Fiction in translation

Book Synopsis'A fast-paced thriller . . . An impressive debut' - FINANCIAL TIMESThe incredible thriller about a codeword, an extraordinary murder - and the detective who must solve both to stop a deadly plot fifty years in the making. Geiger is the perfect read for fans of I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.__________________The landline rings as Agneta is waving off her grandchildren. Just one word comes out of the receiver: 'Geiger'. For decades, Agneta has always known that this moment would come, but she is shaken. She knows what it means.Retrieving her weapon from its hiding place, she attaches the silencer and creeps up behind her husband before pressing the barrel to his temple.Then she squeezes the trigger and disappears - leaving behind her wallet and keys.The extraordinary murder is not Sara Nowak's case. But she was once close to those affected and, defying regulations, she joins the investigation. What Sara doesn't know is that the mysterious codeword is just the first piece in the puzzle of an intricate and devastating plot fifty years in the making . . .Praise for Geiger:'Exciting, extremely clever, incredible. An instant classic' - TOM MARCUS, author of SOLDIER SPY'An astonishing, assured and terrifying debut . . . Remarkable' - DAVID YOUNG, author of STASI CHILD'Tense enough that your muscles will ache by the end' - HELEN FIELDS, author of PERFECT REMAINS'An intriguing masterpiece that keeps you guessing right to the end' - Jo, Netgalley Reviewer*Translated from Swedish by Ian Giles*Trade ReviewA fast-paced thriller . . . An impressive debut * FINANCIAL TIMES *An astonishing, assured and terrifying debut. Many books have pretensions to be the next Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but Geiger actually delivers - reaching that level and beyond. Remarkable. * DAVID YOUNG, award-winning author of STASI CHILD *Exciting, extremely clever, incredible. An instant classic * TOM MARCUS, bestselling author of SOLDIER SPY *The very definition of a thriller. Plotting as good as Lee Child, pacing as good as Harlan Coben but with a completely original voice. Absolutely brilliant * HELEN FIELDS, author of PERFECT REMAINS *If a fiendishly twisting tale floats your spy thriller boat, then the electrifying Geiger is guaranteed to spark a reading frenzy as Skördeman slowly and intriguingly reveals some hidden and disturbing truths, and ramps up the tension to breaking point * LANCASHIRE POST *Expect a blockbuster movie * SAGA MAGAZINE *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE BERNARD SHAW PRIZEA woman's life, erupting with brilliance and promise, is fissured by betrayal and the pressures of duty. What had once seemed a pastoral family idyll has become a trap, and she struggles between being the wife and mother she is bound to be and wanting to do and be so much more.The woman in question is Sylvia Plath in the final year of her life. As Plath's marriage to Ted Hughes unravels through the heady days of their first summer in Devon together, Sylvia turns increasingly to writing to express her pain and loss, yet also her resilience and power. She has decided to die, but the art she creates in her final weeks will set her name, and the world, ablaze.Trade ReviewAn audacious, gripping novel . . . a book for our times * * Guardian * *Euphoria is about the fissures between motherhood, love and creativity but is also a celebration of Plath's power * * Evening Standard * *Compelling and visceral * * Irish Examiner * *A novel about the conflicted emotional underbelly of female experience - including childbirth, desire, envy, rage, insecurity, ambition . . . Brave * * Times Literary Supplement * *A sensitive and artistic account of a woman attempting to write herself out of oblivion . . . not a book about death, it is a book about art, more specifically, female art, and its resilience and endurance * * Sunday Business Post * *Compelling * * BBC History Magazine * *Imagines the hopes, fears, dreams and memoirs of [Plath's] final months, as well as the growing tensions between the worlds of creativity and domesticity. Based on archival research but explicitly a work of fiction, Elin Cullhed's book aims to focus not on Plath's death but instead on the complexities and contradictions of her life * * History Revealed * *

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Book SynopsisDulce Chacón's book has had an immense success in Spain, no doubt because the novelist speaks with a just and powerful voice, and because she has allowed women - the most anonymous, the most suppressed, the most silenced - to speak out" Le MondeIt is 1939. In the Ventas prison in Madrid a group of women have been incarcerated. Their crime is to have supported or fought on the Republican side in Spain's cruel and devastating Civil War. Chief among them are Hortensia, who fought with the militia and is pregnant by her husband Felipe - a man still at large and fighting against Franco's dictatorship - and who lives with the knowledge that she will be shot after she gives birth; sixteen-year-old Elvira, who tried to leave Spain with her mother, but was arrested by the Falangists while she was boarding their ship; Tomasa, whose husband, four sons and daughter-in-law were thrown off a bridge; and Pepita, Hortensia's sister, who from outside the prison acts as messenger between her and her husband.Dulce Chacón's deeply moving novel is based on the actual testimonies of a number of women who survived the Spanish Civil War, and suffered imprisonment under the France regime, as well as on accounts of others who died fighting for freedom. A bestseller in Spain, where it was voted 'Book of the year', The Sleeping Voice is remarkable for its combination of dramatic intensity and historical authenticity.Trade Review'Dulce Chacón's book has had an immense success in Spain, no doubtbecause the novelist speaks with a just and powerful voice, and becauseshe has allowed women - the most anonymous, the most suppressed, themost silenced - to speak out.' Martine Silber, Le Monde

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2019 'I am astonished by Four Soldiers. I have never read anything like it, yet it is one of those books you feel must always have existed, a classic of writing about the human condition... A small miracle' Hilary Mantel 1919. The Russian Civil War. It is the harsh dead of winter, as four soldiers set up camp in a forest somewhere near the Romanian front line. There is a lull in the fighting, so their days are filled with precious hours of freedom, enjoying the tranquillity of a nearby pond and trying to forget their terrifying nightmares, all the while talking, smoking and waiting. Waiting for spring to come, waiting for their battalion to move on, waiting for the inevitable resumption of violence. Tightly focused and simply told, this is a story of friendship and the fragments of happiness that can illuminate the darkness of war.

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Book SynopsisA man who has come from nothing, from poverty and loss, finds himself a beautiful wife, his dream love. When she vanishes without a trace, he sets up a small café in her favourite spot on the edge of the South China Sea, hoping she'll return. Instead, he is confronted by the man he suspects may be responsible for everything he has suffered: Luo Yiming, a prominent businessman and philanthropist who holds the small town in his sway. In the few moments the two men spend together, Luo is driven mad. So begins a story of desire and betrayal set against the tumultuous first decade of Taiwan's 21st Century. The recipient of all three of Taiwan's major literary prizes, My Enemy's Cherry Tree is a story of love, money and coercion, in which two men who have sought to acquire something unattainable, instead lose something irreplaceable.

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Book SynopsisThe Village, Ivan Bunin's first full-length novel, is a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of rural life in south-west Russia. Set at the time of the 1905 Revolution and centring on episodes in the lives of a landowner and his self-educated peasant brother, the book follows characters sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarcely human. A triumph of bitter realism, Bunin's cruel, lyrical prose reveals the pettiness, violence and ignorance of life on the land, foreshadowing the turbulences of Russia in the twentieth century.Trade ReviewLike Chekhov, Bunin matches the most elegant, economical prose to the coarsest and most profligate characters. * TLS * I do not know any other writer whose external world is so closely tied to another, whose sensations are more exact and indispensable, and whose world is more genuine and also more unexpected. -- Andre Gide

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Book SynopsisProust's only other work of fiction published in his lifetime apart from the monumental novel cycle 'In Search of Lost Time, Pleasures and Days' takes the reader on a journey through the high-society circles of fin-de-siecle Paris, presenting the lives, loves and attitudes of a host of unforgettable characters.Trade ReviewPleasure and Days yields the earliest blooms from [Proust's] emerging, lifelong fascination with the labyrinths of snobbery and sexuality in Parisian high society. * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the author of one of the most poignant and enduringly popular novels of the twentieth century, left only a few other pieces of fiction when he died prematurely at the age of sixty. Childhood Memories and Other Stories, here presented in a new translation by Stephen Parkin and including previously deleted passages and the unpublished fragment ‘Torretta’, collects all of Lampedusa’s extant shorter fiction and provides a revealing glimpse into the writer’s workshop and the background to the composition of his masterpiece. From the atmospheric recollections of the Palazzo Lampedusa and the Palazzo Filangeri Cutò at the turn of the twentieth century in ‘Childhood Memories’ to the delightful fable ‘The Siren’, from the gently humorous, bitter­sweet tones of ‘Joy and the Law’ to ‘The Blind Kittens’ – the first chapter of what was intended to be a sequel to The Leopard – this volume showcases Lampedusa’s unparalleled ob­ser­vational powers and narrative skills.Trade ReviewThis is a bundle of his short fiction and (the pearl) his memories of his childhood in a lost world of almost unimaginable privilege and beauty. * The Times *Handsome book... Parkin's translation does justice to Lampedusa's elegant, elaborate prose… The prose flows with the allegro and cadences of a Mozart piano composition. * TLS *[The Siren] is an enigmatic, tantalizing and haunting tale of rare beauty which glints like a finely cut diamond. * TLS *Lampedusa wrote two masterpieces and this, as bizarre as it sounds, is the other one. * The Telegraph *A man with the deep soul of an Old European, who was wise and witty. * The Lady *

