out for hungry predators even in their sleep. It is a treat to watch Eva Menasse spin these observations into scenes of people battling their everyday anxieties and doubts. An old tyrant realizes that he is unable to prevent his wife’s worsening dementia from erasing his own past as it erases hers. A mother who tries to protect a Muslim child from hostile accusations finds that her own boundaries between good and evil begin to blur. A woman realizes how starkly her father’s traumatic past has shaped her quirky habits and deepest fears. Combining biting wit, mystery, and melancholy, these tales are the work of a masterful storyteller.Table of Contents1.Butterfly, Bee, Crocodile2.Caterpillars3.Hedgehog4.Sheep5.Opossum6.Sharks7.Snakes8.Ducks

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Book SynopsisA play about defiance of systemic racism. Juan de Mérida, an Afro-Spanish soldier aspires to social advancement in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War (1566-1648). His main enemies are not Dutch rebels but his white countrymen, whom he defeats at every attempt to humiliate him. In this play one encounters military culture, upward mobility, mistaken identities, defying destiny, royal pageantry, swordfights, cross-dressing, revenge, homosexual anxiety, and inter-racial marriage. Andrés de Claramonte’s El valiente negro en Flandes (c.1625) is an Afrodiasporic play that enjoyed great success and multiple stagings in Spain and in Latin America. Its 1938 negrista performance in Havana, Cuba, and Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, attest to the power of this play to illuminate contemporary racial dynamics. This is the first annotated, critical edition and English translation of El valiente negro en Flandes with a comprehensive introduction, three critical essays, the critical apparatus comparing the eleven extant versions of the play, and an appendix with alternative scenes and related historical documents. A tool for scholars of early modern European literature and a pedagogical aid to discuss the early discourses on Blackness in Spain and its trans-Atlantic empire.Table of ContentsIntroductionEl valiente negro en Flandes / The Valiant Black Man in FlandersFootnotesCritical EssaysBibliographyIllustrationsCritical ApparatusAppendices

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Book SynopsisEbook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open initiative. The years following the Second World War saw an exponential increase in the translation of contemporary foreign poetry in Italy. The practice was at its most prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s, when publishing houses across the board almost doubled the number of foreign poetry titles in their catalogues. This remarkable phenomenon, however, has received scant critical attention, which has been limited to an aesthetic perspective. Publishing Contemporary Foreign Poetry: Transnational Exchange in the Italian Publishing Field, 1939–1977 is one of the first studies to examine the sociological significance of publishing poetry translations. Drawing on untapped archival materials, it investigates from an interdisciplinary perspective the processes and products of poetry translation, and how they impacted on publishing, cultural, literary, and political dynamics in Italy. It explores the internal reconfiguration of Italian culture, and how Italy sought to position itself in the world, without neglecting the contradictions of national and transnational cultural networks and movements. The book argues that translation was a means to modify power relationships in the field of poetry publishing and the contemporary literary arena; this ultimately changed the map of Italian cultural production and its transnational networks, thus anticipating the further developments provoked by globalisation in the 1980s.Trade Review"An insightful analysis of the way that the translation of foreign poetry helped shape the Italian publishing industry and its power dynamics – enormously well-researched and highly readable."Liz Wren-Owens, Cardiff UniversityTable of ContentsINTRODUCTIONPublishing and Poetry Translation: A Methodological IntroductionCHAPTER 1Publishing, culture, and poetry: a field investigationCHAPTER 2Editors, Habitus and Translation: publishing strategies in poetry translationCHAPTER 3Contemporary foreign poetry anthologies for new cultural and publishing horizonsCHAPTER 4Towards Globalisation, by a way of conclusionAppendix 1Appendix 2Works Cited

