Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisOne of the world''s greatest fantasy novels, Monkey King: Journey to the West is the inspiration for the new blockbuster game Black Myth: Wukong. Published in a sparkling modern translation and available in the Penguin Clothbound Classics series, this is the perfect introduction to the seminal Chinese classic. A shape-shifting trickster on a kung-fu quest for eternal life, Monkey King is one of the most memorable superheroes in world literature. High-spirited and omni-talented, he can transform himself into whatever he chooses and turn each of his body''s 84,000 hairs into an army of clones. But his penchant for mischief repeatedly gets him into trouble, and when he raids Heaven''s Orchard of Immortal Peaches, the Buddha pins him beneath a mountain. Five hundred years later, Monkey King is finally given a chance to redeem himself: he must protect the pious monk Tripitaka on his journey in search of precious Buddhist sutras that will bring enlightenment to the Chinese empire. Joined by two other fallen immortals - Pigsy, a rice-loving flying pig, and Sandy, a depressive river-sand monster - Monkey King does battle with Red Boy, Princess Jade-Face, the Monstress Dowager, and all manner of dragons, ogres, wizards and femmes fatales; navigates the perils of Fire-Cloud Cave, the River of Flowing Sand and the Water-Crystal Palace; and is serially captured, lacquered, sautéed, steamed and liquefied - but always hatches an ingenious plan to get himself and his fellow pilgrims out of their latest jam. Comparable to The Canterbury Tales or Don Quixote, Monkey King is at once a gripping adventure, a comic satire and a spring of spiritual insight. With this new translation by the award-winning Julia Lovell, the irrepressible rogue hero of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature has the potential to vault, with his signature cloud-somersault, into the hearts of a whole new generation of readers.Trade ReviewA monument of world literature, Monkey King is also one of the funniest, most subversive satires ever written ... If you've not read Journey to the West, prepare yourself for the adventure of a lifetime and know that like Monkey himself, you are about to be transformed. Even if you have read it, Julia Lovell's magnificent new translation becomes its own cloud somersault, its own gold-hooped staff -- Junot DíazVisit one of the greatest countries in the world through the pages of this Chinese epic [and] Julia Lovell's new contemporary translation, with exquisite maps of 'somewhat mythical lands' by Laura Hartman Maestro -- Piers Torday * Guardian *I marvelled at the ingenuity, cheek and charm of Monkey King by Wu Cheng'en in Julia Lovell's lively new translation: what a book to return to! -- Daniel Medin * The White Review *A new translation of Monkey King is a cause for joy! Imaginative and mischievous, exhilarating and timeless, this sixteenth-century superhero saga is a delight to readers of all ages. -- Yiyun LiAn exhilarating new translation of my favourite of all the classic Chinese novels - a great, wild epic that expands and fires one's imagination -- Ha JinThe Monkey King, one of Chinese literature's great characters, should add many new disciples to his existing fans through this compelling new version of his adventures. Julia Lovell here conveys a vibrant sense of the richness and also the sheer fun of this Ming dynasty text, a classic of world fiction -- Craig Clunas, University of OxfordAn all-new translation of one of the greatest stories ever written . . . An out-and-out fantasy adventure that has captivated audiences and influenced creatives for centuries * Bustle *Jam-packed with outrageous danger and outlandish transformations . . . Lovell does an admirable job condensing the original text . . . while capturing the essence of Chinese fantastical storytelling and parody. Readers who enjoy nutty adventures and nonsensical plots will get a kick out of this madcap fable * Publishers Weekly *Uproarious and action-filled, this highly readable new translation captures the most beloved of Chinese characters in all his impossible charm. Irrepressible and irresistible, Monkey speaks to us across the centuries, and here makes us laugh anew -- Gish JenThis new translation . . . breathes fresh life, humour, wit and charm into the 16th-century classic. . . . If you did not know that this was an abridged version you never would. . . . [It] is exactly as long as it needs to be, with the fat cut and the story paced perfectly. . . . If you've ever wanted to read Journey to the West but have been put off by fears of it being too long, too dense, too dry, then put those fears aside. Julia Lovell's translation is nothing but fun, frantic fantasy writing. . . . I can't imagine having more fun than I did with Lovell's hilarious translation -- Will Heath * Books & Bao *Monkey King: Journey to the West is rich with imaginative world-building that evokes the best Pixar films... With this new readable version of 'Monkey King,' Western readers will also have plenty of fun * San Francisco Chronicle *A mirthful tale of endless mischief, deception, irony and combat . . . Impish and adventurous . . . Thanks to this fresh translation . . . the adventures of superhero simian Sun Wukong are newly accessible to English readers around the world. * Global Asia *

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Book SynopsisIdealistic young officer Giovanni Drogo is full of determination to serve his country well. But when he arrives at a bleak border station in the Tartar desert, where he is to take a short assignment at Fort Bastiani, he finds the castle manned by veteran soldiers who have grown old without seeing a trace of the enemy. As his length of service stretches from months into years, he continues to wait patiently for the enemy to advance across the desert, for one great and glorious battle . . . Written in 1938 as the world waited for war, and internationally acclaimed since its publication, The Tartar Steppe is a provocative and frightening tale of hope, longing and the terrible sorcery of dreams and desires.Trade ReviewA strange and haunting novel, an eccentric classic -- J.M. COETZEEIt is not often that a masterpiece falls into one's hands. But The Tartar Steppe is undoubtedly a masterpiece, a sublime book, and Buzzati a master of the written word * * Sunday Times * *There are names that the coming generations will not resign themselves to forget. Surely one of them is that of Dino Buzzati -- JORGE LUIS BORGESA beautiful, masterly novel that shimmers like a mirage, bringing into sharp focus the rise and fall of our ambitions and the pitiless erosion of time. It is the story of one Giovanni Drogo - yet how many of us will be stricken to recognise something of ourselves in him? -- YANN MARTELThe Tartar Steppe is a nightmare, a comedy of errors, a beautiful and anguished fable, a call to resistance against folly, the inspired assurance that one last act may justify our lifelong struggle to remain human -- ALBERTO MANGUEL

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Book SynopsisPenguin''s commemorative hardback reissue of One Hundred Years of Solitude by late Nobel laureate and author Gabriel García Márquez is a timeless classic and the perfect Christmas gift for any booklover.Gabriel García Márquez has been one of the undisputed literary giants of the past century; his stories are vivid, energetic, tender and unforgettable; they have touched the lives of readers across the globe and earned him countless awards including the Nobel Prize for Literature.In the wake of the author''s death, his most beloved novel is reissued in commemorative hardback edition. One Hundred Years of Solitude is endlessly fascinating, an intricately patterned work of fiction and a joyful, irrepressible celebration of humanity. Vibrantly colourful and teeming with life, this timeless tale blends the natural with the supernatural in one of the most magical reading experiences on earth.''Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.''Gabriel Garcia Marquez''s great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendia can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.''Dazzling'' The New York TimesTrade ReviewThe book that sort of saved my life -- Emma ThompsonThe greatest novel in any language of the last 50 years -- Salman RushdieShould be required reading for the entire human race * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewTsushima evades any label, her fiction transcends gender to focus on the existential loneliness that is at the heart of humanity. -- Kris Kosaka * Japan Times *Wonderfully poetic ... extraordinary freshness ... a Virginia Woolf quality -- Margaret Drabble * BBC Radio 3 *Spiky, atmospheric and intimate, filled with moments of strangeness that linger in the mind * The Spectator *In this short, powerful novel lurk the joy and guilt of single parents everywhere * Guardian *This exquisite and poignant novel . . . will resonate with single mothers always and everywhere -- Shami ChakrabartiAn extraordinary book . . . cool analytic intelligence propelled by sudden eruptions of passion -- Lisa AppignanesiAn astonishing and exquisite masterpiece about love, motherhood, female independence, and the restoration of a damaged family. Yuko Tsushima is an unforgettable name alongside great masters like Virginia Woolf, Alice Munro and Elizabeth Strout -- J. M. Lee, author of The Investigation

