Fiction in translation
Paths International Ltd Fish by Candlelight
Book SynopsisThis set of poems is a well-crafted display of current children's poetry combining beautiful words, fantastic pictures and lovely sounds. It emphasises the world's beauty and opens the imagination of children appreciating the world and the stars beyond.This book provides a wonderful insight into poems for children that will appeal to parents, teachers and children from around the world.
£17.05
Paths International Ltd Children Counting Stars
Book SynopsisThe poems selected for this collection are dreams of childhood, stories of childhood, and fantasies of childhood. The scenes in the poems are memories of childhood. It emphasises the world's beauty and opens the imagination of children appreciating the world and the stars beyond.This book provides a wonderful insight into poems for children that will appeal to parents, teachers and children from around the world.
£20.93
Paths International Ltd Children Counting Stars
Book SynopsisThe poems selected for this collection are dreams of childhood, stories of childhood, and fantasies of childhood. The scenes in the poems are memories of childhood. It emphasises the world's beauty and opens the imagination of children appreciating the world and the stars beyond.This book provides a wonderful insight into poems for children that will appeal to parents, teachers and children from around the world.
£14.95
Bonnier Books Ltd What Lot's Wife Saw
Book SynopsisIt's been twenty-five years since the Overflow flooded Southern Europe, drowning Rome, Vienna and Istanbul, and turning Paris into a major port. At the Dead Sea, the earth has opened up to reveal a strange violet salt to which the world has become addicted, and a colony has been established by the mysterious Consortium of Seventy-Five to control the supply. Run by murderers, fugitives and liars, the Colony is a haven to those fleeing Europe - especially the privileged "Purple Stars". But when the governor of the Colony dies suddenly and mysteriously, the six officials turn on each other, sparking a terrifying chain of events which threatens the very existence of the Colony. In Paris, Phileas Book, the greatest crossword compiler of his age and creator of the Epistleword, is recruited by the sinister Consortium. Presented with the epistolary confessions of the six, he is ordered to sift truth from lies to find out who killed the unpopular Governor Bera. But as Phileas starts to unravel the mystery, he begins to realise that these are no ordinary letters and that nothing less than the course of human history is at stake.What Lot's Wife Saw is an astonishing and beautifully written novel about the fear, sin and guilt that lurks in the dark corridors of the human conscience. It is a story on an epic scale about betrayal, sacrifice and unconditional love, and a darkly humorous parable recalling the Biblical tales of God's terrible rage and the fate that befell those who suffered it. But, above all, it is an enthralling vision of a nightmarish world which only the power of humanity can change.
£10.79
Octopus Publishing Group Hunger
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Penguin Books Ltd If You Tell Me to Come, I'll Drop Everything,
Book SynopsisA funny and uplifting fable about the journey to learn who we are, from the bestselling author of The Yellow WorldDani has devoted his life to finding missing children. One day, as his girlfriend starts packing her bags to leave him, he gets a phone call from a distraught father asking for help. It's a strange case, one that Dani wouldn't usually take on. But, when he hears his girlfriend slam the front door, and his apartment falls into silence, he realizes it's one he can't turn down.His journey to find the lost boy takes Dani over the seas to the sleepy Italian island of Capri - a place infused with a kind of hazy magic, which begins to conjure up in Dani's mind long-forgotten memories of his own childhood. And, as he starts to unravel the story of his own life, he realises that he is not just on a quest to save the missing child - he is also on a quest to save himself. Quirky, warm-hearted, and honest, this is an uplifting parable of memory and forgiveness, as a man makes a life-changing journey across an island and into his own heart. Told in simple, emotionally-honest prose, it reveals how, by revisiting the past , we can change the shape of the future.
£12.59
Granta Books My Friend Jesus Christ
Book SynopsisHaving lost his parents at an early age, Niko has always looked to his older sister for protection. So when she starts wanting a life of her own, Niko tries everything he can think of to keep her attention, taking ever greater risks with his life and the lives of others until the day it ends in a tragedy. On returning to his flat after the grim event, Niko finds an uninvited biker sitting on his sofa. Big, bearded, and boldy asserting that he is Jesus, the biker gently but firmly advises Niko to clean up his act.And Niko does what he's told, with surprising consequences...
