Fiction in translation

Book Synopsis THE NO.1 KOREAN BESTSELLER WITH OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD ''These days I''m reading a book called DallerGut Dream Department Store and when they talk about the dream department store I can see it in my head. I imagine I''m shopping there as I read.'' WONWOO, member of the K-Pop group Seventeen''The writer of this novel must be brilliant, because this world was so creative. You need to read this too!'' YUGYEOM, member of the K-Pop group Got7FOYLES TRANSLATED BOOK OF THE MONTH NOVEMBER 2023In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious there''s a department store that sells dreams. Day and night, visitors both human and animal shuffle in to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor specializes in a specific type of dream: childhood memories, food dreams, ice skating, dreams of stardom. Flying dreams are almost always sold out. Some seek dreams of loved ones who have died.For Penny, an enthusiastic new hire, working at the store is the opportunity of a lifetime. As she uncovers the workings of this whimsical world, she bonds with a cast of unforgettable characters, including DallerGut, the flamboyant and wise owner, Babynap Rockabye, a famous dream designer, Maxim, a nightmare producer, and the many customers who dream to heal, dream to grow, and dream to flourish.A captivating story that will leave a lingering magical feeling in readers'' minds, this is the first book in a bestselling duology for anyone exhausted from the reality of their daily life.READERS CAN''T GET ENOUGH:''What a ride! I DEVOURED this book in one sitting!'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''There were so many more layers to this book. It''s totally cute, but also clever [and] insightful!'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''I cannot wait to read the sequel, and I hope it is translated soon!'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''It was wholesome, gentle and made me smile the whole time'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐''I absolutely adored this. It''s the kind of book I could read over and over again'' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐Trade ReviewThe writer who wrote about dreams is now achieving her dreams. A dream-like story has happened in the publishing world resulting in this becoming a bestseller after its initial e-book publication. * The Dong-A Ilbo *The author who revolutionised the world of Korean fiction is also influencing and changing the broader realm of Korean literature now. * Maeil Business News Korea *This book has the unique ability to evoke both tears and tranquility. A perfect read for moments of exhaustion and the yearning to escape reality, it possesses the power to mend weary hearts. * Insight Korea *DallerGut Dream Department Store provides empathy and comfort to readers who have found it increasingly difficult to dream in the midst of the painful realities of life. * Opinion News *

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Book SynopsisWhat was it they were battling? Their smallness, of course, their smallness. A delicate and arresting queer novel from one of Korea's most celebrated contemporary writers d, a nonbinary gig worker living in Seoul, briefly escapes the grasp of isolation when they meet dd, only to be ensnared by grief when dd dies in a car accident. Meanwhile, the world around them reckons with the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster that left more than 300 dead. As formally inventive as it is evocative, dd's Umbrella is composed of twin novellas. The first is told from the perspective of d, and the second from the perspective of a writer researching a book they may never write. Both figures dwell in society's margins-queer, working-class, and part of nontraditional family structures. As people across Korea come together to protest the government's handling of the Sewol ferry disaster, and to impeach the right-wing president in office, the novel examines how progressive movements coexist with social exclusion, particularly of women and sexual minorities, invisibilised in service of the 'greater cause'. dd's Umbrella is a meditative and off-centre novel about mourning and revolution.

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Book Synopsis'Set at a time of lengthening shadows, this is a novel about the sparks that illuminate the dark: of wisdom, compassion, defiance and courage. It is wry, piercing and also, fittingly, radiant.' Daily MailFrom Robert Seethaler, the author of the Man Booker International shortlisted A Whole Life, comes a deeply moving story of ordinary lives profoundly affected by the Third Reich, in the tradition of novels such as Fred Uhlman's classic Reunion, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Rachel Seiffert's The Dark Room.When seventeen-year-old Franz exchanges his home in the idyllic beauty of the Austrian lake district for the bustle of Vienna, his homesickness quickly dissolves amidst the thrum of the city. In his role as apprentice to the elderly tobacconist Otto Trsnyek, he will soon be supplying the great and good of Vienna with their newspapers and cigarettes. Among the regulars is a Professor Freud, whose predilection for cigars and occasional willingness to dispense romantic advice will forge a bond between him and young Franz.It is 1937. In a matter of months Germany will annex Austria and the storm that has been threatening to engulf the little tobacconist will descend, leaving the lives of Franz, Otto and Professor Freud irredeemably changed.Trade ReviewSet at a time of lengthening shadows, this is a novel about the sparks that illuminate the dark: of wisdom, compassion, defiance and courage. It is wry, piercing and also, fittingly, radiant. * Daily Mail *Seethaler blends tragedy and whimsy to create a bittersweet picture of youthful ideals getting clobbered by external forces. The result is a little like Great Expectations, only with dachshunds and strudel. * Observer *Essential reading for the early years of the 21st century. * Scotland on Sunday *[The Tobacconist’s] portrayal of pre-war Vienna is tender and elegiac. There are echoes of Arthur Schnitzler in Fran’z feverish obsession with Anezka, Ödön von Horváth in minor characters such as the neighbouring butcher who denounces the tobacconist to the Gestapo, and Robert Musil in the texture of the city. The moment when the frail, ill Dr Freud boards the train for London is an elegy for the cultural and intellectual glory of early twentieth-century Vienna . . . The Tobacconist remains unwavering in its quiet, understated style and it is all the more devastating for it. * Times Literary Supplement *Told with a dry wit that enhances, rather than disguises, the sadness of its story, The Tobacconist is a touching miniature of an ordinary life irrevocably altered by the larger forces of history. * Sunday Times *Robert Seethaler's The Tobacconist is a poignant, tragic look at the creeping rise of fascism in Vienna before the outbreak of the Second World War. Told with humor and pity, the novel expertly depicts how easy it is to find, and lose, one's place in the world . . . [The Tobacconist] brilliantly demonstrates how even small actions can give a person meaning in the face of dire threats. * Shelf Awareness *I enjoyed Robert Seethaler’s The Tobacconist. The novel sets up a tiny tobacconist’s shop in 1930s Vienna as a window on to a street, a city and a continent, all drifting into conflict. -- Ed Smith * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisA poetic work of fiction on the one hand, an autobiography on the other, The Life of Rebecca Jones is about one family's passage through the twentieth century. A fictional elegy to a threatened way of life.Trade ReviewAngharad Price's reflection of family history through the prism of fiction is a restrained, lyrical tour de force . . . Shot through with meditations on blindness and insight, this account of one family's passage through the twentieth century is skilfully rendered with grace and quiet power. -- Owen Sheers'How does it feel to write a classic novel? This is what Angharad Price has managed with The Life of Rebecca Jones' Tom Payne, Telegraph. * Telegraph *Angharad Price's reflection of family history through the prism of fiction is a restrained, lyrical tour de force . . . Shot through with meditations on blindness and insight, this account of one family's passage through the twentieth century is skilfully rendered with grace and quiet power. -- Owen Sheers