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Book SynopsisWhile at a party organized by the local landowner for the officers of his brigade, the shy and awkward Ryabovich is suddenly kissed by an unknown woman in a dark room. This unexpected, electrifying encounter, which he relives in his mind day after day, marks a turning point for Ryabovich, showing him that everything in life – joy, sorrow, hope – is equally pointless and subject to chance. One of Chekhov’s most admired stories, ‘The Kiss’ is joined in this volume by six other celebrated tales in a new translation by Hugh Aplin: ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’, ‘Ward Six’, ‘The Black Monk’, ‘The House with a Mezzanine’, ‘The Bishop’ and ‘Peasants’ – making this an indispensable collection for those wanting to discover Chekhov at his creative best.Trade ReviewWhat writers influenced me as a young man? Chekhov! As a dramatist? Chekhov! As a story writer? Chekhov! -- Tennessee Williams The virtue of this story is its completeness, its summoning of human feelings perfectly matched to the events that produce them. * The Independent *Table of ContentsTHIS VOLUME INCLUDES: The Lady with the Little Dog The Kiss Ward Number Six The Black Monk The House with the Mezzanine The Peasants

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Book SynopsisAlongside his monumental Zibaldone (Notebooks) and the poems collected in Canti, which make him one of Italy’s greatest and best-loved poets, Giacomo Leopardi penned a number of fictional pieces, mostly in the form of gently humorous dialogues, in which he dealt with philosophical ideas and many of the metaphysical questions that preoccupied his restless spirit. First published in 1827 and here presented in a new translation by J.G. Nichols along with Thoughts, Leopardi’s own selected pearls of wisdom and gems of social observation, Moral Fables will enchant both those who are familiar with and those who are new to the works of Italy’s last great polymath.

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Book SynopsisWhen Céline’s first novel, Journey to the End of the Night was first published in 1932, it created an instant scandal, being extravagantly praised by its supporters and savagely attacked by its horrified opponents. Four years later came the sequel, Death on Credit. Both were a new kind of novel, frank about the author’s thoughts and actions in ways that readers had never encountered, ultra-realistic – and full of incidents that could not possibly be true to life – and characters that stretched the imagination. In Death on Credit, Ferdinand Bardamu, Céline’s alter ego, is a doctor in Paris, treating the poor who seldom pay him but who take every advantage of his availability. The action is not continuous but goes back in time to earlier memories and often moves into fantasy, especially in Bardamu’s sexual escapades; the style becomes deliberately rougher and sentences disintegrate to catch the flavour of the teeming world of everyday Parisian tragedies, the struggle to make a living, illness, venereal disease, the sordid stories of families whose destiny is governed by their own stupidity, malice, lust and greed. This fascinating book by one of the greatest twentieth-century novelists is an unforgettable experience for the reader.Trade ReviewThe most blackly humorous and disenchanted voice in all of French literature. * London Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisThe notorious adventurer and seducer Giacomo Casanova tells of his travels – on the run from the authorities of his native Venice – around northern Europe, poking fun at the ruling classes he encounters there, before focusing on a pivotal incident that occurs in Warsaw. Insulted by a Polish count over an Italian ballerina, Casanova finds himself forced to challenge his rival to a duel, and the sequence of events and their aftermath are described with gusto by the narrator. A rollicking autobiographical account by one of the most iconic figures of eighteenth-century Europe, The Duel is presented here with an extract about the same event from Casanova’s memoirs, written fifteen years later.Trade ReviewThe remarkable thing about Giacomo Casanova is that not only did he have a bewilderingly eventful life, not only was he a thinker of wide reading and great shrewdness, but he also knew how to tell a tale as well as the cleverest of novelists. -- Tim Parks

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Book SynopsisOn a visit to a provincial town to see his sister Nina who is suffering from cancer, Alexei Laptev, who works for his father’s Moscow haberdashery business, falls in love with Yulia, the daughter of her doctor, and proposes to her. Although she does not reciprocate his feelings, she agrees to marry him and live with him in the capital, where the couple’s relationship is marred by tensions: Yulia is filled with regrets about her choice and boredom with her new existence, while Alexei is nagged by the suspicion that she married him for his money alone. However, as time passes and misfortune strikes, they both learn to reassess all of their assumptions. Chekhov’s second longest prose work after The Steppe, Three Years is, in the author’s own words, “a novel of Moscow life” and an examination of its merchant classes. A powerful story of redemption and the nuances of human relationships, the novella helped cement Chekhov’s reputation as a major figure in Russian literature.Trade ReviewWhat writers influenced me as a young man? Chekhov! As a dramatist? Chekhov! As a story writer? Chekhov! -- Tennessee Williams

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Book SynopsisNathanael remains haunted by his childhood fear that the lawyer Coppelius, a strange night-time visitor who used to come to his house to conduct alchemical experiments with his father – the latter dying as a consequence of one of these sessions – was none other than the Sandman, a mythical figure who was said to steal the eyes of children who refused to go to sleep. When a mysterious Italian salesman comes to town, Nathanael’s suspicions are reawakened, pushing him to the brink of madness as extraordinary events unfold. First published in 1816, this classic of German Gothic fiction has enthralled generations ever since, and has spawned countless interpretations by critics intrigued by its powerful symbolism. Sigmund Freud famously examined the novella in relation to his concept of the “Uncanny”, and an extract from this analysis is included in this volume.Trade ReviewE.T.A. Hoffmann belongs to the eternal guild of poets and visionaries who take revenge on the life that is tormenting them by showing it examples of forms more colourful and diverse than reality can manage to convey. - Stefan ZweigTable of ContentsThis edition contains a note on the text, notes and an extract from Sigmund Freud's The Uncanny

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Book SynopsisGerda Persson has lain dead for three days. Her life seems to have been quite ordinary. Until the freezer in her home is opened. It is full of books, neatly stacked and wrapped in clingfilm, a thick layer of ice covering them - all by the same prize-winning author, all with handwritten dedications to Gerda.What story do these books have to tell? And what is their connection to a young boy found abandoned in an amusement park? Shadow is an utterly compelling novel of dark family secrets, murder and betrayal, which will keep you gripped until its final thrilling revelations.Trade ReviewAlvtegen's chilling novels are head and shoulders above most of the Scandi crew and...remind one forcefully of the early Barbara Vine novels. ... [Shadow] won't make you feel good about humankind, but it will keep you reading under the duvet during the small hours. -- Carla McKay * * The Daily Mail * *A truly irresistible read. * * Skånska Dagbladet * *Karin Alvtegen has become one of the greatest in the genre referred to as the psychological thriller . . . Shadow is . . . an excellent novel, suspenseful and intelligent and exceptionally well written. * * Eskilstuna-Kuriren * *Shadow is a classic Alvtegen novel - but with 'extra everything' . . . Like in her previous novels, Alvtegen moves aptly and confidently between odd characters and 'normal people', ordinary, everyday situations and disastrous moments . . . Once you've been properly sucked into the story, you are lost. * * Östgöta-Correspondenten * *Karin Alvtegen in brilliant shape . . . I read without stopping and with mounting excitement to see how Karin Alvtegen will tie it all together in the end. As the pro she is, she manages to to do just that, and the story builds up towards its dramatic and entirely unexpected denouement . . . Karin Alvtegen's new novel offers nearly four hundred pages of pure suspense. * * Jönköpings-Posten * *