£7.59
Granta Books The Creator
Book SynopsisWhen Lóa's car gets a puncture out in the countryside, the man who lives nearest proves recalcitrantly helpful. She ends up falling asleep in his armchair and wakes to intense guilt at neglecting her daughter back in Reykjavik, followed by shock at what she finds in her helper's back room - half-finished, life-size silicone women hanging from hooks. Sveinn, her host, is a craftsman; he makes sex dolls. In his workshop Lóa is overcome with a surprising reverence, and acting on a mad notion of salvation, she steals one of the dolls for her troubled daughter Margret. For the first time ever, Lóa finds she is a thief. And worse, when her friends and family greet her plans with incredulity, she finds that there is another more awful theft, beyond her expectations and her understanding. Bereft and adrift, how can Lóa save her daughter from herself and what can she learn from Sveinn's loneliness? Two people who fear responsibility putting themselves in harm's way, Sveinn and Lóa dance a fascinating dance in this striking novel from Iceland's most celebrated young novelist.Trade ReviewA strange compelling experiment... a clever, amusing novel that plays with ideas about the boundary between the real and the artificial and the begs profound questions about loneliness and the human condition -- Tina Jackson * Metro *Intriguing... A gripping, enjoyably offbeat drama -- James Smart * Guardian *An affecting exploration of loneliness and detachment -- David Evans * Financial Times *Melancholic but ultimately optimistic * Herald *A blackly comic story -- four star review * Independent on Sunday *Unforgettable -- four star review * Typographical Era *Intelligent and intriguing ... A unique story with traces of dark humor * Iceland, Defrosted *
£11.42
Granta Books The Appointment
Book Synopsis'I've been summoned, Thursday, ten sharp.' So begins one day in the life of a young clothing-factory worker during Ceausescu's totalitarian regime. She has been questioned before, but this time she knows it will be worse. Her crime? Sewing notes into the linings of men's suits bound for Italy. 'Marry me', the notes say, with her name and address. Anything to get out of the country.As she rides the tram to her interrogation, her thoughts stray to her friend Lilli, shot while trying to flee to Hungary; to her grandparents, deported after her first husband informed on them; to Major Albu, her interrogator, who begins each session with a wet kiss on her fingers; and to Paul, her lover and the one person she can trust. In her distraction, she misses her stop and finds herself on an unfamiliar street.And what she discovers there suddenly puts her fear of the appointment into chilling perspective. Bone-spare and intense, The Appointment is a pitiless rendering of the terrors of a crushing regime.Trade ReviewA brooding, fog-shrouded allegory of life under the long oppression of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. * New York Times *Nobody since Arthur Koestler in the 1940s has written more intelligently or with such subtle precision about life under totalitarianism ... Müller has an exceptionally rare talent - to turn the terrifying, the distorted and the hideously ugly into something uplifting and beautiful * Prospect *Herta Muller is a passionate artist of protest. -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *A strange, lyrical and disturbing allegory of life in Ceausescu's Romania. -- Hari Kunzru * Observer Books of the Year *A tour de force in storytelling, which manages to turn the barest of prose into poetry ... Expertly translated by Michael Hulse and Philip Boehm, it is a chilling story, exquisitely told * Independent *The Appointment is both a pleasure to read and horrifying. Written with painful clarity, it is seductively conversational, yet every sentence demands attention ... The control of ideas and pace in a novel that still allows rolling emotion behind every line is remarkable. * Herald *A slim, masterfully written tale. * Newsweek *Müller achieves something beautiful. She has wrested poetry from one woman's desire to remain human in an inhuman system. * Newsday *A taut and brilliant book. * Chicago Tribune *Müller scatters narrative bombshells across a field of dreams. * San Francisco Chronicle *
£9.49
Granta Books The Fox Was Ever the Hunter