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Book Synopsis'Electrifying' - A.J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the WindowA Sunday Times Best Thriller Book of the Year. More than two million copies sold in Spain alone. Red Queen is the first in Juan Gómez-Jurado's internationally bestselling serial killer thriller series, translated by Nick Caistor.You've never met anyone like her . . .Antonia Scott is special. Very special. She is not a policewoman or a lawyer. She has never wielded a weapon or carried a badge, and yet, she has solved dozens of crimes.But it's been a while since Antonia left her attic in Madrid. The things she has lost are much more important to her than the things awaiting her outside.She also doesn't receive visitors. That's why she really, really doesn't like it when she hears unknown footsteps coming up the stairs.Whoever it is, Antonia is sure that they are coming to look for her.And she likes that even less . . .Praise for Red Queen:'A Spanish spin on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo . . . A female Sherlock Holmes' - The Times'Often compared with Lisbeth Salander . . . Antonia Scott looks destined to leave every bit as lasting an impression.' - Daily Mail'This fast-paced story crackles with energy as it roams between Madrid's most exclusive enclaves and seedy back streets' – Best Books of 2023, Financial TimesTrade ReviewBest thriller books of 2023 . . . What impresses is the brainy brio of Gómez-Jurado's storytelling, as well as his striking depiction of Madrid as two cities, an elegant baroque facade concealing a gothic underworld * Sunday Times *Fizzes with energy and lively scene-setting, switching . . . There are obvious echoes of Lisbeth Salander, but the crackling interplay between Scott and Inspector Gutiérrez, a gay Basque policeman, adds an extra layer of originality, as does Nick Caistor’s sparkling translation. * Financial Times *An electrifying serial-killer thriller, a fiendishly clever puzzle mystery . . . Red Queen tops even The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a thinking reader’s thriller. -- A.J. Finn, bestselling author of The Woman in the WindowA Spanish spin on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo . . . stylish and stylised . . . A female Sherlock Holmes * The Times *Often compared with Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Antonia Scott looks destined to leave every bit as lasting an impression. * Daily Mail *What Gómez-Jurado excels at, as conveyed in Nick Caistor’s brisk translation, is pacing of the breakneck variety. Short chapters, funny asides, lethally potent descriptions: They all contribute to a frenetic page-turning momentum . .. you’ll have great fun reading it. * New York Times *Fast paced, memorable characters and a cinematic story that draws you in hook, line and sinker. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next in the series. -- John Marrs, author of The OneJuan Gomez-Jurado has written a fast, exciting page-turner and it’s the first in a trilogy featuring Antonia and Jon. You’ll be wanting more. * The Record *Fans of Scandinavian crime thrillers might want to broaden their horizons with the first book in a Spanish trilogy featuring a mismatched duo . . . Already an international hit, Gómez-Jurado’s smart page-turner has been made into an Prime Video series that will debut later in 2023 * Washington Post *A fast-paced thriller . . . giving us a mash-up of Nordic noir and an old-school detective with a neurodivergent mind . . . Red Queen works because along with a genius-protagonist, Gomez-Jurado has successfully wo­ven in the other ingredients that thrill a mystery reader: a diabolical antago­nist, a twisty game and a ticking clock. * Open The Magazine *A labyrinth of mystery, crisply plotted and paced, way ahead of the pack. -- Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Kaiser’s Web Suspenseful and terrifying . . . A bit of Clarice Starling and a lot of Lisbeth Salander make Antonia a thoroughly compelling character, who will return in two more translations to complete Gómez-Jurado’s trilogy, -- Jane Murphy * Booklist starred review *Exciting . . . a nice balance among character, action, and setting . . . The next two, Loba Negra (Black Wolf) and Rey Blanco (White King), must be translated into English, because thriller fans will be waiting. Fast-moving and quirky fiction from Madrid. * Kirkus Reviews *Nail-biting . . . tantalizing . . . Lizbeth Salander fans will find much to like. * Publishers Weekly *This has all the velocity and thrills of Stieg Larson’s Millennium series but none of the eyeroll-inducing misogyny . . . it's all-engrossing. * First Clue (starred review) *Fresh and appealing to those that enjoy interesting characters and stories that constantly move forward and tales that end in unexpected ways. * Mystery and Suspense *Red Queen is a smart, addictive thriller, beautiful in both its complexity and devotion to characterization. Between the stunning plot twists, bold structural choices and surprising moments of wry humour, you won’t be able to put this one down -- Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author of Find MeThis terrific novel has all the page-turning elements of the very best thrillers, but what makes it truly remarkable is the writing itself. Engaging and heartbreaking, witty and wry and immersive . . . Juan Gómez-Jurado has written an instant classic -- Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect LifeReaders are going to fall for Antonia Scott. This character is, without a doubt, the best thing that has happened to the international thriller in the last ten years * ABC *Red Queen is terrific – a complex story that unfolds at breakneck speed, a compelling plot filled with twist after twist, a story told with rich, fluid language, and a fascinating, well-realized unlikely pair of characters, especially the brilliant Antonia Scott. -- David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder as a Fine ArtThe most compelling and original detective since Lisbeth Salander * The Times South Africa *

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Book Synopsis'One of the greatest European novelists of the century' Sunday Times Andreas is an alcoholic and a vagrant who lives under a bridge. Downtrodden, submerged at the bottom of society, he lives a fortuitous life - dictated by happenstance and the whims of others - until a run of exceptionally good luck lifts him, briefly, onto a different plane of existence. First published after Roth's death in 1939, The Legend of the Holy Drinker is haunting and melancholic, yet filled with empathy. A secular miracle-tale, it is an unforgettable testament to Roth's lucidity and compassion.Trade ReviewA short, boozy, perfectly cut gem of a story... Translated and introduced by that legend of a holy writer Michael Hofmann, it's funny and remarkable -- Stuart Hammond * Dazed and Confused *The Legend of the Holy Drinker is a tale of patience rewarded... a dreamy Parisian Catholic setting, destitution softened by fairy tale * Times Literary Supplement *Poignant -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail *This is a little book of sublime simplicity... magically told * Daily Express *One of the greatest European novelists of the century * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times ''100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945'' pickAn antiques dealer is burned with a blowtorch and executed with a single shot to the back of the head. The only clues at the scene are a scrap of paper and an unusual choice of gun.Ex-cop Zatopek ''Zed'' van Heerden has just seven days to solve the case - an almost impossible task made even harder when he discovers that, until a few years ago, there was no proof that the victim even existed . . .Trade ReviewDeon Meyer recreates the beauty, wildness, and danger of modern Africa with an immediacy and force no other writer has achieved * Sunday Telegraph *If DEAD AT DAYBREAK is anything to go by, we are seeing the rise of a major new, international writing talent. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. * Big Issue *A highly entertaining, page-turning transposition of the American private eye genre to an exotic and vibrant setting . . . a terrific new talent. * Irish Independent *DEAD AT DAYBREAK is a gripping read with a flawed but human protagonist who invites our compassion. The brutal terror of the hunt that develops is matched by the compulsive but increasingly ominous revelations of van Heerden's past transgression. This is the second novel by South African Deon Meyer, a fresh voice and a compelling storyteller. * Manchester Evening News *A breathtaking pace, heart-pounding action set against a psychological backdrop, and a fascinating protagonist makes this book a winner. * Library Journal *South African crime writer Meyer's expertly crafted second thriller confirms his place as one of the genre's finest new stylists. This is a remarkable achievement from a singular new talent. * Publishers Weekly *Meyer manages to ratchet up the tension so effectively that readers will have a hard time decideing which mystery they wish to pierce first . . . A narrative gem. * Booklist *[A] densely woven crime thriller . . . With DEAD AT DAYBREAK Deon Meyer has built an impressive and gripping book, a double helping of suspense . . . gripping, exciting and solidly written. * Eurocrime *

