Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisIt is 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. Jonathan Fabrizius, a journalist living in West Germany, is asked to travel to the contested lands of former East Prussia - where the Nazi legacy lives on in buildings and fortifications - to write about the route for a car rally. It's a plum job, but his interest is piqued by a personal connection. Here, among the refugees fleeing the advancing Russians in 1945, he was born. Homeland is a nuanced work from one of the great modern European storytellers, in which an everyday German comes face to face with his painful family history, and devastating questions about ordinary Germans' complicity in the war.

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Book SynopsisDinslaken, Germany 1945. The war is over, leaving behind a broken nation. As the allied forces begin to uncover the horrors of the Holocaust, a war photographer makes the decision to capture the lives of the ordinary German people. Accompanied by his driver, the young and vulnerable O'Leary, the pair set off on a journey, one that changes both their lives forever. The Invisible Land is a story of the moral and emotional repercussions of violence, complicity and its aftermath.

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Book Synopsis'A comic tour de force, a biting satire on the hypnotized world of artificial wants and needs that Huxley predicted, a moving study of brotherhood and family failure, F is an astonishing book, a work of deeply satisfying (and never merely clever) complexity' - John Burnside Artful and subversive, F tells the story of the Friedland family - fakers, all of them - and the day when the fate in which they don't quite believe catches up with them. Having achieved nothing in life, Arthur Friedland is tricked on stage by a hypnotist and told to change everything. After he abandons his three young sons, they grow up to be a faithless priest, a broke financier and a forger. Each of them cultivates absence. One will be lost to it. A novel about the game of fate and the fetters of family, F never stops questioning, exploring and teasing at every twist and turn of its Rubik's Cube-like narrative.**Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2015**Trade ReviewA comic tour de force, a biting satire on the hypnotized world of artificial wants and needs that Huxley predicted, a moving study of brotherhood and family failure, F is an astonishing book, a work of deeply satisfying (and never merely clever) complexity . . . It is a novel of deep beauty, psychological insight and, finally, compassion; a book that, in a world of fakes and manufactured objects of desire, is the real article: a bona fide, inimitable masterpiece -- John Burnside * Times Literary Supplement *Daniel Kehlmann braided art, religion and finance into a typically effervescent but heartfelt comedy-of-ideas about faith and fakery * Independent *It is this sense of a world potent with significance that seems at once within our reach and beyond our grasp that forms the central concern of this most accomplished, humane and unsettling of novels - a work that registers how it is to feel so alive to the 'terrible beauty of things' as to feel the world is talking to us * Literary Review *Daniel Kehlmann's subtly yet masterly constructed puzzle cube of a new novel . . . conveying the implicit message that Fate with a capital F has already decided the answer for us . . . Yet Kehlmann's ambitious narrative structure - the novel itself - provides the strongest rebuke of that deterministic claim. For the novel, with its sly Möbius-strip-like connectedness, doesn't just hint at the possibility of a plan behind the scenes; it enacts that plan in the very telling, its elegant, unfolding construction revealing the author's intended pattern by book's end; a sign of hope, perhaps, or even faith * New York Times *Intelligent, acerbic and quietly surreal . . . Powering the narrative is the explosive fallout from the collision between fate and self-determination . . . Subtle and clever in all the right ways. Kehlmann's world is fully convincing while being philosophically challenging. He has a hypnotic effect, seducing us with his storytelling while provoking us to find meanings of our own -- Toby Lichtig * Saturday Telegraph *It cannot be an easy thing to write a comic novel about the death of God. Still, Daniel Kehlmann may just have pulled it off . . . In a godless world, love counts for a great deal. And failing love, ordinary human decency goes a long way. Since Kurt Vonnegut died, there has really been no one to tell us this; the reminder is welcome . . . F is about the world's absurdity, and this makes a huge difference morally. The world is big, and ultimately unknowable, and life is short and memory pitifully limited . . . It is very hard to express how funny this all is. But laughter matters most in the dark -- Simon Ings * Guardian *What a strange and beautiful novel, hovering on the misty borders of the abstract and the real. Three brilliant character studies in the brothers - religion, money and art. What else is there? The answer, Kehlmann suggests, without ever saying so, is love, and its lack is the essence of the failures of all three men. But while these fates unroll in the idiom of psychological realism, there is a cooler geometry working on the reader, a painterly sense of the symmetry in human fates. It's a deeply writerly novel with a stout backbone of wonderful characterization. High achievement -- Ian McEwanWith the wizardry of a puzzle master Daniel Kehlmann permutes the narrative pieces of this Rubik's Cube of a story - involving a lost father and his three sons - into a solution that clicks into position with a deep thrill of narrative and emotional satisfaction. Kehlmann is one of the brightest, most pleasure-giving writers at work today, and he manages all this while exploring matters of deep philosophical and intellectual import. He deserves to have more readers -- Jeffrey EugenidesF is an intricate, beautiful novel in multiple disguises: a family saga, a fable, and a high-speed farce. But then, what else would you expect? Daniel Kehlmann is one of the great novelists for making giant themes seem light -- Adam ThirlwellCompelling combination of digestible philosophy and buzzy page-turning thriller . . . the ideas in this book are big, exciting, an irresistible puzzle, and the prose flows like the Rhine - increasingly dramatic, occasionally soulful. F might be for Friedland and family and fraud but it is also for fun. And a fecking good read * Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisBoth investigations began on the same day. One seemed domestic, almost banal: a newborn is found in a bag outside a hospital and the woman who left it there is captured after a few hours. The second investigation appeared stranger and more intriguing: a Swiss tourist disappeared from a beach-hotel near Tel-Aviv, and a quick inquiry showed he had been using a fake passport and at least two names. Can he be a Mossad agent like his daughter claims? And is he in danger?Inspector Avraham Avraham, wishing to outgrow his usual cases of domestic violence, is indifferent to the one, and seduced by the other. Soon he understands he made a wrong choice, as both investigations spiral into a maze of violence and deception, leading to Israel's darkest secrets - and threatening to put Avraham in conflict with the most powerful men in the country, who technically don't even exist.Conviction is a successful synthesis of the emotionality of the previous Avraham cases and the fast-paced, highly suspenseful standalone novel, Three. Once again, Mishani delivers an almost unbearably tense story, both thrilling and emotionally involving. It is yet another triumph.Trade ReviewA book that unfolds with an eerie, deliberate power; one to savour. -- Martin WalkerAnother jewel in the crown of a brilliant series * Irish Independent *Mishani is the master of the deftly woven, complicated plot . . . Five stars * Tablet *

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Book SynopsisThe second part in an epic historical trilogy - The Estonian answer to Wolf Hall - by the nation's greatest modern writer The year is 1563, and by any account Balthasar Russow can be said to have risen in the world. Fresh from his studies in the German town of Stetten, he has assumed the role as pastor of Tallinn's Holy Ghost Church. Moreover, he is betrothed to a maiden of the town - much to the chagrin of her father, who has no wish to welcome peasant stock to the family when there is no shortage of upstanding young German men - and is poised to begin the chronicle that will ensure his everlasting fame.But tribulations still await the now not-quite-young Pastor - Livonia is still plagued by foreign powers, with Tallinn braced to withstand a prolonged Muscovite siege. And he will discover that marriage is a often a battlefield in itself.Translated from the Estonian by Merike BeecherTrade ReviewHe's a marvellous novelist - his scope and depth make him a world writer - and they should just hurry up and give him the Nobel. -- Doris LessingHe deserved a Nobel prize and would probably have got it had he written in any other language but Estonian. -- Neil Taylor * Guardian. *He's almost alone in writing in the older European tradition of the large-scale historical novel. I'd argue that Kross is heir to the 'great' Russo-European 19th century novelists; his fiction has Tolstoyan sweep. On reading him, moreover, we rediscover that Estonia was always resolutely in Europe and not some obscure outpost this side of the Urals. -- Fiona SampsonNo stranger to oppression himself, Kross writes about it with a poignancy devoid of anger. -- Adam Zamoyski

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER 2018When two Parisian women are murdered in their homes, the police suspect young accordionist Clément Vauquer. As he was seen outside both of the apartments in question, it seems like an open-and-shut case.Desperate for a chance to prove his innocence, Clément disappears. He seeks refuge with old Marthe, the only mother figure he has ever known, who calls in ex-special investigator Louis Kehlweiler.Louis is soon faced with his most complex case yet and he calls on some unconventional friends to help him. He must show that Clément is not responsible and solve a fiendish riddle to find the killer...Trade ReviewIt’s all rather delightfully bonkers, a playful and subversively unorthodox take on the private eye novel by a master of her craft -- Declan Burke * Irish Times *A real wonder of a book, in all senses of the word * Waterford Today *The book is as beguiling as previous entries in the Three Evangelists series, with the pleasure here coming from the comic interplay between the unconventional sleuths -- Barry Forshaw * Guardian *Vargas is the poet of modern French crime writing, her work has a slightly ethereal feel… this is solid gold Euro-noir crime fiction. A high calibre literary thriller that entertains with aplomb… The Accordionist is cleverly plotted, the intensity builds and what starts out as intriguing becomes more involving as the reader is gripped by the fundamental question, ‘who did it?’ More than other crime novels, you have to surrender to Vargas’s vision of the world, one that you will not instantly recognise but may come to love… The Accordionist satisfies the most ardent noir strictures; slightly subversive, strong plotting, droll humour, inventive twists and elegant prose. This is a real treat for lovers of intelligent crime fiction -- Paul Burke * Nudge *Shockingly original, disturbingly eccentric and massively involving, Vargas books are a step beyond ordinary crime fiction and take you on a startling journey… Their quirky interplay and unconventional way of thinking…makes for a droll, entertaining read. Translator Sián Reynolds has a knack of rendering their cadences and ticks into readable English * Connexion *