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Book SynopsisThis novel by esteemed Swiss writer Max Frisch is an exploration of the question: 'Why don't we live when we know we're here just this one time, just one single, unrepeatable time in this unutterably magnificent world?!' This outcry against the emptiness of ordinary, everyday life uttered by the hero of Frisch's book is countered by 'an answer from the silence' he meets when face to face with death. "When An Answer from the Silence" begins, the protagonist has just turned thirty and is engaged to be married and about to start work as a teacher. Frightened by the idea of settling down, he journeys to the Alps in a do-or-die effort to climb the unclimbed North Ridge, and by doing so prove he is not ordinary. But having reached the top he returns not in triumph, but in frostbitten shock, having come dangerously close to death. This highly personal early novel reflects a crisis in Frisch's own life, and perhaps because of this intimate connection, he refused to allow it to be included in his 'Collected Works in the 1970s'. Now available in English, this distinctive book will thrill fans of Frisch's other works.Trade Review"Frisch is a great, and even an inspiring, writer, because he gives us the unique sense that the act of analysis is a passionate act, impelled by our fear of the world's dissolution and our knowledge of our own fragility."-Newsday"

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Book SynopsisWhen a meteor crashes into greaser Rockabilly’s backyard, a ripple of strange events ensues. The tattoo of a pin-up girl on his back comes to life and begins to exert her murderous control over the suburb in which he lives. His precocious teenage neighbor Suicide Girl begins spontaneously lactating, and her pet lizard goes missing. A disturbed neighbor begins to pace the block to quiet his unseemly thoughts. Meanwhile, the neighborhood dog, Bones, suddenly able to think human thoughts, begins to hatch a plan. With economic language and well-crafted timing, Rockabilly leads us on a hair-raising journey, artfully deconstructing archetypes of suburban America. Taking us past garish lights of strip malls and empty strips of desert, this dystopian novel presents a unique take on trash aesthetics, the philosophy of tattoo art, and American pop culture.

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Book SynopsisSitor Situmorang, one of the most celebrated Indonesian literary voices of the twentieth century, claimed that all his work dealt with a single theme—“love and wanderlust,” which are “two aspects of one and the same experience.” His remarkable short stories are celebrations of modern life, dealing with subjects such as seeking, belonging, identity, masculinity, and sensual interaction with the world at large. The characters are both introspective and physical, the settings sparse but evocative, the circumstances ordinary yet unexpected. The publication of this volume of fourteen stories is the culmination of a request Sitor once made of Harry Aveling to render his stories in English. The translation of his complete short stories now shares the exceptional creative prose of Sitor Situmorang with audiences around the world.

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Book SynopsisJaroslav Hasek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read yet incomplete novel "The Good Soldier Svejk", a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant soldier in World War I. Hasek - in spite of a life of bufoonery and debauchery - was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Here, in a new English translation, is a series of short stories based on Hasek's experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia. First published in the "Prague Tribune", these nine stories are considered to be some of his best, and they provide delightful entertainment as well as important background and insight into "The Good Soldier Svejk". This collection, by a writer some refer to as a Bolshevik Mark Twain, is much more than a tool for understanding Hasek's better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. "Behind the Lines" focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma and takes aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, "Behind the Lines" is an enjoyable, fast-paced collection of great literary and historical value.

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Book SynopsisA favorite work of Czech humor, We Were a Handful depicts the adventures of five boys from a small Czech town through the diary of Petr Bajza, the grocer's son. Written by Karel Polacek at the height of World War II before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944, this book draws on the happier years of Polacek's own childhood as inspiration. As we look upon the world through Petr's eyes, we, too, marvel at the incomprehensible world of grownups; join in fights between gangs of neighborhood kids; and laugh at the charming language of boys, a major source of the book's humor. This translation at last offers English-language readers the opportunity to share in Petr's (and Polacek's) childhood and reminds us that joy and laughter are possible even in the darkest times.