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Book SynopsisIsmail Kadare, born in 1936 in the mountain town of Gjirokaster, near the Greek border, is Albania's best-known poet and novelist. Since the appearance of The General of the Dead Army in 1965, Kadare has published scores of stories and novels that make up a panorama of Albanian history linked by a constant meditation on the nature and human consequences of dictatorship. His works brought him into frequent conflict with the authorities from 1945 to 1985. In 1990 he sought political asylum in France, and now divides his time between Paris and Tirana. He is the winner of the first ever Man Booker International Prize.Trade ReviewKadare's most daring novel, one of the most complete visions of totalitarianism ever committed to paper * Vanity Fair *If there is a book worth banning in a dictatorship, this is it * Guardian *Kadare's delicately misted view of another world (as much internal as totalitarian) lives up to the splendour of his title * Independent on Sunday *Inexorably takes your breath away * Herald *

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Book SynopsisThe Last Watch is the stunning sequel to the Night Watch trilogy, following the fortunes of the Others. Indistinguishable from normal people but possessed of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each Other owes allegiance either to the Dark, or to the Light...While on holiday in Scotland, visiting ''The Dungeons of Edinburgh'', a young Russian tourist is murdered. As the police grapple with the fact that the cause of the young man''s death was a massive loss of blood, the Watches are immediately aware that there is a renegade vampire on the loose. Anton - the hero of the Night Watch trilogy - is detailed to this seemingly mundane investigation, but begins to realise that there is much more to the story than a wildcat vampire and a single murder, and discovers that a team of unlicensed Others are hunting for a fabled magical treasure, hidden in the sixth level of the Twilight by Merlin himself...<Trade ReviewAs satisfying, violent and morally ambivalent as its predecessors. * Telegraph *...the book maintains the high standards set by it precursors admirably, and we can't help but hope that it will not be the last in this exceptional series. * SciFi Now Magazine *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Rosenkrantz Award for Best Thriller of the YearFrom the bestselling, award-winning Swedish author Håkan Nesser, The Living and the Dead in Winsford is a gripping and deeply atmospheric psychological thriller set on Exmoor.There is nobody in the world who knows that we are here . . .A woman arrives in the village of Winsford on Exmoor. She has travelled a long way and chosen her secluded cottage carefully. Maria's sole intention is to outlive her beloved dog Castor. And to survive the torrent of memories that threaten to overwhelm her. Weeks before, Maria and her husband Martin fled Stockholm under a cloud. The couple were bound for Morocco, where Martin planned to write an explosive novel; one that would reveal the truth behind dark events within his commune of writers decades before. But the couple never made it to their destination.As Maria settles into her lonely new life, walking the wild, desolaTrade ReviewOne of the pleasures of The Living and the Dead in Winsford is the drip feed of vital information that hurtles you through its 471 pages as it probes deeper into its heroine's demons.Nesser lives in Gotland but spends part of each year in the UK and he obviously knows his Winsford - and better still his Exmoor. The claustrophobia and comfort of village life, the terror of darkness on an exposed and desolate landscape; proximity with a natural world as beautiful as it is harsh: every detail seems etched into Nesser's viscerally descriptive writing.. . . A ripping yarn * The Times *The smooth, silky prose holds the reader's attention from start to finish, and it's no surprise to discover that this book won the Palle Rosencrantz Prize for best thriller of the year * Literary Review *A tense, psychological exploration of betrayal and revenge, deservedly winning the Rosenkrantz Award for Best Thriller of the Year in 2013.' * Sydney Morning Herald *The book is part thriller but also reads like literary fiction. This is no surprise as Nesser is an excellent writer . . . A great read * Crimepieces.com *A haunting, masterly unravelling of a dreadful crime, in The Living and the Dead in Winsford, Hakan Nesser, the bestselling, award-winning author of the Van Veeteren series, tightens the tension like a noose . . . * fantasticfiction.co.uk *

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Book SynopsisEndorsed by Amnesty International. Imagine if war broke out – not in Iraq or Afghanistan, somewhere far far away, but here, in our country. In War, Janne Teller embarks on a thought-provoking experiment: by simply turning the current crisis on its head, she reveals what it is like to flee your home country, to be exiled, and to fight for survival in a foreign country.   In this illustrated short story, Europe has fallen apart and the only place at peace within reach is the Middle East. You follow a normal British family as they flee to the Middle East and see what they go through as refugees, through the eyes of their fourteen-year-old son.   Originally published in Denmark in 2001, War has become more and more relevant and thought-provoking in the intervening years. In addition to the striking format and illustrations, what makes this book so special is that Janne Teller adapts the story for e

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of Waterstones Book Club choice THE LIST OF MY DESIRES, a heart-breaking, heart-warming story about a man who loses everything, then goes out to get it back.Trade ReviewA very moving French story.. Delacourt writes with potent simplicity; I didn't want to stop reading. * EVENING STANDARD *

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Book Synopsis''Kanae Minato is a brilliant storyteller'' Emily St John Mandel, author of Station ElevenWhen a group of young girls are approached by a stranger, they cannot know that the encounter will haunt them for the rest of their lives.Hours later, Emily is dead. The surviving girls alone can identify the killer. But not one of them remembers his face...Driven mad by grief, the victim''s mother demands the girls find the murderer or else atone for their crimes. If they do neither, she will have her revenge. She will make them pay...From the critically acclaimed author of Confessions, Penance is a dark and disturbing tale of revenge that will leave you reeling.Trade ReviewPraise for CONFESSIONS * . *A brilliant storyteller -- Emily St John Mandel, author of Station ElevenThink of CONFESSIONS as the Gone Girl of Japan....[A] gut-wrenching thrill ride...its thrust should hit home for any reader with a pulse. * Los Angeles Times *A dark, dystopic portrait of Japanese adolescence gone wrong. If Albert Camus had written Heathers, it would have looked a lot like this. -- Alex Marwood, author of The Darkest SecretExplosive... A dark thriller about love, despair and murder * Irish Tatler *A creepy and mesmerizing psychological thriller that challenges the conventions of right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, and law vs. justice. * Library Journal *A spellbinding read, a fascinating peek into modern Japanese society, and a glimpse into the dark corners of the human psyche * Booklist *Taut, unsettling and relentlessly engaging, CONFESSIONS is a book with claws, in more sense than one. I defy any fan of smart, unconventional crime writing to set this novel aside once they've started it. -- Simon Lelic, author of The Child Who

