Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisWhen it is discovered that the reigning world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic, is on board a cruiser heading for Buenos Aires, a fellow passenger challenges him to a game. Czentovic easily defeats him, but during the rematch a mysterious Austrian, Dr B., intervenes and, to the surprise of everyone, helps the underdog obtain a draw. When, the next day, Dr B. confides in a compatriot travelling on the same ship and decides to reveal the harrowing secret behind his formidable chess knowledge, a chilling tale of imprisonment and psychological torment unfolds. Stefan Zweig’s last and most famous story, ‘A Game of Chess’ was written in exile in Brazil and explores its author’s anxieties about the situation in Europe following the rise of the Nazi regime. The tale is presented here in a brand-new translation, along with three of the master storyteller’s most acclaimed novellas: Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, The Invisible Collection and Incident on Lake Geneva.Trade ReviewPerhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game. * The Economist *A perfect introduction to Zweig. * The Jewish Chronicle *It is somehow progressively thrilling, yet consistently still and calculated. With barely a note out of tune, this is a short story masterclass. * The Big Issue *Although these four stories are in many ways very different, they all share a theme of single-minded behaviour, are underpinned by social and political commentary, full of symbolism and are rich in metaphor and allegory. This ensures that they really do feel timeless – true modern-day parables. * Nudge Books *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOn the eve of the Crimean War, the young, headstrong Yelena, the daughter of aristocratic Russian parents, falls in love with a revolutionary from Bulgaria named Insarov. Facing the wrath and disapproval of her family, Yelena abandons her home to follow Insarov to Bulgaria. Their fateful match sets in motion a series of tragic events which challenge notions of love, revolution and idealism. A highly controversial work upon its original publication, Ivan Turgenev’s On the Eve is now recognized as one of the masterpieces of Russian literature and an essential document of the upheaval that dominated Russian society in the years prior to the Crimean War. Turgenev’s restrained, nuanced prose is rendered beautifully in Michael Pursglove’s new translation.Trade ReviewA deep and penetrating diagnosis of the destinies of the Russia of the fifties. -- Edward Garnett

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs the young Zinaida and her sweetheart, the student Nemovetsky, stroll through the idyllic Russian countryside, their memories, dreams and thoughts about life and the future mingle in the evening breeze. But when night falls, they hasten to retrace their steps back to town through a small wood, where they are accosted by three threatening drunkards, who knock Nemovetsky unconscious and start to chase the girl through the underwood. When the young student comes round, he is confronted with the horror of what has just happened. Haunting, disquieting, shocking, `The Abyss' - one of the most powerful short stories ever written - is accompanied in this volume by fifteen other stories, never translated into English before by Andreyev, including `Silence', `The Thief' and `Lazarus, some of them never translated before into English. Together, they provide a clear account of the lasting legacy of Russia's foremost man of letters of the early twentieth century.Trade ReviewIf there has ever been a Russian writer who mirrored his or her own creation completely, it was surely Leonid Andreyev. Haunting, disturbing, disquieting... dark, passionate, pompous, discordant, controversial - whichever word of power you choose, it is likely to describe both Andreyev and his writing. -- Vlad Zhenevsky * Weird Fiction Review *Table of ContentsContains: Bargamot and Garaska, A Grand Slam, Silence, Once upon a Time, There Lived, A Robbery in the Offing, The Abyss, Ben Tobit, Phantoms, The Thief, Lazarus, A Son of Man, Incaution, Peace, Ipatov, The Return, The Flight.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe story of young Henry, who struggles to fulfil his ambitions to become a successful painter and is torn between the gentle Anna and the proud and sensual Judith, is one of the most outstanding and personal Bildungsroman writ¬ten in the German language. Composed between 1846 and 1855, Keller’s poetic, semi-autobiographical novel draws on the author’s own youth, artistic studies and development as a man, as well as providing a comprehensive portrait of his country and his times. Green Henry is one of the most important novels in European literature, and undoubtedly the greatest work of fiction by a Swiss writer.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is New Year’s Eve, and Nellie, the pretty daughter of a landowning general, is sitting in her room looking in the mirror. Although she is tired and her eyes are half closed, she is spellbound as the reflection in the looking glass dissolves into a sea of grey mist, in which she starts to discern the beloved features of her fiancé. As in a diorama, the scene keeps changing, and to the early snapshots of joyful marital life succeed other, more sinister images of care, sickness and bereavement, casting a long shadow onto the girl’s future. With ‘The Looking Glass’ Chekhov captured the very essence of the Russian soul. This short story, along with the others included in this collection, demonstrates why he is considered the absolute master of the genre.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPresented in a new translation by Roger Cockrell, The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants was originally conceived as a play and first published in 1859, shortly after the author's release from forced military service. Gogolian in style and tone, and waspish in its description of the villainous Opiskin, it is a sustained exercise in caricatural cruelty and a comedic tour de force. The young Sergei is summoned from St Petersburg by his uncle, the retired colonel Yegor Rostanev, to the remote country estate of Stepanchikovo. Rostanev's household, populated by a medley of remarkable characters, is dominated by the figure of Foma Opiskin, a devious, manipulative hanger-on who has everyone in thrall and plots to marry the colonel to the woman of his choice, Tatyana Ivanova. When Opiskin finds that his plans are being thwarted, a confrontation with Rostanev ensues, and all hell is let loose.