Book SynopsisRomania, the last months of the dictator's regime. Adina is a young schoolteacher. Paul is a musician. Clara, Adina's friend, works in a wire factory. Pavel is Clara's lover. But one of them works for the secret police and is reporting on the group. One day Adina returns home to discover that her fox fur rug has had its tail cut off. On another day, a hindleg. Then a foreleg. The mutilation is a sign that she is being tracked - the fox was ever the hunter. Images of photographic precision combine to form a kaleidoscope of reflections, deflections and deceit. Adina and her friends struggle to keep living in a world permeated with fear, where even the eyes of a cat seem complicit with the watchful eye of the state, and where it's hard to tell the victim apart from the perpetrator.Trade ReviewExtraordinary... Muller lays bare the totalitarian attack on the individual and the everyday horror of life under a repressive regime. There is a cinematic intensity to the narrative... This ethereal, other-worldly atmosphere gradually gives way to the horrors of a more defined reality... The mounting tension made tangible by such scenes is felt most intensely in Muller's language. Short, clipped sentences accumulate, overlapping and building into a noisy, symphonic whole... A profoundly unsettling novel, which renders palpable the cruelty of life under the regime, as well as the brittle exhilarations of its overthrow -- Charlotte Ryland * TLS *Her prose - as poetic as it is blunt -works like a prism, shattering and illuminating a world that is always watching, waiting. [A] dark collage, which glints with fear - and with beauty * The Atlantic *Poetic [and] haunting... deftly rendered by Philip Boehm... In her writing, Müller inches closer to narrowing the gap between people and things, between life and language * Washington Post *When the collage is completed, the reader understands that each and every one of Müller's stories, every flight of luscious language and every brutal fact, has been necessary in depicting a society torn to pieces and tasked, with the curtains finally open and the light streaming in, with putting those pieces back together to make sense of it all * New York Times *Herta Muller fled Romania for Germany, and the lingering memories of her ex-state's oppressiveness saturate this novel. Set in the final months of Ceausescu's rule... [It's] effective at evoking a monotonous, joyless existence defined by hunters preying on hunted -- Lesley McDonald * Sunday Herald *
£9.49
Granta Books A Meal in Winter
Book SynopsisOne morning, in the dead of winter, three German soldiers head out into the frozen Polish countryside. They have been charged by their commanders to track down and bring back for execution 'one of them' - a Jew. Having flushed out a young man hiding in the woods, they decide to rest in an abandoned house before continuing their journey back to the camp. As they prepare food, they are joined by a passing Pole whose virulent anti-Semitism adds tension to an already charged atmosphere. Before long, the group's sympathies begin to splinter as each man is forced to confront his own conscience as the moral implications of their murderous mission become clear.Trade ReviewThe most moving book I have read for a long time... Mingarelli's spare language is well suited to this luminous tale... he accomplishes a great deal -- Peter Carty * Independent on Sunday *The "banality of evil" finds beautiful, spare expression in this remarkable novella -- Ian McEwanA masterpiece * Independent *In its modest duration and economical prose, [this book] communicates more than most novels twice or three times its length... Praise is due to the translator, Sam Taylor, who appears to have weighed every word with supreme care, capturing the rhythm of a measured tread through the icy landscape... Brave and original... a masterpiece -- Alastair Mabbott * Herald *A sparse, beautiful and shocking novel that finds a more intimate route into the Holocaust -- Ian McEwan * the Sunday Times *Mingarelli's lapidary tale of awakened conscience unites historical events with the mood of a forest fairy-tale.... Brief, elegant, quietly lyrical yet driven by an inward fire -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Superb... The prose, elegantly translated by Sam Taylor, is full of rich visual descriptions... Enormously powerful and moving -- David Evans * Independent on Sunday ***** *So memorable, so dark, so humane, it deserves to be read all over Europe. A masterpiece of empathy and horror -- Jane Housham * Guardian *One of the most quietly shattering novels I've read -- Cynan Jones, author * The Dig *Deliver[s] a powerful punch -- Lucy Popescu, Books of the Year * Tablet *Beautiful and disturbing... complex and surprising -- Mark Smith * Herald *This strong and simple story packs a mighty punch -- Kate Saunders * The Times *Superb and devastating -- Luke Brown, author * My Biggest Lie *Chilling... From the first lines one is taken somewhere one would never wish to go, thanks to the clear, direct style, and the brilliant dialogue... impossible to put down * Libération *The tragedy of the holocaust has rarely been better told than in this short tale, resonant with sadness and poetry * La Vie *This new novel by Mingarelli doesn't offer any miracles, but his story of wretched humanity revived around a piping hot dish shows once more the greatness of an incredibly unassuming author. Breathtaking * Pelerin *The prose draws you in... Starkly realistic -- Rachel Dunn * Cambridge News *This is Mingarelli at his best. A story delivered with restraint, in hushed, sensitive prose. Perfect * La Montagne *A gem of a novel, slight but so powerful * Bookseller *Mingarelli find[s] new ways - oblique, lyrical, humane - to address the Nazi past -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Masterly