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Book SynopsisSelected by Marcel Berlins in The Times as one of the 50 best crime novels of the last 50 years: ''Deon Meyer is acclaimed for his portrayals of crime and the police after the end of apartheid. Non-white detectives hold positions once monopolised by their white bosses, and the tensions are high''After 602 days dry, Captain Benny Griessel of the South African police services can''t take any more tragedy. So when Benny is called in to investigate a multiple homicide, it pushes him close to breaking point - a former friend and detective colleague has shot his wife and two daughters, then killed himself. Benny wants out - out of his job, his home and his relationship with his singer girlfriend, Alexa. He moves into a hotel and starts drinking. Again.But Benny''s unique talent is urgently required to help investigate another crime - the high profile murder of Ernst Richter, MD of a new tech startup, Alibi, whose body is discovered buried in the sandTrade ReviewSharp and full of energy, his evocation of place and character second to none. The pace of the novel is breathless, yet Meyer never sacrifices authenticity or the quality of his writing. Crime, wine and a thrilling finale: a rare and unexpected treat. -- Simon Lelic, author of RuptureDeon Meyer's South Africa is laid bare in ICARUS . . . it is as glittering and hard as the diamonds his country is famous for . . . Meyer utilises the crime fiction genre as an apparatus to create a multifaceted, unsparing picture of his country -- Barry Forshaw * Independent *Meyer heightens the suspense . . . The richness of the characters, especially the multifaceted Benny, elevates this above most contemporary police procedurals. * Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) *ICARUS places [Deon] firmly in the top international league. It's the fifth, and best, of the Benny Griessel series. * The Times *South African author Deon Meyer's Benny Griessel series is one of the high points of contemporary crime fiction, and the fifth title, ICARUS, is his best yet ... expertly engineered. -- Laura Wilson * Guardian *Deon Meyer is not just South Africa's greatest crime writer, he's up there with the best in the world. * The Times, Saturday Review *Every once in a while there comes along a writer, an already accomplished storyteller, who grows into the stature of a great writer through one wonderful story. That author is Deon Meyer; the story he has masterfully crafted is ICARUS. * Thrillers4u *Praise for Deon Meyer * : *The narrative is well-plotted, and the novel brings to life the rich and volatile diversity of contemporary South Africa. There's nothing flashy here, just a good story, very well told. Would there were more like it. * Spectator *Deon Meyer is a top notch plotter and has created one of the best ensemble (and multi-racial) casts of any modern police procedural series. * Shots magazine *Deon Meyer's gritty crime novels [are] part police procedural, part political thriller . . . What makes Meyer such a national treasure - and as good as anyone in the world - is that even if you have no knowledge or interest in South Africa's history or present, his books are compelling page-turners. Politics and race are just part of the intricately crafted superstructure bolted onto the rock-solid chassis of a top-quality crime thriller, driven by a writer with deceptive skill. * Books Live *Crime fiction with real texture and intelligence. * Independent *Tells a cracking story and captures the criminal kaleidoscope of a nation. * Times Literary Supplement *This year's great discovery: classy, edgy writing, subtly plotted and beautifully balanced between fast-paced action, pungent social comment and the process of investigation. * Weekend Australian *

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Book SynopsisIn this almost documentary account of his own experiences of penal servitude in Siberia, Dostoevsky describes the physical and mental suffering of the convicts, the squalor and the degradation, in relentless detail. The inticate procedure whereby the men strip for the bath without removing their ten-pound leg-fetters is an extraordinary tour de force, compared by Turgenev to passages from Dante's Inferno. Terror and resignation - the rampages of a pyschopath, thebrief serence interlude of Christmas Day - are evoked by Dostoevsky, writing several years after his release, with a strikingly uncharacteristic detachment. For this reason, House of the Dead is certainly the least Dostoevskian of his works, yet, paradoxically, it ranks among his greatmasterpieces.

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Book SynopsisIn three short narratives, Kadare evokes a defining moment in European history28 June 1389, the Field of the Blackbirds. A Christian army made up of Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians and Romanians confront an Ottoman army. In ten hours the battle is over, and the Muslims possess the field; an outcome that has haunted the vanquished ever since.28 June 1989, the Serb Leader Slobodan Milosevic launches his campaign for a fresh massacre of the Albanians, the majority population of Kosovo.In three short narratives Kadare shows how legends of betrayal and defeat simmered in European civilisation for six hundred years, culminating in the agony of one tiny population at the end of the twentieth century.An utterly captivating yarn: strange, vivid, ominous, macabre and wise' New York TimesTrade ReviewThe main goal of these three fables ... is to transmit a message about freedom, in the sense that to write truthfully is to set something free. In this book Kadare has set Kosovo, the battle, the myth, free from the chains of untruth * London Review of Books *The bridge is a foreboding, an omen, a threat. It is a bridge over which Asia will invade Europe and the future will invade the past. Kadare, an Albanian, has used the materials at hand to become one of Europe's great writers * Los Angeles Times *An utterly captivating yarn: strange, vivid, ominous, macabre and wise * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisJo Nesbo is one of the world's bestselling crime writers, with The Leopard, Phantom, Police, The Son, The Thirst, Macbeth and Knife all topping the Sunday Times bestseller charts. He's an international number one bestseller and his books are published in 50 languages, selling over 50 million copies around the world. Before becoming a crime writer, Nesbo played football for Norway's premier league team Molde, but his dream of playing professionally for Spurs was dashed when he tore ligaments in his knee at the age of eighteen. After three years military service he attended business school and formed the band Di Derre ('Them There'). They topped the charts in Norway, but Nesbo continued working as a financial analyst, crunching numbers during the day and gigging at night. When commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with his band, he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel,Trade ReviewFilled with the right mix of disturbed villains, corruption and deranged scenarios to make it completely terrifying. Exactly what you want from a Nesbo novel * RTE Guide *Nesbo is a clever writer and plotter. Over the years he has built a brilliant cast of supporting characters to orbit Hole and now it is their time to shine… Yet again, Nesbo has succeeded in producing a multi-layered and intertwining story that makes your head spin, while delivering a masterclass in suspenseful writing * Sunday Express *Policeman Harry Hole is flawed, but all the more perfect because of it… Nesbo keeps everything hanging in the balance, just the way his fans like it * UK Regional Press Syndication *Police is a story replete with gory events, dark musings and a little social commentary * Sunday Business Post *Boasts the customary ability to render attempts at work and sleep futile until it is finished * Daily Telegraph *As usual, the brilliant Nesbo is several steps ahead of you in this endlessly twisting, multi-layered thriller that also shines a light on the murky areas of Norway’s upper echelons * Sun *Scandinavian crime thrillers don’t come much darker or more tense than the best-selling Harry Hole series, and this tenth outing for the Norwegian detective is the best yet * Sunday Mirror *

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Book SynopsisA skeleton is found half-buried in a dried out lake. The bones have been weighed down with an radio transmitter: is this a clue to the victim, and the killer's identity? Detective Erlendur is called in to investigate and discovers that there may be a connection with a group of students who were sent to study in East Germany during the Cold War.Trade ReviewA haunting, compassionate work * Observer *Indridason manages to keep the reader guessing about the identity of both killer and victim right to the last * Sunday Express *An absorbing story which confirms Indridason's place among the leading writers of Nordic crime fiction * Sunday Telegraph *Beautifully written and translated, the novel has both a strong sense of place and themes that transcend it; it confirms Indridason as one of those crime writers who rises above genre, combining suspense with moving insights into the human condition * Sunday Times *Indridason pieces together a convincing plot, while exploring universal issues of political idealism and shattered dreams * Daily Mirror *

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Book SynopsisSet against the backdrop of Russian high society, this novel charts the course of the doomed love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer who pursues Anna after becoming infatuated with her at a ball.Trade ReviewOne of the greatest love stories in world literature -- Vladimir NabokovTolstoy's historical and human sweep is breathtaking. His vision, humanity and his knowledge that love and pain are at the heart of life is the most important of all the profound truths revealed in this great novel -- Jonathan DimblebyIn Anna Karenina, Tolstoy got totally inside the mind of a woman who is prepared to lose everything for the sake of man and who is so much in love that she commits suicide. I don't like her as a woman, but I think it is a brilliant portrait, unequalled in literature -- Amanda Craig * Independent *I've read and re-read this novel and every time I find another layer in the story -- Philippa GregoryI first read Anna Karenina 20 years ago when travelling across the Peruvian desert on a long bus journey, and it has stayed with me ever since -- Hugh Thomson * Independent *