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Book SynopsisIn this trilogy of novellas, Jonas Karlsson explores the quirkier side of human nature, helping us to see the world anew via three eccentric narrators.Firstly, jobsworth Bjorn starts a new career and expects to progress quickly with his meticulousness and efficiency. But he only gets the recognition he deserves in the Room which, it transpires, only he can visit. Next, a man with a seemingly unremarkable life -- a job in a video store, a small flat, no partner, one good friend and a nice ice cream shop nearby -- receives an enormous invoice for his ‘experienced happiness’. Unable to pay, he sets out to discover how, exactly, his happiness bill was calculated. Finally, in The Circus, published in the UK for the first time, two old friends decide to visit a circus together. When Magnus disappears during a magic trick, our protagonist is consumed by the need to find him. And yet, as with any Karlsson story, things aren’t quite what they seem…

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Book SynopsisSoon to be the subject of a series adaptation from the producers of Killing Eve‘Brilliant visceral writing with terrific pace, this book grips you like a vice from the very first line and never lets you go’ PETER JAMESSomeone is watching. At each abandoned crime scene there's a hidden clue: a tiny metal cog. Someone is sending Detective Sam Berger a message, someone who knows that only he will understand the cryptic trail. Someone knows. When another teenage girl disappears without trace, Sam must convince his superiors that they’re dealing with a serial killer. As the police continue the hunt to find the latest victim, Sam is forced to unearth long-buried personal demons. He has no choice if he is to understand the killer's message before time runs out.Somebody is killing just for him.Trade ReviewArne Dahl is possibly the most thoughtful and playful contemporary Nordic crime writer. He also happens to be one of the most thrilling. -- Ian RankinBrilliant visceral writing with terrific pace, this book grips you like a vice from the very first line and never lets you go. -- Peter JamesArne Dahl is one of the true greats of Scandinavian crime fiction -- Mark BillinghamCompelling… The first in a new series featuring a smart but wayward detective * Sunday Times *Arne Dahl combines global intrigue with intelligence, suspense, and genuine literary quality -- Lars Kepler

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Book SynopsisWhat happens when the cops become the prey?'Arne Dahl is one of the true greats of Scandinavian crime fiction' MARK BILLINGHAMIt starts when Desiré Rosenkvist of Stockholm Police receives a letter. Two things are immediately clear: the letter she holds in her hands was written in a state of utter desperation and paranoia. And it contains details of one of her old murder cases, which only the murderer could know. Desiré contacts private investigator Sam Berger, who sets off to the remote north of Sweden with his colleague Molly Blom to find the author of the letter and to stop them in their tracks.But someone wants to keep them from getting to the bottom of the mystery at any cost and is watching their every move. What happens when the cops become the prey?A dark and gripping Scandi-thriller set in the snowy tundra of rural Sweden, from international bestseller Arne Dahl.'Dahl's intelligent mastery of the genre delivers a flawless atmospheric thriller - chilling in every sense' The Sunday Times Crime ClubTrade Review[A] truly brilliantly constructed plot that’s likely to have even the experienced crime fiction enthusiast falling off their chair. The goosebumps-inducing aha-moments are lined up one after another. * Aftenposten, Norway on HUNTED *‘Brilliant visceral writing with terrific pace, this book grips you like a vice from the very first line and never lets you go’ * PETER JAMES on Watching You *Arne Dahl is one of the true greats of Scandinavian crime fiction. * Mark Billingham *Arne Dahl is possibly the most thoughtful and playful contemporary Nordic crime writer. He also happens to be one of the most thrilling. * Ian Rankin *Hunted has its strength in the classic layered build-up, where there’s always an extra layer hidden behind what you supposedly see, and red herrings and planted clues force the reader to keep their wits about them all the way. * Verdens Gang, Norway *

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Book Synopsis'Brilliant and breathtaking...sexy and sad' A.M. HomesIn his struggle to understand what has happened to his family, how his wife could fall in love with another man after twenty happy years, Jon attempts to tell the story of the painful collapse of his marriage, but from her point of view. He tries to get inside her head, to see it all as she did, all the while knowing that he can never really achieve this, and that his efforts reveal more projection than insight. How can one truly know another person? How much of what we think is love, is just a construct? Is it possible to find – and maintain – the great love we long for? Gulliksen explores these questions, turning them over again and again till they crack, revealing hollowness – or possible new meanings.Intense, erotic, dramatic, raw – Story of a Marriage examines two people's inner lives with devastating and fearless honesty. It is a gripping but slippery narrative of obsession and deceit, of a couple striving for happiness and freedom and intimacy, but ultimately falling apart.Trade ReviewA brilliant and breathtaking novel that is for anyone who has ever loved… Story of a Marriage is the naked truth, sexy and sad, stunning for its clarity, the author’s ability to simultaneously render denial and knowing too much. It is a novel about all the things we know and don’t want to know about ourselves, our partners and our lives and the shocking reminder that the very same things that draw us together are the ones that pull us apart. -- A.M. HomesBristling with the urgency of lived experience, this is a short and beautifully written account of love’s autoimmunity. -- Andrew Anthony * Observer *Exquisitely lean prose -- Elisa Segrave * Literary Review *this philosophical domestic drama...is painfully persuasive in its view of relationships * The New Yorker *

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Book Synopsis‘Liquidation, suspenseful and bleakly comic, reads like a treatise on the mystery of the end of life and the mystery of suicide… A compelling if deeply unsettling work’ Independent Kingbitter, an editor at a failing publishing house, believes himself to have been the closest friend of B., a celebrated writer and Auschwitz survivor, who recently committed suicide. Amongst the papers B. has left him, Kingbitter finds a play entitled Liquidation that uncannily predicts the behaviour of B.'s ex-wife, his mistress and Kingbitter himself. As he obsessively reads and rereads the play, Kingbitter becomes transfixed with the idea that buried within these papers is B.'s great novel: the book that will explain his relationship with Auschwitz.Trade ReviewA beautiful glimpse of the wide-open spaces of storytelling * Daily Telegraph *A masterly, subtle and constantly surprising novel, which, in this fine translation, reads as if it were written in this century, not the last * Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis'She wanted to die, and she wanted to live in Paris.'This is the story of Emma, trapped in a disappointing marriage with a dull country doctor, she dreams for a life more like the sentimental novels she reads. In an attempt to break from the drab reality of her provincial life in Normandy, Emma takes a lover, and disaster soon follows.Greedy, delusional and selfish, the character of Emma Bovary scandalised readers from the novel's first publication in 1857, yet her magnetism is undeniable. A landmark work in modern realism, Madame Bovary vibrates with the inner life of a woman hungry for more.Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.Trade ReviewA work of brilliance * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisA beautifully packaged hardback edition of Haruki Murakami's brilliantly surreal, detective-story classic, now with a new introduction by the author.The man was leading an aimless life, time passing, one big blank. His girlfriend has perfectly formed ears, ears with the power to bewitch, marvels of creation. The man receives a letter from a friend, enclosing a seemingly innocent photograph of sheep, and a request: place the photograph somewhere it will be seen.Then, one September afternoon, the phone rings, and the adventure begins. Welcome to the wild sheep chase.'Murakami's style and imagination are closer to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver and John Irving' New York TimesTrade ReviewWonderfully easy to read and just as wonderfully difficult to make sense of...like the narrator, who slowly accepts the presence in his life of mystery, we slowly recognize the possibility of a new kind of world. Like him, we lean forward and topple headlong into magic * Washington Post *It begins as a detective novel, dips into a screwball comedy, and at its close becomes a tale of possession...A highly accomplished piece of craftsmanship * New Yorker *Mr. Murakami's style and imagination are closer to that of Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver and John Irving * New York Times *A Wild Sheep Chase has the conventional hull of a thriller - a quest, a mystery, an extraordinary woman, and plenty of elegant duress - but its fantastic superstructure transforms it into something quite different...a science fiction fantasy, a romance, a metaphysical tease, or a dramatisation of philosophical ideas * Independent *If you consider yourself an intelligent, sensitive common reader but wish to accommodate something a little removed from your experience, and probably your imagination, I dare you to turn your eyes towards Murakami and head off on a wild sheep chase. * Glasgow Herald *

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Book SynopsisAlexei Ivanovich is tutor to a Russian family. They are bankrupt and eagerly awaiting the death of ''Grandmother''. Alexei falls in love twice: first, with the beautiful but impossible Polina; and second, with the game of roulette. Hi addiction turns out to be shared by Grandmother who suddenly appears, very much alive, and willing to gamble down to her last banknote.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a wonderful collection which is perfect for any home library.