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Book SynopsisJaroslav Hasek is a Czech writer most famous for his wickedly funny, widely read, yet incomplete novel The Good Soldier Schweik, a series of absurdist vignettes about a recalcitrant WWI soldier. Hasek in spite of a life of buffoonery and debauchery was remarkably prolific. He wrote hundreds of short stories that all display both his extraordinary gift for satire and his profound distrust of authority. Behind the Lines presents a series of nine short stories first published in the Prague Tribune and considered to be some of Hasek's best. Based on his experiences as a Red Commissar in the Russian Civil War and his return to Czechoslovakia, Behind the Lines focuses on the Russian town of Bugulma, taking aim, with mordant wit, at the absurdities of a revolution. Providing important background and insight into The Good Soldier Schweik, this collection by a writer some call the Bolshevik Mark Twain is nevertheless much more than a tool for understanding his better-known novel; it is a significant work in its own right. A hidden gem remarkable for its modern, ribald sense of humor, Behind the Lines is an enjoyable, fast-paced anthology of great literary and historical value.

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Book SynopsisOn its initial publication in Czech in 1942, Saturnin was a best seller, its gentle satire offering an unexpected if temporary reprieve from the grim reality of the German occupation. In the years since, the novel has been hailed as a classic of Czech literature, and this translation makes it available to English-language readers for the first time which is entirely appropriate, for author Zdenek Jirotka clearly modeled his light comedy on the English masters Jerome K. Jerome and P. G. Wodehouse. The novel's main character, Saturnin, a "gentleman's gentleman" who obviously owes a debt to Wodehouse's beloved Jeeves, wages a constant battle to protect his master from romantic disaster and intrusive relatives, such as Aunt Catherine, the "Prancing Dictionary of Slavic Proverbs." Saturnin will warm the heart of any fan of literary comedy.

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Book SynopsisSummer of Caprice, a captivating comic novel first published in 1926, is a classic of Czech literature, yet it is little known elsewhere. Commonly considered untranslatable due to the complexities of the text, which is characterized by a playful narrative and an exceptional mastery of language, and its profound cultural context, it is rendered here in English that beautifully captures Vladislav Vancura's experimental style or, as the author himself called it, his "poetism in prose." Mixing the archaic with the innovative, raw colloquialisms with biblical quotations, Summer of Caprice opens an uproarious window onto the Czech spirit, humor, and way of life.

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Book SynopsisThis is a book about collective guilt, individual fate, and repentance, a tale that explores how we can come to be responsible for crimes we neither directly commit nor have the power to prevent. Set in the Czechoslovakian borderland shortly after WWII amid the sometimes violent expulsion of the region's German population, Jaroslav Durych's poetic, deeply symbolic novel is a literary touchstone for coming to terms with the Czech Republic's difficult and taboo past of state-sanctioned violence. A leading Catholic intellectual of the early twentieth century, Durych became a literary and political throwback to the prewar Czechoslovak Republic and faced censorship under the Stalinist regime of the 1950s. As such, he was a man not unfamiliar with the ramifications of a changing society in which the minority becomes the rule-making political authority, only to end up condemned as criminals. Though Durych finished writing God's Rainbow in 1955, he could not have hoped to see it published in his lifetime. Released in a still-censored form in 1969, God's Rainbow is available here in full for the first time in English.

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Book SynopsisFor The Pied Piper, Czech writer Viktor Dyk found his muse in the much retold medieval Saxon legend of the villainous, pipe-playing rat-catcher. Dyk uses the tale as a loose frame for his story of a mysterious wanderer, outcast, and would-be revolutionary--a dreamer typical of fin de siecle Czech literature who serves Dyk as a timely expression of the conflict between the petty concerns of bourgeois nineteenth-century society and the coming artistic generation. Impeccably rendered into English by Mark Corner, The Pied Piper retains the beautiful style of Dyk's original Czech. The inspiration for several theater and film adaptations, including a noted animated work from critically acclaimed director Jiri Barta, Dyk's classical novella is given new life by Corner's translation, proving that the piper is open to new interpretations still.