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Book SynopsisBook Two of 1Q84 ended with Aomame standing on the Metropolitan Expressway with a gun between her lips. She knows she is being hunted, and that she has put herself in terrible danger in order to save the man she loves. But things are moving forward, and Aomame does not yet know that she and Tengo are more closely bound than ever.Tengo is searching for Aomame, and he must find her before this world''s rules loosen up too much. He must find her before someone else does.Trade ReviewMurakami's magnum opus * Japan Times *1Q84 has a range and sophistication that surpasses anything else in his oeuvre. It is his most achieved novel; an epic in which form and content are neatly aligned... So like Murakami himself, I'll borrow from Orwell: 1Q84 is quite simply doubleplusgood * Independent on Sunday *1Q84 reads like a cross between Stieg Larsson and Roberto Bolaño... In its bones, this novel is a thriller * Daily Telegraph *It is a work of maddening brilliance and gripping originality, deceptively casual in style, but vibrating with wit, intellect and ambition -- Richard Lloyd Parry * The Times *Which other author can remind you simultaneously of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and JK Rowling, not merely within the same chapter but on the same page? Viewed through the "post-modern" lens, his exemplary blend of a light touch and weighty themes, of high literature and popular entertainment, ticks every box. Posh and pop, sublimity and superficiality, history and fantasy, trash and transcendence: they switch positions and then fuse -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe Story of the Stone (c.1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Bao-yu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Bao-chai, his parents'' choice of a wife for him, and the ethereal beauty Dai-yu. Through the changing fortunes of the Jia family, this rich, magical work sets worldly events - love affairs, sibling rivalries, political intrigues, even murder - within the context of the Buddhist understanding that earthly existence is an illusion and karma determines the shape of our lives.Trade Review“Filled with classical allusions, multilayered wordplay, and delightful poetry, Cao’s novel is a testament to what Chinese literature was capable of. Readers of English are fortunate to have David Hawkes and John Minford’s The Story of the Stone, which distills a lifetime of scholarship and reading into what is probably the finest work of Chinese-to-English literary translation yet produced. You will be rewarded every bit of attention you give it, many times over.” —SupChina, “The 100 China Books You Have to Read, Ranked” (#1)Table of ContentsThe Story of the Stone Volume 1Note on SpellingIntroductionChapter 1:Zhen Shi-yin makes the Stone's acquaintance in a dream; and Jia Yu-cun finds that poverty is not incompatible with romantic feelingsChapter 2:A daughter of the Jias ends her days in Yangchow city; and Leng Zi-xing discourses on the Jias of Rong-guo HouseChapter 3:Lin Ru-hai recommends a private tutor to his brother-in-law; and old lady Jia extends a compassionate welcome to the motherless childChapter 4:The Bottle-gourd girl meets and unfortunate young man; and the Bottle-gourd monk settles a protracted lawsuitChapter 5:Jia Bao-yu visits the Land of Illusion; and the fairy Disenchantment performs the 'Dream of Golden Days'Chapter 6:Jia Bao-yu conducts his first experiment in the Art of Love; and Grannie Liu makes her first entry into the Rong-guo mansionChapter 7:Zhou Rui's wife delivers palace flowers and finds Jia Lian pursuing night sports by day; Jia Bao-yu visits the Ning-guo mansion and has an agreeable collquy with Qin-shi's brotherChapter 8:Jia Bao-yu is allowed to see the strangely corresponding golden locket; and Xue Bao-chai has a predestined encounter with the Magic JadeChapter 9:A son is admonished and Li Gui recieves an alarming warning; a pupil is abused and Tealeaf throws the classroom in an uproarChapter 10:Widow Jin's self-interest gets the better of her righteous indignation; and Doctor Zhang's dianosis reveals the orgin of a puzzling diseaseChapter 11:Ning-guo House celebrates the birthday of an absent member; and Jia Rui conceives an illicit passion for his attractive cousinChapter 12:Wang Xi-feng sets a trap for her admirer; and Jia Rui looks into the wrong side of the mirrorChapter 13:Qin-shi posthumanously acquires the status of a Noble Dame; and Xi-feng takes on the management of a neighbouring establishmentChapter 14:Lin Ru-hai is conveyed to his last resting-place in Soochow; and Jia Bao-yu is presented to the Prince of Bei-jing at a roadside haltChapter 15:At Water-moon piory Xi-feng finds how much profit may be procured by the abuse of power; and Qin Zhong discovers the pleasures that are to be had sunder cover of darknessChapter 16:Jia Yuan-chun is selected for glorious promotion to the Imperial Bedchamber; and Qin Zhong is summoned for premature departure on the Journey into NightChapter 17:The inspection of the new garden becomes a test of talent; and Rong-guo House makes itself ready for an important visitorChapter 18:A brief family reunion is permitted by the magnanimity of a gracious Emperor; and an Imperial Concubine takes pleasure in the literacy progress of a younger brotherChapter 19:A very earnest young woman offers counsel by night; and a very endearing one is found to be a source of fragrance by dayChapter 20:Wang Xi-feng castigates a jealous attitude with some forthright speaking; and Lin Dai-yu makes a not unattractive speech impediment the subject of a jestChapter 21:Righteous Aroma discovers how to rebuke her master by saying nothing; and artful Patience is able to rescue hers by being somewhat less than truthfulChapter 22:Bao-yu finds Zen enlightenment in an operatic aria; and Jia Zheng sees portents of doom in lantern riddlesChapter 23:Words for the 'Western Chamber' supply a joke that offends; and songs from the 'Soul's Return' move a tender heart to anguishChapter 24:The Drunken Diamond shows nobility of character in handling his money; and the Quiet-voiced Girl provides material for fantasy by losing her handkerchiefChapter 25:Two cousins are subjected by witchcraft to the assaults of demons; and the Magic Jade meets an old acquaintance while rather the worse for wearChapter 26:A conversation on Wasp Waist Bridge is a cover for communication of a different kind; and a soliloquy overheard in the Naiad's House reveals unsuspected depths of feelingAppendixCharacters in Volume IGenealogical Tables

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Book SynopsisResurrection (1899) is the last of Tolstoy''s major novels. It tells the story of a nobleman''s attempt to redeem the suffering his youthful philandering inflicted on a peasant girl who ends up a prisoner in Siberia.Tolstoy''s vision of redemption achieved through loving forgiveness, and his condemnation of violence, dominate the novel. An intimate, psychological tale of guilt, anger, and forgiveness, Resurrection is at the same time a panoramic description of social life in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century, reflecting its author''s outrage at the social injustices of the world in which he lived.This edition, which updates a classic translation, has explanatory notes and a substantial introduction based on the most recent scholarship in the field. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewTolstoy magisterially condemns society's social inequities by holding a mirror up to its flawed face; gripping and sombre. * The Observer *

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Book SynopsisIn A Hero of Our Time, the first great Russian novel, a young officer, passionate and world-weary, is posted to the Caucasus and becomes involved in a series of adventures. A dazzlingly original work of fiction, the novel is newly translated together with Pushkin's travel narrative, A Journey to Arzrum, with introduction and notes.