and necessary... no intervening hand is noticeable in Sam Taylor's rendering of Mingarelli -- Lesley Chamberlain * TLS *Devastating... Crisply translated by Sam Taylor -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *It's a brave novelist who sets out to tell a Holocaust tale from the point of view of the would-be executioner but this is what Mingarelli does with great skill and admirable subtlety. A breathtaking lesson in brevity * Monocle *A fascinating, compelling vignette from Nazi-occupied Poland explored by a masterful storyteller -- Paddy Kehoe * RTE *A narrative of bleak genius -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *138 profound pages of horror and humanity -- John Kelly ‘Book of the year’ * Irish Times *I so recommend this brilliant, devastating, compelling WW2 novel -- Simon Sebag MontefioreMingarelli's writing possesses a deceptive simplicity, and the novella proceeds so quietly that one is almost unprepared when the spectre of genocide intrudes upon it * Wall Street Journal *
£7.59
Granta Books Swallowing Mercury
Book SynopsisWiola lives in a close-knit agricultural community. Wiola has a black cat called Blackie. Wiola's father was a deserter but now he is a taxidermist. Wiola's mother tells her that killing spiders brings on storms. Wiola must never enter the seamstress's 'secret' room. Wiola collects matchbox labels. Wiola is a good Catholic girl brought up with fables and nurtured on superstition. Wiola lives in a Poland that is both very recent and lost in time. Swallowing Mercury is about the ordinary passing of years filled with extraordinary days. In vivid prose filled with texture, colour and sound, it describes the adult world encroaching on the child's. From childhood to adolescence, Wiola dances to the strange music of her own imagination.
£8.54
Granta Books Four Soldiers
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2019 'I am astonished by Four Soldiers. I have never read anything like it, yet it is one of those books you feel must always have existed, a classic of writing about the human condition... A small miracle' Hilary Mantel 1919. The Russian Civil War. It is the harsh dead of winter, as four soldiers set up camp in a forest somewhere near the Romanian front line. There is a lull in the fighting, so their days are filled with precious hours of freedom, enjoying the tranquillity of a nearby pond and trying to forget their terrifying nightmares, all the while talking, smoking and waiting. Waiting for spring to come, waiting for their battalion to move on, waiting for the inevitable resumption of violence. Tightly focused and simply told, this is a story of friendship and the fragments of happiness that can illuminate the darkness of war.
£8.54
Granta Books The Great Homecoming
Book Synopsis1959, Seoul. Divided from his family by the violent tumult of the Korean civil war, Yunho arrives in South Korea's capital searching for his oldest friend. He finds him in the arms of Eve Moon, a dancer with many names who may be a refugee fleeing the communist North, or an American spy. Beguiled, Yunho falls desperately in love. But nothing in Seoul is what it seems. The city is crowded with double agents and soldiers, and wracked by protests and poverty, while across the border, Pyongyang grows more prosperous by the day. When a series of betrayals and a brutal crime drive the three friends into exile, Yunho finds himself caught in the riptide of history. Might a homecoming to North Korea be his only hope for salvation?
£13.49
Granta Books My Enemy's Cherry Tree
Book SynopsisA man who has come from nothing, from poverty and loss, finds himself a beautiful wife, his dream love. When she vanishes without a trace, he sets up a small café in her favourite spot on the edge of the South China Sea, hoping she'll return. Instead, he is confronted by the man he suspects may be responsible for everything he has suffered: Luo Yiming, a prominent businessman and philanthropist who holds the small town in his sway. In the few moments the two men spend together, Luo is driven mad. So begins a story of desire and betrayal set against the tumultuous first decade of Taiwan's 21st Century. The recipient of all three of Taiwan's major literary prizes, My Enemy's Cherry Tree is a story of love, money and coercion, in which two men who have sought to acquire something unattainable, instead lose something irreplaceable.
£11.69
Granta Books Jokes for the Gunmen
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2019 A brilliant collection of fictions in the vein of Roald Dahl, Etgar Keret and Amy Hempel. These are stories of what the world looks like from a child's pure but sometimes vengeful or muddled perspective. These are stories of life in a war zone, life peppered by surreal mistakes, tragic accidents and painful encounters. These are stories of fantasist matadors, lost limbs and perplexed voyeurs. This is a collection about sex, death and the all-important skill of making life into a joke. These are unexpected stories by a very fresh voice. These stories are unforgettable.