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Book SynopsisMahasweta Devi is one of India's foremost literary figures. Mother of 1084 is one of her most widely read works, written during the height of the Naxalite agitation - a militant communist uprising that was brutally repressed by the Indian government and led to the widespread murder of young rebels across Bengal. This novel focuses on the trauma of a mother who awakens one morning to the shattering news that her son is lying dead in the morgue and her struggle to understand his decision to be a Naxalite. Breast Stories is a collection of short fiction about the breast as more than a symbol of beauty, eroticism, or motherhood, but as a harsh indictment of an exploitative social system and a weapon of resistance. At a time when violence towards women in India has escalated exponentially, Devi exposes the inherently vicious systems in Indian society. Old Women tells the touching, poignant tales of two timeworn women - Dulali, a widow since childhood, who is now an old woman preoccupied only with day-to-day survival, and Andi, who loses her eyesight due to a combination of poverty, societal indifference, and government apathy. All three volumes, written in Devi's hard-hitting yet sensitive prose, are significant milestones in India's feminist literary landscape.

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Book SynopsisThe late 16th-century novel Jin Ping Mei has been described as a landmark in the development of the narrative art form, there being no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature. However, it is also seen as something of a wild horse, its graphically explicit depiction of sexuality earning it great notoriety. Although Jin Ping Mei was banned soon after its appearance, today the novel is considered one of the six classics of Chinese literature. It is thus no surprise that Jin Ping Mei has caught the attention of scholars working in many different fields, places and periods. Unfortunately, the interdisciplinary and transnational exchange has been limited here, in part because of distance and language barriers. The present volume aims to bridge this gap, bringing together the best quality research on Jin Ping Mei by both established and emerging scholars. Not only will it showcase research on Jin Ping Mei but also it will function as a reader, helping future generations to understand and appreciate this important work.

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Book SynopsisCombining myth, legend, geography, history, and politics, The Saga of Satisar is the panoramic history of the Kashmiri Pandits. In it, award-winning Hindi writer Chandrakanta unspools a novel that spans two centuries, illustrating how Kashmiri lives have been transformed and the multicultural tradition disappeared in the face of military oppression. Finding as its culprits militancy, state mismanagement, and the dirty play of politics, The Saga of Satisar is a passionate and heartfelt cry for a treasured land and way of life that is quickly disappearing. Chandrakanta writes beautifully of her beloved Kashmir, remarking that even as the colorful memories of her youth mingle with the fragrance of the cool breezes, these realities are fading, leaving her only a world of memories to dwell in.

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Book SynopsisPublished in 1899, Muhammad Hadi Ruswa's famous novel "Umrao Jaan Ada" created a sensation when it came out, with its candid fictionalized account of the life of Umrao Jaan, based on a renowned Lucknow courtesan and poetess of the same name. Considered by many to be the first Urdu novel, it remains highly popular today and has been the basis of three films and a Pakistani television serial. But despite Ruswa's notoriety, few know that a month after he wrote "Umrao Jaan Ada", he penned a sly novella entitled "Junun-e-Intezar", in which "Umrao" avenges herself on her creator, Ruswa, by narrating the story of his life. Blurring the lines between truth and fiction, narrator and character, this clever narrative strategy gives the courtesan a voice. While "Umrao Jaan Ada" is still celebrated, "Junun-e-Intezar" has been completely forgotten - until now. The "Madness of Waiting" redresses this imbalance, featuring both the Urdu original and a superb English translation. The book also includes a critical introduction that rethinks "Umrao Jaan Ada" and the Urdu literary milieu of the late-nineteenth-century Lucknow courtesan.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisFrom the internationally bestselling author of The Children?s Train comes an unforgettable coming-of-age novel, set in 1960s Sicily and based on a true story, of how a young Sicilian girl defied centuries old tradition to win the right to control her own life.As provincial Sicily bursts into life with the jaunty hum of pop music and the heady scent of wild jasmine, fifteen-year-old Oliva Denaro dares to challenge convention, ignoring the taunts of peers, her mother?s scolds, and her own changing body. Spirited and carefree, she loves to run until her lungs burst: to feel the strength of her lithe limbs, to relish the freedom she cherishes, to honor the friends forced by propriety to conform. Though she knows she cannot stop growing up, Oliva resists the future. To her, becoming a woman means denying oneself.But adulthood comes all too quickly when the baker?s son sets his sights on her. Offered a blood orange, Oliva?haunted by her mother?s warning, ?a girl who smiles has already said yes??spurns the fruit. Yet, this act sets into motion an unwanted courtship that will force Oliva to fight for the right to choose her own path, even though the odds of winning are steep. While America and Europe are in the throes of social change, Sicily fiercely clings to its rigid traditions, including the custom of fuitina ?by which kidnappings could be disguised as elopements? which is accepted and enshrined in law. Oliva?s battle for independence is based on the real-life story that would ultimately rock Italy?capturing the attention of both the Pope and the nation?s president?and transform life for all Italians.The Unbreakable Heart of Oliva Denaro is a lyrical tale of staggering beauty. Viola Ardone beautifully evokes a land and its people, customs, and passions, and breathes life into an unforgettable girl in all her intensity, desperation, perseverance, and bravery. Alternating between the lighthearted and the tragic, it is a classic coming-of-age novel?powerful, spellbinding, and liberating.Translated from the Italian by Clarissa BotsfordTrade Review“Viola Ardone’s novel is about the freedom of young women, so fragile… Ardone succeeds by letting a simple story speak for itself." — La Repubblica “Ardone has created an unforgettable character.” — Corriere della Sera