Read more less

Book SynopsisLonglisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016Clarisse Rivière's life is shaped by a refusal to admit to her husband Richard and to her daughter Ladivine that her mother is a poor black housekeeper. Instead, weighed down by guilt, she pretends to be an orphan, visiting her mother in secret and telling no-one of her real identity as Malinka, daughter of Ladivine Sylla. In time, her lies turn against her. Richard leaves Clarisse, frustrated by the unbridgeable, indecipherable gulf between them. Clarisse is devastated, but finds solace in a new man, Freddy Moliger, who is let into the secret about her mother, and is even introduced to her. But Ladivine, her daughter, who is now married herself, cannot shake a bad feeling about her mother's new lover, convinced that he can bring only chaos and pain into her life. When she is proved right, in the most tragic circumstances, the only comfort the family can turn to requires a leap of faith beyond any they could have imagined.Centred around three generations of women, whose seemingly cursed lineage is defined by the weight of origins, the pain of alienation and the legacy of shame, Ladivine is a beguiling story of secrets, lies, guilt and forgiveness by one of Europe's most unique literary voices.Translated from the French by Jordan StumpTrade ReviewA haunting, melancholy and immaculately translated novel, a thing of beauty for ugly times. -- Alex Preston * The Observer *A brave, unusual book -- Catherine Humble * Times Literary Supplement *A haunting, powerful new voice in French literature, providing an intriguing, beguiling experience for English readers. -- Mika Provata-Carlone * Bookanista *Ladivine is a wonder indeed ... like a saga that you never want to end because each page reveals new riches. -- Claire Devarrieux * Libération *A sumptuously written novel by a writer at the height of her powers. * Télérama *With its unique phrasing, slow, multi-layered, and each sentence an absolute necessity, Ladivine is a new delight -- Didier Jacob * BiblioObs *In this unique book, Marie NDiaye displays tough, brittle lives in majestic style. -- Maria Schottenius * Dagens Nyheter *This strangely hypnotic novel exudes anguish and loneliness. Marie NDiaye, writes profoundly disturbing novels in such riveting prose that one cannot look away. * Library Journal *Ladivine is a real jewel... impeccable craftsmanship, refined phrasing that swirls with description, and a bewitching story. All of the author's talents are on display here. -- Marianne Payot * Express *Marie NDiaye's new novel is magnificent. A mesmerising dive into the chaos in the lineage of three women. * LaLibreBelgique *A melancholy modern fable ... NDiaye reveals only as much reality as she wants to at any given moment-and therein lies her magic. * Kirkus Review *Sadness, regret, and insidious dread permeate every page of this beautifully crafted, relentless novel. * Publishers Weekly *With this novel, Marie NDiaye proves that she is a majestic storyteller and a deft weaver of literary universes. -- Tilman Krause * Die Welt *The real strengths of NDiaye are her ability to plumb the depths of a character's psychology and her cool but uncompromising dissection of their entire nature. -- Ulrike Baureithel * Der Freitag *NDiaye's manner of writing has often been compared to Proust ... Here she has created a world of mystery, dreams, and sensuality in a very controlled style. -- Adele King * World Literature Today *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen Giuseppe Mundula first sees Michele Angelo Chironi across the corridor of a Sardinian orphanage, the reserved blacksmith realises he has found the son and heir he never knew he needed. And when, a few years later, Michele himself looks down from a church rooftop and sees the beautiful Mercede, the quiet orphan realises he has found the woman he will marry. So begins Marcello Fois' magisterial domestic epic of the lives and loves of the Chironi family, as they struggle through war and fascism. Deftly endowing familial horrors with mythical resonance, Fois creates a Dantesque triptych that inscribes the history of twentieth-century Sardinia onto a single misbegotten household.Trade ReviewFois' descriptive prose is lavish, powerfully evoking time and place. It's as if nature is possessed of a richness of expression that humans have yet to acquire . . . Mazzarella's translation is flawless -- Jethro Souter * Independent *His poetic style is reminiscent of classics such as Manzoni's The Betrothed and Lampedusa's The Leopard -- David Platzer * Tablet *Written with a lyrical, poetic flair, it's an affecting tale of the brutal realities that make life so hard but also those things that make the struggle worthwhile. * Glasgow Herald *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Lindqvist is Sweden's answer to Stephen King' Daily MirrorThey only stopped watching her for a couple of minutes. That was all it took. It was a beautiful winter's day. Anders, his wife and their feisty six-year-old, Maja, set out across the ice of the Swedish archipelago to visit the lighthouse. There was no one around, so they let her run on ahead. And she disappeared, seemingly into thin air, and was never found. Two years later, Anders is a broken alcoholic, his life ruined. He returns to the archipelago, the home of his childhood and his family. But all he finds are Maja's toys and through the haze of memory, loss and alcohol, he realizes that someone - or something - is trying to communicate with him. His return sets in motion a series of horrifying events which exposes a mysterious and troubling relationship between the inhabitants of the remote island and the sea.Trade Review'A magician of genre fiction' Independent. * Independent *'Emotionally forceful and superbly plotted' Big Issue. * Big Issue *'Lindqvist is Sweden's answer to Stephen King' Daily Mirror. * Daily Mirror *'This is a third consecutive masterpiece from an author who deserves to be as much a household name as Stephen King' SFX. * SFX *'a gripping portrayal of the devastating effect that the loss of a child can have on a parent' British Fantasy. * British Fantasy *'A very scary tale indeed' Financial Times. * Financial Times *'Eerily good' Marie Claire. * Marie Claire *'A magician of genre fiction' Independent. * Independent *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten over a period of more than half a century, Tolstoy’s enchanting short stories and novellas reflect every aspect of his developing art and outlook. Volume 1 of the Everyman Collected Shorter Fiction is dominated by the characteristic experiences of his early life as soldier, land-owner, husband and father, the life which shaped Anna Karenina and War and Peace. It also includes several short fables which point to his later preoccupation with the religious life.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPBS Recommended Translation for Spring 2013The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is brought to life by American poet Meghan Purvis in a vigorous contemporary translation. Written across a range of poetic forms and voices, this rendering captures the thrust and gore of battle, the sinister fens and moorlands of Dark Age Denmark, and the treasures and glories of the mead-hall. But can the hero defeat his blood-thirsty foes, save the Geats from being wiped off the map, and claim his just rewards?Combining faithful translation with innovative re-workings and poems from alternative viewpoints, Purvis has created an exciting new interpretation of Beowulf – full of verve and the bristle of language.Meghan Purvis received her MA and PhD in Creative Writing from UEA. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Rialto, The Frogmore Papers and Magma. She won the 2011 Times Stephen Spender Prize for an excerpt from her translation of Beowulf; another poem was commended. She lives in Cambridge.