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Book Synopsis90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books'One of the hidden geniuses of the twentieth century' - Colm TóibínA housewife's life is shattered by a sudden epiphany. A simple tale of killing cockroaches fragments into multiple narratives, each uncovering new truths. In this selection of haunting short stories, Lispector reveals the permeable boundaries between past and present, the real and the surreal, showing ordinary moments to contain the deepest existential truths.

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Book SynopsisA UK debut from a fresh, prize-winning talent, this quietly surreal novel is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Mieko Kawakami Two friends meet across three dinners. In the back room of a pet shop, they snack on dried shrimps and discuss fish-breeding. In a remote new home in the mountains, they look for a solution to a weasel infestation. During a dinner party in a blizzard, a mounting claustrophobia makes way for uneasy dreams. Their conversations often take them in surprising directions, but when one of the men becomes a father, more and more is left unsaid. With emotional acuity and a wry humour, Weasels in the Attic it is an uncanny and striking reflection on fertility, masculinity, and marriage in contemporary Japan.Trade ReviewSimmers with eerie tension and bursts with unforgettable monologues * NPR *Oyamada is in complete control of her talent... A writer flexing their muscles and preparing for something truly profound * Japan Times *Surreal and mesmerizing -- Praise for THE HOLE * The New York Times *

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Book Synopsis''Oh the cruelty of time, that destroys all things!''Beguiling, strange and hair-raising tales from early 20th century Japan: Nagai''s Behind the Prison, Uno''s Closet LLB and Akutagawa''s deeply macabre General Kim.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

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Book Synopsis'Absolutely breathtaking' Christy Lefteri, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo.We all have something to tell those we have lost . . .On a windy hill in Japan, in a garden overlooking the sea stands a disused phone box. For years, people have travelled to visit the phone box, to pick up the receiver and speak into the wind: to pass their messages to loved ones no longer with us.When Yui loses her mother and daughter in the tsunami, she is plunged into despair and wonders how she will ever carry on. One day she hears of the phone box, and decides to make her own pilgrimage there, to speak once more to the people she loved the most. But when you have lost everything, the right words can be the hardest thing to find . . .Then she meets Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss. What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels as though it is breaking . . . The Phone Box at the Edge of the World is an unforgettable story of the depths of grief, the lightness of love and the human longing to keep the people who are no longer with us close to our hearts.Everyone is talking about The Phone Box at the Edge of the World'A moving and uplifting anatomisation of grief and the small miraculous moments that persuade people to start looking forward again' Sunday Times'Strangely beautiful, uplifting and memorable, it's a book to savour' Choice, Book of the Month'A poignant, atmospheric novel dealing with love, coming to terms with loss and the restoration of one's self' Daily Mail'A story about the dogged survival of hope when all else is lost . . . A striking haiku of the human heart' The Times'Beautiful. A message of hope for anyone who is lost, frightened or grieving' Clare Mackintosh, Sunday Times bestselling author of After the End'Incredibly moving. It will break your heart and soothe your soul' Stacey Halls, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars'Mesmerising . . . beautiful . . . a joy to read' Joanna Glen, Costa shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope'Spare and poetic, this beautiful book is both a small, quiet love story and a vast expansive meditation on grieving and loss' Heat'A perfect poignant read' Woman & HomeTrade ReviewIncredibly moving, but also heartwarming and positive * SixtyPlusSurfers.co.uk *

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Book Synopsis'One of the greatest novels ever written' Philippe Sands Roth's masterpiece: an epic, moving account of the final days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, told through the fortunes of one family. Set against the doomed splendour of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Radetzky March tells the story of the celebrated Trotta family, tracing their rise and fall over three generations. Theirs is a sweeping history of heroism and duty, desire and compromise, tragedy and heartbreak, a story that lasts until the darkening eve of World War One, when all is set to fall apart. Rich, epic and profoundly moving, The Radetzky March is Joseph Roth's timeless masterpiece. 'For sheer, epic sweep, I love reading The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, set in imperial Vienna. I can't recommend it highly enough' Jeremy Paxman 'Timeless... I re-read this book every two or three years, captivated anew by its low-key melancholia and its wry take on the human predicament' William Boyd, Mail on Sunday 'He saw, he listened, he understood. The Radetzky March is a dark, disturbing novel of eccentric beauty... If you have yet to experience Roth, begin here, and then read everything' Irish TimesTrade ReviewOne of the greatest novels ever written, Joseph Roth tells us who we are, and what we might yet become. Timeless, humane, tragic -- Philippe SandsFor sheer, epic sweep, I love reading The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth, set in imperial Vienna. I can't recommend it highly enough -- Jeremy PaxmanTimeless... I re-read this book every two or three years, captivated anew by its low-key melancholia and its wry take on the human predicament -- William Boyd * Mail on Sunday *He saw, he listened, he understood. The Radetzky March is a dark, disturbing novel of eccentric beauty... If you have yet to experience Roth, begin here, and then read everything * Irish Times *Roth weds epic sweep and scope to irony, pathos and keen wit, sustained across glorious set-pieces... Michael Hofmann's dazzling translations have secured a place for Roth, that peerless celebrant and satirist of the dying Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the affections of an army of Anglophone readers -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *A heartfelt evocation of an Empire in which he discernedvirtues that outweighed all the burdens of a mindless officialdom... Roth's masterpiece is of such enormous relevance to our times that we must be grateful that it has found in Michael Hofmann, a translator who does justice to its understated grief * The Times *One of the great novels of the last century. Its theme, beautifully articulated, is the end of an era. Roth's anthem for a vanished world has the intense, fleeting beauty of a sunset * Sunday Telegraph *Michael Hofmann has rendered us a service by bringing us a fresh and lively translation of a 20th Century masterpiece * Telegraph *Over recent years, the poet Michael Hofmann's glittering translations of Joseph Roth have single-handedly given a vanished voice fresh resonance in the English-speaking world. Now Hofmann has surpassed himself with the jewel in Roth's crown. The Radetzky March [is] a majestically assured and engaging novel. * Independent *A great, wise, droll, novel -- William Boyd * The Week *Remarkable... Elegantly told and rich in social history * London Magazine *