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Book SynopsisPerhaps the strangest—and most strikingly modern—work to survive from the ancient world, The Satyricon relates the hilarious mock epic adventures of the impotent Encolpius, and his struggle to regain virility. Here Petronius brilliantly brings to life the courtesans, legacy-hunters, pompous professors and dissolute priestesses of the age - and, above all, Trimalchio, the archetypal self-made millionaire whose pretentious vulgarity on an insanely grand scale makes him one of the great comic characters in literature. Seneca's The Apocolocyntosis, a malicious skit on 'the deification of Claudius the Clod', was designed by the author to ingratiate himself with Nero, who was Claudius' successor. Together, the two provide a powerful insight into a darkly fascinating period of Roman history.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics

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Book SynopsisA masterful translation of one of the great novels of the 20th centuryNothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. Full of pungency and wit, this luminous work is Bulgakov's crowning achievement, skilfully blending magical and realistic elements, grotesque situations and major ethical concerns. Written during the darkest period of Stalin's repressive reign and a devastating satire of Soviet life, it combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with incident and with historical, imaginary, frightful and wonderful characters. Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published until 1966 when the first section appeared in the monthly magazine Moskva. Russians everywhere responded enthusiastically to the novel's artistic and spiritual freedom and it was an immediate and enduring success. This new translation has been made frTrade Review“My favorite novel—it’s just the greatest explosion of imagination, craziness, satire, humor, and heart.” —Daniel Radcliffe“Nude vampires, gun-toting talking black cat, and devil as ultimate party starter aside, the miracle of this novel is that every time you read it, it’s a different book.” —Marlon James, “My 10 Favorite Books,” in T: The New York Times Style MagazineTable of ContentsThe Master and MargaritaIntroductionA Note on the Text and AcknowledgmentsFurther ReadingBOOK ONE1. Never Talk with Strangers2. Pontius Pilate3. The Seventh Proof4. The Chase5. There were Doings at Griboedov's6. Schizophrenia, as was Said7. A Naughty Apartment8. The Combat between the Professor and the Poet9. Koroviev's Stunts10. News from Yalta11. Ivan Splits in Two12. Black Magic and Its Exposure13. The Hero Enters14. Glory to the Cock!15. Nikanor Ivanovich's Dream16. The Execution17. An Unquiet Day18. Hapless VisitorsBOOK TWO19. Margarita20. Azazello's Dream21. Flight22. By Candlelight23. The Great Ball at Satan's24. The Extraction of the Master25. How the Procurator Tried to Save Judas of Kiriath26. The Burial27. The End of Apartment No. 5028. The Last Adventures of Koroviev and Behemoth29. The Fate of the Master and Margarita is Decided30. It's Time! It's Time!31. On Sparrow Hills32. Forgiveness and Eternal RefugeEpilogueNotes