Read more less

Book SynopsisLong before he was the taco seller whose ‘Gringo Dog’ recipe made him famous throughout Mexico City, our hero was an aspiring artist: an artist, that is, till his would-be girlfriend was stolen by Diego Rivera, and his dreams snuffed out by his hypochondriac mother. Now our hero is resident in a retirement home, where fending off boredom is far more gruelling than making tacos. Plagued by the literary salon that bumps about his building’s lobby and haunted by the self-pitying ghost of a neglected artist, Villalobos’ old man can’t help but misbehave. He antagonises his neighbours, tortures American missionaries with passages from Adorno, flirts with the revolutionary greengrocer, and in short does everything that can be done to fend off the boredom of retirement and old age . . . while still holding a beer. A delicious take-down of pretensions to cultural posterity, I’ll Sell You a Dog is a comic novel whose absurd inventions, scurrilous antics and oddball characters are vintage Villalobos.Trade Review‘I'll Sell You A Dog is a reminder of how effortless literature should be to love. This unexpected ride through a character's second childhood, his building, neighbourhood and history is so magically twisted that it could be real. As ever Villalobos writes a peephole through politics and time, to simply watch us dance in all our lurid whimsy.' * DBC Pierre *‘Villalobos subjects the colourful and at times very funny plot to a rigorously, gracefully applied style, which never projects reality but rather, sentence by sentence, constructs a parallel reality upon it . . . Nothing is real and yet at the same time, everything is recognisable . . . Villalobos has found a tone and a rhythm all his own, unlike anything else in Mexican fiction today. He makes the reader laugh at the absurd and as he does so, he reveals the senselessness of the world.’ -- Fernando García Ramírez * Letras Libras *‘With this, his third novel, Villalobos is confirmed as the definition of new Mexican literature.’ -- Matías Néspolo * El Mundo *‘Villalobos’s farce spares no one. And with the laughter there emerges a compassion for people living marginal lives which positions the novel on the side of the unexpected and unknown, as the novel demands the imagination’s autonomy over reality, thus rebuking the conventions of fiction in a way that is as stimulating as the novel’s humour.’ -- Francisco Solano * El Pais *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn investigative reporter sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company in Northern Finland, whose activities have caused an environmental disaster. Timely, atmospheric and chilling Nordic Noir from one of Finland’s finest writers… ‘Tuomainen writes beautifully’ Publishers Weekly ‘Clever, atmospheric and wonderfully imaginative’ Sunday Mirror ‘A simple story told with passion and elegant sadness’ The Times ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– A hitman. A journalist. A shattered family. A mine spewing toxic secrets that threaten to poison them all… In the dead of winter, investigative reporter Janne Vuori sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company, whose illegal activities have created an environmental disaster in a small town in Northern Finland. When the company’s executives begin to die in a string of mysterious accidents, and Janne’s personal life starts to unravel, past meets present in a catastrophic series of events that could cost him his life. A traumatic story of family, a study in corruption, and a shocking reminder that secrets from the past can return to haunt us, with deadly results, The Mine is a gripping, beautifully written, terrifying and explosive thriller by the King of Helsinki Noir. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ‘Dark, captivating and troubling’ Crime Fiction Lover ‘Beautifully executed … mesmerising’ Australian Crime 'Antti Tuomainen again creates a powerful book, set firmly within the boundaries of strong themes and unforgettable characters, with the huge dose of beautiful sensitive style, masterfully translated from Finnish by David Hackston' Crime Review 'You don’t expect to laugh when you’re reading about terrible crimes, but that’s what you’ll do when you pick up one of Tuomainen’s decidedly quirky thrillers' New York Times ’Antti Tuomainen is a wonderful writer, whose characters, plots and atmosphere are masterfully drawn’ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir ‘One of the most compelling, emotionally satisfying and beautifully realised crime thrillers that I have encountered this year. The clarity and deceptively simple style of Tuomainen’s prose is utterly compelling’ Raven Crime ReadsTrade Review"thought-provoking." Publishers Weekly" "U.S. audiences should prepare to be every bit as enthralled as the Finns. . . . Readers attracted either to dystopian fiction or to Scandinavian crime will find gold here." Booklist starred review on The Healer"

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of a PEN Translates! grant. Selected as a 'book to look out for in 2017' by The Guardian and BuzzFeed Books. In these witty, postmodern stories, Yoon riffs on pop culture, experiments with punctuation, flirts with sci-fi and, in a metafictional twist, mocks his own position as omnipotent author. Highly literary, his narratives offer an oblique reflection of contemporary Bangkok life, exploring the bewildering disjunct and oft-hilarious contradictions of a modernity that is at odds with many traditional Thai ideas on relationships, family, school and work.Trade Review'Formally inventive, always surprising and often poignant, with the publication of this fluid and assured translation of The Sad Part Was, Prabda Yoon can take his place alongside the likes of Ben Lerner and Alejandro Zambra as a writer committed to demonstrating that there's life in the old fiction-dog yet.' - Adam Biles, author of Feeding Time --- 'An entrancing and distinctive collection. Yoon's limpid prose faces up to large, transcendental questions, all the while flickering with beautiful other-worldly images and flashes of deadpan humour.' - Mahesh Rao, author of One Point Two Billion