£10.44
Granta Books Lake Like a Mirror
Book SynopsisBy an author described by critics as 'the most accomplished Malaysian writer, full stop'. Lake Like a Mirror is a scintillating exploration of the lives of women buffeted by powers beyond their control. Squeezing themselves between the gaps of rabid urbanisation, patriarchal structures and a theocratic government, these women find their lives twisted in disturbing ways. In precise and disquieting prose, Ho Sok Fong draws her readers into a richly atmospheric world of naked sleepwalkers in a rehabilitation centre for wayward Muslims, mysterious wooden boxes, gossip in unlicensed hairdressers, hotels with amnesiac guests, and poetry classes with accidentally charged politics - a world that is peopled with the ghosts of unsaid words, unmanaged desires and uncertain statuses, surreal and utterly true.
£10.44
Granta Books The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino
Book SynopsisFrom the best-selling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo and The Nakano Thrift Shop 'Charming... Beguiling and beautiful' The Times Over the course of his life, Mr Nishino falls hopelessly in love again and again. One woman is a colleague, another a chance encounter; one is the girlfriend of a classmate, another the best friend of Nishino's latest conquest. Some are entranced by Nishino, others care more for their freedom, their children (or their cats). As we come to learn of the torments, desires and delights of each woman, a portrait emerges of a complicated man whose great capacity for love may well be the cause of his downfall. 'Quirky and delicate... Timeless... I fell totally under the spell of this beautiful book' Daily MailTrade ReviewCharming... beguiling and beautiful * Times *Quirky and delicate...timeless...I fell totally under the spell of this beautiful book * Daily Mail *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Faculty Of Useless Knowledge
Book SynopsisThe Year of Terror, 1937. Zybin, an exiled intellectual and archaeologist in the far province of Alma-Ata, finds himself wrongly accused of a crime during the darkest days of Stalin's reign. Soon, he and his colleagues are caught up in an ambitious Cheka investigator's attempts to set up a show trial to rival those taking place in Moscow. Vivid, courageous and defiant, The Faculty of Useless Knowledge is the crowning achievement by the author of The Keeper of Antiquities and The Dark Lady and draws heavily on autobiographical experience. First published in Russian in 1978, it is a masterpiece of anti-totalitarian literature, and stands alongside the works of Solzhenitsyn and Bulgakov in illuminating the chaos, absurdity and bureaucratic labyrinths of Soviet Russia.Trade ReviewThere are moments in The Faculty of Useless Knowledge, amid the flashbacks and shifting points of view, when a kind of magic begins to tug at the surface * The New York Times Book Review *Drawing from personal experiences during his own sentencing and exile, Dombrovsky writes passionately and often humorously about the terrifying Soviet judicial system. Fear and chaos pervaded the lives of Russians in 1937, the height of Stalin's purges. During this time, Zybin, an archeologist in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, is wrongly accused of a crime and then forced through the labyrinthine prison system, in which the bureaucratic investigations are even more grueling than the physical punishment he endures. Meanwhile, all those who know him, including his young assistant, Kornilov (many of these characters were introduced in Dombrovsky's The Keeper of Antiquities, his only other novel translated into English), are subjected to long interrogations in which every word can be twisted to incriminate Zybin or even themselves. Theological arguments about justice weave their way throughout the novel, and, as in Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita, these discussions focus primarily on the person most active during Christ's trial?Pontius Pilate. Dombrovsky argues that Pilate was a weak governor, a mere bureaucrat who constantly feared for his position. The interrogators and prosecutors of the novel are allegorical Pilates. The young and frightened Kornilov breaks down and betrays Zybin, who, unlike Christ, is not willing to acquiesce to the system as it stands. Wonderfully written and darkly witty, Dombrovsky's novel, first published in Russia in 1978, draws us into the surreal world of Stalin's Soviet Union. * Publishers Weekly *An imposing fictional portrayal of the Stalinist terror, set in 1937 in the eastern Russian republic of Kazakhstan (on the Chinese border) and featuring themes and characters from Dombrovsky's earlier novel, The Keeper of Antiquities (1969)... Thickly textured, eloquently argued, as informative as it is dramatic: a superb novel that brings to our attention an important near-contemporary (Dombrovsky died in 1978) whose books belong on the same shelf with those of Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn * Kirkus Reviews *