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Book Synopsis The much-anticipated follow-up to the Radio 2 Book Club-favourite The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman Twenty-two-year-old Tania has moved to Montreal to study, fine-tune her French and fall in love. Finding work as a waitress in an unpretentious down-town restaurant, she meets Bilodo, a shy postman who spends his days perfecting his calligraphy and writing haiku. The two hit it off. But then one stormy day their lives take a dramatic turn, and as their destinies become entwined Tania and Bilodo are led into a world where nothing is as it seems. A charming standalone work that reunites readers with the touching and much-loved characters first found in The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman, The Postman’s Fiancée is an enchanting, poignant and bittersweet love story that will move readers, young and old alike.Trade ReviewPraise for The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman 'Enchanting, philosophically astute and deeply poignant.’ * John Burnside *‘Quirky and charming with a well-executed denouement, this novella brings to mind nothing less than a giddily-lovesick Kafka.’ * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis An uncompromisingly honest collection of short stories, examining with unique perspicacity the missteps, mistakes and misunderstandings that define our lives. Pride and disgrace. Nostalgia and revenge. Tenderness and seduction. From the dusty backstreets of Santiago and the sun-baked alleyways of impoverished fishing villages to the dark stairwells of urban apartment blocks, Paulina Flores paints an intimate picture of a world in which the shadow of humiliation, of delusion, seduction and sabotage, is never far away. This is a Chile we seldom see in fiction. With an exceptional eye for human fragility, with unfailing insight and extraordinary tenderness, Humiliation is a mesmerising collection from a rising star of South American literature, translated from the Spanish by Man Booker International Prize finalist Megan McDowell. Trade Review‘In this impressive debut, nimbly translated by Megan McDowell, Flores explores the indignities of poverty, widespread in her native Chile… Like Alice Munro, Flores sparks empathy with a careful attention to details. Humanity, she makes clear, is bound together by a shared vulnerability.’ * Guardian *'An exceptional debut - beautifully translated by Megan McDowell - from one of Latin America's most exciting young writers.' * Monocle *‘I was struck by the maturity and richness of Humiliation… [the stories] show a side of Chile that is very relevant in the current political climate of the country’. * Morning Star *'It’s still rare to encounter a debut with a grip this sure. Young Chilean writer Paulina Flores leads you with such cool confidence through her nine stories that I can’t wait to follow wherever she goes next... Masterly.' * Observer *'Every once in a while one encounters a new voice and thinks: they will last.' * El País *'An incredible storyteller. Paulina Flores has a knack for laying bare those fragile, often inarticulated, often hard to pin down emotions children hold for their parents.' * Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of Kintu *'Chilean writer Flores’ debut short story collection has garnered critical acclaim in its Spanish-language edition, winning several awards, including the Roberto Bolaño Prize. Now McDowell presents an agile translation... With conflicts personal and communal in a land in the grip of tyranny, Flores dramatizes difficult situations vividly specific and resonantly universal.' * Booklist *'Until the protests, nobody outside of Chile was talking about how one percent of its inhabitants take home one third of the income generated in the entire country. The fearless, clear-eyed stories of Paulina Flores offer a portal into what living in that extreme inequality means.' * Electric Literature, Recommended Reads *'Written with the possessive, disquieting calm of contemporaries like Catherine Lacey and Richard Chiem, Humiliation is a dazzling debut from a woman within full command of her craft.' * Paperback Paris *'Winner of multiple awards, including the Roberto Bolaño Prize, Humiliation is an intensely political debut... The thing that these nine stories share most prominently is longing. For change. For approval. For affection.' * Minor Literature[s] *'A masterful collection of uncommon stories' * Book Munch blog *'Flores has won several prizes in her native Chile, and it's not hard to see why: her prose (deftly translated by McDowell) is fluid and assured... This collection marks the arrival of an interesting young writer.' * Kirkus *'Flores' strong debut collection provides an intimate look at characters in a Chile brimming with desperation and misfortune... [These] intense stories are tied together with dark, palpable emotion... This is a challenging, impressive collection.' * Publishers Weekly *'The magic of Paulina Flores’ writing lies in placing us in that critical moment when everything is about to change, yet everything seems still. A finely tuned literary high-wire act if ever there was one.' * Carlos Fonseca, author of Colonel Lágrimas *'Nine powerful short stories about day-dreams, disillusionment and retaliation.' * Bookoxygen *'Paulina Flores deftly captures our startling humanity; there's awe and dread in these pages—but there's joy, too, fleeting and overwhelming. The worlds she crafts in Humiliation are our worlds, in all their terror and amazement.' * Bryan Washington, author of Lot *'Humiliation is a brilliant book that captures the volatility of misunderstandings, the moment when failures matter less than the need to share them.' * Alejandro Zambra *'Expertly translated into English by Megan McDowell, Humiliation heralds the arrival of a powerful new voice in international literature. Flores has her finger on the pulse of modernity―a writer to watch.' * trampset *'A debut that marks the arrival of a powerful figure in Chilean letters. [...] We must celebrate it wholeheartedly.' * La Vanguardia *'A brilliant and daring collection of stories.' * ABC *'Chilean author Paulina Flores might be only 28-years-old, but her mature style and her insight into the cracks beneath the surface of middle class life have astonished readers and critics alike.' * Marie Claire *'Humiliation is a masterful collection of uncommon stories.' * Bookmunch *'Nine perfect stories that form an extraordinary collection.' * Letras Libres *'Stories through which life flows with astonishing ease.' * Librújula *'A work that is as original as it is strong, as it is delicate.' * TenMag *'With elegance, strength and the eye of a hunter, Paulina Flores writes as though she's lived twice as long as her age.' * Vozpópuli *'Flores’s style is minimalist and sparse, deprived of all artificiality, aiming straight at the heart.' * Libros y Literatura *'While Paulina Flores’s approach is radically political, her stories explore a world of nuance and complexity, brought to life through the author’s relentless quest for the humanity in each of her characters.' * El Español *'Nimble, precise, emotional and enigmatic, every one of these stories suggests that Humiliation is only the start of what will be a long career.' * Tiempo, Madrid *'Paulina Flores's vision is unique and, like only good literature can, it will confront, disturb, and dazzle you.' * Mujer Hoy *'Fiction that is as alive as Chekhov's and as vibrant as Munro's.' * Babelia *'The stories remain with you long after shutting the cover of her book. Her characters are fascinating―captivating you as you turn the pages, reminding you of what power there is in indulging in excellent writing.' * The Rumpus *'In these stories, a struggling father brings his daughters along with him to his job interviews; a group of teenage boys try to steal musical instruments from a church; a woman moves back in with her mother after a bad break-up. People are caught up in harrowing, humiliating situations, and Flores pulls no punches in showing life’s mess. These stories are searing, dark, and sometimes bleak, but really try to get at the tough corners of life, painful and embarrassing. And the tales rarely go where the reader expects them to.' * BookRiot *

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Book Synopsis ‘This book is stunning, phenomenal, wow.’ Cecelia Ahern, author of P.S. I Love You WINNER OF THE FINLANDIA PRIZE Seven women meet in a white, undefined space seconds after their deaths Time, as we understand it, has ceased to exist, and all bodily sensations have disappeared. None of the women can remember what happened to them, where they are, or how they got there. They don’t know each other. In turn they try to remember, to piece together the fragments of their lives, their identities, their lost loves, and to pinpoint the moment they left their former lives behind. Deftly playing with genres from essay to poetry, Oneiron is an astonishing work that explores the question of what follows death and delves deep into the lives and experiences of seven unforgettable women.Trade Review‘This book is stunning, phenomenal, wow.’ * Cecelia Ahern, author of P.S. I Love You *'Incredibly audacious.' * Chicago Review of Books Most Anticipated Fiction Books of 2018 *‘Reflective and full of depth, Finnish author Laura Lindstedt blends in elements of other genres such as poetry and essay to wrestle with some of life’s most difficult questions.’ * World Literature Today *‘Super-readable, but buckle up – things get a bit Black Mirror at times.’ * Cosmopolitan *'Oneiron seems to rise effortlessly to the best of international literature.' * Finlandia Prize Jury *‘In the sheer diversity of her characters, Lindstedt might be responding to other modern realities: genetic interconnections revealed by DNA tests; global migration and interdependence; the random array of newspaper obituaries that follow a terrorist attack; and the boundary-breaking and community-building properties of social media, two years before the rise of the #MeToo movement.’ * Public Books *‘I’ve never read anything like it. I was riveted to the pages as each of the women tries to work out her last memories and tells her individual story... If you sometimes long for a reading experience that takes you out of the usual realm of life and gets you thinking, this book is it. Recommended.’ * Marjorie’s World of Books *‘Oneiron is one of those books that stunned me into silence at the end.’ * Lark Benobi *'Oneiron is literally a fabulous work. A triumph of the art of the novel.' * Dagbladet, Norway *‘A spectacular novel about life after death...Laura Lindstedt embodies with breathtaking imagination the idea that we are all equal in the face of death...[weaving] her unlikely story with the finest of writers' hands.' * Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) *'Oneiron is ambitious and lush...a vital, critically-acclaimed novel.' * Stavanger Aftenblad (Norway) *'A prize-worthy, magnificent meditation on the afterlife with a suggestive warmth and forgiveness towards death in this frank portrait of seven women told with humour and a strong desire for storytelling.' * Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) *'On an international scale this is an exceptionally bright pearl of high literature – a novel that is close to perfect.' * Aamulehti (Finland) *‘Good and provocative.’ * Complete Review *‘Laura Lindstedt is a masterful narrator...the story leads its speechless reader through a dreamlike and fascinating universe.’ * Kristeligt Dagblad (Denmark) *‘A wonderful, literary dream.’ * Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden) *‘Oneiron is a precise example of a postmodern novel. The leitmotif death is handled by the author Laura Lindstedt through a variety of (not only) literary genres and references. This is a story in which death is only the beginning.’ * Literatura (Czech Republic) *‘A very touching way of describing how much women’s lives are controlled by the body, but also just a truly amazing book about the feelings, experiences and creations that create a (woman’s) life.’ * Femina (Denmark) *‘Simply put – Oneiron is a very, very special book.’ * týždeň magazine (Slovakia) *‘Excellent speculative fiction about seven women who meet in the afterlife and try to clarify what happened to them.’ * Weekendavisen (Denmark) *'Powerful...fresh and inventive.' * Klassekampen (Norway) *'[Lindstedt’s language] is powerful: the sprawling narrative flows masterfully smoothly.' * Savon Sanomat (Finland) *'Oneiron is a shameless, touching and absurd approach to the state we know little about, the space, the transition, the moment when we hover between life and death.' * Torborg Igland, Fædrelandsvennen (Norway) *'Lindstedt uses the tools of literature to form a work of art with its own rules; one can only admire her execution and her ability to depict our world to a startling effect.' * Helsingin Sanomat (Finland) *'Oneiron is a deeply fascinating book and one of the best I’ve read for a very long time.' * Litteratursiden (Denmark) *'An overwhelming novel.' * Anne Cathrine Straume, NRK (Norway) *'There’s nothing predictable in Laura Lindstedt’s elegant and in every way skillful analysis of humanity.' * Turun Sanomat (Finland) *'A visionary book.' * Marie Claire Italia *'Fascinating and original in its reflection on life and death...[and] realistic in its analysis of power and powerlessness.' * Vigdis Moe Skarstein, Fædrelandsvennen (Norway) *'Laura Lindstedt’s construction is, specifically, about death. In this way, Dante Alighieri and Marcel Proust are subtly invoked.' * il Giornale (Italy) *'Oneiron is about death. It comes with interesting suggestions of how it is "on the other side," but actually sheds more light on the various power structures on our side.' * Dagsavisen (Norway) *'There is something therapeutic – if not, relieving – in reading Oneiron; like surrendering to a trust exercise.' * Politiken (Denmark) *'Oneiron is touching, with its direct language, and in its multi-faceted and concrete approach to what life can be. The way in which Lindstedt portrays the biographies of the women in words, enriches the theme of life, the body, and art in a grotesque but also refreshing way.' * Ingeborg Urke Myklebust, Mellom (Norway) *‘Magnificent... The novel has been nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2017 and is more than worthy of the prize.’ * Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) *