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Book SynopsisA major new collection of Japanese short stories, many appearing in English for the first time, with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, author of Killing CommendatoreA Penguin Classics HardcoverThis fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the art of the Japanese short story, from its origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable practitioners writing today. Edited by acclaimed translator Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated some of the stories, and with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, this book is a revelation.Stories by writers already well known to English-language readers are included--like Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata, and Yoshimoto--as well as many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's Flames to Yuten Sawanishi's Filling Up with Sugar to Shin'ichi Hoshi's Shoulder-Top Secretary to Banana Yoshimoto's Bee Honey, The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, cha

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Book SynopsisA Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Tolstoy's great Russian epic. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American ReadSet against the sweeping panoply of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, War and Peace—presented here in the first new English translation in forty years—is often considered the greatest novel ever written. At its center are Pierre Bezukhov, searching for meaning in his life; cynical Prince Andrei, ennobled by wartime suffering; and Natasha Rostov, whose impulsiveness threatens to destroy her happiness. As Tolstoy follows the changing fortunes of his characters, he crafts a view of humanity that is both epic and intimate and that continues to define fiction at its most resplendent.This edition includes an introduction, note on the translation, cast of characters, maps, notes on the major battles depicted, and chapter summaries.Praise for Antony Brigg's translation

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Book SynopsisThe only complete edition of stories by the undisputed master of detective literature, collected here for the first time in one volume, including some stories that have been unavailable for decades. When Raymond Chandler turned to writing at the age of forty-five, he began by publishing stories in pulp magazines such as “Black Mask” before later writing his famous novels. These stories are where Chandler honed his art and developed his uniquely vivid underworld, peopled with good cops and bad cops, informers and extortionists, lethally predatory blondes and redheads, and crime, sex, gambling, and alcohol in abundance. In addition to his classic hard-boiled stories–in which his signature atmosphere of depravity and violence swirls around the cool, intuitive loners whose type culminated in the famous detective Philip Marlowe–Chandler also turned his hand to fantasy and even a gothic romance. This rich treasury of

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Book SynopsisJohn E. Woods is revising our impression of Thomas Mann, masterpiece by masterpiece.  —The New YorkerDoctor Faustus is Mann's deepest artistic gesture. . . . Finely translated by John E. Woods. —The New RepublicThomas Mann's last great novel, first published in 1947 and now newly rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells its soul to the Devil. Mann's protagonist, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, is the flower of German culture, a brilliant, isolated, overreaching figure, his radical new music a breakneck game played by art at the very edge of impossibility. In return for twenty-four years of unparalleled musical accomplishment, he bargains away his soul—and the ability to love his fellow man. Leverkühn's life story is a brilliant allegory of the rise of the Third Reich, of Germany's renunciation of its own humanity and its embrace of ambition and nihilism. It is also Mann's most profound meditation on the German genius—both national and individual—and the terrible responsibilities of the truly great artist.

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Book SynopsisFrom one of Japan's greatest modern writers comes an exquisitely disturbing novel of sexual combat and concealed passion, a work that distills beauty, longing, and loathing into an intoxicating tale. • “One of the outstanding writers of the world.” —The New York Times An aging, embittered novelist sets out to avenge himself on the women who have betrayed him. He finds the perfect instrument in Yuichi, a young man whose beauty makes him irresistible to women but who is just discovering his attraction to other men. As Yuichi's mentor presses him into a loveless marriage and a series of equally loveless philanderings, his protégé enters the gay underworld of postwar Japan where Yuichi is defenseless as any of the women he preys upon.