£15.29
Saqi Books The Lady from Tel Aviv
Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE ENGLISH PEN AWARD Walid Dahman is going home. Returning to Gaza after nearly four decades in exile, he looks forward to embracing his mother and reconnecting with the people and place he once left behind. Boarding the flight from London, Walid's life intersects with that of Dana, an Israeli actress, on her way back to Tel Aviv. As the night sky hurtles past, what each confides and conceals will expose the chasm between them in the land they both call home. The Lady from Tel Aviv a powerful and poetic story of love, loss and belonging.Trade Review'Takes you to the height of reading pleasure' Elias Khoury 'Al-Madhoun brings Gaza vividly to life.' Selma Dabbagh 'Madhoun's depiction of the loving, claustrophobic, violent, beautiful, steadfast, endangered place that is Gaza is enthralling. - The Lady from Tel Aviv is an elegantly-written, intriguing, moving book. It is a surprisingly easy and enjoyable read, given the subject matter, but is also a valuable addition to the literature tackling themes such as Palestinian exile, occupation and homecoming. Whether one is looking for a striking piece of summer reading or a thought-provoking exploration of the Palestinian situation, this novel is a good place to start.' Electronic Intifada The Lady from Tel Aviv lays bare the harsh realities of dispossession, exile and occupation ... What is on offer is a serious but quirky slice-of-life conveyed by Madhoun's inventive imagery, wry humour and prose that lurches from the poetic to parody - Poignant - The Lady from Tel Aviv is a mature, honest appraisal of the meaning of estrangement and belonging - and all the nuances in between.' Jordan Times 'It would be a mistake to approach The Lady from Tel Aviv as either an exemplar of contemporary Arabic literature or as a literary discussion of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is both, but to start reading with that in mind risks constraining one's appreciation of the book as a novel. - The Lady from Tel Aviv has almost as many layers as baklava, albeit not all of them sweet - Clever and lyrical - The Lady from Tel Aviv provides insights that newscasts, documentaries and articles can't. And al-Madhoun has a message that is worth learning: no matter how intractable a conflict may seem, there is always a lady from Tel Aviv.' Asian Review of Books 'The Lady from Tel Aviv is a story full of non-fulfilling meetings and memories - on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian spectrum.' Chronicle
£7.49
Saqi Books Souffle
Book SynopsisIn New York, Lilia wakes up one morning to discover her loveless marriage is founded on nothing but deep mistrust and contempt. Marc, in Paris, is mourning the death of his beloved wife and can't bear to face the empty kitchen. And in Istanbul, Ferda waits hand and foot on her demanding mother while trying to make time for her true passion: cooking for her loved ones. In this heartwarming and tender tale, Lilia, Marc and Ferda will find healing and joy in the simple art of cooking.Trade Review"A modern Turkish writer with the subtle, steady gaze of Balzac. With quiet brilliance, Asli Perker shows how couples and families from Paris to the Philippines cope with sudden catastrophic loss. And at the heart of the book, balancing loss, there is always food: warming, adding flavour, expressing love and celebration." Maggie Gee OBE "A funny, moving, clever book which examines the real meaning of family as it explores the true power of food. Delicious in every sense." Daily Mail "Souffle is as rich and satisfying as its namesake." Time Out Istanbul "...(Perker) writes movingly about the ageing process, dealing with disappointment, and adapting to major life changes. She also writes very well about dementia and finds humour in Mrs Nesibe's frequent digressions and various alter egos. Like all good books that focus on food, Perker's descriptions of cooking should stimulate readers' taste buds and have them itching to get into the kitchen." Lucy Popescu, Independent
£11.94
Saqi Books The Sultan of Byzantium
Book SynopsisFighting the Ottoman invaders in Constantinople in 1453, Emperor Constantine XI was killed, his body never found. Legend has it that he escaped in a Genoese ship, cheating certain death at the hands of the Turks and earning himself the title of Immortal Emperor. Five centuries after his disappearance, three mysterious men contact a young professor living in Istanbul. Members of a secret sect, they have guarded the Immortal Emperor's will for generations. They tell him that he is the next Byzantine emperor and that in order to take possession of his fortune he must carry out his ancestor's last wishes. The professor embarks on a dangerous journey, taking him to the heart of a mystery of epic historical significance. The Sultan of Byzantium is a symbiosis of story and history and a homage to Byzantine civilisation.Trade Review"The novel, translated from Turkish by Clifford and Selahn Endres, is