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Book Synopsis 'Barakat isn't writing about 'the immigrant'. She's writing about the human.' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind Shortlisted for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Translation * Longlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award, 2022 Winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, a devastating story of displacement, war, and the unlikely glimmer of hope in the dark In an unnamed country torn apart by war, six strangers are compelled to share their darkest secrets. Taking pen to paper, each attempts to put in writing what they can’t bring themselves to say to the person they love – mother, father, brother, lost love. Their words form a chain of dark confessions, none of which reaches the intended recipient. But their consequences will ripple through other lives, affecting strangers in ways the writers could never have anticipated... Luminous and haunting, Voices of the Lost tells the moving story of characters living on the periphery, battling displacement, poverty, and the demons within themselves. From one of today’s most talented Arabic writers, this is the story of lives intimately woven together in a society that is tearing itself apart. 'Hoda Barakat is one of Lebanon's greatest gifts to literature' Amy Bloom, author of White HousesTrade Review'Emotionally punchy.' -- The Sunday Times'The tragedies in Voices of the Lost are agonising...[a] searing prizewinner.' -- Madeleine Thien, Guardian'Spare and deep, Voices of the Lost captivates. Hoda Barakat is one of Lebanon's greatest gifts to literature, and Booth allows her English audience to explore this painful and irresistible present.' -- Amy Bloom, author of White Houses'An astonishing novel, superbly translated from the original Arabic, in which grave, naked confessions are delivered by characters orbiting in motion. It is a fierce, challenging exploration of the extremities of rootlessness and desperation, rendered in a shocking clarity of voice.' -- Leila Aboulela, author of Bird Summons'Hoda Barakat's new novel reveals to us the many faces of power, war, love and despair as destinies mysteriously intersect, and all certainties are shaken. Through these letters, we glimpse the hidden story of immigration: characters condemned to suffer for nothing more than being born in the wrong place.' -- Jokha Alharthi, author of Celestial Bodies, winner of the Man Booker International Prize'Drawing on the power of testimonial, Hoda Barakat's characters relate tales of loss, regret, and displacement. Beautifully written and filled with a raw, audacious honesty, these lost and found letters draw readers into an extraordinary embrace and refuse to let go.' -- Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds of Paradise'Marilyn Booth captures the starkness of Voices of the Lost… It isn't surprising that two of the most interesting authors to write about the migrant crises of the last ten years were subjects of earlier waves of displacement.' -- London Review of Books'Hoda Barakat is one of the most versatile and innovative novelists in the Arab world. Here, in a fugue of undelivered letters, she etches the portraits of a series of existential refugees, lost between countries, languages, and lives.' -- Marilyn Hacker, author of Blazons'A subversive novel that examines sorrow, longing, violence, kindness, and compassion. The places may be named, but the protagonists are nameless. We love them because they are us.' -- Fady Joudah, author of Tethered to Stars‘A writer for our times: her prose is at once reflective and morally astute. Her novels possess a gravity in their confident, thoughtful style that bursts with tension and profound emotion.’ * Mediapart *‘A short, deeply intense novel. A book of shadows which shows us the cracks threatening the modern Arab world.’ * France Culture *‘Anger, despair and passion are lyrically expressed...the beauty of her writing does nothing to detract from the candour of this narrative.’ * Livres Hebdo *‘Hoda Barakat offers a penetrating insight into the minds of people whose inner lives are all too often dismissed without a second thought.’ * L'Humanité *‘In a style that is by turns precise and sumptuous, Hoda Barakat... tirelessly explores themes of metamorphosis, of madness, of countries left behind, and of journeys with no hope of return.’ * Le Matricule des Anges *‘An immensely talented novelist.’ * Transfuge *'So many universal human themes are touched on in this outstanding novel that it is impossible in these few words to do them, or it, justice… Every one of us will find something in these pages that reflects our own experience… Though our paths may be different, we are all ultimately united in seeking truth, freedom, compassion and forgiveness.' -- New Internationalist'This intense, raw and human novel which does not shy away from showing life's fallibilities, feels both hopeless and hopeful… [Barakat] isn't tone deaf to the tragedy the Middle East has recently seen nor does she believe it makes up one person's entire story and identity.' -- TheNewArab'Voices of the Lost manages to pull off quite a feat. This is a novel about war, it is a political novel. It is also a novel about love, ranging from filial to romantic, abuse, trauma, fatherhood, motherhood, it’s all in there. Like a piece of tapestry this novel weaves in themes, which create [a] multi-layered result… a one of a kind novel… [Booth's translation] is fantastic and captures the emotions of all the characters. Having won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, I would not be surprised to see it garner more awards this year.' -- The Bobsphere

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Book Synopsis ‘An ingenious marriage of comedy and crime.’ Olga Tokarczuk, 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Shortlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize 2022 For fans of The Thursday Murder Club and Frank Tallis's Vienna Blood comes the thrilling sequel to the critically-acclaimed Mrs Mohr Goes Missing Easter, 1895. The biggest event in the Catholic calendar is a disaster in Zofia Turbotyńska’s household. Her maid Karolina has handed in her notice and worse, gone missing. When Karolina’s body is discovered, violated and stabbed, Zofia knows she has to investigate. Following a trail that leads her from the poorest districts of Galicia to the highest echelons of society, Zofia uncovers a web of gang crimes, sex-trafficking and corruption that will force her to question everything she knows. Set against the backdrop of the women’s cause, Karolina, or the Torn Curtain refuses to turn a blind eye to the injustices and inequalities of its era – and ours. Praise for the series: ‘The sprightly narrative and vivid evocation of turn-of-the-century Poland make for an enjoyable tale.’ Guardian ‘It’s fun and sparky and the glimpse of turn-of-the-century Polish manners and mores is beguiling.’ Daily Mail ‘The story fuses high comedy with an evocative portrayal of the period.’ Sunday Express Trade Review‘The novel presents a fascinating picture of life in late-nineteenth century Poland... Recommended.’ -- Mystery People‘A witty and engaging historical murder mystery, a clever pastiche of British golden-age crime fiction projected onto an earlier time and a distant place… A thoroughly entertaining, breezy thriller.’ -- European Literature Network‘Karolina, or the Torn Curtain has a light feathery touch, it's a witty and engaging mystery that oozes charm. Equally endearing for its clever pastiche of golden age crime fiction and it’s incisive portrait of the customs and manners of the day that are so revealing of Cracow society and its values... This is a crime story rich in period detail and telling observations on human nature.’ -- Crime Time‘Szymiczkowa (the pen name of writing duo Jacek Dehnel and Piotr Tarczynski) brings Cracow vividly to life and presents the period’s views on women with sly wit. This mystery will please readers looking for an unusual amateur sleuth and a picturesque setting.’ -- Publishers Weekly‘Vividly steeped in the politics and the life and times of 1895 Cracow, this mystery, with its charming heroine and dry humor, will appeal to fans of Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, which also weaves the social issues of the day into the story.’ -- Booklist‘Pseudonymous partners Jacek Dehnel and Piotr Tarczyński bring both the do-gooders and the criminals of fin-de-siècle Cracow to entertaining life, but their deepest interest is in the unlikely detective lurking beneath ‘the sedate Mrs. Jekyll’: "the hidden Mrs. Hyde, the fearless stalker of criminals." A gravely decorous period piece that vividly evokes its moment while maintaining an archly amused distance from it.’ -- KirkusPraise for Mrs Mohr Goes Missing: ‘Strong-minded Zofia is an appealing character and the sprightly narrative and vivid evocation of turn-of-the-century Poland make for an enjoyable tale.’ Guardian ‘The unravelling of the mystery is ingenious... It’s fun and sparky and the glimpse of turn-of-the-century Polish manners and mores is beguiling.’ Daily Mail ‘An ingenious marriage of comedy and crime.’ Olga Tokarczuk, 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

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Book Synopsis'Gripping and atmospheric' - Sunday Times A breath-taking missing persons thriller set under the menacing peaks of the Pyrenees Five years after their disappearance, the village of Monteperdido still mourns the loss of Ana and Lucia, two eleven-year-old friends who left school one afternoon and were never seen again. Now, Ana reappears unexpectedly inside a crashed car, wounded but alive. The case reopens and a race against time begins to discover who was behind the girls' kidnapping. Most importantly, where is Lucia and is she still alive?Inspector Sara Campos and her boss Santiago Bain, from Madrid's head office, are forced to work with the local police. Five years ago fatal mistakes were made in the investigation conducted after the girls first vanished, and this mustn't happen again. But Monteperdido has rules of its own.'Addictive, atmospheric and haunting, one of the best books you'll read this year' - Jo Spain, internationally bestselling author of The ConfessionTrade ReviewAddictive, atmospheric and haunting, one of the best books you'll read this year * Jo Spain, internationally bestselling author of The Confession *Gripping and atmospheric * Sunday Times *Creepy and atmospheric * Woman & Home *A heart-thumping thriller * Irish Mail *A tense page-turning novel... Gripping and scary this is a slice of Euro-noir that will please fans of The Killing * New Books Magazine *With its gripping premise and exotic wilderness setting, this is an intriguing and immersive mystery from one of Spain's leading screenwriters * Irish Independent *

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Book SynopsisLucina, a young Chilean writer, has moved to New York to pursue an academic career. While at a party one night, something that her doctors had long warned might happen finally occurs: her eyes haemorrhage. Within minutes, blood floods her vision, reducing her sight to sketched outlines and tones of grey, rendering her all but blind. As she begins to adjust to a very different life, those who love her begin to adjust to a very different woman - one who is angry, raw, funny, sinister, sexual and dizzyingly alive.Trade ReviewBrilliant... Heartbreaking... Raw... Sexy... Visceral... Brutal... Unflinching... Astonishing * The Scotsman *Nerve-jangling... Defiantly discomforting... Highly impressive * Daily Mail *Outstanding - complex yet graceful, gnarly yet beautiful. The best book I've read this year. -- Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter WitherA scorching examination of how being utterly dependent on someone - even someone you love - can make you a monster. * Literary Hub, 13 Translated Books by Women You Need to Read *Astonishing... Burns with vigour and urgency * Los Angeles Times *Viscous, repulsive, and beautiful * New Yorker *Stunning... Black and bitter and bloody and beautiful * The Nation *