Read more less

Book SynopsisHom Yun's meticulously ordered life of reading books and drinking coffee receives a jolt when a mysterious cultural foundation unexpectedly agrees to fund his film proposal: a blend of fiction and documentary, a tone-poem constructed around a lyrical narrative, set around Scythian graves in the High Altai mountains. Desperate to be taken on as his assistant, the foundation's secretary follows him from their offices and begins a night of crossed wires, dislocation, and reality seen through glass, darkly. One of South Korea's most astonishingly sui generis authors, Bae Suah mixes the cerebral and the pungently physical, the mundane and the wildly surreal, in a characteristically potent blend.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA wife is suspended in a bird cage; a thirteenth-century visionary senses the foreskin of Christ on her tongue: Fleur Jaeggy's gothic imagination knows no limits. Whether telling of mystics, tormented families or famously private writers, Jaeggy's terse, telegraphic writing is always psychologically clear-eyed and deeply moving, always one step ahead, or to the side, of her readers' expectations. In this, her long-awaited return, we read of an 'eerie maleficent calm, a brutal calm', and recognise the timbre of a writer for whom a paradoxical world seethes with quiet violence.Trade Review'A wonderful, brilliant, savage writer.' Susan Sontag -------- 'Fleur Jaeggy's pen is an engraver's needle depicting roots, twigs, and branches of the tree of madness-extraordinary.' Joseph Brodsky -------- 'She has the enviable first glance for people and things, she harbors a mixture of distracted levity and authoritative wisdom.' Ingeborg Bachmann -------- 'Small-scale, intense, and impeccably focused.' New Yorker -------- 'Startling and original-so disturbing and so haunting.' Cathleen Schine, The New York Review Of Books----'Thank the gods and tip the devil for Fleur Jaeggy!' Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs clear and relentless as the cold air, Love unfolds over one winter's evening. Single mother Vibeke and her son Jon have just moved to a small, remote town in the north of Norway. Tomorrow Jon will be nine. As Vibeke gets changed after work, Jon wonders what surprises his mother has prepared for him. He leaves the house certain she will make him a cake. But preoccupied with concerns of her own, she too ventures out. Inextricably linked yet desperately at odds, mother and son make their lonely ways through the unforgiving night. Beautifully translated into English by Martin Aitken, this edition is the twenty-eighth international publication of Love. Hanne Orstavik's astonishing grasp of human fragility and her economy of form power this acknowledged masterpiece of Norwegian literature.Trade Review`Love is Hanne Orstavik's strongest book.' Karl Ove Knausgaard ----'An achingly sad, unsentimental story . . . For a short novel that spans only a few hours in time . . . Orstavik brings us remarkably close to both her characters, shifting effortlessly between them in stark, lucid prose.' Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times----`[I]n Love, the closeness of the perspectives, the cramming of them together, as if the mother and son are one person, and yet clearly not, feels less about narrative, and more about the limitations of love. We think we know another person, we feel settled in another person, and yet, perhaps every other consciousness is entirely a mystery. That's the power of this particular book. The tiny emotional and atmospheric shifts are often barely perceptible, and yet they add up to much more.' Anita Felicelli, Los Angeles Review of Books ----`Orstavik's mastery of perspective and clean, crackling sentences prevent sentimentality or sensationalism from trailing this story of a woman and her accidentally untended child. Both of them long for love, but the desire lines of the book are beautifully crooked. Jon wants his mother, and to be let in out of the cold...the cold that seems a character throughout this excellent novel of near misses.' Claire Vaye Watkins, New York Times----`[A] haunting masterpiece... The deceptively simple novel is slow-burning, placing each character into situations associated with horror-entering an unfamiliar house, accepting a ride from a stranger-and the result is a magnificent tale.' Publishers Weekly, starred review ----`Prizewinning Norwegian Orstavik follows the parallel courses of a single mother and her 8-year-old son during a night that moves unrelentingly toward tragedy... A nightmarish sense of impending doom hangs over these carefully detailed, tightly controlled pages... icy cold to the core.' Kirkus Reviews ----`[A] creeping sense of unease is racheted up by the cool, lucid prose and how the paragraphs shift between mother and son, clarifying how close they should be and how close they aren't... Multi-award winner Orstavik offers an unsettling read that most will enjoy.' Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal ----`Love can change everything. And it does in this edgy, elegiac and beautifully written novel...What you think will happen doesn't-and what does breaks your heart.' Kerri Arsenault, Oprah.com ----`What was so striking to me about this slim novel was how quiet and circumspect it was given the emotional gut punch it delivered. `Deceptive' is right, sneaky even, and at the risk of falling into the trap of stereotyping Norwegian lit, the power of quietly mushrooming foreboding is strong with Orstavik. As I happen to be flying over the dark and snowy north of Norway as I write this, looking out my window at the icy fjords below, I feel the creep, even at 35,000 feet.' M. Bartley Seigel, Words Without Borders ---- `Love is a beautiful novella of beguiling simplicity, and Martin Aitken's translation has brought it over into an English that is both familiar and alien.' Erik Noonan, Asymptote Journal -----`Love is a deep and vibrantly alive novel... beautifully devastating... This is not your typical love story but rather the sharp-edged account of a boy whose need for attention from his heedless mother is heartfelt and full of yearning.' Lori Feathers, World Literature Today ----`Love is effectively atmospheric... neatly textured with its back and forths... A disturbing little read, nicely, darkly told.'Michael Orthofer, The Complete Review ----`In Hanne Orstavik's Love , the equilibrium between a tense, disquieting plot and a gently experimental binary structure sustain the reader's attention and awe from beginning to end. The aerial beauty of Martin Aitken's translation contributes to make the novel a successful rarity: a book that is at the same time a thriller and a dense literary object. "Perfect" may be the proper adjective to describe it.' National Book Foundation, 2018 Translated Literature Finalist ----`Praise from Booksellers': `Hanne Orstavik crafts an atmosphere of unease out of the ordinary. An old man giving a young boy a pair of skates, a man inviting a woman over for coffee, in Orstavik's hands these seemingly harmless moments become filled with an underlying sense of dread. Longing and loneliness fill these pages, while always there is a sense of the impossibility of real understanding and connection between people. Orstavik is a true observer of human nature and Love is her masterpiece.'Emily Ballaine, Green Apple Books on the Park ---- `Point of view works like a spot of living light in this slender book, with deft perspective shifts occurring between Vibeke, a hardworking, distracted mother, and Jon, her curious, lonely young son, on nearly every page. Mother and son are each on a separate journey, but the reader watches their whole shared life, as memories are folded expertly between breaths in Orstavik's urgent, visually vivid present tense--what a lovely shape. Nothing is wasted. And I'm astonished by the precision and poetry of Martin Aitken's translation from the Norwegian.' Gina Balibrera, Literati Bookstore ---- `Written with a precise elegance...builds to an ending as lonely as our characters. Beautiful and affecting, no word is wasted in this perfect winter read.' Kelsey Westenberg, Pilsen Community Books ----`[Q]uite simply, exceptional...If this book is an indication of Orstavik's talent, then translations of the rest of her work can't come soon enough... [Love] is a short, suspenseful winter's tale crafted in beautifully spare and precise prose. It can be read in a few hours but its singular effects haunt the reader for a long time afterward.' Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune ----`Love's impeccable English translation by Martin Aitken reflects the economy and self-possession of Nordic prose. Its seamless narration, drawn in counterpoint, reverberates beyond the eerie landscape, lingering in the mind...Love, like love, yields its own gifts.' Fani Papageorgiou, Hyperallergic ----`[Love is] driven home for American readers thanks, in large part, to the translation, by Martin Aitkin. Aitkin's translation is economic, delicate, and pliant, making the narrative shifts between Vibeke and Jon seem effortless, dreamlike.' Brianne Baker, Entropy ---- `Wondrous, uncanny... an innovative yet unassuming structure... candid, glinting prose... This is the brilliance of Orstavik's technique: that we, as readers, can see how often Jon and Vibeke's thoughts converge, while they are each left blindly to await salvation.' Will Harrison, The Hudson Review ----`[Love] is a ruthless analysis of the formal structure of dread-and while the original is two decades old now, the English translation could not have arrived at a more appropriate moment.' Nicholas Dames, Public Books ---- `In this swift, elegantly constructed novel, Hanne Orstavik masterfully conveys a sense of entwined dread and longing that doesn't let up for a second. From the opening page to the powerfully moving finale, this tale of a mother and son is riveting. The characters' inner lives are illumined by a beautiful eeriness, and the translation's precision and clarity do justice to the novel's intensities. Read it: it'll bat around your brain for a long time afterward.' Martha Cooley ----`Love is hard, clear, merciless, and utterly compelling - a prism of the many daily ways we miss each other.'- Rebecca Dinerstein ---- `[Orstavik] gives nothing away for free, there is no overdriven emotion, no sentimentality nor pandering to her public. . . . But thanks to a language rich in its precision, with no loss of simplicity, it becomes an experience to follow her to her conclusion. One knows that one has read something substantial which one would not wish to be without.' Dagbladet ----`Love explores the insurmountable distance between people, the elementary impenetrability of them, and tells us about the difficulty of reading the signals of others. In short, dry sentences, Orstavik relates all the postponed, the possibilities that hang over our lives.'Avant-critiques ---- `Once in a while, there comes a book that takes you by surprise. An unassuming, low-key, seemingly ordinary novel which turns into an experience that makes you fully understand why you love reading so much. ... Orstavik's writing is impeccable, perfect, as haunting as the beauty of her homeland...[Love] will leave you speechless, the way a well-written novella has to do..this one of the most beautiful books I've read this year.' Amalia Gavea, The Opinionated Reader----`As is often the case, sobriety is the condition of emotion: Hanne Orstavik has perfectly put into practice this principle to offer a beautiful novel simple and subtle, meditative and moving.'A.N., L'Humanite ----`Orstavik invites the readers into her two characters' innermost thoughts, seamlessly switching back and forth between their perspectives- often within the same paragraph. Their stories unfold breathlessly close together on the page, suggesting the strong link between mother and son that Vibeke's actions betray.... a creeping sense of tragedy brews within the story...Though Love is only one hundred and twenty-five pages, its careful craft and beautiful details make it worth savoring-right to its haunting but inevitable conclusion.' Samantha Aper, Zyzzyva ----`What could be a simple family story is instead filled with foreboding and anxiety, showcasing the marvels and dangers pulsating just below the surface in our everyday lives. Longing and hopefulness fills these brief pages, leaving readers with a sense of wonder for the average: how a day can be so filled with newness and potential, with menace and tragedy.' Laura Farmer, The Gazette ---- `Hanne Orstavik's exquisite Love, so elemental in its materials and technique, embodies a profound recognition - namely that every search for clarity and connection must proceed through the full awareness of what constrains us.' Ron Slate, On The Seawall ----`From the first page, Orstavik's understated prose and sparse dialogue trace a relationship between mother and son that is as dry and powdery as Jon's failed snowballs. As the novel flits effortlessly between these two points of view, the reader is swept up in two separate egos, each on a muted quest for the human connections they are unable to accept from each other....Martin Aitken is to be applauded for so conscientiously bringing this soft-spoken, full-hearted novel into the English language.' The Arkansas International ----`Love is a book that uses sophisticated literary techniques to harrow readers and keep us in a state of trepidation (and confusion) on these points, right up until its final pages, breathlessly uncertain of the outcome.' - Abe Nemon, The Old Book Appreciator ---`The effect of Orstavik's narrative, alternating abruptly between Jon's story and that of his mother, is beautifully devastating. The prose (wonderfully translated) and pacing set a tone of foreboding tension and impending doom. A short, but very deep, and vibrantly alive novel.' Lori, Interabang Books ----`Love is a book that uses sophisticated literary techniques to harrow readers and keep us in a state of trepidation (and confusion) on these points, right up until its final pages, breathlessly uncertain of the outcome.'The Old Book Appreciator ----`Orstavik reminds us in this novel that love can be a dreadful thing too - when we love we trust, we assume all will be well continue as it always has. A child's love is unquestioning and innocently trusting. Orstavik understands the evil that lies in the betrayal of that - however accidental or merely thoughtless that betrayal is.' Heavenali ----`Vibeke...opens up so many difficult questions about love, about motherhood, about empathy, and also, potentially, what it means when we "like" a fictional character in a novel and when we "hate" them, and why we like some characters and not others, and whether we tend to dislike certain types of characters more than others, and what that might mean.'Strange Bookfellows ----`[Love is] a remarkable novel that will linger long after.'SF Gate ----`[T]here is an inescapable and escalating sense of anxiety as the story unfolds... In many ways Love seems to be taking place within a threshold, an in-between time, a twilight & dawnlight moment that may or may not be completely real... [A] dreamlike adventure... poised at the brink of a looming tragedy.' Michelle Bailat-Jones, Necessary Fiction ----`It is rare to read a novel where the mundane feels so thrilling...The emotional tension Hanne Orstavik created in Love is what makes this a standout read. Martin Aitken was able to provide a brilliant translation from the Norwegian and I can see myself dipping into this one again and again.'Michael, Knowledge Lost ----`As one reads this short but compelling novel, the absence of love, or of love expressed dominates every page.'Book Word