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Book Synopsis“Didionesque.” —New York Times Book ReviewTrade Review"Ullmann has formed a book out of the explicit landmarks of her lived life.… The form of the book, however, isn’t documentary, but, rather, fragmentary, the way memory is.… The clarity and lack of fetter is characteristic of [her] way of seeing the world in prose." -- Wyatt Mason - New York Times Magazine"Linn Ullmann has written something of beauty and solace and truth. I don’t know how she managed to sail across such dangerous waters—dangerous artistically as well as personally—without capsizing or making a mistake, but it is a tremendous accomplishment. Funny, graceful, interesting, modest, and most of all a work of the highest moral competence." -- Rachel Cusk, author of the Outline trilogy"A haunting meditation on the shifting moods between women and men over a lifetime of making art; the pains and pleasures of attachment, the boiling emotions of girlhood, the conflicts of motherhood, and the enchantment of a secluded home on the edge of a stormy sea, in which a famous father writes his dreams on the bedside table. I could not put it down." -- Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of Living"This magnificent, elegant work is pure tour de force. It’s part elegy, part elucidation of family love and family mystery, it’s funny, wry, dry, almost untakeably moving, and all of this is held steady in the form by Linn Ullmann’s refusal to swerve from the true, by her understanding of the combined human weakness and human marvelousness in all of us, and above all by her clear eye. It is a wonderful book, unputdownable, one that taps into the sheer electric current between the fictions and the truths that make our life stories. It’s one of the best things I’ve read in a long, long time." -- Ali Smith, author of How to Be Both"[An] exquisite and warm novel.… Among Norway’s contemporary writers, Ullmann might be the finest sentence by sentence." -- John Freeman - LitHub"But even without knowing her parents were world-renowned, Unquiet would resonate powerfully because many of the issues it explores are common to parent-child relationships.… It’s a high-wire act few writers have performed with such grace." -- Dmitry Samarov - Hyperallergic"A brilliant meditation on time, mortality, and the limits of memory.… Gorgeous and heartbreaking." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Ullman succeeds on every level, blending time, memory, and emotion into a fascinating and intimate portrait that easily evokes the universal sense of love and loss. Highly recommended." -- Library Journal (starred review)"This is a striking book about the enduring love between parents and children, and the fierce attachments that bind them even after death." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Unquiet is a wonderfully absorbing and moving family story told with a directness, naturalness, and grace that can only result from Linn Ullmann’s close attention to the eloquent details of day-to-day life, her honest embrace of herself and the people close to her, and a keen sensitivity to language and the high demands of good writing." -- Lydia Davis, author of The End of the Story"I’ve long admired Linn Ullmann’s fiction, and Unquiet is her masterpiece. Based on her upbringing as the child of two great artists, it is the portrait of complex loves; of a youth divided and inspired by diametrically opposed creative influences; and of the ravages of age. Calm yet fierce, exquisitely rendered, this novel imprints itself indelibly—as if you, too, had been there." -- Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl

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Book SynopsisAbout Wayne Rebhorn’s translation.

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Book SynopsisSEX, LIES, AND ROCKY ROADS Life is simple for Champa. He has a good job as a chauffeur in his hometown of Lhasa, and if his Chinese boss Plum is a little domineering, well, he can understand that she's a serious art-collector after all. And he does get to drive her huge Toyota.When he starts to sleep with his boss as well as drive her around, life becomes a whole lot more complicated. But not in a bad way. Suddenly Champa's sex life is beyond his wildest dreams.But then Plum brings home a Tara statue - a statue that shines with exquisite feminine beauty and suddenly life is not simple at all, as Champa finds himself on the long road to Beijing in search of its inspiration THE UNBEARABLE DREAMWORLD OF CHAMPA THE DRIVER is a rollicking road novel brim-ful of sensuality and danger. Underlying the optimism and humour of its hero is a darker picture of racism and rough justice in modern Beijing.Trade Review'The Han Chinese presence in Tibet hovers in the background like a Himalayan mist ... captures something true and fresh about modern China * Independent *A fast-paced read, bold and brassy, at times super-sensitive and insightful, with cheeky asides and a raw honesty that will make readers laugh out loud. * South China Morning Post *Manages to turn often comic human relationships into an unsettling metaphor for China's political and cultural domination of Tibet. * Asia Times *

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