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Book SynopsisTHE WORST OF ENEMIES. THE BEST OF FRIENDS. A powerful, emotional novel of peace and friendship against the greatest of odds . . .1914. A boy enrols in the army, hoping to find peace in the great adventure of war. Handed a rifle, he discovers the grim reality: grey days distinguished only by the ever-present spectre of death. In the midst of horror, he finds close friendships, love and companionship. In an unexpected act of courage, he changes the course of history, bringing German and Brits to put down their weapons for a celebration of peace. In 1933, a father and son set out for Flanders. The former soldier carries more of the war with him than his maimed left hand. The British man he met in the forest of Ypres is a memory passed down from father to son, a story of friendship across enemy lines, forged by one uniting belief: the need for peace . . .'A small gem of a novel about the folly and wickedness of war' A.N. Wilson

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Book Synopsis'Without translation, we would be living in provinces bordering on silence' George Steiner. It is impossible to overstate the influence world literatures have had in defining each other. No culture exists in isolation; all writers are part of the intertwining braid of literature. Found In Translation brings together one hundred glittering diamonds of world literature, celebrating not only the original texts themselves but also the art of translation. From Azerbijan to Uzbekistan, by way of China and Bengal, Suriname and Slovenia, some of the greatest voices of world literature come together in a thunderous chorus. If the authors include Nobel Prize winners, some of the translators are equally famous – here, Saul Bellow translates Isaac Beshevis Singer, D.H. Lawrence and Edith Wharton translate classic Italian short stories, and Victoria Hislop has taken her first venture into translation with the only short story written by Constantine P. Cavafy. This exciting, original and brilliantly varied collection of stories takes the reader literally on a journey, exploring the best short stories the globe has to offer.Trade ReviewFrank Wynne's anthology reminds us that we are not condemned to languish in our cyber citadels. Translators are the travellers who let us into the secret that the cultural variety of the world is inexhaustible. What we might ultimately find in these translations is what we are permanently in danger of losing: our capacity to understand and live with difference * Irish Times *Wynne's splendidly ecumenical anthology finds both light and warmth in its transforming fires * TLS *A wonderful showcase of foreign fiction * Prospect *

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Book SynopsisIn exhilarating and lucid prose, Grossman gives us a provocative new take on the story of Samson: his battle with the lion, the three hundred burning foxes, the women he bedded, the one he loved and who betrayed him and the destruction of the temple. It reveals the journey of a lonely and tortured soul, whose search for a true home echoes our own private struggles.The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, David Grossman, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and Jeanette Winterson.Trade ReviewExtraordinary, ground-breaking, empowering * * Guardian * *A master of the emotionally accurate and significant. His characters don't so much lie on the page as rise before the reader's eyes -- Yann MartelA writer of passionate honesty, unafraid to ask terrible questions -- Nadine GordimerOne of contemporary literature's most versatile and absorbing writers * * San Francisco Chronicle * *A writer who has been one of the most original and talented not only in his own country but anywhere * * New York Times Book Review * *

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Book SynopsisWhen he was a boy, Aga Akbar, the illegitimate, deaf son of a Persian nobleman, travelled with his uncle to a cave on nearby Saffron Mountain. Once there, he was to transcribe a cuneiform inscription over three thousand years old. Decades later, his son, Ishmael - a political dissident in exile - attempts to translate a notebook filled with a private language made from this ancient script . . . and in the process tells his father's story, his own, and the story of twentieth-century Iran. My Father's Notebook is at once a masterful chronicle of a culture's troubled voyage into modernity and the heart-rending, timeless tale of a son's enduring love.Trade ReviewThis poignant, affectionate and beautifully told tale reflects a longing for a lost homeland * * Guardian * *Beautifully evoked in often touching and amusing detail . . . My Father's Notebook is an intriguing, complex and often playful novel that deserves attention * * Scotland on Sunday * *My Father's Notebook, a lovely novel, has the cadence of a fairy tale and the clarity of truth * * Wall Street Journal * *A storyteller of utmost subtlety and natural ease * * Times Literary Supplement * *With seamlessly interwoven quotations from Persian and Dutch literature, deft storytelling and affectionate humour, he offers the reader buoyancy as well as weight. My Father's Notebook is a gift to English readers * * Independent * *[A] powerful meditation . . . A moving elegy for a lost father and homeland, but also a voice raised against all forms of repression . . . My Father's Notebook reads like a detective story * * Guardian * *Kader Abdolah weaves Sufi myths, political intrigue and biography into a charming meditation on the relationship between father and son . . . a moving account of one man's life that serves as a fascinating reflection on conflicts between religion and politics, homeland and exile, the past and the present * * The Skinny * *

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Book SynopsisIn this dazzling story of art and illusion, secrets and schemes, who is to be trusted - and what is real?From the internationally acclaimed author of Optic Nerve *A TLS Book of the Year*'A writer who feels immediately important' ObserverAt a hotel in Buenos Aires, a woman checks in under a pseudonym. She wears a black fur shawl and has no luggage. She is alone.Over the coming days and nights, she tells a story, which begins with a secret shared in a local bath house, revealing art forgery and fraud on a dazzling scale. At its heart is an enigmatic genius who for years forged portraits of the city's elite, before disappearing without trace. It is a story of influence and intrigue, in which nothing is as it seems. We're not to expect 'names, numbers or dates', she cautions, but a more subtle kind of reckoning...Told in a mordant, irresistible voice and full of sharp surprises, Portrait of an Unknown Lady is a captivating enquiry into what we mean by 'authenticity', in life as in art. At once poised and capricious, elegant and bold, it is a thrilling exploration of the relationships between what is lived, what is told, what is remembered, and what is real.Translated from the Spanish by Thomas BunsteadTrade Review'Vividly detailed and saturated with intricate feeling, Gainza's novel is an engrossing exploration of authenticity, obsession, and the enveloping allure of art' -- Alexandra Kleeman, author of SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUNThis is a truly exquisite novel... It is moving, clever and written wry precision... As much as the narrator is haunted, the reader will be haunted -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *Gainza weaves a fascinating, often confounding story about beauty, obsession and authenticity... Gainza is sharp, modern and playful, a writer who multiples the possibilities of fiction -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * Observer *A richly detailed detective novel of sorts that explores authenticity and the distance between the way things appear and they way they really are -- Chiara Rimella * Monocle *Dazzling... [a] clever novel that explores the gap between what's remembered and what's real -- Chloë Ashby * Spectator *

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Book Synopsis'Always be civil to the girls. You never know whom they might marry.' Nancy Mitford, from her introduction to The Princess de Clèves When the young, beautiful Mademoiselle de Chartres comes to court, her primary objective is to find herself a husband. Upon her mother's recommendation, she accepts the advances of the Prince de Clèves, a rather average sort of a man. Unfortunately, soon after the wedding she finds herself to be in love with the dashing Duc de Nemours . . . Against a backdrop of labyrinthine court politics, the naïve Madame de Clèves' pursuit of true love is a riveting and timelessly tragic read.

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Book Synopsis'I am sure a cigarette has a more poignant flavour when it is the last'A neurotic Italian businessman obsessed by his own hypochondria, Zeno Cosini recounts his early years to his psychoanalyst Dr S as a form of therapy. With a cigarette clutched permanently between his fingers, he explores the important themes of his life: his love of smoking, his relationship with his parents, his marriage. Structured as a series of conversations with his psychoanalyst, Zeno was an innovation in its time, and remains a curious and intriguing delight. Michael Hoffman places Confessions of Zeno in its European context in his sparkling introduction.

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Book SynopsisThe cult novel of fin de siècle decadence that inspired Oscar Wilde'It will be biggest fiasco of the year - but I don't give a damn! It will be something nobody has ever done before.' The title page of the first complete English translation of Against Nature (published in the French as À Rebours) included the caption 'the book that Dorian Gray loved and inspired Oscar Wilde.' It was, declared Wilde, one of the best novels he had ever read. It is the story of Jean des Esseintes, the last of a proud and noble family, who retreats from the world in disgust at bourgeois society and leads a life based on cultivation of the senses through art. Des Esseintes distills perfumes from the rarest oils and essences, he creates a garden of poisonous flowers, sets gemstones in a tortoise's gold-painted shell and plans to corrupt a street urchin until he is degraded enough to commit murder. Des Esseintes' aesthetic pilgrimage is described in minutely documented realistic detail and was widely regarded as the guidebook of decadence. This influential novel is now available in a new translation by Theo Cuffe and includes a preface by Luc Sante.

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Book SynopsisA young woman struggles to assert herself within a regrettable marriage.A boy learns about life on an epic summer's journey to a new school.A doctor attempts to befriend his most interesting patient.A young man tries to figure out the best way to live.This riverrun edition presents a selection of Chekhov's longer stories - novellas, effectively - in Constance Garnett's timeless translations. These four stories, Ward No.6, The Wife, The Steppe and My Life, tell of characters attempting to create meaning through work, connection with others and art; they deal with misunderstandings and loss; they celebrate brief joys, sudden passions and unsatisfied longings, all underscored by Chekhov's gentle wit and great humanity. This unique collection - selected and introduced by the celebrated Janet Malcolm - is unmissable for the enthusiast and a brilliant introduction to one of the nineteenth century's greatest writers.