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Book SynopsisThe Sea Cloak is a collection of 11 stories by the author, journalist, and campaigner, Nayrouz Qarmout. Drawing from her own experiences growing up in a Syrian refugee camp, as well as her current life in Gaza, these stories stitch together a patchwork of different perspectives into what it means to be a woman in Palestine today. Whether following the daily struggles of orphaned children fighting to survive in the rubble of recent bombardments, or mapping the complex, cultural tensions between different generations of refugees in wider Gazan society, these stories offer rare insights into one of the most talked about, but least understood cities in the Middle East. Taken together, the collection affords us a local perspective on a global story, and it does so thanks to a cast of (predominantly female) characters whose vantage point is rooted, firmly, in that most cherished of things, the home. Translated from the Arabic by Perween Richards.Trade Review'All the arts are close to us because they allow us to recontextualise, to understand where we are, what we are, who we are. The Sea Cloak by Nayrouz Qarmout re-contextualises things so we really understand the world from the point of view we always knew was there.' - Ali Smith; 'Explosive, resonant images are conjured in Qarmout's confident, arresting voice.' - The Guardian

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Book SynopsisNo Presents Please is a vivid evocation of city life, exploring the sub-locales and spatial identities of Mumbai and the struggles of small-town migrants.Jayant Kaikini’s gaze takes in the people living on the margins – a bus driver who, when denied annual leave, steals the bus to travel home; a slum dweller who catches cats and sells them for pharmaceutical testing; a father at his wit’s end who takes his mischievous son to a reform institution. From Irani cafes to chawls, old cinema halls to local trains, the author seeks out and illuminates moments and feelings of existential anxiety, pathos and tenderness. In these sixteen prize-winning stories, cracks in the curtains of the ordinary open up to possibilities that might not have existed, but for this city, which surprises with its epiphanies, fantasies and ambitions.

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Book SynopsisSantiago, Chile. The city is covered in ash. Three children of ex-militants are facing a past they can neither remember nor forget. Felipe sees dead bodies on every corner of the city, counting them up in an obsessive quest to square these figures with the official death toll. He is searching for the perfect zero, a life with no remainder. Iquela and Paloma, too, are searching for a way to live on. When the body of Paloma's mother is lost in transit, the three take a hearse and a bottle of pisco up the cordillera for a road trip with a difference.Intense, intelligent, and extraordinarily sensitive to the shape and weight of words, this remarkable debut presents a new way to count the cost of a pain that stretches across generations.Trade Review`The Remainder controls a remarkable range of registers (it is, by turns, lyrical, elegiac, sensual, funny, tragic) ... The author of The Remainder, like her characters, is obsessed with words, those `cracks in language' that house our particular ways of understanding things; thanks, among other things, to the meticulous, obsessive attention to detail of her language, this novel is sure to endure.' Edmundo Paz Soldan, author and professor of Latin American literature at Cornell University`A triumphant debut.' Antonio Skarmeta, El Mercurio ---- `The Remainder redefines the political novel ... The voices in The Remainder are some of the most powerful to have come out of Latin America in the last year.' Barbara Perez, `Granta en Espanol, 5 years later',Instrucciones de Uso ---- `A Chilean road trip reveals new ways to think about historical memory.' Alba Lara, Iowa Literaria ---- `A fundamental book about what it means to mourn the past, about the remainders of a history that refuses to be forgotten. This is the debut we all wish we had written. A spirited, brave, urgent book, capable of weaving the political and the poetic.' Carlos Fonseca ---- `One of the best publications of 2015.' Patricia Espinosa, Las Ultimas Noticias ---- `[a] darkly comic road trip ... [Trabucco-Zeran's] spring-heeled prose moves lightly from lyrical to demotic, bawdy to elegiac.' The Spectator ---- 'intelligent and immersive ... elegaic' TLS ---- 'In a notable translation by Sophie Hughes, Zeran's lyricism and eye for detail shine on the page ... There is plenty to commend in the book's intentions, and in its elegiac ambitions.' The Irish Times ---- `[The Remainder] tells us ... everything about what it is like to grow up in the shadow of other people's unhappiness.' The Big Issue ---- `Striking ... rendered with impressive fluidity.' Katie Da Cunha Lewin,The White Review ---- `[a] darkly comic road trip ... [Trabucco-Zeran's] spring-heeled prose moves lightly from lyrical to demotic, bawdy to elegiac.' The Spectator ---- 'intelligent and immersive ... elegaic' TLS ----'In a notable translation by Sophie Hughes, Zeran's lyricism and eye for detail shine on the page ... There is plenty to commend in the book's intentions, and in its elegiac ambitions.' The Irish Times ---- `[The Remainder] tells us ... everything about what it is like to grow up in the shadow of other people's unhappiness.' The Big Issue ---- `Sharp and colourful, contrasting well with her characters' furious attempts to come to terms with the past ... The Remainder is well translated, stimulating and grapples skilfully with a complex subject.' Michael Eaude, Literary Review----`Thanatofiction at its best and a debut that leaves the reader wanting more.' Kirkus Reviews

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Book SynopsisAsle is an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway. In nearby Bjørgvin another Asle, also a painter, is lying in the hospital, consumed by alcoholism. Asle and Asle are doppelgängers – two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions. In this final instalment of Jon Fosse’s Septology, the major prose work by ‘the Beckett of the twenty-first century’ (Le Monde), we follow the lives of the two Asles as younger adults in flashbacks: the narrator meets his lifelong love, Ales; joins the Catholic Church; and makes a living by trying to paint away all the pictures stuck in his mind. A New Name: Septology VI-VII is a transcendent exploration of the human condition, and a radically other reading experience – incantatory, hypnotic, and utterly unique.Trade Review‘Fosse’s portrait of memory remarkably refuses. It will not be other than: indelible as paint, trivial as nail clippings, wound like damp string. This book reaches out of its frame like a hand.’ — Jesse Ball, author of Census‘Jon Fosse is a major European writer.’ — Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of My Struggle‘Fosse intuitively — and with great artistry — conveys ... a sense of wonder at the unfathomable miracle of life, even in its bleakest and loneliest moments. In this fine conclusion to Septology, the religious subtexts of the project’s companion pieces at last draw into focus. The link between Asle’s art and his faith finds subtle expression in the parallels between the haunting oil painting of two crossed lines, which the narrator contemplates at the beginning of each section, and the cross made with anointing oil as he is accepted into the Catholic faith.... As the final pages draw to their profound and breath-snatching close, Septology also attains that original ambition: it imbues the very enigma of life, which can seem at times so terrifyingly dark, with a light that is almost beatific.’ — Bryan Karetnyk, Financial Times‘The entire septet seems to take place in a state of limbo...Though Fosse has largely done away with punctuation altogether, opting instead for sudden line breaks, his dense, sinuous prose is never convoluted, and its effect is mesmerizing.’ — Johanna Elster Hanson, TLS

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Book SynopsisThe pinnacle of Fuster’s essay writing, Final Judgements is a book of aphorisms that, used to teach moral and/or philosophical truths, reveal things that are relevant to the universal human experience. As Adam Gopnick of The New Yorker puts it, “the aphorism is, in its algebraic abbreviation, a micro-model of empirical inquiry.” And Fuster uses the aphoristic tradition, less to establish truths than to undermine them, to question the conceits contained in the established truism. Despite the seriousness of its subject matter, however, this book is laugh-out-loud funny, Fuster’s wit revealing that the best aphorisms are based in stripping language of its artifice and revealing its contradictions, and the cumulative effect is a quintessentially Mediterranean kind of playfulness.Trade Review‘Joan Fuster is one of Catalan literature’s most enduring voices. His sense of humour and insight into the human condition is inspiring.’ -Jordi Llavina, author of London Under Snow and Poetry & Prose ‘Catalan language’s most important essayist of the 20th century and a key figure in the culture and recent history of the Valencian region.’ -Mètode magazine ‘Without doubt, Fuster should be placed up there with Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, Voltaire, Mann and Bertrand Russell.’ -Josep Ballester, Visat

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

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Book SynopsisIt's the year 1260 and the great cathedral - the most ambitious building in all of Christendom - is rising above the streets of Cologne. Far below its soaring spires and flying buttresses, an assassin of unnatural talent surveys his new hunting ground. More shadow than man, the assassin is quick to take his first life. But there is a witness to his crime: a flame-haired thief known as Jacob the Fox. Justly terrified by the black-clad spectre, Jacob runs for his life, convinced that he's pursued by the Angel of Death itself. For all his street-smart cunning, the wily Fox cannot shake off the assassin - a cruel, efficient murderer who favours a pistol-grip crossbow as his weapon of choice. Fate, injury and desperation lead Jacob to seek help from a beautiful clothes dyer, her drunken rascal of a father, and her learned uncle, a man of God who loves a battle of wits almost as much as he loves a bottle of wine. With the threat of an untimely death at the end of a crossbow bolt never far way, Jacob's unlikely cabal find themselves faced with a conspiracy born of an unquenchable thirst for revenge, a conspiracy that threatens to tear Cologne apart and stain the city with blood.