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the middle of summer, omnipresent heat radiates as a group of elderly people are remembering their youth. The story focuses on two sisters, Leokadia and Czechna, who live together in a retirement home not far from Warsaw. These are not ordinary stories they are sharing, because both of them spent time as children in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. At the center is Czechna, who at the age of 12 was saved from extermination by the notorious doctor Josef Mengele, the real-life Nazi officer and physician who was known as the ''angel of death'' for the experiments he conducted on prisoners, including twins and siblings. This is a story both provocative and disturbing about the fear that lingers in victims. Was the sisters'' relationship with the executioner a desperate attempt to save their lives, or perhaps they harbour a hideous pride and sense of superiority over other prisoners? Rudzka''s extraordinary writing turns unsettling questions about memory and survival into art.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA collection to whet the appetite of anyone wishing to learn more about a region rich in history, folklore and (her)stories. Telling it like a woman does not mean literature for women only: it provides an insight into half of humanity, a window onto the lives of citizens who work, love and develop their inner lives. This collection brings together the voices of a wide selection of prize-winning and established authors

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe characters in this literary exploration of one of the world’s biggest cities are all on a mission. Whether it is responding to events around them, or following some impulse of their own, they are defined by their determination – a refusal to lose themselves in a city that might otherwise leave them anonymous, disconnected, alone. From the neglected mother whose side-hustle in collecting sellable waste becomes an obsession, to the schoolboy determined to end a long-standing feud between his family and another, the characters in The Book of Shanghai show a defiance that reminds us why Shanghai – despite its hurtling economic growth –remains an epicentre for individual creativity.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA little boy wants to tell his mother a secret, but first she has to swear to tell NO-ONE ELSE! There is also a secret hidden in the illustrations. Part of the second batch of Bicki-Books, a collectible series of postcard-sized picture books which each feature a classic Latvian poem. Suitable for children aged 3+.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn't let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city's most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiance about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier. In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter.Weaving together these two vibrant voices, Igiaba Scego has crafted a powerful exploration of what it means to be "other," to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in a foreign country, yesterday and today.Trade Review'A testament to the possibilities of liberation that rest in every act against injustice, and in every moment of artistic creation' [Maaza Mengiste]; 'In its reckoning with racism and colonialism. The Colour Line explores the potential for artists to reclaim line and colour in the name of justice' [Selby Wynn Schwartz]; 'An engrossing tale of ambition, survival, and love' [Publishers Weekly]; 'An intense and evocative book about the lasting traumas of racial injustice, the healing power of creativity, and the importance of representation in history' [Ruth Ben-Ghiat]

Read more less

Book SynopsisHamburg state prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a series of arson attacks on cars across the city, which leads her to a startling and life-threatening discovery involving criminal gangs and a very illicit love story... 'Another brilliant adventure in the company of Chastity Riley, the coolest character in crime fiction. Darkly funny and written with a huge heart’ Doug Johnstone, Big Issue 'Reading Buchholz is like walking on firecrackers … a truly unique voice in crime fiction’ Graeme Macrae Burnet ‘Caustic, incisive prose. A street-smart, gutsy heroine. A timely and staggeringly stylish thriller’ Will Carver _______________ Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect. Until, one night, on Mexico Street, a ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, a Fiat is torched. Only this car isn’t empty. The body of Nouri Saroukhan – prodigal son of the Bremen clan – is soon discovered, and the case becomes a homicide. Public prosecutor Chastity Riley is handed the investigation, which takes her deep into a criminal underground that snakes beneath the whole of Germany. And as details of Nouri’s background, including an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza, emerge, it becomes clear that these are not random attacks, and there are more on the cards... _______________ ‘A stylish, whip-smart thriller’ Russel McLean ‘Lyrical and pithy’ Sunday Times ‘Fierce enough to stab the heart’ Spectator ‘Sharp and unrelenting’ CultureFly ‘Simone Buchholz writes with real authority and a pungent, noir-ish sense of time and space’ Financial Times ‘Deeply moody, atmospheric and evocative’ Blue Book Balloon ‘An unconventional, refreshing new voice’ Crime Fiction Lover

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn insurance mathematician’s carefully ordered life is turned on its head when he unexpectedly loses his job and inherits an adventure park … with a whole host of problems. A quirky, tense and warmly funny thriller from award-winning Finnish author Antti Tuomainen. **Soon to be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell for Amazon Studios** 'Laconic, thrilling and warmly human. In these uncertain times, what better hero than an actuary?' Chris Brookmyre ‘The antic novels of Antti Tuomainen prove that comedy is not lost in translation … Tuomainen, like Carl Hiaasen before him, has the knack of combining slapstick with genuine emotion’ The Times 'The funniest writer in Europe, and one of the very finest. There is a beautiful rhythm and poetry to the prose … original and brilliant story-telling' Helen FitzGerald_______________ Just one spreadsheet away from chaos… What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal. And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back. But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, an artist with a chequered past, and a joie de vivre and erratic lifestyle that bewilders him. As the criminals go to extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri's relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets… Warmly funny, rich with quirky characters and absurd situations, The Rabbit Factor is a triumph of a dark thriller, its tension matched only by its ability to make us rejoice in the beauty and random nature of life. _______________ ‘British readers might think they know what to expect from Nordic noir: a tortured detective, a bleak setting, a brutal crime that shakes a small community. Finnish crime novelist Tuomainen turns all of this on its head … The ear of a giant plastic rabbit becomes a key weapon. It only gets darker and funnier’ Guardian 'Antti Tuomainen turns the clichéd idea of dour, humourless Scandi noir upside down with The Rabbit Factor. Dark, gripping and hilarious … Tuomainen is the Carl Hiaasen of the fjords' Martyn Waites 'The Rabbit Factor is a triumph, a joyous, feel-good antidote to troubled times' Kevin Wignall ‘Finland's greatest export’ M.J. Arlidge ‘The Rabbit Factor is an astounding read. It has the suspenseful twists of a thriller, the laugh-out-loud moments of a comedy and a tragic dimension that brings a tear to the eye’ Crime Fiction Lover 'You don’t expect to laugh when you’re reading about terrible crimes, but that’s what you’ll do when you pick up one of Tuomainen’s decidedly quirky thrillers' New York Times ‘Tuomainen is the funniest writer in Europe’ The Times ‘Right up there with the best’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Tuomainen continues to carve out his own niche in the chilly tundras of northern’ Daily Express