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Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR FILM'... with air in its lungs and love in its heart' Guardian *****An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, about two boys who meet in the same village every summer, and the men they grow up to become.Pietro, an impressionable city boy, spends his summers in a secluded valley in the Alps. There, surrounded by meadows and peaks, he begins to learn of his father's dreams and passions. There, too, he meets Bruno, the son of a local stonemason. As the pair run wild, they form a once-in-a-lifetime friendship.Then one year, the summer visits stop. Pietro is drawn to cities around the world. But the memory of the mountains never leaves him and, after his father dies, he returns in search of the freedom and camaraderie that he once knew.'Exquisite... A rich, achingly painful story'ANNIE PROULX, author of The Shipping News'ENCHANTING' Guardian'BRILLIANT' New York Times'ABSORBING' Irish TimesWinner of the 2017 Strega Prize, the Prix Médicis étranger, and the Jury Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.Trade ReviewA fine book, a rich, achingly painful story that is made for all of us who have ever felt a hunger for the mountains. Few books have so accurately described the way stony heights can define one’s sense of joy and rightness. And it is an exquisite unfolding of the deep way humans may love one another. -- Annie ProulxCould Cognetti be the new Elena Ferrante? * The Bookseller *A great story about friendship and about what it means to become a man * Vanity Fair Italia *There are no more universal themes than those of the landscape, friendship, and becoming adults, and Cognetti’s writing becomes classical (and elegant) to best tell this story…a true novel by a great writer * Rolling Stone Italia *A beautifully crafted piece of writing... Absorbing... The power of nature to transform the individual, for good and for bad, is seen through each of the characters -- Sarah Gilmartin * Irish Times *

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Book SynopsisA novel from internationally acclaimed author Paulo Coelho a dramatic story of love, life and death that shows us all why every second of our existence is a choice we all make between living and dying.Veronika has everything she could wish for. She is young and pretty, has plenty of boyfriends, a steady job, a loving family. Yet she is not happy; something is lacking in her life, and one morning she decides to die. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up some time later in the local hospital. There she is told that her heart is damaged and she has only a few days to live.The story follows Veronika through these intense days as to her surprise she finds herself experiencing feelings she has never really felt before. Against all odds she finds herself falling in love and even wanting to live againTrade Review‘Coelho’s writing is beautifully poetic but his message is what counts… he gives me hope and puts a smile on my face’DAILY EXPRESS ‘His books have had a life-enhancing impact on millions of people’THE TIMES ‘One of the few to deserve the term “Publishing Phenomenon”’THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

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Book Synopsis'The best historical thriller I've read in twenty years' A.J. FinnTrade ReviewA remarkable debut novel * Sunday Times *A gripping, shocking read * The Times *This gripping historical thriller surely announces the arrival of a fine new European talent. Vivid and absorbing * Observer *The latest Scandi sensation * Sunday Times *Niklas Natt och Dag takes the contemporary Scandinavian crime story and gives it a startlingly gruesome historical twist . . . Natt och Dag spares us nothing, detailing horror after horror in his unflinchingly muscular prose * Guardian *Natt och Dag's description of the rattling, lung-shredding tubercular cough is truly hideous - a haunting portrait of physical disintegration that's not easy to forget * Dan Jones, Evening Standard *Swedish noir doesn't get much darker * Herald *A superbly detailed historical mystery * Irish Times *A well-depicted historical murder mystery filled with cruelty as well as warmth and humanity * Best Debut, Swedish Academy of Crime Writers' Award 2017 *A historical thriller that is unparalleled in suspense and literary quality. It's raw, beautiful, heartbreaking and extremely captivating until the very last page. The Wolf and the Watchman deserves a place among the classics of the genre * Erik Axl Sund, author of The Crow Girl *An unexpected masterpiece, a wild and unusual mix of genres that in one fell swoop succeeds in renewing the entire crime fiction genre * Arne Dahl, prize-winning and Swedish #1 bestselling author of the Sam Berger series *Brawny, bloody, intricate, enthralling - and the best historical thriller I've read in twenty years * A J Finn, #1 bestselling author of The Woman in the Window *This is a thrilling, unnerving, clever and beautiful story. Reading it is like giving a little gift to oneself * Fredrik Backman *An impressive thriller - well paced, well structured and deeply unsettling . . . political scheming and psychological angst, grand theories on the state of man, a fiendish masterplan and a love story all in one * TLS *

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Book SynopsisPatrick Süskind''s Perfume is a classic novel of death and sensuality in Paris, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. ''In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an era that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, and if his name has been forgotten today, it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance, misanthropy, immorality, or, more succinctly, wickedness, but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent . . .''''An astonishing tour de force both in concept and execution'' Guardian''A fantastic tale of murder and twisted eroticism controlled by a disgusted loathing of humanity ... Clever, stylish, absorbing and well worth reading'' Literary Review''A meditation on the nature of death, desire and decay ... a remarkable début'' Peter Ackroyd, The New York Times Book Review''Unlike anything else one has read. A phenomenon ... Everyone seems to want to get a whiff of this strange perfume, which will remain unique in contemporary literature'' Figaro''An ingenious and totally absorbing fantasy'' Daily Telegraph''Witty, stylish and ferociously absorbing'' Observer

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Book Synopsis''The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently through the house''Tales of desire and madness from this giant of Brazilian literature.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

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Book SynopsisTakashi Hiraide was born in Moji, Kitakyushu in 1950. He has published numerous books of poetry as well as several books of genre-bending essays, including one on poetics and baseball. His work includes a novel called The Guest Cat, a biography of Meiji poet Irako Seihaku, and a travelogue that follows the traces of Kafka, Celan, and Benjamin in Berlin. His poetry book Postcards to Donald Evans is published by the Tibor de Nagy Foundation. Hiraide is a professor of Art Science and Poetics as well as a core member of the new Institute for Art Anthropology at Tama Art University. His poetry book For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut won the 2009 Best Translated Book Award for poetry.Trade ReviewThe Guest Cat is a rare treasure . . . beautiful and profound . . . whether you're a cat lover or not, don't pass this one up * NPR *This is a gentle, thoughtful and subtly profound work . . . It's the kind of work that makes you ask of its author: "How on earth did he do that?" as you find yourself dabbing your eyes and pausing to look wistfully into the distance . . . You will want to read The Guest Cat more than once, so you notice more details - seeing as you can't do this with life -- Nicholas Lezard's Paperback of the Week * Guardian *The language and descriptions are careful, elegant and lovely; while Hiraide's book is ostensibly about a cat, it is more precisely about space and ownership. The book renders an unusually intimate, detailed and vivid picture of a place that is simultaneously private and open. * New York Times *Lyrical and captivating . . . I will revisit The Guest Cat with pleasure, much as I return to favourite poems and paintings and memories * Huffington Post *A book genuinely worthy of bestseller status * Independent *This moving novel is a treat for felinophiles * Guardian *This is a charming, thoughtful little meditation on the transience of life -- Summer Book Club, * S Magzine *