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Book Synopsis"Maylis de Kerangal conjures the same painterly realism her characters hope to achieve in paint" London Magazine"Evocative and exhilerating" Booklist"Maylis de Kerangal is mining a rich and individual seam" TImes Literary SupplementBehind the ornate doors of the Institut de Peinture in Brussels, Kate, Jonas and Paula begin their apprenticeship in decorative painting, the art of visual deception. An intense year of study will cement a friendship that lasts long after their formal education ends. Paula's initiation into trompe l'oeil will take her back through time and place as she strives for perfection. From her work on the film sets of Cinecittà to the prehistoric caves of Lascaux, her experiences will transcend artistic endeavour and gradually reveal something of her own inner world and the secret, unreachable desires of her heart.This is a coming-of-age novel like no other: an atmospheric and highly aesthetic portrayal of love, art and craftsmanship from the prize-winning author of Birth of a Bridge and Mend the Living.Translated from the French by Jessica MooreTrade ReviewAs she has so often done, de Kerangal shows there is poetry to be found in our jargon, and stories embedded in our tools . . . This is writing that defies haste, that slows the eye. It is also a mighty feat of translation . . . Cements [de Kerangal's] reputation as one of contemporary fiction's most gifted sentence builders -- Beejay Silcox * Guardian *The book is a joyful testament to the rigours of research, and to the translator's art too . . . Maylis de Kerangal is mining a rich and individual seam -- Jonathan Gibbs * TLS *Intensely alive, encompassing both the technical and the poetic, emotion and cerebrality -- Raphaëlle Leyris * Le Monde *Always brilliant, executed in flowing, lyrical prose that had already reached the firmament in [Mend the Living] . . . De Kerangal finds fiction in reality; precise, technical vocabulary is imbued with rich imagination and meaning. And mastering trompe-l'œil - isn't that the ideal metaphor for the work of a novelist? -- Frédérique Roussel * Libération *The art of painting in perfect harmony with de Kerangal's writing; visual, flamboyant, assured . . . in perfect alignment with her subject -- Marine Landrot * Télérama *Kerangal's elegant, sexy, subtly Proustian, and fluidly dimensional drama of discipline and passion, imitation andimagination is resplendently evocative and exhilarating. -- Donna Seaman * Booklist *Long looping sentences, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, are balanced by taut scene changes . . . De Kerangal conjures the same painterly realism that her characters hope to achieve in paint * London Magazine *

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Book SynopsisAn impressive joint project, this outstanding new anthology brings the best of Chinese and English-language science fiction in a mediation on the theme of Exploration in Space. New, emerging, established and much-lauded writers from both cultures are brought together to demonstrate that technology and humanity when they work together bring challenges, joy and benefits to all of humankind. From Bao Shu comes 'A Trip to the End', from Allen Stroud 'The First', from He Xi 'Never Meet Again in Life', from Amdi Silvestri 'A Minuet of Corpses' and under the guiding eye of Patrick Parrinder (President of the H.G. Wells society) and Yao Haijun (celebrated editor of Science Fiction World in China) thirteen authors create a series of worlds which will enthral and entertain.

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Book SynopsisA sweeping historical novel about the struggle of one woman and one village against war, racism and ecological devastation. Curòn, 1920 In a small village in South Tyrol, Trina longs for a different life. She dedicates herself to becoming a teacher, but the year that she qualifies Mussolini's regime abolishes the use of German as a teaching language. In this new climate of fear and uncertainty Trina works for a clandestine network of schools in the valley, always with the risk of capture. Curòn, 1939 Now married and a mother Trina's life is again thrown into uncertainty when Germany anounces the 'Great choice' and communities in South Tyrol are given the opportunity to move to Germany. The town splits and ever-increasing rifts form among its people. Those, like Trina and her family, who choose not to leave are seen as traitors and spies; they can no longer leave the house without suffering abuse. Then one day Trina comes home and finds that her daughter is missing...Trade Review[An] intimate historical novel... Trina's inner life and the inexorable rising waters bridge the temporal divide of years and generations, offering the reader a painfully relevant metaphor for the ways in which we must live our lives in a world that grows increasingly unstable' * Irish Times *Balzano employs an unpretentious style to explore Trina's life and wider questions about an individual's relationship to a particular place * Sunday Times *Focusing on a town that disappeared under water, Balzano wrote a story of not-belonging and temporariness deeply rooted in today's reality * La Lettura *A novel that gets even better with every chapter, as it happens with talented storytellers' * L'espresso *An epic tale of love, family relationships, war and belonging, this is a beautifully written and atmospheric tale... Balzano's prose is evocative and intense, deftly painting a picture. The story itself is gripping, accompanied by equally compelling snippets of European history' * The Lady *Balzano illuminates a war waged upon the South Tyrol even after 'the war' was over. Balzano recites horrors in a cool, unvarnished tone, cataloging a life upended by war and, worse, by its remembrance * Kirkus Reviews *Through its short chapters and understated prose, I'm Staying Here is an arresting novel about a small but beautiful place in constant turmoil and conflict with itself – turmoil that we discover will continue even past the war years when the town of Curon ended up facing its biggest threat of all * Bath Life *

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Book SynopsisA road-trip novel that takes us on a journey of love and escape through the vast and magical landscape of Patagonia, where nothing and no-one are what they seem.

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Book SynopsisWinner of a PEN Translates Award Named a Most Anticipated Book by Literary Hub When Anya is arrested at a Moscow anti-corruption rally under false pretences, she is given a 10-day sentence at a detention centre. Her cellmates are five other ordinary women arrested on petty charges. Ten listless days stretch before Anya and, as she appeals her sentence and recalls her progress from apolitical youth to informed citizen, she is troubled by strange, dreamlike visions, and wonders if her cellmates might somehow not be as ordinary as they seem. A brilliant exploration of what it means to be marginalized both as an independent woman and in an increasingly intolerant Russia in particular, The Incredible Events in Women's Cell Number Three introduces one of the most urgent and gripping new voices in international literature.Trade ReviewAn intimate look at political imprisonment -- Dwight Garner * the New York Times *Superb. I am happy that my past is being recognized: I myself sat in the cell next door (albeit at a different time), and I can confirm that all the characters are very realistic -- Alexey NavalnyAs timely as Maxim Gorky's Hours Spent in Prison, but a much livelier read! -- Boris AkuninBrilliantly camouflaged by the grubby banality of casual conversation and detention routines, Ms. Yarmysh creates a cumulative portrait of ingrained social evils and violent retribution ... As unpredictable as it is damning. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *Yarmysh's debut is gripping. In using her own experiences she reveals not only the intolerance of the Russian state, but also the resilience of those subjected to its injustices -- Christiana Bishop * New Statesman *The whole world through a single cell: frightening and funny, absurd and all too real -- Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing EarthCatch-22 exchanges on the impossibility of fairness for women in Russian society ... the dialogue-heavy narrative keeps the pages turning. -- John Self * Guardian *A first novel that skillfully breaks the claustrophobia of life in a jail cell by cataloging Anya's life before her imprisonment . . . The familiar trials and tribulations that everyday Russians face stand out in dramatic effect as Yarmysh illuminates the subtly veiled political dissent within an oppressive society straining at the seams. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisThe concluding novel in a trilogy that has become a landmark of Palestinian fiction.An Old Carriage with Curtains is the third and final book in a masterful trilogy of novels encompassing the history of the people of the Palestinian village of Zakariyya. The novels trace the wandering trajectories and inner lives of characters connected to this village across decades, as well as the vicissitudes of historical change and displacement in the land. Through the return of a middle-aged man to the site of an ancient monastery in the hills near Jericho that he once visited as a boy, the incredibly vivid and surprising stories of Hind, a stage actress and brilliant storyteller, the stories of tortuous routes of checkpoints and bureaucratic blockages, and decades of Occupation, Zaqtan creates a narrative of personal reckoning and reflection. The vectors of memory and historical reflection interweave in this dreamlike narrative, which delivers a singularly powerful depiction of subjective and collective experience in the face of devastating and sweeping historical change.Trade Review"A poignant piece of autofiction. . . It addresses the constricted past and present of Palestinian life in Area C of the West Bank, with its omnipresent permits and checkpoints, through storylines that channel the ghosts of Zaqtan’s family, friends, and lovers, acknowledged at the beginning of the novel as the narrator is walking in the 'valley of the shadow of death,' in the wadi on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho." * The Markaz Review *

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Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING THRILLER FROM 10 MILLION COPY AUTHOR REMIGIUSZ MRÓZ - NOW A HBO MAX TV SERIES'First it was Stieg Larsson, then Jo Nesbø, and now it's time for another sensational crime author to enter our shores' - TESS GERRITSENWhen whip-smart criminal defence lawyer Joanna Chylka is tasked with defending the son of her law firm's biggest client, she is stumped for the first time in her career. Her client, Piotr Langer Jr, is charged with murder, and he is refusing to speak.Assisted by the firm's newest trainee, Kordian Orynski, Joanna finds a maze of tangled evidence. Piotr is alleged to have sat in his apartment for ten days with two corpses before calmly opening the door to the police as if nothing had happened. But the truth is far more complex and shocking than they could have imagined. Joanna and Kordian find themselves facing a treacherous situation. And with the spotlight on them, a killer may have them both on his hit list.Praise for Remigiusz Mróz:'A world-class author' - B.A. Paris'A master storyteller' - JP DelaneyTrade ReviewFirst it was Stieg Larsson, then Jo Nesbø, and now it's time for another sensational crime author to invade our shores. Mróz introduces a hot new wave of thrillers from Poland. * TESS GERRITSEN *A world-class author * B.A. PARIS *A master storyteller * JP DELANEY *

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Book SynopsisAW ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MAIR EQUAL THAN ITHERSIt didnae seem unco when Napoleon wis seen daunderin aboot the fairmhoose gairden wi a pipe in his mooth...Frae the instant o its first publication ower seeventy year syne, Animal Fairm, in mony weys, has come tae be oor socio-political urtext – oor wan-singer-wan-sang, oor collective pairty piece, the script we’re doomed tae keep repeatin...George Orwell’s faur-kent novel Animal Fairm, yin o Time magazine’s 100 brawest English-leid novels o aw time, has been translatit intae Scots for the verra first time by Thomas Clark. When the animals o Manor Fairm cast aff thirldom an tak control frae Mr Jones, they hae howps for a life o freedom an equality. But when the pigs Napoleon and Snawbaw rise tae pouer, the ither animals find oot that they’re mebbe no aw as equal as they’d aince thocht. A tragic political allegory described by Orwell as bein ‘the history o a revolution that went wrang’, this buik is as relevant noo – if no mair sae – as when it wis first set oot.Trade ReviewThis is a modern Scots masterpiece. – ASHLEY DOUGLAS, Writer and translatorBi ane o the skeeliest makars scrievin in Scots the day. – BILLY KAY, Writer[Animal Fairm] thus allows a large segment of the population of Scotland to appreciate Orwell's classic in a language that means much to them. It should also serve as a very useful primer for others whose acquaintance with the language is more passing but who want to gain a better understanding of it. – UNDISCOVERED SCOTLANDThe Note and his Introduction… aside from his wry, self-deprecating humour, they made me keen to learn more about the language, to learn to read it better, not just read his translation. – IAN CHADWICK