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen her parents die in a car accident, highly talented Austrian physicist Ruth Schwarz is confronted with a problem. Her parents’ will calls for them to be buried in their childhood home — but for strangers, the village of Gross-Einland remains stubbornly hidden from view. When Ruth finally finds her way there, she makes a disturbing discovery: beneath the town lies a vast cavern that exerts a strange control over the lives of the villagers. There are hidden clues about the hole everywhere, but nobody wants to talk about it — not even when it becomes clear that the stability of the entire town is in jeopardy. In the literary tradition of Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek, Raphaela Edelbauer’s tale of trauma and history weaves an opaque dream fabric that is frighteningly true to life, and in the process she turns us towards the abject horror that lies beneath repressed memory. The Liquid Land is a dangerous novel, at once glittering nightmare and dark reality, from an extraordinary new voice.Trade Review‘A Freudian exploration of complicated grief.’ -- Simon Ings * The Times *‘Ably translated from the German by Jen Calleja, Raphaela Edelbauer’s impressive debut novel is a subtle allegory of historical memory and collective guilt, combining a dreamy, gothic strangeness with whimsical humour and an element of farce … The novel’s deft blend of registers — at once uncannily foreboding and drily comic — makes for an absorbing and memorable tale.’ -- Houman Barekat * The Guardian *‘Clever and compelling.’ -- Dani Garavelli * The Big Issue *‘Highly intelligent and deeply eccentric … the writing has atmosphere and intensity and — most satisfyingly — an intoxicating strangeness.’ -- Kevin O’Sullivan * Irish Examiner *‘An unfathomable and imaginative parable about Austria and how it dealt with its National Socialist past … philosophical and fantastic.’ -- Florian Baranyi * ORF *‘Edelbauer crosses borders and advances into unexplored areas of literature.’ * 2017 Rauriser Literature Prize jury citation *‘A village that officially does not exist and that seems to be disappearing more and more … Anyone who embarks on this trip is safely guided by Edelbauer — on a fine line between madness and adventure.’ -- Christina Risken * Buchhandlung Krüger *Praise for Raphaela Edelbauer: ‘Edelbauer’s essays are huge and impossible, utopian and full of fantastical realisms, brilliant and unwieldy. Vulcanoid salvos, cold and hard, which hit the reader with brute force.’ * Marietta Böning, Magazine of the Literaturhaus Wien *‘The Liquid Land was a fun and fascinating read … This is a quirky tale that is sure to please readers of contemporary fiction looking for something a little different, since it combines family drama with mystery/investigation and a touch of magical realism.’ -- Nicki J. Markus/Asta Idonea, author of Fire Up My Heart and Northern Lights‘For a novel meticulously built on a series of familiar, strange, and compelling conceptual metaphors, The Liquid Land isn't a dense or overly taxing read — just the opposite, in fact. Ruth's brief meditations on the nature of time and space at the beginning of the novel become our entry-point into the first of many motifs Edelbauer spends the rest of the book unpicking: the fluidity of time and space in our social lives, the implications of ecological collapse, the permeability of natural and built worlds, and our attempt to make sense of the past, and more importantly, come to terms with it. With The Liquid Land, Raphaela Edelbauer has written a book that is oblique, familiar, and completely new. It's a fascinating, heady combination.’ -- Khalid Warsame * ABC Arts *‘Edelbauer conjures a gut-level queasiness around questions of participation in and propagation of historical lies in a country with a silenced history of violence. This novel becomes a study of the deformations that such silences work upon citizens and indeed on physical landscapes. It’s a visceral wrestle with the presence of the past.’ -- Bernard Caleo, Readings‘The Liquid Land is a tale that nods to the traditions of magical realism while also exploring the threat of a very real past. On one level, it deals with a practical problem that falls to the protagonist, Ruth. But in searching for the solution — a town that has written itself off the map — she uncovers a looming danger that threatens to engulf the place. An intoxicating adventure unfolds from this unique premise.’ * Happy Mag *‘Fascinating and richly imaginative.’ -- Eric Karl Anderson * Lonesome Reader *‘A dark and deliciously unique novel … An uncanny page-turner, The Liquid Land pits family drama and an eerie almost Hot Fuzz-like town against darker presences – whether physical, emotional, or historical. The end result is an engaging and thought-provoking piece of contemporary fiction.’ -- Jodie Sloan * The AU Review‘The Liquid Land is a daring and surreal nightmare that lingers long after you turn the final page … The Liquid Land is a powerful sociological and philosophical reflection on society and government.’ -- Samuel Bernard Williams * Good Reading, starred review *‘From the first page of this beguilingly strange, darkly comic novel, we are plunged into a destabilised realm of fiction where the laws of rationality, physics, and linear duration no longer seem to apply … At times, the novel, as translated into English by Jen Calleja, reads like a postmodern détournement of classic German texts like The Castle and The Magic Mountain, where a baffled protagonist is drawn into an environment whose shadowy, labile qualities become inseparable from their own inner disorder.’ * World Literature Today *‘Ruth Schwartz, a physicist, tries to fulfil her parents' final wishes: burying them in their ancestral home of Greater Einland, a small town in Austria that does not show up in any municipal record … This is an eerie, electric novel about individual trauma, collective memory, and the way the land holds onto atrocity.’ -- Rachel Schneck * Harvard Book Store *