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Book SynopsisAsta Olivia Nordenhof (Author) Asta Olivia Nordenhof is an award-winning poet and author. Money to Burn, the first book in the Scandinavian Star septology, was first published in Denmark in 2020. It was awarded the PO Enquist Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. An international sensation and translated into eighteen languages, Money to Burn was published in English by Jonathan Cape. The Devil Book is the second in the series and was an instant bestseller upon first publication in Denmark.Caroline Waight (Translator) Caroline Waight is an award-winning literary translator working from Danish, German and Norwegian. Her translations include books by Caroline Albertine Minor, Ingvild Rishøi, Maren Uthaug and Dorthe Nors. She was a finalist for the 2023 PEN Translation Award and received a special commendation at the 2023 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

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Book SynopsisA modernist work of profound wisdom that continues to enthral readers with its subtle blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Hermann Hesse''s Steppenwolf is revised by Walter Sorell from the original translation by Basil Creighton.At first sight Harry Haller seems a respectable, educated man. In reality he is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange, alienated from society and repulsed by the modern age. But as he is drawn into a series of dreamlike and sometimes savage encounters - accompanied by, among others, Mozart, Goethe and the bewitching Hermione - the misanthropic Haller discovers a higher truth, and the possibility of happiness. This blistering portrayal of a man who feels himself to be half-human and half-wolf was the bible of the 1960s counterculture, capturing the mood of a disaffected generation, and remains a haunting story of estrangement and redemption.Herman Hesse (1877 - 1962) suffered from depression and weathered series of personal crises which led him to undergo psychoanalysis with J. B. Lang; a process which resulted in Demian (1919), a novel whose main character is torn between the orderliness of bourgeois existence and the turbulent and enticing world of sensual experience. This dichotomy is prominent in Hesse''s subsequent novels, including Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) and his magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game (1943). Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.If you enjoyed Steppenwolf, you might like Hesse''s Siddhartha, also available in Penguin Classics.''A savage indictment of bourgeois society ... the gripping and fascinating story of disease in a man''s soul''The New York TimesTrade ReviewThe gripping and fascinating story of disease in a man's soul * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisA haunting novel of love, fate and war from the Austrian master and acclaimed author of Baron Bagge and Count Luna (''A book so astonishing I immediately re-read it'' Patti Smith)He'd had the feeling that he was expected there, on that day. But by whom?'Vienna, 1939. Lieutenant Wallmoden is preparing to take part in a mysterious military exercise' when he meets the austerely beautiful Baroness Pistohlkors and her elusive circle of acquaintances. He promises to see her again but then discovers his company has been mobilised for war. Marching across Europe, stumbling across the border between the living and the dead, one constant remains: he must keep his tryst with the Baroness, in this world or the next.Banned by the Nazis and almost lost, Mars in Aries is an erotically charged ghost story, a shocking account of the invasion of Poland, and a mesmeric exploration of time and fate.Translated by Robert Dassanowsky and John Barrett

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Book SynopsisThe author grew up in Hallencourt, a village in northern France where many live below the poverty line. This novel is about life there. It is an extraordinary portrait of escaping from an unbearable childhood. Written with an openness and compassionate intelligence, ultimately, it asks, how can we create our own freedom?Trade ReviewWhen new voices come from underrepresented constituencies, there’s always the hope of a new perspective... I can read Edouard Louis and know something of what it means to grow up in extreme poverty in contemporary France -- Zadie Smith * Observer *When new voices come from underrepresented constituencies, there’s always the hope of a new perspective... I can read Edouard Louis and know something of what it means to grow up in extreme poverty in contemporary France -- Zadie Smith * Observer *Even in the wake of Knausgaard and Ferrante it is hard to find a literary phenomenon that has swept Europe quite like the autobiographical project of Édouard Louis * LitHub *An extraordinary autobiographical novel about class, violence and sexuality in France. It’s a vivid, often brutal but immensely touching book that restores my faith in the power of literature -- Tash AwThis is the courageous story of an outsider, in equal parts frank, provocative and compelling -- Laura Garmeson * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A MAN CALLED OVE, NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING TOM HANKSThe number one bestseller: a funny, poignant and uplifting tale of love, community, and second chancesFor as long as anyone can remember, Britt-Marie has been an acquired taste. It''s not that she''s judgemental, or fussy, or difficult - she just expects things to be done in a certain way. A cutlery drawer should be arranged in the right order, for example (forks, knives, then spoons). We''re not animals, are we? But behind the passive-aggressive, socially awkward, absurdly pedantic busybody is a woman who has more imagination, bigger dreams and a warmer heart than anyone around her realizes.So when Britt-Marie finds herself unemployed, separated from her husband of 20 years, left to fend for herself in the miserable provincial backwater that is Borg - of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it - andTrade ReviewThis is an author who understands people and watches society closely.... An author who specialises in the unforgettable, outdoes himself and in the process overshoots our rating system.... In the end 5*s are all I can offer but I feel that this is a novel that deserves many, many more. * Bookbag *Impressive [and] heart-warming... there are unexpected delights to being stuck with Britt-Marie. * Literary Review *A brilliant mix of belly-laughs, profound insight and captivating events delivered... with Backman's pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature. * Shelf Awareness *The bestselling author of A MAN CALLED OVE returns with this heartwarming story about a woman rediscovering herself after personal crisis. Backman reveals Britt-Marie's need for order....with clear, tight descriptions. Insightful and touching, this is a sweet and inspiring story about truth and transformation. Fans of Backman's will find another winner in these pages. * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisInside a luxury housing complex, two misfit teenagers sneak around and get drunk. Franco Andrade, lonely, overweight, and addicted to porn, obsessively fantasizes about seducing his neighbor – an attractive married woman and mother – while Polo dreams about quitting his gruelling job as a gardener within the gated community and fleeing his overbearing mother and their narco-controlled village. Each facing the impossibility of getting what he thinks he deserves, Franco and Polo hatch a mindless and macabre scheme. Written in a chilling torrent of prose by one of our most thrilling new writers, Paradais explores the explosive fragility of Mexican society – fractured by issues of race, class and violence – and how the myths, desires, and hardships of teenagers can tear life apart at the seams.Trade Review‘Fernanda Melchor explores violence and inequity in this brutal novel. She does it with dazzling technical prowess, a perfect pitch for orality, and a neurosurgeon’s precision for cruelty. Paradais is a short inexorable descent into Hell.’ — Mariana Enríquez, author of Things We Lost in the Fire‘Melchor evokes the stories of Flannery O’Connor, or, more recently, Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings. Impressive.’ — Julian Lucas, New York Times‘With a nimble command of the novel’s technical resources and an uncanny grasp of the irrational forces at work in society, [Paradais and Hurricane Season] navigate a reality riven by violence, race, class, and sex. And they establish Melchor, who was born in 1982, as the latest of Faulkner’s Latin American inheritors, and among the most formidable.’ — Juan Gabriel Vásquez, New Yorker‘Fernanda Melchor has a powerful voice, and by powerful I mean unsparing, devastating, the voice of someone who writes with rage, and has the skill to pull it off.’ — Samanta Schweblin, author of Fever Dream‘A masterpiece of concision ... Paradais is a labyrinthine monologue on the banal violence of a modern-day teenager.’ — Virginie Despentes, author of Vernon Subutex ‘Melchor uses shock to lay bare issues of classism, misogyny, and the ravages of child abuse. Her prose, ably translated by Hughes, is dizzying but effective; it’s as if she’s holding the reader’s head and daring them to look away from the social problems she brings to light. This might be a deeply disconcerting novel, but it’s also a brave one. A fever dream that's as hard to read as it is brilliant.’ — Kirkus