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Book Synopsis''...reading The Dark Domain by Stephan Grabinski is such a revelatory experience. Because here is a writer for whom supernatural horror is manifest precisely in modernity - in electricity, fire-stations, trains:the uncanny as the bad conscience of today. Sometimes Grabinski is known as the Polish Poe but this is misleading. Where Poe''s horror is agonised, a kind of extended shriek, Grabinski''s is cerebral, investigative. His protagonists are tortured and aghast, but not because they suffer at the caprice of Lovecraftian blind idiot gods: Grabinski''s universe is strange and its principles are perhaps not what we expect, but they are principles - rules- and it is in their exploration that the mystery lies. This is horror as rigour.''China Mieville in The Guardian

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Book SynopsisJun’ichirō Tanizaki is one of the most prominent Japanese writers of the twentieth century. This book presents three powerful stories of family from the first decade of Tanizaki’s career. Written in different genres, they are united by a focus on mothers and sons and a concern for Japan’s traditional culture in the face of Westernization.Trade ReviewThough Tanizaki was prolific, by now most of his major works have found their way into English. That there are still delights to be uncovered, however, is confirmed by the arrival of Longing and Other Stories . . . the stories are satisfying in themselves and additionally pleasing for their hints of an emergent mastery. -- Brad Leithauser * Wall Street Journal *Tanizaki enthralls with sharp, human(e) observations. -- Terry Hong * Booklist *A kind of master class in voice . . . The world of literature is much richer now that Longing and Other Stories is available for English readers. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *This is a beautiful and immaculate Japanese short story collection from one of Japan’s greatest writers. -- Willow Heath * Books and Bao *A fine and nicely varied little sampler of Tanizaki's early writing. -- M.A. Orthofer * Complete Review *These three early works by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki explore family bonds—the mother-son relationship in particular—using different angles and styles: dreamy and lyrical, painfully realistic, tragically fraught. In stories rendered with elegant precision by the veterans Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy, Tanizaki masterfully probes the complexities of the human heart. -- Juliet Winters Carpenter, translator of Minae Mizumura’s An I-NovelAmong the most original and insightful novelists of twentieth-century world literature, Tanizaki creates richly idiosyncratic characters embodying the paradoxes of modern life. As deftly translated by veteran Tanizaki specialists Chambers and McCarthy, his short fiction will fascinate and delight readers. -- Keiichiro Hirano, award-winning author of A ManChambers and McCarthy capture well distinctly different voices in these early Tanizaki stories exploring three modes of storytelling. Lyrical dream-memory, naturalistic fictionalized self-revelation, and ironic commentary on conventional social morality presage the author’s later writing. The afterword draws on the translators’ deep knowledge of Tanizaki’s work to enhance our understanding. -- Phyllis Lyons, translator of Tanizaki’s In Black and White: A NovelVivid yet hazy, nostalgic and soothing yet disturbing, Tanizaki’s tale of longing for the mother is made available in this beautiful translation, together with two other strikingly different “mother” narratives. This book expands and enriches the Tanizaki corpus in English. -- Tomoko Aoyama, author of Reading Food in Modern Japanese LiteratureIn all of these three very different stories we hear Tanizaki’s distinctive voice and enjoy the products of his overwrought imagination. This translation is a valuable addition to the canon. -- Lesley Downer * Times Literary Supplement *There’s a tremendous sense of loss shared by all three of the stories collected in this volume, with regret lurking close behind. Whether focusing on a dreamer wandering through a mythic landscape or a man becoming acutely aware of his own flaws, Tanizaki creates characters whose psychologies resonate and whose flaws are engaging. -- Tobias Carroll * Words Without Borders *A brilliantly efficient introduction to [Tanizaki’s] work. -- Anna Hollingsworth * Shiny New Books *Longing and Other Stories provides not only three thematically-linked stories to the canon, the afterword also adds an excellent resource of accessible scholarship and close-reading. -- Alison Fincher * Asian Review of Books *Such brilliant storytelling . . . Tanizaki’s luminous and lucid prose forces the reader into an existential dilemma faced by the author and his characters, one of children torn between the old world and the new. -- Ella Kelleher * Asia Media International *A heady accomplishment . . . Longing and Other Stories blends artful translation, gorgeous prose, and round, imperfect human people that are truly terrifying. -- Caren Gussoff Sumption * Locus Magazine *Tanizaki was a master of different styles and voices, a skill in evident display in these new translations by Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy . . . this short collection really runs the gamut of mother-son relationships, allowing these disparate stories to achieve something close to unity of theme. Authors often return to the same topic over the course of their careers but few have the breadth of talent to take such fresh approaches each time. -- Iain Maloney * Japan Times *The translators … have rendered the English seamlessly. Moreover, by taking all three stories from early in the author’s career, they give us a valuable window on to his development. They also showcase his inventiveness in tackling entirely different modes of narrative. -- Mark Robinson * Mekong Review *This is literature for the soul at its finest. * Asia Media International *Table of Contents1. Longing2. Sorrows of a Heretic3. The Story of an Unhappy MotherTranslators’ AfterwordAcknowledgments

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Book Synopsis WINNER OF THE BIG BOOK AWARD, THE LEO TOLSTOY YASNAYA POLYANA AWARD AND THE BEST PROSE WORK OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 READ RUSSIA PRIZE RUNNER-UP FOR THE EBRD LITERATURE PRIZE, 2020 Zuleikha is the model of a dutiful wife. Biddible and meek, she has resigned herself to brutal treatment at the hands of her cruel husband and the carping of her despotic mother-in-law. While Russia reels in the aftermath of its recent revolution, life in her small Tatar village is relatively untouched. Or so it seems to Zuleikha, until the day her husband is executed by communist soldiers. Zuleikha is exiled to Siberia and forced to leave behind everything she knows. Yet in that harsh, desolate wilderness, she begins to build a new life for herself and discovers an inner strength she never knew she had. This is a supremely ambitious epic about one woman's determination, not only to survive, but to flourish in the face of the greatest adversity.Trade Review‘A powerful account of individual lives trapped in one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century.’ * The Times *‘Yakhina’s prose can be exquisite, especially in sequences such as the one where Zuleikha watches prisoners escaping from the train… It is Zuleikha’s perspective and the way in which she adapts that capture our attention. The unexpected birth of a son.. and her transformation from a passive to a powerful protagonist is one of the joys of Yakhina’s work.’ * Financial Times *‘Written in a rich and highly visual prose... Zuleikha's story is one of injustice and pain, but also of a woman's emancipation and renewal.’ * Associated Press *‘As we watch its heroine’s existence devolve from an oppressive domestic servitude into something disastrously worse, Guzel Yakhina’s sprawling, ambitious first novel Zuleikha reminds us just how brutal the Soviet system was… Zuleikha does an admirable job of dramatizing a historical period rapidly receding into the forgotten past… Dramatic and eventful, Zuleikha sweeps us into a distant era.’ * New York Times Book Review *'Guzel Yakhina's novel hits the heart. It’s a powerful anthem for love and tenderness in hell.' * Ludmila Ulitskaya, author of The Big Green Tent * 'An intimate story of human endurance.' * The Calvert Journal *‘While many writers have attempted to comprehend Soviet history's darkest moment, Yakhina finds a way to make it new.’ * Russia Beyond the Headlines *'A forceful, award-winning and debate-sparking debut novel about life in the Gulag… The novel pulsates with tension...a big, bold and fascinating book.' * Supamodu *'It is 1930 in the Soviet Union and Josef Stalin's dekulakization programme has found its pace. Among the victims is a young Tatar family: the husband murdered, the wife exiled to Siberia. This is her story of survival and eventual triumph. Winner of the 2015 Russian Booker prize, this debut novel draws heavily on the first-person account of the author's grandmother, a Gulag survivor.' * The Millions, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2019' *‘This is a powerful Russian saga, giving an immense overview of life under communist rule... This author is a master at painting an image of the world as it was then.’ * Marjorie's World of Books, blog review *‘Zuleikha has an energy that is hard to resist.’ * Strong Words *'There’s something that Guzel Yakhina succeeds in transmitting with an amazing, sharp exactness: a woman’s attitude towards love. Not towards a subject of love, but towards love itself.' * Anna Narinskaya, literary critic *‘Yakhina's debut novel has shaken the Russian book world so deeply over its first three years of life that her second book topped the 2018 sales charts alongside international bestsellers by Dan Brown and Jojo Moyes... This tale of a woman who holds onto compassion while enduring atrocity also features cinematic narration and intricate plot construction.’ * Meduza, 2019's top Russia-Related Books *'Cinematic… The cast of characters is kaleidoscopic, from all walks of life and all drawn with a visual detail that makes them inhabit the page… Yakhina has a beautiful feel for the natural environment.' -- Rights in Russia