Read more less

Book Synopsis"I had just gotten away from it all, by which I mean all those ordinary, boring things like skyscrapers, cigar-smoking industrialists, linoleum, plastics, television, westerns and marihuana. I had either seen or heard about them. Whether they are good or bad is beside the point..." A nameless graphic designer is haunted by the concentration camp in which he was once interned. Obsessed with his past, as well as Italy's present 'economic miracle' he retreats to a rural villa where he decorates the rooms with "arrows, signs, advertisements"; invents a new, purposefully incomprehensible typeface; and attempts to devise a marketing campaign for stones. Upon finally returning to Milan life becomes even more unbalanced. He loses his job and acquires a mistress whom he soon confuses both with his wife and the memory of the young, Czech woman he abandoned at the end of the war... Known primarily as a screenwriter for Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Andrei Tarkovsky among many others, Tonino Guerra also wrote poetry and fiction. Reissued to mark the centenary of Guerra's birth, and with a new introduction by acclaimed cultural critic Michael Bracewell, Equilibrium remains a relevant, powerful, and intensely visual account of a truly (post-)modern man.Trade Review"A diary, a tragedy, PTSD, madness. A trip worthy of Hunter S. Thompson or Charlie Kaufman, obviously filmic and surreal but succinct and clear like fresh water." Samantha Morton ---------- "Equilibrium, about malaise, sexuality without love, bewilderment, scorn, constantly thwarted relationships and a man trapped in his own head, speaks in a deep way to our ongoing search for intimacy, tenderness, communication, and different attachments to objects and nature. Even now, it's a far more satisfying read than many rushed-to-publisher analyses of the current situation." Review 31 ---------- "A disturbing and gripping mind-boggler, at once hilarious and nightmarish." Mubi's The Notebook ---------- "Fantastic: an absurd novella [...] strange funny and painful." Roland Barf's Film Diary ---------- "A modernity in which things and their values are shifting and loose [...] This is postmodern as in 'after the present.'" Manchester Review of Books ---------- "Guerra as a solo artist turns out to be every bit as talented, original, and challenging as the directors he worked with" a Criterion Collection October Book of October ----------"Powerfully written, and endlessly mesmerising, it's a story both timeless and incredibly resonant in 2020." Left Lion ---------- "At times wildly funny and at others disturbing." A Burley Fisher Book of the Year ---------- A South London Gallery Christmas Book Choice.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Wilder Winds, Bel Olid presents a stunning collection of short stories that draw on notions of individual freedom, abuses of power, ingrained social violence, life on the outskirts of society, and inevitable differences. Alongside these are small acts of kindness capable of changing the world and making it a better place. Like flowers stubbornly growing and blooming in the cracks of a pavement, Olid’s work seeks out beauty without renouncing truth, and never avoids conflict or intimacy. Wilder Winds creates scenes and fragile, yet hardy characters that will stay with the reader for years to come.

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2008A man bets all he has on a horserace to pay for an expensive operation for his dog. A young refugee wants to box her way straight off the boat to the top of the sport. Old friends talk all night after meeting up by chance. She imagines a future together.Stories about people who have lost out in life and in love, and about their hopes for one really big win, the chance to make something of their lives. In silent apartments, desolate warehouses, prisons and by the river, Meyer strikes the tone of our harsh times, and finds the grace notes, the bright lights shining in the dark.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNicol Hochholczerova's novella is a controversial best-seller. It has been awarded prizes and is being widely translated across Europe.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA surreal coming-of-age novel that blends Eastern and Western beliefs, from the winner of the 2015 Best Translated Book Award.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Michel Bussi is one of France''s most ingenious crime writers... has plenty of twists and turns in store in this fast-moving novel about a long-planned act of revenge'' Joan Smith, SUNDAY TIMES''Takes the reader on a thrilling ride across the remote isle in the Indian Ocean with plenty of twists and turns to keep them gripped until an epic, unexpected conclusion'' Jon Coates, DAILY EXPRESSPicture the scene - an idyllic resort on the island of Réunion. Martial and Liane Bellion are enjoying the perfect moment with their six-year-old daughter. Turquoise skies, clear water, palm trees, a warm breeze...Then Liane Bellion disappears. She went up to her hotel room between 3 and 4pm and never came back. When the room is opened, it is empty, but there is blood everywhere. An employee of the hotel claims to have seen Martial in the corridor during that crucial hour.Then Martial also disappears, along with his daughter. An all-out manhunt is dTrade ReviewMichel Bussi is one of France's most ingenious crime writers... has plenty of twists and turns in store in this fast-moving novel about a long-planned act of revenge -- Joan Smith * SUNDAY TIMES *Some writers try carefully calibrated alternations on a winning formula from book to book, but offer few surprises. That can't be said of the French author Michel Bussi... That refusal to repeat himself is evident in Don't Let Go, which is just as accomplished as its predecessors * GUARDIAN *The third novel by the bestselling French author takes the reader on a thrilling ride across the remote isle in the Indian Ocean with plenty of twists and turns to keep them gripped until an epic, unexpected conclusion -- Jon Coates * DAILY EXPRESS *as it draws towards its heart-pounding final pages, it's hard to concentrate on anything other than the outcome of the desperate manhunt - and the startling revelation of the truth. Inventive, original and incredibly entertaining * SUNDAY MIRROR *What Bussi's... books do share are a ticking clock mechanism, signaled by constant date and time checks, and a stonking great twist at the end * THE TIMES *This is a thriller full of suspense that leaves you desperate to know where the truth lies. There are twists, turns and red herrings at every corner . . . A very clever novel, paced perfectly and written with elegance, which wraps up the mystery at a stunning climax -- Mik Brown * Shots magazine *A novel so extraordinary that it reminded me of reading Steig Larsson for the very first time . . . Bussi breaks every rule in the book, but I doubt I'll read a more brilliant crime novel this year * Sunday Times on AFTER THE CRASH *Thriller of the month * Good Housekeeping on AFTER THE CRASH *A richly satisfying story...a hugely enjoyable ride. * Irish Independent on AFTER THE CRASH *The novel ends with one of the most reverberating shocks in modern crime fiction * SUNDAY TIMES on BLACK WATER LILIES *A work of genius befitting the masterpiece by Monet at its heart . . . Simply stunning * DAILY EXPRESS on BLACK WATER LILIES *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Financial Times Translated Fiction Book of the YearTranslated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai Minoru Aose is an architect whose greatest achievement is to have designed the Yoshino house, a prizewinning and much discussed private residence built in the shadow of Mount Asama. Aose has never been able to replicate this triumph and his career seems to have hit a barrier, while his marriage has failed. He is shocked to learn that the Yoshino House is empty apart from a single chair, stood facing the north light of nearby Mount Asama.How can he live with the rejection of the work he had put his heart and soul into, the dream house he would have loved to own himself? Aose determines that he must discover the truth behind this cruel and inexplicable dismissal of the Yoshino house and in doing so will find out a truth that goes back to the core of who he is. Plotted with the subtlety of his bestselling masterpiece Six Four, The North Light is Yokoyama at his elusive, tantalising and surprising best.Trade ReviewJapan's Master of Mystery and one of the country's most consistently engaging and brilliant novelists. -- David PeaceThis is a fascinating novel about guilt, shame and redemption, which offers insights into the subtleties and frustrations of creativity, as well as many different kinds of relationship. * Literary Review *A multilayered, offbeat, bittersweet and utterly engrossing meditation on ambition, creativity, guilt, and workplace and family relationships. * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe latest thriller in Aslak Nore's bestselling trilogy - an epic adventure novel where illicit love, dangerous political ideas, and bitter power struggles all come to the fore.

Read more less