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Book SynopsisDiscover the Korean runaway prizewinning bestseller for fans of LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR and KLARA AND THE SUN''A stunning story of love, care and sacrifice'' BORA CHUNG, author of CURSED BUNNY_____________Let''s all learn how to slow down ...2035: In the shadow of a race course, a young woman finds a robot named Coli on a scrap heap, contemplating the sky. Intrigued, she takes him into her care and learns how he is designed to be a humanoid jockey who has mistakenly been programmed to have feelings.She and Coli are determined to rescue his beloved race horse who is heading for the knackers'' yard after a lifetime of overwork. To remind the horse of happier times, they hatch a special plan to let her run another race.But it will be no ordinary event- they will train her to run the slowest time of her life.In the heat of the race, Coli feels the horse running too fast. She is in pain and will soon injure herself.To save his friend, Coli will commit one final act of bravery ...Radiant, urgent, deeply moving, A Thousand Blues is a hymn to our earth and to our humanity, giving powerful voice to those left behind in a fast-moving world of toxic productivity and competition. Brimming with heart, hope and rage, it shows how friendship, community and sacrifice will set us free.__________''A stunningly crafted novel, evoking a myriad emotions'' Kim Bo-youngA dazzling, warm novel that shows us how to move forward as a society without leaving anyone or anything behind'' Choi Jin-young, author of To the Warm HorizonA breath of fresh air in the sci-fi genre' *****Feels like a feather softly descending and tickling my heart'' *****A sci-fi novel full of human warmth'' *****

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Book SynopsisAn international phenomenon, which has been declared a masterpiece everywhere it has been published. A searingly honest, addictive and controversial read. In this utterly remarkable novel Karl Ove Knausgaard writes with painful honesty about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and unpredictable father, and his bewilderment and grief on his father's death. When Karl Ove becomes a father himself, he must balance the demands of caring for a young family with his determination to write great literature. In A Death in the Family Knausgaard has created a universal story of the struggles, great and small, that we all face in our lives. A profoundly serious, gripping and hugely readable work written as if the author's very life were at stake.Trade Review[A Death in the Family] should be read for its blazing account of a feared father set on self-destruction, the boredom and bewilderment of adolescence, and its flashes of sheet brilliance -- Catherine Taylor * i *A masterpiece... Meticulously detailed, harrowing, oddly beautiful, its depiction of a family’s disintegration is one of the most powerful pieces of writing I’ve read in years * Observer, Books of the Year *The best book I read this year...full of artistic, moral and technical daring * Guardian, Books of the Year *Intense and vital...ceaselessly compelling...superb * New Yorker *This suburban epic, electrifying in candour and eloquence, feels streets ahead of the comparable Jonathan Franzen * Independent, Books of the Year *Incredibly moving * Irish Times, Books of the Year *

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Book SynopsisSince the original, prewar translation there has been no completely new rendering of the French original into English. This translation brings to the fore a more sharply engaged, comic and lucid Proust. IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME is one of the greatest, most entertaining reading experiences in any language. As the great story unfolds from its magical opening scenes to its devastating end, it is the Penguin Proust that makes Proust accessible to a new generation.Each book is translated by a different, superb translator working under the general editorship of Professor Christopher Prendergast, University of Cambridge.

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Book SynopsisA darkly wild novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author of Convenience Store Woman How far would you go just to be yourself? As a child, Natsuki believed she was an alien, a different species to her earthling family and classmates. She hoped a spaceship would come down and take her home. Now, she lives quietly in an asexual marriage, pretending to be normal. But the buried horrors of Natsuki's past are pursuing her. As she flees the suburbs for the Nagano mountains and a reunion with her beloved cousin Yuu, she wonders, what will it take to escape the earthlings? 'Intimate, deadpan, and unflinchingly unhinged' WiredTrade ReviewI loved this book! It easily converted me to being an alien. A radical, hilarious, heartbreaking look at the crap we have all internalized in order to fit in and survive -- Elif BatumanA firecracker of a book...the story skates along the top of all this darkness, and shimmers with a deadpan wit. I loved it * Five Books *

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Book SynopsisJungeun Yun (Author) Jungeun Yun is the author of more than ten books, including Live the Way You Want; Even If I Don't Know How to Be an Adult and To Travel or To Love. Yun believes that writing is self-reflection, a close examination of emotions; to write is to connect. Yun hosts a podcast The Path of Books with Jungeun Yun. Her debut novel Marigold Mind Laundry has been a Top Five bestseller in Korea and an international bestseller. It is translated into ten languages and is due to be published around the world. Jungeun Yun lives in Korea.

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Book SynopsisUkraine''s most famous novelist dramatises the conflict raging in his country through the adventures of a mild-mannered beekeeper. A warm and surprisingly funny book from Ukraine''s greatest living novelist Charlie Connelly, New European Books of the YearLittle Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine''s Grey Zone, the no-man''s-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the war, only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, his frenemy from his schooldays.With little food and no electricity, under ever-present threat of bombardment, Sergeyich''s one remaining pleasure is his bees. As spring approaches, he knows he must take them far from the Grey Zone so they can collect their pollen in peace. This simple mission on their behalf introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines: loyalists, separatists, Russian occupiers and Crimean Tatars. Wherever he goes, Sergeyich''s childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets.But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees and his country?Translated from the Russian by Boris DralyukTrade ReviewA latter-day Bulgakov . . . A Ukrainian Murakami. -- Phoebe Taplin * Guardian. *A post-Soviet Kafka. -- Colin Freeman * Daily Telegraph. *Kurkov draws us with deceptive ease into a dense complex world full of wonderful characters. -- Michael Palin.A kind of Ukrainian Kurt Vonnegut -- Ian Sansom * Spectator. *This time, the Ukrainian author of Death and the Penguin, known for his brilliantly dark humour, has written a modern-day odyssey, with a return that is ambiguously hopeful. -- India Lewis * Arts Desk *Strange and mesmerising . . . In spare prose, Ukraine's most famous novelist unsparingly examines the inhuman confusions of our modern times and the longing of the warm-hearted everyman that is Sergeyich for the rationality of the natural world. -- John Thornhill * Financial Times *A warm and surprisingly funny book from Ukraine's greatest living novelist. -- Charlie Connelly * New European Books of the Year *Carries top notes of Beckett and Pinter, along with a slug of Kafka. * Strong Words. *Sergey is at once a war-weary adventurer and a fairy-tale innocent . . . His naive gaze allows Kurkov to get to the heart of a country bewildered by crisis and war, but where kindness can still be found . . . Translated by Boris Dralyuk with sensitivity and ingenuity. -- Uilleam Blacker * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis new English translation by Michael Hofmann - the first in more than 75 years - expertly captures the fecundity, originality and musicality of Döblin's masterpiece ... A bold and dazzling collage of a novel * The National *Ace translator Michael Hofmann has delivered an exhilarating new version of Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz: that street-smart, slang-filled, richly allusive tale of crime, punishment and social crisis in the capital of Weimar Germany just before Hitler's rise to power. Hofmann's firecracker prose fizzes through this revolutionary trip into the lower depths of big-city life -- Boyd TonkinThe classic Weimar novel ... Long branded untranslatable, a fluent, pacy new translation by Michael Hofmann gainsays that assumption, opening up the book for English-speakers * Economist *Reading it was the most wonderful experience -- Deborah Moggach * Saturday Review *Franz Biberkopf is one of the modern world's richest literary characters, as memorable as Woyzeck, Oblomov or Madame Bovary * New York Review of Books *Berlin Alexanderplatz is Europe's Moby-Dick ... both seriously significant and a great deal of fun -- John SelfA flashing kaleidoscope of a novel ... Michael Hofmann's translation has a vivid immediacy * Country & Town House *Brutal and prophetic ... a turning point in the history of the German novel * The Times *Berlin Alexanderplatz, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, still fascinates as a cautionary tale by shining light on the most obscure parts of the human soul. -- Tobias Grey * Wall Street Journal *