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Book SynopsisSunday Times Crime Book Club PickMail on Sunday Thriller of the Week''A coldly brilliant exposé of the depths of human nature'' SUNDAY TIMES''Compelling, beautifully constructed and atmospheric'' DAILY MAIL Sixty-two days after the disappearance . . .A man is arrested in the small town of Avechot. His shirt is covered in blood. Could this have anything to do with a missing girl called Anna Lou?What really happened to the girl? Detective Vogel will do anything to solve the mystery surrounding Anna Lou''s disappearance. When a media storm hits the quiet town, Vogel is sure that the suspect will be flushed out. Yet the clues are confusing, perhaps false, and following them may be a far cry from discovering the truth at the heart of a dark town. FOR FANS OF DONNA LEON AND MICHELE GIUTTARI, GET READY FOR THE CRIME THRILLER OF THE YEAR. ''Carrisi is an expert at mTrade ReviewThis mesmerising literary crime story is already a richly deserved sensation in Europe. It is so compelling, beautifully constructed and atmospheric that you'll savour each word . . . Spellbinding - Daily MailCarrisi is an expert at misdirection . . . this is a thoroughly disconcerting, addictive thriller guaranteed to freeze your soul - MetroA coldly brilliant expose of the depths of human nature - Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisWhen a depressed, alcoholic single mother disappears, everything suggests suicide, until her body is found on the lava fields. Icelandic Detective Elma and her team are thrust into a perplexing, chilling investigation in book two in the award-winning, international bestselling Forbidden Iceland series… ‘Chilling and addictive, with a twist you won't see coming. I loved it!' Shari Lapena ‘An exciting and harrowing tale’ Ragnar Jónasson ‘Complex, gripping and moving’ The Times ‘Eerie and chilling. I loved every word!’ Lesley Kara _____________ When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life … until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister? Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy. Police officer Elma and her colleagues take on the case, which becomes increasingly complex, as the number of suspects grows and new light is shed on Maríanna’s past – and the childhood of a girl who never was like the others… Breathtakingly chilling and tantalisingly twisty, Girls Who Lie is at once a startling, tense psychological thriller and a sophisticated police procedural, marking Eva Björg Ægisdottir as one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction. _______________Praise for Eva Björg Ægisdottir***WINNER of the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger*** ‘Fans of Nordic Noir will love this … subtle, nuanced, with a sympathetic central character and the possibilities of great stories to come’ Ann Cleeves ‘Not only a full-fat mystery, but also a chilling demonstration of how monsters are made’ The Times ‘Beautifully written, spine-tingling and disturbing … a thrilling new voice in Icelandic crime fiction’ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir ‘As chilling and atmospheric as an Icelandic winter’ Lisa Gray ‘Elma is a fantastic heroine’ Sunday Times ‘Eva Björg Aegisdóttir is definitely a born storyteller and she skilfully surprised me with some amazing plot twists’ Hilary Mortz ‘An unsettling and exciting read with a couple of neat red herrings to throw the reader off the scent’ NB Magazine ‘Chilling and troubling … reminiscent of Jorn Lier Horst‘s Norwegian procedurals. This is a book that makes an impact’ Crime Fiction Lover ‘Elma is a memorably complex character’ Financial Times ‘The twist comes out of the blue … enthralling’ Tap The Line Magazine For fans of Ragnar Jonasson, Camilla Lackberg, Ruth Rendell, Gillian McAllister and Shari Lapena

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Book Synopsis''Pavese''s novels are works of an extraordinary depth where one never stops finding new levels, new meanings'' Italo CalvinoJune, 1943. Allied aircraft are bombing Turin; fascist Italy is on its knees. Every evening, after a day''s teaching in the city, Corrado returns to the safety of the hills and the care of his two doting landladies. He has no attachments, no obligations. Yet against his better judgement he is drawn to the easy warmth of a circle of anti-fascists who congregate at a nearby tavern, and confronted with a painful choice: emotional and political commitment, with all its dangers - or devastating retreat. Pavese''s extraordinary semi-autobiographical novel is a lucid portrayal of missed opportunities and human weakness, set against the seductive intensity of the Italian countryside.Translated with an introduction by Tim ParksShortlisted for The Society of Authors Translation Award 2022Trade ReviewPavese is one of the few essential novelists of the mid-twentieth century -- Susan SontagPavese's nine short novels make up the most dense, dramatic, and homogeneous narrative cycle of modern Italy ... But above all they are works of an extraordinary depth where one never stops finding new levels, new meanings -- Italo CalvinoCesare Pavese's cool, contemplative voice was the most important among postwar Italian writers -- W. S. DiPieroInsinuating, haunting and lyrically pervasive * The New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisDistinguished literary critic Bodour is trapped in a loveless marriage and carries with her a dark secret. She fell in love in her youth and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Zeina, whom she abandoned on the streets of Cairo. Bodour doesn''t know that Zeina has blossomed into one of Egypt''s most beloved entertainers. Pining for her estranged daughter, she writes a fictional account of her life in an attempt to find solace. But as the revolution in Cairo begins to gain fire, the novel goes missing and Bodour must find who has stolen it. Will her hunt for the thief bring mother and daughter together? Or is Bodour destined to lose her daughter to Cairo forever?Trade Review`The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab world' Guardian; 'At a time when nobody else was talking, [El Saadawi] spoke the unspeakable.' Margaret Atwood, BBC Imagine; `El Saadawi writes with directness and passion' New York Times; `A poignant and brave writer' Marie Claire; `El Saadawi has come to embody the trials of Arab feminism' San Francisco Chronicle

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Book SynopsisTolstoy's epic masterpiece intertwines the lives of private and public individuals during the time of the Napoleonic wars and the French invasion of Russia. In this definitive Maude translation, Tolstoy's genius and the power of his prose are made newly available to the contemporary reader.

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Book SynopsisA wealthy Icelandic family gathers for a reunion in a remote hotel on the isolated lava fields, but when someone goes missing, dark secrets are exposed and everyone is a suspect … the chilling, gripping prequel to the addictive, award-winning Forbidden Iceland series… ‘A country house mystery worthy of Agatha Christie’ The Times Crime Book of the Month ‘As storms rage, people fall prey to a sinister figure. A canny synthesis of modern Nordic Noir and Golden Age mystery’ Financial Times 'In a Forbidden Iceland novel, there's no terrain more treacherous than the mind … a deep-dark thriller to read with the lights on' A J Finn 'Riveting, exciting, entertaining and packed with intrigue … like Succession on ice' Liz Nugent **WINNER of the STORYTEL AWARD for Crime Book of the Year*** –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The wealthy, powerful Snæberg clan has gathered for a family reunion at a futuristic hotel set amongst the dark lava flows of Iceland's remote Snæfellsnes peninsula. Petra Snæberg, a successful interior designer, is anxious about the event, and her troubled teenage daughter, Lea, whose social-media presence has attracted the wrong kind of followers. Ageing carpenter Tryggvi is an outsider, only tolerated because he's the boyfriend of Petra's aunt, but he's struggling to avoid alcohol because he knows what happens when he drinks … Humble hotel employee, Irma, is excited to meet this rich and famous family and observe them at close quarters … perhaps too close… As the weather deteriorates and the alcohol flows, one of the guests disappears, and it becomes clear that there is a prowler lurking in the dark. But is the real danger inside … within the family itself? Masterfully cranking up the suspense, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir draws us into an isolated, frozen setting, where nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted, as the dark secrets and painful pasts of the Snæberg family are uncovered … and the shocking truth revealed. Succession meets And Then There Were None … A Golden Age mystery for the 21st Century, with a shocking twist. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 'A tense, twisty page-turner that you'll have serious trouble putting down' Catherine Ryan Howard 'Your new Nordic Noir obsession' Vogue 'Confirms Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir as a leading light of Icelandic noir … a master of misdirection' The Times Praise for the Forbidden Iceland series **Winner of the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger** **Shortlisted for the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime** **Shortlisted for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger** **Shortlisted for the Capital Crime Award for Best Thriller** 'Chilling and addictive, with a completely unexpected twist … I loved it' Shari Lapena 'Beautifully written … one of the rising stars of Nordic Noir'Victoria Selman 'Fans of Nordic Noir will love this' Ann Cleeves 'Eerie and chilling. I loved every word!' Lesley Kara 'Creepily compelling' Heidi Amsinck 'Elma is a memorably complex character' Financial Times 'Exciting and harrowing' Ragnar Jónasson 'Fantastic' Sunday Times 'So atmospheric' Heat