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Book SynopsisAW ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MAIR EQUAL THAN ITHERSIt didnae seem unco when Napoleon wis seen daunderin aboot the fairmhoose gairden wi a pipe in his mooth...Frae the instant o its first publication ower seeventy year syne, Animal Fairm, in mony weys, has come tae be oor socio-political urtext – oor wan-singer-wan-sang, oor collective pairty piece, the script we’re doomed tae keep repeatin...George Orwell’s faur-kent novel Animal Fairm, yin o Time magazine’s 100 brawest English-leid novels o aw time, has been translatit intae Scots for the verra first time by Thomas Clark. When the animals o Manor Fairm cast aff thirldom an tak control frae Mr Jones, they hae howps for a life o freedom an equality. But when the pigs Napoleon and Snawbaw rise tae pouer, the ither animals find oot that they’re mebbe no aw as equal as they’d aince thocht. A tragic political allegory described by Orwell as bein ‘the history o a revolution that went wrang’, this buik is as relevant noo – if no mair sae – as when it wis first set oot.Trade ReviewThis is a modern Scots masterpiece. – ASHLEY DOUGLAS, Writer and translatorBi ane o the skeeliest makars scrievin in Scots the day. – BILLY KAY, Writer[Animal Fairm] thus allows a large segment of the population of Scotland to appreciate Orwell's classic in a language that means much to them. It should also serve as a very useful primer for others whose acquaintance with the language is more passing but who want to gain a better understanding of it. – UNDISCOVERED SCOTLANDThe Note and his Introduction… aside from his wry, self-deprecating humour, they made me keen to learn more about the language, to learn to read it better, not just read his translation. – IAN CHADWICK

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Book SynopsisIn an unnamed coastal city home to many refugees, a mother of a displaced family searches for her child, calling her name as she wanders along the cliffside road where her daughter used to work. She searches and searches until, devoid of hope and frantic with grief, she throws herself into the sea, leaving her other children behind. Bearing witness to this suicide is another woman – on a business trip from a distant country, with a swollen belly that later gives birth to a stillborn baby. In the wake of her pain, the second woman remembers her own litany of losses – of a language, a country, an identity – when once her family fled a distant war. Weaving between both narratives and written in looping prose rich with meaning, The Singularity is an astounding study of grief, migration and motherhood from one of Sweden's most exciting new writers. Trade Review‘The Singularity, the second novel (and first to be published in English) by Balsam Karam...is evidence of the unique genius of human creativity...Language is at the heart of The Singularity, moving as it does from chaos and cacophony to the simple purity of a single voice, which is one measure of its brilliance and its beauty.’ — John Self, Observer ‘In Karam’s beautiful and harrowing English-language debut, a pregnant woman witnesses another woman plummet to her death from a promenade above the sea…The slim, subtle, and somewhat abstract narrative gestures at grand tragedy in its depiction of the indifferent metropolis as “a hole between what came to be and what could have been,” where tourists pay little mind to a refugee’s for her missing daughter. This is powerful.’ — Publishers Weekly starred review‘Karam infuses this perceptive and compassionate novel with a sense of perplexity that perfectly matches the lives of those she portrays.’ — Declan O’Driscoll, Irish Times‘The Singularity, deftly translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel, is an intense gem of a novel with a sophisticated structure. After a brave, even risky, prologue, which establishes the plot in a few pages, Balsam Karam moves deeper into the story of these anonymous women in an unidentified city who have been forced to flee their homes in an unnamed war.’ — Francesca Peacock, Spectator‘Lyrical, devastating and completely original, The Singularity is a work of extraordinary vision and heart. Balsam Karam’s writing is formally inventive and stylistically breathtaking, and Saskia Vogel's translation does shining justice to its poetic precision and depths.’ — Preti Taneja, author of Aftermath‘I don’t know anyone who writes like Balsam Karam. She blows me away. Truly one of the most original and extraordinary voices to come out of Scandinavia in... forever. You’ll realize twenty minutes after you’ve finished this book that you’re still sitting there, holding on to it.’ — Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove‘The Singularity by Balsam Karam is a novel about loss and longing—a mother who misses her child, children who miss their mother, and all of those who miss their country as they try to feel the new earth in their new land. A deeply moving work of fiction from a true voice of Scandinavia.’ — Shahrnush Parsipur, author of Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran‘Balsam Karam writes at the limits of narrative, limning the boundary of loss where “no space remains between bodies in the singularity”. With a lucid intimacy, Karam braids a story of witness and motherhood that fractures from within only to rebuild memory and home on its own terms. The Singularity is a book of conviction where those who have been made to disappear find light and keep their secrets too.’ — Shazia Hafiz Ramji, author of Port of Being‘Astringent, fuguelike.... A knotty, sui generis evocation of mothers’ feelings of fear and loss.’ — Kirkus‘Ultimately, Karam’s book illustrates in vivid detail—in just 200 pages, intricate yet in accessible prose—the vivid trapped existence of refugees, of how they begin to live outside time and space, of how the world seems not to see or acknowledge their past or their presence, while denying them a future.’ — Rachel Leah Von Essen, Chicago Review of Books‘It’s a free-flowing and intensely empathetic novel that seeks out submerged connections and, importantly, resists the easy clichés and tropes that sometimes diminish fictional portrayals of migrant experience. — Sydney Morning Herald‘The novel’s key achievement is in how it breaks the format of the multigenerational novel, with its well-worn progression from grandmother to mother to daughter. Karam is able to tell, in less than 200 pages, the multigenerational tale of two families in a surprising and nonlinear text of patterns and bleak repetitions, the rhythms of real life.’ — Emily McBride, The Rumpus‘To read The Singularity is like drinking directly from a flood of tears.’ — Aftonbladet‘The Singularity is a novel that appears to have been created from dark matter, elusive, giddying and with an enormous linguistic and narrative density.’ — Expressen‘Balsam Karam’s language is entirely her own. It is poetic and suggestive.... The Singularity is a journey into a black hole. A point of no return.’ — Jönköpings-Posten‘I cannot recall anyone else in contemporary Swedish literature who writes like Karam.’ — Svenska Dagbladet

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Book SynopsisBestselling author Sebastian Fitzek sends you on an ingeniously disturbing journey with his brand new psychological thriller. A missing child. A desperate father. A terrible secret. Guido T has already confessed to two horrific child murders and led Berlin police to the bodies. The police are sure he is also the murderer of six-year-old Max, who disappeared without a trace a year ago. But now the killer is staying silent. The investigators have no reliable evidence, so Max’s parents have no certainty and are unable to say goodbye to their son. Everything changes when one investigator makes an unbelievable offer: he can place Max’s father, as a fake patient, inside the maximum security psychiatric hospital where Guido T is imprisoned. Max’s father agrees. He plans to force the child killer into a confession. Because nothing is worse than uncertainty. Or so he thinks... Reviewers on Sebastian Fitzek: 'Fitzek's thrillers are breathtaking, full of wild twists' Harlan Coben 'Fitzek is without question one of the crime world's most evocative storytellers' Karin SlaughterTrade ReviewSebastian Fitzek is simply amazing... A true Master of his craft -- Chris Carter

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Book SynopsisDuring the late Middle Ages, conflict raged between France and England as they battled in pursuit of power, the throne and beyond. It became known as the Hundred Years’ War. Hella S. Haasse’s epic masterpiece brings this period to vivid life, as the novel’s infamous characters move across a panoramic tapestry woven together by criss-crossed bloodlines and intense rivalries. There is the mad King Charles VI and his heartless Bavarian wife Isabeau; the King’s dashing brother Louis, Duke of Orléans and his sensitive Italian Duchess, Valentine. Their son, Charles, inherits a ferocious feud with the powerful and scheming Duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile, their bastard son becomes the right arm of Joan of Arc. Charles of Orléans is the central character of this astonishing novel, a man caught up in deadly dynastic rivalries who survives because he is captured by the English at the Battle of Agincourt and made their prisoner for the next 25 years. In that time he perfects his craft as a writer and becomes one of the great French poets of the era. In a narrative that spans decades, we also bear witness to the reign of three English Kings: Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V, the brilliant leader of the English army, who changes the face of war at Agincourt. First published in the Netherlands in 1949 and never out of print, In a Dark Wood Wandering is a timeless classic.Trade Review[Haasse] has a gift for painting banquets, battles and great ceremonial meetings; these set-pieces glow from the text like rich old oils, ducky and mellow * Washington Post *Marvelous... Haasse's panorama shows us how great events are experienced by believably human people * USA Today *Starkly depicts not only an individual and a culture in crisis, but also compellingly reflects one age in another * Chicago Tribune *This splendid book exemplifies the distant, yet poignantly resonant voices of fifteenth-century French court society * New York Times Book Review *Written with a sure grasp of history, storytelling, and human nature * Cleveland Plain Dealer *

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Book SynopsisIn Northern Sámi, the word Ædnan means the land, the ground, the earth. In this majestic verse novel, Linnea Axelsson chronicles the fates of two Indigenous Sámi families, telling of their struggle and persistence over a century of colonial displacement, loss and resistance. It begins with Ristin and Ber-Joná, who are trying to care for their troubled young sons while migrating their reindeer herd in northernmost Scandinavia during the 1910s. The coming of the Swedes brings new borders that lay waste to Sámi customs and migration paths - and mean devastating separation for this family. In the 1970s, Lise grapples with how she was forced to adapt to Swedish society, haunted by her time in a 'nomad school' where she was deprived of her ancestors' language and history. Lise's daughter, Sandra, seeks to reclaim that heritage, becoming an activist struggling for reparations from the Swedish state. As one generation succeeds another, their voices interweave and form a spellbinding hymn to lands and traditions lost and reclaimed. Written in sparse, glittering verse that flows like a current,?Ædnan is a profound and moving epic of Sámi life.Trade Review'Crystalline... reads like poetry and myth at once. There are intricate layers of beauty and meaning here in sparse clusters across a vast new landscape as I've never read before. The music of this book is old, and it is new, and it is old' - Tommy Orange, author of 'There, There''Mesmerising. A beautiful, poetic weaving of language, character and place... Evocative and heart-breaking' - Audrey Magee, author of 'The Colony''A soul-gripping and enthralling journey into what it feels like to be othered in your own land... Axelsson offers us a profound invitation into understanding what it means to be deeply intertwined with nature' - Lola Akinmade Akerstrom, author of 'In Every Mirror She's Black''A sharp-edged tale in verse of colonial suppression, resistance, and survival' - Kirkus Reviews, starred review'Incredibly beautiful and magnificent... With AEdnan, Swedish literature has been enriched' - Dagens Nyheter