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Book SynopsisConstantly rebuffed from the social circles he aspires to frequent, the timid clerk Golyadkin is confronted by the sudden appearance of his double, a more brazen, confident and socially successful version of himself, who abuses and victimizes the original. As he is increasingly persecuted, Golyadkin finds his social, romantic and professional life unravelling, in a spiral that leads to a catastrophic denouement. The Double, Dostoevsky's second published work of fiction, which foreshadows in its themes many of his mature novels, is the surreal and hallucinatory tale of an unfortunate anti-hero, at once chilling in its depiction of the dark sides of human nature and exuberantly comical.Trade ReviewThe real nineteenth-century prophet was Dostoevsky, not Karl Marx. -- Albert Camus The most impressive thing about The Double is how pertinent it feels today... like all the best fiction, The Double reinvents and rewrites itself for the current age -- Jeremy Dyson

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

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Book SynopsisThe uplifting Japanese bestsellerTHE PERFECT GIFT FOR CAT LOVERS'Compassionate and touching' DAILY MAIL'Totally beguiling' OBSERVERPerfect fans of The Travelling Cat Chronicles and Convenience Store Woman____________On the outskirts of Tokyo, local cats weave their way through the lives and homes of their owners as they navigate difficult times.- A cat named Chobi sends silent messages of courage to a young woman, willing her to end a faltering relationship- A gifted artist fatally misunderstands her boss's enthusiasm for her paintings- A manga fan shuts herself away after the death of her friend, while her cat Cookie hatches a plan to persuade her outside- A woman who has dedicated her life to a distant husband learns a lesson in independence from her catAgainst the urban backdrop of humming trains and private woes, SHE AND HER CAT explores the gentle magic of the everyday.Populated by both the friendly and the feral, it reveals - with heartstopping clarity and warmth - how even in our darkest moments, community and connection may lead us to a happier place.***Includes four fabulous illustrations***____________'A beautiful, uplifting novel. As mesmerizing as it is strange' SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE'Goes to show how cats will save us all' Nick Bradley, author of The Cat and the City'A gem, written with deep insight and finely attuned to the ways of cats and their humans. An absolute delight' HAZEL PRIOR author of Call of the PenguinsTrade ReviewA beautiful, uplifting novel. As mesmerising as it is strange * SAINSBURYS MAGAZINE *

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Book SynopsisJo Nesbo is one of the world's bestselling crime writers, with The Leopard, Phantom, Police, The Son, The Thirst, Macbeth and Knife all topping the Sunday Times bestseller charts. He's an international number one bestseller and his books are published in 50 languages, selling over 50 million copies around the world. Before becoming a crime writer, Nesbo played football for Norway's premier league team Molde, but his dream of playing professionally for Spurs was dashed when he tore ligaments in his knee at the age of eighteen. After three years military service he attended business school and formed the band Di Derre ('Them There'). They topped the charts in Norway, but Nesbo continued working as a financial analyst, crunching numbers during the day and gigging at night. When commissioned by a publisher to write a memoir about life on the road with his band, he instead came up with the plot for his first Harry Hole crime novel,Trade ReviewAs with the Australian setting of The Bat, Hole's first outing, we're again terra incognita (Asia here); Cockroaches, organised with greater concentration than its predecessor, turns out to be one of Nesbo's most accomplished novels * Financial Times *Cockroaches will thrill Harry Hole addicts. It's classic fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat style * UK Press Syndication *It's fun to see Nesbo finding his feet with Hole...and he weaves a large cast and a complex plot into a satisfying plunge into a filthy south-east Asian underbelly, ripe to bursting with corruption, exploitation and cruelty * Metro *If you’ve never read any Jo Nesbo, now is the perfect time to check out his excellent Harry Hole series * Essentials *As with the Australian setting of The Bat, Hole’s first outing, we’re again terra incognita (Asia here); Cockroaches, organised with greater concentration than its predecessor, turns out to be one of Nesbo’s most accomplished novels * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisIn a cave high in the ageless mountains of China's desolate interior, an ancient funeral singer awaits the end. From his deathbed he gives voice to the generations of villagers to whom he devoted his life's work, and four all-too-human souls whose struggles defined an era. A soldier, a peasant, a revolutionary and a politician. When revolt and reform take hold of the wartorn plains, all play their debased roles in the mythic cycle of avarice, vengeance and suffering. As his four tragedies interweave, the cracked lips of the dying sage conjure a stark vision: a retelling of the forging of the People's Republic from turbulent birth to absurd reversal whispered from its uncharted margins.

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Book SynopsisEmpordan Scafarlata is a mirage of memories written with intelligence, irony, courage and tenderness; linking tradition, modernity, resentment and nostalgia for a mythical country and for that part of the river in which: ‘he will never swim again.’ In a mixture of prose and poetry, Adrià Pujol brings us snippets of Empordà, a region of northern Catalonia wedged between the mountains and the sea, and invites us onto its sweaty, well-trodden, exalted paths. All this he does it by avoiding conventions, clichés and with the sincerity of someone who writes about a world he loves and which for that very reason he does not simplify, rather elaborating it with powerful, eclectic prose, showcasing the writing that has pushed Adrià Pujol to the very forefront of great Catalan writing.Trade Review‘Every page is a festival of words, images and sounds; a machine-gun burst of prose and rhyme, through which he immortalises moments, spaces and characters.’ —SEBASTIÀ ROIG, EL DIARI DE GIRONA. ‘The book is a cunning diary, a game by the author with himself, a blending of the journal of a curious anthropologist with the notebook of a perplexed poet. It is the creative exercise of someone who wants to be chronicler of a specific time and ecosystem, and who also has the will to restore a certain cordial relationship with himself.’ —ISIDRE FERRÉ, NÚVOL.