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Book SynopsisA dark classic of Russia''s silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher''s descent into sadism, arson and murder.Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. As he pursues the idea of marrying to gain promotion, he descends into paranoia, sexual perversion, arson, torture and murder. Sologub''s anti-hero is one of the great comic monsters of twentieth-century fiction, subsequently lending his name to the brand of sado-masochism known as Peredonovism. The Little Demon (1907) made an immediate star of its author who, refuting suggestions that the work was autobiographical, stated ''No, my dear contemporaries ... it is about you''. This grotesque mirror of a spiritually bankrupt society is arguably the finest Russian novel to have come out of the Symbolist movTrade ReviewA novel that reigns supreme - or anti-supreme, if one prefers - in the black arts game * Boston Globe *

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Book Synopsis“One of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequaled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories.” —The GuardianA sensational tale of deceit and back-stabbing in an isolated community in which only Inspector Maigret can intervene“She came forward, the outlines of her figure blurred in the half-light....‘I gather you wish to talk to me, Inspector...but first of all please sit down...’ Her accent was more pronounced than Carl’s. Her voice sang, dropping on the last syllable of the longer words.”Maigret has been interrogating Carl Andersen for seventeen hours without a confession. He’s either innocent or a very good liar. So why was the body of a diamond merchant found at his isolated mansion? Why is his sister always shut away in her room? And why does everyone at Three Widows CrossrTrade ReviewCompelling, remorseless, brilliant. -- John GrayOne of the greatest writers of the twentieth century . . . Simenon was unequalled at making us look inside, though the ability was masked by his brilliance at absorbing us obsessively in his stories. * Guardian *A supreme writer . . . unforgettable vividness. * Independent *

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Book Synopsis''There they stood, bumbling into lines with a bit of difficulty: Mother Finland''s chosen sacrifice to world history''Unknown Soldiers follows the fates of a ramshackle troupe of machine-gunners in the Second World War, as they argue, joke, swear, cadge a loaf of bread or a cigarette, combat both boredom and horror in the swamps and pine forests - and discover that war will make or break them. One of Finland''s best-loved books, this gritty and unromantic depiction of battle honours the dogged determination of a country and the bonds of brotherhood forged between men at war, as they fight for their lives.''A rediscovered classic... profound and enriching ... Unknown Soldiers still has the power to shock'' HeraldTrade ReviewOne of the best war novels ever written * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThis is the first unexpurgated English edition of Curzio Malaparte’s legendary work The Skin. The book begins in 1943, with Allied forces cementing their grip on the devastated city of Naples. The sometime Fascist and ever-resourceful Curzio Malaparte is working with the Americans as a liaison officer. He looks after Colonel Jack Hamilton, “a Christian gentleman . . . an American in the noblest sense of the word,” who speaks French and cites the classics and holds his nose as the two men tour the squalid streets of a city in ruins where liberation is only another word for desperation. Veterans of the disbanded Italian army beg for work. A rare specimen from the city’s famous aquarium is served up at a ceremonial dinner for high Allied officers. Prostitution is rampant. The smell of death is everywhere.Subtle, cynical, evasive, manipulative, unnerving, always astonishing, Malaparte is a supreme artist of the unreliable, both the product and the prophet of a world gone rotten to the core.

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Book SynopsisOne of Elena Ferrante''s Top 40 Books by Women G.H., a well-to-do Rio sculptress, enters the room of her maid, which is as clear and white ''as in an insane asylum from which dangerous objects have been removed''. There she sees a cockroach - black, dusty, prehistoric - crawling out of the wardrobe and, panicking, slams the door on it. Her irresistible fascination with the dying insect provokes a spiritual crisis, in which she questions her place in the universe and her very identity, propelling her towards an act of shocking transgression. Clarice Lispector''s spare, deeply disturbing yet luminous novel transforms language into something otherworldly, and is one of her most unsettling and compelling works. Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her innovation in fiction brought her international renown. References to her literary work pervade the music and literature of Brazil and Latin America. She was born in the Ukraine in 1920, but in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Civil War, the family fled to Romania and eventually sailed to Brazil. She published her first novel, Near to the Wildheart in 1943 when she was just twenty-three, and the next year was awarded the Graça Aranha Prize for the best first novel. Many felt she had given Brazillian literature a unique voice in the larger context of Portuguese literature. After living variously in Italy, the UK, Switzerland and the US, in 1959, Lispector with her children returned to Brazil where she wrote her most influential novels including The Passion According to G.H. She died in 1977, shortly after the publication of her final novel, The Hour of the Star.Trade ReviewBrilliant ... Lispector should be on the shelf with Kafka and Joyce * Los Angeles Times *One of the twentieth century's most mysterious writers -- Orhan PamukThe premier Latin American woman prose writer of this century * The New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisIn Água Viva Clarice Lispector aims to ''capture the present''. Her direct, confessional and unfiltered meditations on everything from life and time to perfume and sleep are strange and hypnotic in their emotional power and have been a huge influence on many artists and writers, including one Brazilian musician who read it one hundred and eleven times. Despite its apparent spontaneity, this is a masterly work of art, which rearranges language and plays in the gaps between reality and fiction.Trade ReviewA bewitching, jewel-like book unlike anything in modern literature. Agua Viva baffles and inspires me ... Each word of the book lands with the sweet force of a blade ... crystalline -- Carlos Valladares * Gagosian Quarterly *An emblematic twentieth-century artist who belongs in the same pantheon as Kafka and Joyce * Edmund White *Lispector stands at the pinnacle of Brazil's impressive literary achievement * Washington Post Book World *One of the very great writers of the last century * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisFrom one of twentieth-century China''s greatest writers and the author of Lust, Caution, this is an unforgettable story of a love affair set in 1930s Shanghai. Manzhen is a young worker in a Shanghai factory, where she meets Shijun, the son of wealthy merchants. Despite family complications, they fall in love and begin to dream of a shared life together - until circumstances force them apart. When they are reunited after a separation of many years, can they start their relationship again? Or is it destined to be the romance of only half a lifetime? This affectionate and captivating novel tells the moving story of an enduring love affair, and offers a fascinating window onto Chinese life in the first half of the twentieth century.Eileen Chang was born in Shanghai in 1920. She studied literature at the University of Hong Kong but returned to Shanghai in 1941 during the Japanese occupation, where she estTrade ReviewIt took 46 years, but at long last English-language readers are now able to enjoy one of Eileen Chang's most popular works, Half a Lifelong Romance. A dramatic story of love, betrayal, opportunism and family oppression set in 1930s Shanghai, it is an enveloping, haunting and insightful read, rich in Chang's trademark passionate prose * Wall Street Journal *Eileen Chang is the fallen angel of Chinese literature -- Ang LeeA dazzling and distinctive fiction writer * New York Times Book Review *Chang's world is a stark and mysterious place where people strive to find their way in love but often fail under the pressures of family, tradition, and reputation * New Yorker *Karen S. Kingsbury's capable new translation of the novel * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration for such works as Joseph Heller''s Catch-22, Jaroslav Hašek''s black satire The Good Soldier Švejk is translated with an introduction by Cecil Parrott in Penguin Classics.Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austro-Hungarian army''s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful Švejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a ''little man'' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, The Good Soldier Švejk combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satire to create a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.Cecil Parrott''s vibrant, unabridged and unbowdlerized translation is accompanied by an intro