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Book SynopsisNew Year's Eve, 1975. Two hunted men leave Mexico City in a borrowed white Impala.Their quest: to track down the mythical, vanished poet Cesárea Tinajero. But, twenty years later, they are still on the run. The Savage Detectives is their remarkable journey through our darkening universe. Told, shared and mythologised by a generation of lovers, rebels and readers, their testimonies are woven together into one of the most dazzling Latin American novels of all time.TRANSLATED BY NATASHA WIMMERRoberto Bolaño was a game changer: his field was politics, poetry and melancholia. He could be funny, he could be literate, he could be devastating. And his writing was always unparalleled' Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of NightBolaño makes you feel changed for having read him; he adjusts your angle of view on the world' Guardian

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Three Kingdoms is considered the ultimate book on strategy, offering keen insights into Chinese culture. Ron Iverson's effort is a great contribution to the understanding of Chinese culture and history." --Xinmin Wang, former Consul for Cultural Affairs for the PRC and advisor to the President of China"This translation faithfully conveys a native Chinese-speaking person's understanding of this most influential and famous Chinese book. To translate this Chinese classic into modern English is a challenging and difficult job for any language translator. However, this joint effort by Yu Sumei and Ronald Iverson has met the challenge." --Hua Xin, former advisor and translator for IBM China"One of the greatest and best-loved works of popular literature." --Dictionary of Oriental Literatures

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Book SynopsisIn this frightening and surprising novel, the eccentric, wayward genius of Commissaire Adamsberg is pitted against the deep-rooted mysteries of one Alpine village's history and a very present problem: wolves. Disturbing things have been happening up in the French mountains;Trade ReviewCommissaire Adamsberg must be the most engaging French detective since Maigret * Scotland on Sunday *Poetic, offbeat and gently addictive. Her prose has an unusual deftness, a wry humour. A unique voice * Guardian *An intriguing, idiosyncratic voice * Time Out *An absolute masterwork. One of the best books of the year * Toronto Globe & Mail *A work of real class - its characters sharp, multi-faceted and original, and its style crisply intelligent * Herald *

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Book SynopsisHisham Matar, GuardianDeath Is Hard Work is a tale of three people embarking on an absurd quest - an unforgettable journey into a contemporary heart of darkness.At a hospital in Damascus, Syria, Abdel Latif's final wish is to be buried in the family plot near Aleppo - just a two-hour drive away.

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of Thirteen Hours - A Sunday Times ''100 best crime novels and thrillers since 1945'' pickMilla has finally escaped her abusive husband, only to find herself at the heart of an anti-terrorist operation.Lemmer has agreed to protect a pair of smuggled rhinos on a thousand-kilometre journey - his strangest job yet will also be his most dangerous.And former policeman Mat already wants to quit his new job as a private investigator. But he has promised a young woman he will find her missing husband . . . wherever the trail may lead.From the vibrant streets of Cape Town to the wilds of Zimbabwe, from luxurious gated communities to the ganglands of the Cape Flats, different paths begin to cross in a novel of ever-increasing suspense.Trade ReviewSmuggling, missing persons and an edgy post-apartheid South Africa interlace in a riveting crime novel . . . This is the author's most accomplished novel to date. Following the thrilling plot of his best­selling Thirteen Hours was always going to be a challenge but he's visibly gained confidence, showing his technical skill and handling the different sections of the new book with effortless ease. It's a mesmerising read, and a ­startling revelation at the very end suggests that we haven't heard the last of these engaging characters. * The Sunday Times *How fulfilling the rewards are for those seeking crime fiction with real texture and intelligence . . . The author presents an unsparing picture of social divisions in post-apartheid South Africa . . . But perhaps his key achievement is the astutely drawn trio: the conflicted bodyguard, streetwise but falling for a major deception; the young woman fleeing a desperately unhappy marriage and discovering something that changes her perception of herself; and the ex-cop, finding that the incendiary reserves of violence in his personality are nearer to the surface than he thought. TRACKERS is a sprawling, invigorating and socially committed crime novel. * Independent *An ambitious, multi-threaded tale . . . comprehensively pulling the reader into the melee of modern South Africa . . . this is a book that tells a cracking story and captures the criminal kaleidoscope of a nation. * Times Literary Supplement *Meyer is the leading chronicler of South Africa, and his latest novel shows off his technical skill... a dazzling performance. * Sunday Times Books of the Year 2011 *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 *The Thriller Shot of the Year title goes to South African Deon Meyer for his superb tour-de-force TRACKERS which combines a spy plot worthy of Le Carre ("spy the beloved country") with several tense and violent criminal sub-plots and a complex and stunningly impressive narrative structure. All in all, a masterpiece of South African crime writing; which is rapidly proving to be the bench-mark of international crime fiction.' * Shots *This South African kind of crime is going global fast. TRACKERS shows why: three deftly-braided plot strands join political sophistication, strongly-drawn characters and a passionate concern with the Rainbow Nation's fate. * i *An unusually intriguing story about modern South Africa. * Literary Review *The book that stayed with me most from this year is Deon Meyer's TRACKERS . . . a dazzling performance. * Joan Smith, Sunday Times books of the year 2011 *Critics were struggling to come up with new adjectives to praise the South African writer Deon Meyer's TRACKERS, a menacing tale of smuggling and disappearances on a sprawling canvas of post-apartheid South Africa. * Independent Books of the Year *The author is proclaimed to be "South Africa's answer to Stieg Larsson" in a banner headline on the cover. I wouldn't disagree with that. He is certainly as powerful a writer, although his style is slightly different, and considerably more complex . . . this is one of the most absorbing crime stories you are ever likely to read. * Shots *Meyer's ambition matches his execution in this brilliantly complex standalone thriller set in his native South Africa . . . Few readers will anticipate exactly how the separate plot strands will be resolved. This powerhouse read, which captures the many facets of modern South Africa, should be the American breakthrough book this talented author deserves. * Publishers Weekly Starred Review *Award-winning crime fiction author Meyer demonstrates his superb gift for bringing together several disparate plots, striking characters, and vividly drawn scenes of contemporary South Africa, all roaring towards a climax with more than one surprise . . . With a fine eye for detail, an unflattering image of South African culture, and clear sympathy for the downtrodden, Meyer still never loses his focus on page-turning suspense and riveting mystery. Highly recommended. * Library Journal Starred Review *Publishers and booksellers trumpet that "South Africa is the new Scandinavia" when it comes to crime writing and that Deon Meyer is "South Africa's Answer to Stieg Larsson". He's not; he's far better . . . With TRACKERS I would suggest he has moved into the John le Carré class, and not simply because one of the plot lines is about the workings of a South African security department and the political in-fighting involved, but mainly because this is a book which is a great thriller and a fine novel of characterisation. Indeed, the cast of characters is diverse (morally as well as ethnically) but every single one is fully-formed and three-dimensional and they all play their parts in a complex triple-stranded plot. * Shots *Without doubt one of the brightest stars to emerge from the Southern African crime scene is Deon Meyer. A big, complex novel, it skilfully weaves together three separate storylines, and three different forms of crime-writing, into a cohesive and fascinating whole . . . The result is a very powerful thriller that sweeps the reader up in its gritty portrayal of modern South Africa . . . Meyer's mixture of compelling, believable characters, tense plotting and fascinating insights into the texture of everyday South Africa make TRACKERS one of the year's better crime novels. * Canberra Times *Being hailed as the finest novel yet from an author whose reputation is growing around the world. Deon Meyer, is building a steady collection of awards for his books and an international fan base. * Hobart Mercury *It's like three complex, gripping an absorbing books in one, so you're getting your money's worth * Adelaide Advertiser *Deon Meyer writes a cracking good adventure. * Manly Daily (Australia) *Meyer is a very good storyteller. A very good read. * Sun Herald *One of the sharpest and most perceptive thriller writers around * Peter Millar, The Times, on DEVIL'S PEAK *Far and away the best crime writer in South Africa * Guardian on BLOOD SAFARI *This guy is really good. Deon Meyer hooked me with this one right from the start. * Michael Connelly on HEART OF THE HUNTER *For reasons which I do not pretend to understand, Deon Meyer's absolutely brilliant thriller TRACKERS failed to win any of the British crime writing awards last year, which makes me think that there must be something fundamentally wrong in the Ministry of Mystery Prizes. * Shots magazine *