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Book SynopsisStudded with five gouache drawings by Louise Bourgeois, this erudite, witty fable by the acclaimed author of Now, Now, Louison (2018) considers the ambiguous figure of the baby Jesus and its representation in the artistic canon.' 'One day in 2007,' recalls Jean Fremon about a visit to artist Louise Bourgeois's studio, 'I discovered an entirely new series of drawings.... silhouettes of women with embryos in their wombs, drawn with a brush full of water and red gouache. These drawings were, for me, the most poignant of her long career.'Trade Review'How should one paint the baby Jesus? This deceptively innocent question runs the length of Jean Fremon's Nativity, a fictional work that takes as its subject the first painter to represent the saviour of humankind without his swaddling clothes. The book is a miniature portrait in itself, running for fewer than 50 pages and punctuated by a series of evocative drawings by the artist Louise Bourgeois. With the bells of Christmas ringing faintly in the distance, Nativity offers a stylish, expressive new study into artistic representations of Christianity's founding story.' - The Arts Desk; 'Fremon's decision to focus on a painter and his mission brings something very personal to the history encompassed within this short essay (...) [t]he five paintings by Bourgeois are made up of red brushstrokes, and depict the more human side of the Christmas story: a child swelling in the womb, a birth, a hungry newborn (...) The reflections are compelling and lucidly composed; in contrast the representations offered by Bourgeois are carnal, showing that for all the divine wonder of the Nativity, it is also the story of a first-time mother giving birth in extraordinary - and probably terrifying - circumstances.' - Helen Vassalo, Translating Women; 'A perfectly pitched medley of fact and fiction' - Times Literary Supplement; 'The nativity that Fremon's work is deeply indebted to and preoccupied with is that of artistic ideas - the naissance of a way of thinking, of seeing, of representing - and the cultural precedent they subsequently set in motion. (...) Fremon's inclusion of Bourgeois' drawings not only speaks directly into art history's marked exclusion and omission of women from this tradition, but also rights it by having Bourgeois have her say on birth and motherhood.' - Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou, Lucy Writers; Praise for Jean Fremon: 'Jean Fremon is a wholly singular artist, a writer who lives in the radiant zone where poetry, philosophy and storytelling meet.' (Paul Auster); 'Like all the most urgent poetry, it is "fragile and momentary, but momentarily invincible.' (John Ashberry); Praise for Now, Now, Louison (Les Fugitives, 2018): 'A truly wonderful book... The spider woman, the intellectual, the rebel, the sly enchantress, and the good girl sing together in this exuberant, lithe text beautifully translated by Cole Swensen. There is something uncanny at play in this small book, something I don't fully grasp, but I suspect that elusive, haunted excess may be exactly why I love it.' (Siri Hustvedt); 'A sensitive portrait of a woman whose struggle for self- definition came to drive her artistic practice.' (Financial Times (Best Books of 2018, Translated Fiction)); 'A perfectly pitched medley of fact and fiction.' (Times Literary Supplement); 'Perhaps life, this life, any life, is best preserved in its many bits, just as it was lived.' (Frieze); 'This enchanting short book (...) is simultaneously a love letter, an elegy, a poem, a novel, a fictionalised biography.' (Michele Roberts, for The Tablet's Best Books of 2018); 'A compulsive, daringly perceptive, sometimes astringent exploration of the role, power and symbolism of maternity, fertility, sublimation and reality, ecstasy and happiness, silence and the overcrowding bustle of belonging; of hysteria and emotionality, of how to give material substance to presence, to nothingness and the void.' (Bookanista); 'Cole Swensen's greatest accomplishments in Now, Now, Louison stem from her complex engagement with the relationship between fidelity and translation.' (Asymptote); French reviews: 'Jean Fremon brings Louise Bourgeois close up into a fascinating and moving proximity.' (ArtPress); 'The life of Louise Bourgeois is rendered in ellipsis, quick brush strokes, and a mix of associations of ideas and of sensations waltzing with chronology. A highly original, sensitive text.' (Liberation).

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Book SynopsisI was trying not to think about looking for work, which is immoral, I wasn't hoping to earn a living, which is pretty unusual, I couldn't have cared less about the cash, which is reckless in these times of very grave threats, but I was scraping a living already, which was repugnant, on the miniscule royalties from a thickwit novel, which is scandalous, which I'd created from the stories of a brilliant and brittle grand dame of theatre, survivor of a romance full of stereotypes, which makes you think though I don't know what about.' Sparring with the spectre of an over-bearing father, torn between the push to find a job and the pull to write, the narrator wanders into a larger debate, one in which the troubling lights of Kafka, Kraus, and Klemperer shine bright. Set against the backdrop of police brutality and rising nationalism that marked the state of emergency following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, Poetics of Work takes a jab at the values of late capitalism. Hence these ten 'lessons to today's young poets' - a blistering treatise of survival skills for the wilfully idleTrade Review‘Poetics of Work by Noemi Lefebvre, translated by Sophie Lewis, is set against the backdrop of terrorist attacks and rising nationalism in France. It takes the form of exploratory reflections on philosophy, poetry, language and work, interspersed with conversations with the narrator’s Socratic “superego” father. The narrator finds relevant insights in Kafka, Kraus and Klemperer, only to slam against the brick wall of her father’s gruff, everyman logic. It’s a neatly-made point: perhaps civilisation, with all its nuance and complexity, is too easily out-muscled by simpler arguments, even wrong ones. The book’s propositions are refreshingly low-tech. We are spared facile arguments about the role of the internet in all this, in favour of considering the deeper roots of societal darkness and its palpability in real life.’ - Ronan Hession, Irish Times; 'A smart, timely, and novel manifesto for poetics in the age of personal and political patriarchy.' -Joanna Walsh, author of Break.up; 'This experimental novel is partly a tongue-in-cheek manifesto for poets and partly a Socratic dialogue with a superego called Papa, who thinks poetry is pointless. An unnamed, genderless narrator wanders around Lyon, smoking joints and questioning society's ideas of usefulness. ... They read obsessively about the Third Reich and see echoes in the xenophobic tenor of contemporary France, hinting that capitalism and fascism share a disregard for anything considered unproductive.' - New Yorker; 'Lefebvre's shiftless narrator searches for the place of poetry in a world gone mad, where the "culture sector is a graveyard for the soul's repose." ... an interior monologue filled with sharp observations, hysterical asides, and a sincere search for personal truth. Lefebvre succeeds in mapping out an unquiet mind in the midst of crisis.' - Publishers Weekly; 'Noemi Lefebvre refines a form of vital poetic resistance that ultimately liberates a strange and subversive political animal, half orang and half utan. At once lyrical and feverish, Poetics of Work will do you a power of good.' -Le Monde des livres; 'Lefebvre writes like a hiker who enjoys nothing more than staying where they are, following dead ends or winding, risky paths.' - Les Inrockuptibles; 'Lefebvre stands up to the language of capitalism. She invents her own to elude the law of market forces, which exists in the name of the father. In doing so, she insinuates herself between the lines of the dominant discourse, swimming against the tide of prevailing neoliberalism and its categorical imperatives.' - L'Humanite

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisIn an anonymous French village a child loves to wander a forest where his mother may have disappeared. His father is speechless with anger; his grandmother is concealing her own story.Trade Review'The Child Who beautifully explores the power and powerlessness of language, but I was struck most of all by its haunting depiction of intergenerational silence, and the way we have to live with those silences.' - Tash Aw, author of Strangers on a Pier; 'Aching, tender and luminous, The Child Who explores the splitting of the self that can occur in response to grief. Finding beauty even in the most painful dynamics, this is a humane and moving story touched by a transcendent lyricism.' - Jessica Traynor, author of The Quick; 'Mystical. A slow hand walking you into a forest. I come to it to think about loss, absence and longing, what can never be ours.' - Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House; 'A poetic exploration of the presence of absence in a family's life, tracking grief in all its melancholy intangibility. Jeanne Benameur writes with uncommon beauty, perceptiveness and subtlety.' - Ronan Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul; 'For those with the sensibility to respond to its poetic voice, Jeanne Benameur's L'enfant qui and the excellent English translation by Bill Johnston have the power to change lives. Existential beyond any philosophical system, the book carefully, lyrically explores the phenomenon of being as it occurs in each of three unnamed family members in an unnamed French village at an unnamed time.' - Lynn Hoggard; '[The Child Who] is driven by reflections on the love between parent and child and between husband and wife. And then there's a first-person narrator who talks to the child directly: "I'd like to say to you that the world is immense and lovely, that there's a path for you too."' - John Self, Guardian Best Recent Translated Fiction; 'Prose that approximates the condition of poetry... Benameur's particular strength lies in her ability to give a distinctive voice to the voiceless.' - Michael Cronin, Irish Times; 'Jeanne Benameur's work is carved out of silences. Her characters use few words, while she chooses her own with a parsimony that increases their impact tenfold. Suffused in mystery, this novel-about what makes a family, how a personality emerges, how one learns to inhabit the world-is fashioned from a poetry as startling as its title.' - Raphaelle Leyris, Le Monde; 'It's a brief story, but a prodigiously compact one-the hallmark of all Jeanne Benameur's books. It's impossible to say enough good things about her, for the loveliest assessments will never adequately convey her talent.' - Mohammed Aissaoui, Le Figaro; 'A work of startling beauty.' - Xavier Houssin, ELLE; 'A marvel.' -Claire Conruyt, Le Figaro Litteraire

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