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Book SynopsisAfter coming through the blizzard that almost cost them everything, Jens and the boy are far from home, in a fishing community at the edge of the world. Taken in by the village doctor, the boy once again has the sense of being brought back from the grave. But this is a strange place, with otherworldly inhabitants, including flame-haired Álfheiður, who makes him wonder whether it is possible to love two women at once; he had believed his heart was lost to Ragnheiður, the daughter of the wealthy merchant in the village to which he must now inexorably return. Set in the awe-inspiring wilderness of the extreme north, The Heart of Man is a profound exploration of life, love and desire, written with a sublime simplicity. In this conclusion to an audacious trilogy, Stefánsson brings a poet's eye and a philosopher's insight to a tale worthy of the sagasmiths of old.Trade ReviewOverlays the colours of Dylan Thomas or Thomas Hardy on to spiritual scenery worthy of JRR Tolkien . . . Stefánsson's immersive prose swells, thunders and sparkles with all the shifting moods of the sea on an Icelandic summer's day . . . The Heart of Man completes . . . an epic trilogy -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Stefánson brilliantly conjures up the men's constant struggle against the relentless wind and cold, capturing their shifting emotional and physical states -- Lucy Dallas * Times Literary Supplement *Suspended between history and myth, this novel is peopled by uncanny characters roaming vast expanses. At hear this tale of tangled desire speaks lucidly of love, life and loss -- Richard Beard * Monocle *A satisfying showcase of an author critically acclaimed across Europe -- Val Nolan * Irish Examiner *Jón Kalman Stefánsson is a wonderful, exceptional writer. Whenever I read him I remember what writing - and the deceptively simple business of living - are all about. He is a timeless storyteller -- Carsten Jensen

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Dublin Literary Award"An absolute masterpiece. Packed with understated emotion, stunning from beginning to end" Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time"A masterful and moving work of literature" Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies"Easily among the best books I have ever read" Eileen Battersby, Irish Times"A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work" Charlie Connolly, New European"A blunt, brilliant book" Tom Graham, Financial TimesNobody can leave an island. An island is a cosmos in a nutshell, where the stars slumber in the grass beneath the snow. But occasionally someone tries . . . Ingrid Barrøy is born on an island that bears her name - a holdfast for a single family, their livestock, their crops, their hopes and dreams.Her father dreams of building a quay that will connect them to the mainland, but closer ties to the wider world come at a price. Her mother has her own dreams - more children, a smaller island, a different life - and there is one question Ingrid must never ask her.Island life is hard, a living scratched from the dirt or trawled from the sea, so when Ingrid comes of age, she is sent to the mainland to work for one of the wealthy families on the coast.But Norway too is waking up to a wider world, a modern world that is capricious and can be cruel. Tragedy strikes, and Ingrid must fight to protect the home she thought she had left behind.Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett and Don ShawTrade ReviewEven by his high standards, his magnificent new novel The Unseen is Jacobsen's finest to date, as blunt as it is subtle and is easily among the best books I have ever read. -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times. *A beautifully crafted novel . . . Quite simply a brilliant piece of work . . . Rendered beautifully into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw, The Unseen is a towering achievement that would be a deserved Booker International winner. -- Charlie Connolly * New European. *A profound interrogation of freedom and fate, as well as a fascinating portrait of a vanished time, written in prose as clear and washed clean as the world after a storm. -- Justine Jordan * Guardian. *The subtle translation, with its invented dialect, conveys a timeless, provincial voice . . . The Unseen is a blunt, brilliant book. -- Tom Graham * Financial Times. *A modern masterpiece . . . A central novel in Norwegian literature. * Klassekampen. *This is simply a beautiful and moving read . . . A master's hand turning the small into the great. * V.G. *Roy Jacobsen at his very best . . . A fantastic novel. * Dagbladet. *Jacobsen's lyrical voice has been gorgeously translated into English by Don Bartlett and Don Shaw -- Misha Hoekstra * The Riveter *This beautifully atmospheric novel, set on a small island off Norway, where weather and the power of the sea shape lives, is a compelling story of one family, generations of which have lived on the island that bears the family name. -- Books of the Year * Glasgow Herald. *A beautiful and rich depiction of place and of family life . . . an outstanding achievement. * New European, Books of the Year. *

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Book SynopsisMicromegas is a six-hundred-and-fifty-year-old, thirty-nine-kilometre-high giant from the planet Sirius who can speak a thousand languages and has been expelled from his homeland for writing a heretical tract. On Saturn he befriends the local secretary of the Academy of Sciences – a comparative dwarf, being only two kilometres high – and the two decide to travel to earth together, where they will make startling discoveries about human nature. At once a story-length Bildungsroman and a philosophical tale, ‘Micromegas’ is a classic Enlightenment text, and is accompanied in this volume by thirteen other pieces – including ‘Plato’s Dream’ and ‘Memnon’ – all in a new translation by acclaimed French specialist Douglas Parmée.Trade ReviewVoltaire will always be regarded as the biggest name of recent literature, and perhaps throughout all the centuries. -- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThis welcome selection of fourteen of the lesser-known fables and parables comes in a wonderfully loose-limbed and unstuffy translation which shows both Voltaire – and the late Douglas Parmée – on top form. * TLS *

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Book SynopsisNow bankrupt after some failed gambles, Aristide Saccard, the former kingpin of the Paris Stock Exchange, desperately wants to get back to the top of the financial pile. When his powerful brother, the government minister Eugène Rougon, refuses to help him, he forms a partnership with the engineer Hamelin and founds the Banque Universelle, which speculates on public works in the Middle East. But as his greed and desire to outplay his rivals gets the better of him, the dashing and ruthless Saccard perilously begins to inflate the value of his enterprise using rumour, intrigue, financial manipulation and all the other tricks in the book. Inspired by real events and meticulously researched by Zola, Money is, in the wake of recent financial scandals, an all-too-topical exploration of the dynamics of greed, the excesses of capitalism and its dangerous relationship with politics and the press.Trade ReviewI consider Zola’s books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh

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Book SynopsisComing back to the "nest" of his family home in Russia after years of fruitless endeavours away from his roots, Lavretsky decides to turn his back on the vacuous salons of Paris and his frivolous and unfaithful wife Varvara Pavlovna. On his return he meets Liza, the daughter of one of his cousins, whom he had known when they were children and who rekindles in him long-smothered feelings of love. News of Varvara's death arrive from France, offering Lavretsky the prospect of a new life, but a cruel twist threatens to shatter his dreams and forces him to re-evaluate his plans. Hailed as a masterpiece of Russian literature, A Nest of the Gentry - Turgenev's most successful and widely read novel, here presented in a new translation by Michael Pursglove - deals with the personal struggles of the individual in a period of turbulent social change.Trade ReviewTurgenev to me is the greatest writer there ever was. -- Ernest Hemingway

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Several years after emigrating from the USSR, the author discovers the battered suitcase he had brought with him gathering dust at the back of a wardrobe. As he opens the suitcase, the items he finds inside take on a riotously funny life of their own as Dovlatov inventories the circumstances under which he acquired them. A poplin shirt evokes a story of courtship and marriage, a pair of boots calls up the hilarious conclusion to an official banquet, two pea-green crêpe socks bring back memories of his attempt to become a black-market racketeer, while a double-breasted suit reminds him of when he was approached by the KGB to spy on a Swedish writer. Imbued with a comic nostalgia and overlaid with Dovlatov’s characteristically dark-edged humour and wry power of observation, The Suitcase is a profoundly human, delightfully ironic novel from one of the finest satirists of the twentieth century.