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Book SynopsisA highly contagious book virus, a literary society and a Snow Queen-like disappearing author 'She came to realise that under one reality there's always another. And another one under that.' Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a tenth member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips. But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, 'The Game'? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura's winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another tenth member, before her? Slowly, disturbing secrets that had been buried come to light... In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.Trade ReviewWonderfully knotty... a very grown-up fantasy masquerading as quirky fable. Unexpected, thrilling and absurd -- Catherine Taylor Sunday Telegraph Unnerving, enigmatic... Hints of Let the Right One In and Haruki Murakami's elliptical early science fiction novels flavour a creepy tale about mutating books, buried secrets and ghostly encounters -- James Lovegrove Financial Times The Rabbit Back Literature Society is a lobster pot of a book... an exquisite balance of suspense, precision-engineered structure and darkly playful humour... fascinating. And fun. -- 5-star review SFX Charming and intriguing, switching from playful to creepy to heartfelt and back again... good fun Bookbag Mixes the small-town surrealism of Twin Peaks with the clandestine-society theme of Donna Tartt's The Secret History The List Charming, chilling and gripping from its very first page Bizarre A novel about big questions ... wonderful characters... amazing TQR Stories Sly wit... characterises The Rabbit Back Literature Society Metro A witty Finnish novel Observer I can't even begin to try to describe this book. Nor... to do justice to its eerie nuttiness. But if, like me, you're still a little bit obsessed with who killed Laura Palmer, you'll love it Harper's Bazaar A playful fantasy... [Jaaskelainen] deftly plumbs the neuroses of artistic vanity and obsession... I felt the slow pulse that guided the book; it skirts genres and stays refreshingly weird Quadrapheme Veering between infectious comedy and dark thriller, this is a beguiling read The Lady Is Jaaskelainen the new Murakami? Answers to the editor Glasgow Herald Thrilling Shortlist Lola Rogers' admirable translation catches both the darkness and playful wit of Jaaskelainen's original Tablet It's all rather brilliant Worm Hole Deliciously dark metafiction Sydney Morning Herald A very odd but engaging book by a Finnish author with an extraordinary imagination The Westmorland Gazette

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Book SynopsisPurposefully imitating Voltaire's classic Candide, another dark comedy which derives its humour from life's tragedies, Habiby's The Secret of Saeed the Pessoptimist is a classic of Arab literature. The story of Saeed, a Palestinian who becomes a citizen of Israel, is a story of fact and fantasy, tragedy and comedy. At once a comic hero and luckless fool, his life is full of terror, aggression, resistence and heroism. As an informer for the Zionist state, Saeed's stupidity, candour and cowardice make him more the victim than a villain; but in a series of tragicomic episodes, blundering from disaster to disaster, he is slowly transformed from gullible collaborator into a Palestinian intent on survival. The novel, informed by the author's own experience in Israeli politics, is both biting and funny. The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist was named in the top ten novels set in the Arab world by The Guardian in 2010, won the Al-Quds Prize in Palestine in 1992 and The Israel Prize for Literature, awarded by the State of Israel. It is the only novel to have the top literary award in both countries.Trade ReviewAmazing story from a most unconventional perspective. An entertaining and thought-provoking classic.A" Kirkus Review

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Book SynopsisThe hair-raising mash-up of feminist X-Men, gothic fairy tale, family saga and biting social criticism that is taking Europe by storm.When Anita Naakka jumps in front of an oncoming train, her daughter, Norma, is left alone with the secret they have spent their lives hiding: Norma has supernatural hair, sensitive to the slightest changes in her mood--and the moods of those around her--moving of its own accord, corkscrewing when danger is near. And so it is her hair that alerts her, while she talks with a strange man at her mother's funeral, that her mother may not have taken her own life. Setting out to reconstruct Anita's final months--sifting through puzzling cell phone records, bank statements, video files--Norma begins to realise that her mother knew more about her hair's powers than she let on: a sinister truth beyond Norma's imagining.Trade ReviewAmazing * Le Figaro *A Toni Morrison from the far North. * Le Monde *Sofi Oksanen is one of the brightest shining stars in Nordic literature. I want to devour Norma whole. * Norrköpings Tidningar (Sweden) *Addictive, lucid, breathtakingly suspenseful, and on top of this it is stunningly observant, eerily well-researched, critical, with feminist overtones and very, very relatable * Affärsmagasinet Forum (Finland) *A phenomenon * The Times on PURGE *Powerful, passionately wrought, emotionally shattering, extraordinary * Independent on PURGE *Purge stands out. Murder, sexual violence and political history combine to place Oksanen in the front rank of crime novelists. * Sunday Times on PURGE *Finland's hottest crime writer will soon be as well-known as Stieg Larsson * The Times on PURGE *Essential reading: Purge is not a book to read last thing at night. * Economist on PURGE *

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Book SynopsisA Guardian Science Fiction Book of the Year. Mimi is drowning in the world's trash. She's a 'waste girl', a scavenger picking through towering heaps of hazardous electronic detritus. Along with thousands of other migrant workers, she was lured to Silicon Isle, off the southern coast of China, by the promise of steady work and a better life. But Silicon Isle is where the rotten fruits of capitalism and consumer culture come to their toxic end. The land is hopelessly polluted, the workers utterly at the mercy of those in power. And now a storm is gathering, as ruthless local gangs skirmish for control, eco-terrorists conspire, investors hunger for profit, and a Chinese-American interpreter searches for his roots. As these forces collide, conflict erupts – a war between rich and poor, a battle between past and future. Mimi must decide if she will remain a pawn... or change the rules of the game altogether. 'An accomplished eco-techno-thriller with heart and soul' DAVID MITCHELL. 'Waste Tide is a work of spoiled and toxic beauty... It's more than a timely eco-thriller; it's a dark mirror held up to our selves' SIMON INGS. Trade ReviewAn accomplished eco-techno-thriller with heart and soul as well as brain. Chen Qiufan is an astute observer, both of the present world and of the future that the next generation is in danger of inheriting -- David MitchellThe pinnacle of near-future SF writing -- Cixin LiuSomething startlingly new... an action-packed story that's full of moral complexity' -- Charlie Jane AndersA hard-hitting, uncompromising look at the near future -- Adrian TchaikovskyA stunning tale of greed [that] deftly exposes all the hidden contours of the human heart -- Maggie Shen KingA work of spoiled and toxic beauty... It's more than a timely eco-thriller; it's a dark mirror held up to our selves' -- Simon IngsChinese author Chen Quifan's debut novel Waste Tide is all too true to life * SFX *A cracking science fiction novel by Chen Qiufan suggests humanity's future may be even stranger than its past * New Scientist *Chen's portrait of industry and society alike is caustically bleak – life is short and cheap – and the cultural impact of his future tech well thought through * SFX. *A crop of younger writers are now emerging in the duo's wake [Cixin Liu and Han Song]. Waste Tide takes place on an island devoted to electronics refuse in a fictionalised South China Sea... The setting is not too far divorced from parts of real-life China, in which the by-products of the electronics industry create uninhabitably toxic environments' * Economist. *This chilling eco-techno tale, well translated by Ken Liu, illustrates that the eternal conflict of good and evil remains alive in our "brave new world" * The Tablet *There's an old school cyberpunk quality to the book, a compelling reflection on a world defined by its waste * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisAmid ethnic violence, political corruption, and petty professional intrigue, an artist tries to live free of lies. Set during the last years of the Soviet Union, Stone Dreams tells the story of Azerbaijani actor Sadai Sadygly, who lands in a Baku hospital while trying to protect an elderly Armenian man from a gang of young Azerbaijanis. Something of a modern-day Don Quixote, Sadai has long battled the hatred and corruption he observes in contemporary Azerbaijani society. Wandering in and out of consciousness, he revisits his hometown, the ancient village of Aylis, where Christian Armenians and Muslim Azeris once lived peacefully together, and dreams of making a pilgrimage of atonement to Armenia. Stone Dreams is a searing, painful meditation on the ability of art and artists—of individual human beings—to make change in the world.