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Book SynopsisThe Japanese cult classic mystery 'Ayatsuji's brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits... Every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal' Publishers Weekly The lonely, rockbound island of Tsunojima is notorious as the site of a series of bloody unsolved murders. Some even say it's haunted. One thing's for sure: it's the perfect destination for the K-University Mystery Club's annual trip. But when the first club member turns up dead, the remaining amateur sleuths realise they will need all of their murder-mystery expertise to get off the island alive. As the party are picked off one by one, the survivors grow desperate and paranoid, turning on each other. Will anyone be able to untangle the murderer's fiendish plan before it's too late?Trade Review**One of the 20 of the Best Classic Murder Mystery Books of All Time from Town & Country Magazine**"His celebration of traditional whodunits plays with the mystery genre in a wonderfully self-referential way... With each new murder, the remaining members of the group must use their knowledge of the genre to find the killer and try to stay alive." — Esquire, The 50 Best Mysteries of All Time "A terrific mystery, a classic of misdirection very much in the manner of Agatha Christie or John Dickson Carr'" — Washington Post "Behold, the perfect escapist drug! If I could crush this book into a powder and snort it, I would." — Vulture "A real page-turner... Highly recommended" — Classic Mystery "Ayatsuji's brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits... Every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal" — Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A stunner of a plot, with an ending which I simply could not believe when it was first revealed... Rivals Soji Shimada's The Tokyo Zodiac Murders for sheer audacity and ingenuity" — At the Scene of the Crime "A knowing tribute to classic crime, it features all manner of puzzles, including locked rooms, jigsaws and magic tricks." — Mark Sanderson, The Times "highly ingenious" — Laura Wilson, Guardian "The Decagon House Murders, is a thrilling homage to Christie’s And Then There Were None, following a group of amateur sleuths on a trip to a lonely island, the site of several unsolved murders. In the opening chapter, one character remarks: “Enough gritty realism please! What mystery novels need are a great detective, a mansion, a shady cast of residents, bloody murders, impossible crimes and never-before-seen-tricks played by the murder.” It’s impossible not to agree." — The Guardian “Aimed to be a murder mystery that readers can solve as they read, this book is gripping and has fun bits such as characters having nicknames based on American and European mystery writers, and of course, maps!” — United by Pop

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Book SynopsisA philosophical novel described by fellow existentialist Sartre as ''perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood'' of his novels, Albert Camus'' The Fall is translated by Robin Buss in Penguin Modern Classics.Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights in an Amsterdam bar, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model citizen a compelling, self-loathing catalogue of guilt, hypocrisy and alienation pours forth. The Fall (1956) is a brilliant portrayal of a man who has glimpsed the hollowness of his existence. But beyond depicting one man''s disillusionment, Camus''s novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - for our innocence that, once lost, can never be recaptured ...Albert Camus (1913-60) is the author of a number of best-selling and highly influential works, all of which are published by Penguin. They include The Fall, The Outsider and The First Man. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus is remembered as one of the few writers to have shaped the intellectual climate of post-war France, but beyond that, his fame has been international.If you enjoyed The Fall, you might like Jean-Paul Sartre''s Nausea, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.''An irresistibly brilliant examination of modern conscience''The New York Times''Camus is the accused, his own prosecutor and advocate. The Fall might have been called The Last Judgement ''Olivier Todd

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Book SynopsisFeatures stories ranging from teenagers coming into awareness of their sexual and artistic powers to humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies to old people who don't know what to do with themselves.Trade ReviewOne of the hidden geniuses of the twentieth century -- Colm TóibínLispector reads with lively intelligence and is terrifically funny. Language, for her, was the self's light -- Lorrie MooreAn emblematic twentieth-century artist who belongs in the same pantheon as Kafka and Joyce -- Edmund WhiteLispector's Complete Stories is a remarkable book, proof that she was - in the company of Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo and her 19th-century countryman Machado de Assis - one of the true originals of Latin American literature * New York Times *Plenty of writers inspire fierce devotion in their readers... but no one converts the uninitiated into devout believers as suddenly and as vertiginously as Clarice Lispector, the Latin American visionary, Ukrainian-Jewish mystic, and middle-class housewife and mother so revered by her Brazilian fans that she's known by a single name: "Clarice"... You will not be disappointed if you read The Complete Stories. It might even become your bible * New Republic *Translated beautifully and with a vigorous pulse by Katrina Dodson, The Complete Stories is bound to become a kind of bedside Bible or I Ching for readers of Lispector, both old and new. Wherever one opens the book, there is a slice of life to confront. In one of her later stories Lispector recalls the writer Sergio Porto, her friend, who was once asked by a stewardess on a plane if he wanted coffee. To which he replied: "I'll take everything I have a right to." We can approach this volume in a similar spirit: take everything * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisTolstoy''s epic novel of love, destiny and self-destruction, in a gorgeous new clothbound edition from Penguin Classics. Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life - and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself. This acclaimed modern translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky won the PEN/ Book of the Month Club Translation Prize in 2001. Their translation is accompanied in this edition by an introduction by Richard Pevear and a preface by John Bayley ''The new and brilliantly witty translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is a must'' - Lisa Appignanesi, Independent, Books of the Year ''Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy''s characters, acts, situations'' - James Wood, New YorkerTrade ReviewThe new and brilliantly witty translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is a must -- Lisa Appignanesi * Independent, Books of the Year *Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English, and their superb rendering allows us, as perhaps never before, to grasp the palpability of Tolstoy's "characters, acts, situations" -- James Wood * New Yorker *

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Book Synopsis''When the snow water had broken crevices open in the mountain a shot or even just a sharp cry was enough to tear loose a huge slab and send it toppling.'' Lieutenant Thomas Glahn spends a summer in northern Norway, where the midnight sun triggers a short but intense release of energies. Living out of a rudimentary hut on the edge of the forest, he pursues a solitary existence, hunting, fishing, and engaging intermittently with the inhabitants of the nearby coastal village. Among these is Edvarda, daughter of the wealthy local trader Herr Mack. Their mutual attraction rapidly develops into an erotic fascination shot through with suspicions and jealousies; a series of fraught encounters culminates in violent actions with unforeseen consequences. First published in 1894, Pan was an immediate success and remains a classic of Norwegian literature. It embodies many of the distinctive features of Hamsun''s early works, in particular a rejection of psychological stereotypes and a style infuseTrade ReviewGiven the rarity of non-British/American novels in the main canon, it is a good idea for this work to be assigned in a world literature class. And a copy of it should also be available in all types of libraries to make it accessible to the different types of readers and scholars who might be interested in accessing it. * Pennsylvania Literary Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Translation Select Bibliography A Chronology of Knut Hamsun PAN Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisHaruki Murakami's third novel, A Wild Sheep Chase is the mystery hybrid which completes the odyssey begun in Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973. 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. A science fiction fantasy, a romance, a metaphysical tease, or a dramatisation of philosophical ideas' IndependentA highly accomplished piece of craftsmanship' New YorkerWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