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Book SynopsisThe Designated Successor was found dead in his bedroom at dawn on December 14.Did he kill himself or was he murdered? This question slices through Ismail Kadare's masterful psychological thriller. As the state insists that the future leader died by his own hand, the rest of the world begins to have doubts. As the tension builds and rumours escalate, Kadare draws us into a nightmarish world controlled by rules no one understands, blending dream and reality to produce a mystery and a thriller that seduces and surprises up to the last page.Trade ReviewBrilliantly recreates the atmosphere of shadowy fear, rumours and recrimination in Albania. The Successor provides a mesmerically readable parable about the abuse of state power. * * Observer * *One of the most compelling novelists now writing. * * Wall Street Journal * *Suffused with the power of thought and feeling. Above all, Kadare creates a haunting sense of the absurd. * * Sunday Times * *From his youthful obsessions with Shakespeare and Homer, Kadare has retained not just a love of mystery and wit and a facility for clear, bleak language, but a sense of the text's own mystery and the impossibility of fully penetrating it... There is certainly nothing run-of-the-mill about Kadare's biting parable of tyranny. * * Australian Financial Review * *

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Book SynopsisWalking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are The Others. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to The Dark or The Light.In The Day Watch, second book of the Night Watch trilogy, Alice, a young but powerful Dark Other, attends a planning meeting with her comrades in the Day Watch. The team is on a mission to apprehend an uninitiated Other, a practicing Dark witch who has so far eluded the bureaux responsible for finding and initiating unlicensed practitioners of magic. It seems a routine operation. But when they arrive, the Night Watch team has already made the arrest. A fierce battle ensues, during which Alice almost dies. Drained of her powers, she is sent to recuperate at a youth camp near the Black Sea. There she meets Igor; the chemistry between them is instant and irresistible. But then comes a sTrade ReviewPraise for The Night Watch:This modern day mythical fantasy is Anne Rice on an epic scale, a hugely imagined world. A chiller thriller from cold of Russia, this one's been selling like hot cakes around the world. * Sunday Sport *So good that the film feels like a trailer for it * Time Out *JK Rowling, Russian style... Arguably Russia's richest and most famous literary talent of the moment. [a] cracking read, owing more to Rowling or Philip Pullman than it does to the horror genre... Surprisingly readable and addictive... It relies on suspense and psychological drama and a good dose of humour - rather than blood and guts. * Daily Telegraph *When a particular kind of story, heavily based in one culture, gets transferred into a culture distinctly different, something magical happens. Something modern, new and distinctly creepy... The magic is rooted in the realities of modern Russia. Inventive, sardonic, and imbued with a surprising the sense that, for this author and his audience, much of this stuff is new-minted. * Independent *

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Book SynopsisSERGEI LUKYANENKO is the author of over 25 books. The Night Watch' series has sold over two million hardbacks. The Night Watch and The Day Watch were both made into internationally successful films. Sergei Lukyanenko lives in Moscow.Trade ReviewPraise for The Night WatchJK Rowling, Russian style.... [a] cracking read, owing more to Rowling or Philip Pullman than it does to the horror genre... Surprisingly readable and addictive...it relies on suspense and psychological drama and a good dose of humour - rather than blood and guts. * Daily Telegraph *Magical... Modern, new and distinctly creepy... the magic is rooted in the realities of modern Russia. Inventive, sardonic, and imbued with a surprising the sense that, for this author and his audience, much of this stuff is new-minted. * Independent *So good that the film feels like a trailer for it * Time Out *[a] dazzling fantasy * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisYukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) Trade ReviewIn Runaway Horses Mishima writes of a desire to destroy or subvert beauty at its height, thus strengthening its appeal and preventing its slow decay * New York Times *One of the great writers of the twentieth century * Los Angeles Times *Mishima's novels exude a monstrous and compulsive weirdness, and seem to take place in a kind of purgatory for the depraved -- Angela CarterThis tetralogy is considered one of Yukio Mishima's greatest works. It could also be considered a catalogue of Mishima's obsessions with death, sexuality and the samurai ethic. Spanning much of the 20th century, the tetralogy begins in 1912 when Shigekuni Honda is a young man and ends in the 1960s with Honda old and unable to distinguish reality from illusion. En route, the books chronicle the changes in Japan that meant the devaluation of the samurai tradition and the waning of the aristocracy * Washington Post *Mishima succeeded, unlike any other writer before him, in creating a glittering alloy of Eastern and Western traditions, classical and contemporary forms * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisFinalist for the Man Booker International Prize 2015 Michel is ten years old, living in Pointe Noire, Congo, in the 1970s. His mother sells peanuts at the market, his father works at the Victory Palace Hotel, and brings home books left behind by the white guests. Planes cross the sky overhead, and Michel and his friend Lounès dream about the countries where they'll land. While news comes over the radio of the American hostage crisis in Tehran, the death of the Shah, the scandal of the Boukassa diamonds, Michel struggles with the demands of his twelve year old girlfriend Caroline, who threatens to leave him for a bully in the football team. But most worrying for Michel, the witch doctor has told his mother that he has hidden the key to her womb, and must return it before she can have another child. Somehow he must find it. Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty is a humorous and poignant account of an African childhood, drawn from Alain Mabanckou's life.Trade ReviewIncomparable * Financial Times *Mabanckou's irreverent wit and madcap energy have made him a big name in France -- Giles Foden, author of the Last King of ScotlandA novelist of exuberant originality ... refreshing logic pervades this delightful comic novel in which the boy narrator's ingenuousness is teamed with a sly authorial wit ... Its seductive charm and intelligence recentre the world so that all readers can indeed become Congolese -- Maya Jaggi * Guardian *Perhaps his best yet ... Michel's voice is compelling ... he is, in fact, incomparable -- David Evans * Financial Times *Clear-eyed warmth and charm ... will cleanse the palate and refresh the spirit -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *

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Book SynopsisYukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committTrade Review[a] beautiful and austere tale… written in lush, languid prose, filled with beautiful sentences and turns of phrase, this is one of the most enjoyable books I have read this year * Reading Matters *Romantic obsession and sexual intrigue meet in the sumptuous historical melodrama * Variety *An austere love story, probably my favourite of his novels -- David Mitchell * Independent on Sunday *Mishima is the Japanese Hemingway * Life magazine *This tetralogy is considered one of Yukio Mishima's greatest works. It could also be considered a catalogue of Mishima's obsessions with death, sexuality and the samurai ethic. Spanning much of the 20th century, the tetralogy begins in 1912 when Shigekuni Honda is a young man and ends in the 1960s with Honda old and unable to distinguish reality from illusion. En route, the books chronicle the changes in Japan that meant the devaluation of the samurai tradition and the waning of the aristocracy. * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisIt is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary'Rediscover Kafka''s classic work of psychological horror. The Trial is the terrifying tale of Joseph K, a respectable functionary in a bank, who is suddenly arrested and must defend his innocence against a charge about which he can get no information. A nightmare vision of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the insanity of twentieth-century totalitarianism has resonated with readers for generations.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PHILLIPE SANDSTrade ReviewIt is the fate and perhaps the greatness of that work that it offers everything and confirms nothing -- Albert CamusThe Dante of the Twentieth Century -- W. H. AudenNo other voice has borne truer witness to the dark of our times -- George Steiner

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