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Book SynopsisA chilling new case for Thora Gudmundsdottir, from Iceland''s answer to Stieg Larsson.When all contact is lost with two Icelanders working in a harsh and sparsely populated area on the northeast coast of Greenland, Thora is hired to investigate. Is there any connection with the woman who vanished from the site some months earlier? Why are the locals so hostile? And could one of the team staying at the site with Thora be responsible for the disappearances?Already an international bestseller, this fourth book to feature Thora Gudmundsdottir (''a delight'' - Guardian) is chilling, unsettling and compulsively readable.Trade ReviewYrsa is one of the most exciting new voices in the crime thriller world. -- Peter JamesHenning Mankell and Stieg Larsson have helped to make Scandinavian crime fiction a global phenomenon, but if you're looking for something a bit different try this Icelandic writer and her feisty lawyer heroine, Thora. * Mail on Sunday *A gripping thriller with enough mystery and horror to keep you sitting on the edge of your seat while you try to work out what happened. -- Peter RobinsonPut simply, it's terrifying. And brilliant. * Stylist *

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Book SynopsisSamuel Bjork (Author) Samuel Bjork is the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien. The Munch and Krüger series features five books: the Richard & Judy Bookclub bestseller I'm Travelling Alone, The Owl Always Hunts At Night, The Boy in the Headlights, The Wolf and Dead Island.Charlotte Barslund (Translator) Charlotte Barslund translates Scandinavian novels and plays. Her recent work includes Calling Out For You by Karin Fossum, Machine by Peter Adolphsen and The Pelican by August Strindberg.

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Book SynopsisA fairy tale run amok, The Taiga Syndrome follows an unnamed Ex-Detective as she searches for a couple that has fled to the far reaches of the Earth. A betrayed husband is convinced by a brief telegram that his second ex-wife wants him to track her down - that she wants to be found. He hires the Ex-Detective, who sets out with a translator into a snowy, hostile forest where strange things happen and translation serves to betray both sense and the senses. The stories of Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood haunt the Ex-Detective's quest. As she enters a territory overrun with the primitive excesses of capitalism - accumulation and expulsion, corruption and cruelty -the lessons of her journey unfold: that sometimes leaving everything behind is the only thing left to do.Trade Review`One of Mexico's greatest living writers, and we are just barely beginning to catch up to what she has to offer... I'm excited.' Jonathan Lethem----`The Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza is a dark, daring contemporary fable with echoes from the past. Small, short, covered in gray, it sparkles on the page and dazzles the mind.' Sjon----'A suspenseful fable [that] defies traditional narrative.' Anna Aslanyan, The Guardian ----'Through her powerful command of language, she eases the reader into her nightmarish Fairytale.' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times ----`An explosive writer yet to be fully accounted for in English.' Lina Meruane----`Cristina Rivera Garza does not respect what is expected of a writer, of a novel, of language. She is an agitator.' Yuri Herrera----`The contemporary Latin American detective novel is a form that uses the individual's rollicking quest as a means of resistance against repressive structures and the violences they engender. Cristina Rivera Garza's The Taiga Syndrome, in this stellar translation by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana, gives English-language readers a lyrically luminous take on the genre while not skimping on its adventurous antics. If The Taiga Syndrome is a book of illness, it's also about exile, disappearance, borders, love, language and translation, desire, capitalism and its discontents, fairy tales, and what it means to be possessed by the madness of others and the madness of ourselves. The murmurs that haunt the detective in the novel evoke the history of Mexican fiction, most notably Juan Rulfo. But this is not a religious state of purgatory. It's more like Apocalypse Now fused with the worlds of Clarice Lispector and Jorge Luis Borges. In other words, there is no one writing novels as phantasmagorically exquisite as Cristina Rivera Garza's. The Taiga Syndrome, which is both quietly poetic and narratively unhinged, is a crucial addition to her distinguished oeuvre.' Daniel Borzutzky----`Innovative Mexican author Rivera Garza's dazzling speculative noir novel is narrated by a woman hired to find a man's missing second wife... As she tracks the mysterious couple over snow-covered trails in the boreal forest, the universe becomes eerie and unpredictable. She encounters a feral boy, a ferocious wolf, earthy villagers and wild lumberjacks. Rivera Garza invokes Hansel and Gretel as she spins her marvellous, atmospheric tale.' Jane Ciabattari, BBC.com, `The 10 Best Books of 2018'----`This novel, in a translation by Levine and Kana, is taut, lyrical, and strange, and it fits right in with Dorothy, A Publishing Project's commitment to work that challenges what genres and forms can do. Like the best speculative fiction, it follows the sinuous paths of its own logic but gives the reader plenty of room to play. Fans of fairy tales and detective stories, Kathryn Davis and Idra Novey, will all find something to love. An eerie, slippery gem of a book.' Kirkus Reviews, starred review----`As lyrical as a poem ("Look at this: your knees. They are used for kneeling upon reality, also for crawling, terrified. You use them to sit on a lotus flower and say goodbye to the immensity") and as fantastic as a fairy tale, Rivera Garza's gorgeous, propulsive novel will haunt readers long after it's finished.' Publishers Weekly, starred review----`A Lynchian noir from one of Mexico's best novelists tracks a missing couple in a ravaged no-man's-land, weaving a mystery out of fairy tales, disaster capitalism, and shadowy afflictions.' Vulture ----`Readers of this book will encounter one of the most fiercely original literary voices from Latin America.' Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado, Los Angeles Review of Books----`Mystery, sci-fi, Socratic dialogue, retelling of `Hansel and Gretel': The Taiga Syndrome is a delightful shape-shifter of a novel.' Jonathan Woollen, Politics & Prose----`This insanely creepy & brilliant book by the incomparable Cristina Rivera Garza will keep you awake at night. Garza is a master of atmosphere. A detective novel directed by David Lynch & narrated by Bolano.' Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore---- `Wood, snow, blood: old stories. The witch in the forest, the breadcrumb trail, the grandmother-skinned wolf - everybody's here, in this wild little book, breath steaming humid in the cold air.' Sarah McCarry, Tor.com----`Rivera Garza belongs to the tradition of iconoclastic writers who question why our world has to be the way it is. This is the sort of powerful inquiry that often brings art to its most immersive, rewarding, and generative place. Read her books and explore your own taiga.' Veronica Scott Esposito, Literary Hub----`In plain, lyrical language, [Rivera] Garza drapes a poetic hush over the narrative, creating an unsettling fable-like world. It's a mystery that creeps, with careful, steady steps.' Laura Adamczyk, The A.V. Club ---- `So far so noir, except that this summary, along with every other summary I've seen in reviews and copy for The Taiga Syndrome, fails to give an accurate impression of the experience of reading the book. First, the story is nonlinear, not in a Memento kind of way but in a You-realize-time-is-an-illusion-don't-you? one. What there is in the way of plot - and there is plot here - is dominated by an obsession with language.' Ploughshares----`Diaphanously translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana, this deceivingly spare, noir fairy tale can be read (devoured) at a sitting, but the subconscious wounds it (in)exacts may fester in one's non-fiction ever after.' Minor Literature(s)----`Come for the satisfying sense of utter disorientation, stay for the gangly homunculus that bursts out of the woman's mouth in the middle of the night.' Literary Hub, `Four Haunting Books for the Halloween Season'----`[Rivera] Garza doesn't stop with fairy tales, however; she inverts traditional tropes from any number of genres to great effect. The subject of the mystery is not the crime or even the victim, but the detective. The unreliable narrator reports on her own unreliability.' Shelf Awareness

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