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Book SynopsisA man starts driving without knowing where he is going. He alternates between turning right and left, and finally he gets stuck at the end of a forest road. Soon it gets dark and starts to snow, but instead of going back to find help, he ventures, foolishly, into the dark forest. Inevitably, the man gets lost, and as he grows cold and tired, he encounters a glowing being amid the obscurity. Strange, haunting and dreamlike, A Shining is the latest work of fiction by Jon Fosse, ‘the Beckett of the twenty-first century’ (Le Monde).Trade Review‘A Shining can be read in many ways: as a realistic monologue; as a fable; as a Christian-inflected allegory; as a nightmare painstakingly recounted the next morning, the horror of the experience still pulsing under the words, though somewhat mitigated by the small daily miracle of daylight. I think the great splendour of Fosse’s fiction is that it so deeply rejects any singular interpretation; as one reads, the story does not sound a clear singular note, but rather becomes a chord with all the many possible interpretations ringing out at once. This refusal to succumb to the solitary, the stark, the simple, the binary – to insist that complicated things like death and God retain their immense mysteries and contradictions – seems, in this increasingly partisan world of ours, a quietly powerful moral stance.’ — Lauren Groff, Guardian‘Fosse’s prose doesn’t speak so much as witnesses, unfolds, accumulates. It flows like consciousness itself…. This is perhaps why A Shining feels so momentous, even at fewer than 50 pages. You never quite know where you’re going. But it doesn’t matter: you want to follow, to move in step ith the rhythm of these words.’ — Matthew Janney, Financial Times‘We are in the presence of rare literary greatness. It is for this greatness that the Swedish Academy has justly awarded Jon Fosse the Nobel prize.’ — Paul Binding, Times Literary Supplement‘The translation by Damion Searls perfectly judges the pitch and rhythm …producing a natural reading beat. [...] A Shining is a neat example of Fosse’s gift for portraying porous psychological states, and its publication is perfectly timed for a satisfying Samhain evening read.’ — Rónán Hession, Irish Times‘A Shining s marked by what is perhaps Fosse’s defining skill: his ability to effortlessly marry the mundane and the sublime. The author is himself a practicing Catholic; he was received into the Church in 2012, and a certain spiritual seriousness is at the heart of his works’ power, even while their spirit everywhere shuns the dogmatic. Expect from Fosse neither the supposedly infallible truths of the pulpit nor Scripture’s resonant cadence. The experience of reading him is of a different order entirely, one more humble, and perhaps as illuminating.’ — Luke Warde, Sunday Independent‘In this spare tale of disorientation and longing, by the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, a man gets stranded on a back road in a forest and wanders deep into the trees…. Fosse uses fleeting allusions to a world beyond the reach of the narrator to explore some of humanity’s most elusive pursuits, certainty and inviolability among them. His bracingly clear prose imbues the story’s ambiguities with a profundity both revelatory and familiar.’ — New Yorker‘The physical and otherworldly hinterland of A Shining through which Jon Fosse is the guide is at once terrifying and deeply reassuring.’ — Catherine Taylor, Times Literary Supplement‘Jon Fosse is a major European writer.’ — Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of The Wolves of Eternity‘The Beckett of the twenty-first century.’ — Le Monde‘Fosse has been compared to Ibsen and to Beckett, and it is easy to see his work as Ibsen stripped down to its emotional essentials. But it is much more. For one thing, it has a fierce poetic simplicity.’ — New York Times‘Jon Fosse has managed, like few others, to carve out a literary form of his own.’ — Nordic Council Literary Prize‘A deeply moving experience. At times while reading the first two books of Septology, I walked around in a fugue-like state, wondering what it was that I was reading, exactly. A parable? A gospel? A novel bereft of the usual markings of plot, time, and character? The answer appeared to be all of the above, but although I usually balk at anything mystical, the effect was haunting and cumulative ... I hesitate to compare the experience of reading these works to the act of meditation. But that is the closest I can come to describing how something in the critical self is shed in the process of reading Fosse, only to be replaced by something more primal. A mood. An atmosphere. The sound of words moving on a page.’ — Ruth Margalit, New York Review of Books‘Fosse’s fusing of the commonplace and the existential, together with his dramatic forays into the past, make for a relentlessly consuming work: Septology feels momentous.’ — Catherine Taylor, Guardian‘With Septology, Fosse has found a new approach to writing fiction, different from what he has written before and – it is strange to say, as the novel enters its fifth century – different from what has been written before. Septology feels new.’ — Wyatt Mason, Harper’s‘Having read the Norwegian writer Jon Fosse’s “Septology”, an extraordinary seven-novel sequence about an old man’s recursive reckoning with the braided realities of God, art, identity, family life and human life itself, I’ve come into awe and reverence myself for idiosyncratic forms of immense metaphysical fortitude.’ — Randy Boyagoda, New York Times‘[P]alpable in this book is the way that the writing is meant to replicate the pulse and repetitive phrasing of liturgical prayer. Asle is a Catholic convert and, in Damion Searls’s liquid translation, his thoughts are rendered in long run-on sentences whose metronomic cadences conjure the intake and outtake of breath, or the reflexive motions of fingers telling a rosary. These unique books ask you to engage with the senses rather than the mind, and their aim is to bring about the momentary dissolution of the self.’ — Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal‘The translation by Damion Searls is deserving of special recognition. His rendering of this remarkable single run-on sentence over three volumes is flawless. The rhythms, the shifts in pace, the nuances in tone are all conveyed with masterful understatement. The Septology series is among the highlights of my reading life.’ — Rónán Hession, Irish Times‘Fosse intuitively — and with great artistry — conveys ... a sense of wonder at the unfathomable miracle of life, even in its bleakest and loneliest moments.’ — Bryan Karetnyk, Financial Times

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Book SynopsisThe future is no more, and eternity has begun. It's 1986 and a nuclear reactor has exploded in Chernobyl. Syvert Løyning returns home from military service to live with his mother and brother on the outskirts of a town in Southern Norway. One night, he dreams of his late father, and can't shake him from his mind. Searching through his father's belongings for clues and connections, he finds a cache of letters that lead to the Soviet Union. In present-day Russia, Alevtina is trying to balance work and family. She has always sought the answers to life's big questions, but is preoccupied with care of her young son. Her friend Vasilisa offers some nourishment: she is writing a book about an ancient feature of Russian culture, the belief in eternal life. Meantime, Alevtina is heading towards a meeting that will redraw the contours of her world. A searching and humane novel, The Wolves of Eternity is an intimate journey into the experiences of a half-brother and half-sister in their two

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Book SynopsisMari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari's help. Meanwhile Mari's beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal;Trade ReviewStylish and enigmatic * Economist *The novel could be an allegory of sleep, a phenomenology of time, or a cinematic metafiction. Whatever it is, its memory lingers * Guardian *The narrative carries considerable literary weight with a rare grace * Spectator *A captivating mood piece, delicate and wistful * Evening Standard *

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