punctuated by the literate wit of the author, whose extraordinary range of references extends from ancient authors to modern crime fiction. This is a hugely enjoyable crash-course in imperial bloodbaths, plus a travelogue, interwoven with snippets of poetry." Independent "Readers tired of the endless Da Vinci Code knockoffs will find Altun's variation on the theme a refreshing one. Turkish economics professor Halas Araboglu's quiet life is upended when he receives a letter from Nikos Askaris promising "excellent news", and requesting that the academic bring a 15th-century map drawn by a Florentine priest to their meeting. Naturally curious, Araboglu attends, to be greeted with the mind-blowing news that he is actually a descendant of the last Byzantine emperor, and thus the emperor-in-exile the Byzantine has been awaiting for over 500 years. He accedes to carry out the tasks Askaris assigns him as necessary to fulfilling his new role-two months of study, followed by a testing process requiring him to solve a riddle in his ancestor's will. Altun (Songs My Mother Never Taught Me) beautifully incorporates details about the Byzantine Empire less familiar to Western audiences, as well as healthy injections of wry humor, into this riveting escapade." Publishers Weekly "Sultan is first and most definitely a carefully executed mystery...What are you, some kind of aristocratic character escaped from a romantic novel? asks the comely professor of the narrator/protagonist, who fits this description so perfectly. He also may or may not be The Sultan of Byzantium of Selcuk Altun s absorbing novel. The longest-lasting and most satisfying intrigue is that readers never learn the name of the narrator, a dashing economics professor, until the book s conclusion. How it is revealed, resolving many a loose end, is well worth the journey getting there." newpages.com "Now in English, Altun's novel rightly claims its place among the works of world literature through its brilliantly constructed plot and offers an intriguing read for readers and scholars of world literature." World Literature Today
£11.69
Saqi Books Farewell Fountain Street
Book SynopsisZiya Bey has six months left to live. From his mansion on Farewell Fountain Street, the Ottoman aristocrat plans to tie up some questionable business affairs and say goodbye to the people he cherishes. He hires Artvin, a disillusioned professor with a troubled past, to assist him. Intrigued by his employer's mysterious household, Artvin spends the days uncovering Ziya Bey's turbulent life story. The two men become bound together as they reveal dark elements from their pasts. But when Ziya Bey releases Artvin from his duties sooner than expected, Artvin inherits a spiral of violence he cannot control. In this gripping ride through the streets of Istanbul, two men learn one another's secrets. But can either of them learn to live with themselves?
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd Cheese: Newly Translated and Annotated
Book SynopsisWhen the ambitious but inept clerk Frans Laarmans is offered a job managing an Edam distribution company in Antwerp, he jumps at the chance, despite his professed dislike for cheese in all its forms. He soon finds himself submerged in a bureaucratic nightmare as his complete incompetence becomes apparent. Meanwhile, his offices fill up with a seemingly infinite supply of the distinctive red-skinned cheeses, which he has no idea how to sell. Skewering the pomposity of big business while revealing how an entrepreneurial spirit can often be a mask for buffoonery, Willem Elsschot’s Cheese combines comedy and pathos in its depiction of a man trying to progress beyond his limited skill set. As poignant as it is funny, Cheese will appeal to anyone who has suffered the endless indignities of office life.
£7.99
Granta Books Khirbet Khizeh
Book Synopsis'Luminous' Ian McEwan 'Astonishing' Economist 'Mesmerising and prophetic' Arifa Akbar, Independent It's 1948 and the villagers of Khirbet Khizeh are about to be violently expelled from their homes. A young Israeli soldier who is on duty that day finds himself battling on two fronts: with the villagers and, ultimately, with his own conscience. Haunting and heartbreaking, Khirbet Khizeh, now considered a modern Hebrew masterpiece, offers a wrenchingly honest view of one of Israel's defining moments. 'So incendiary and eloquent that one has to put it down every few pages... How often can you say of a harrowing, unquiet book that it makes you wrestle with your soul?' The TimesTrade ReviewExtraordinary ... Khirbet Khizeh is a tribute to the power of critical thought to register the injustices of history ... Khirbet Khizeh is the story which, with the least ambivalence, offers to official Zionist history its strongest, unanswerable, counterpoint. The translation is long overdue. In lyrical, haunting prose - evocatively rendered into English by Nicholas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck - the narrator describes what was done to the Palestinians in 1948 -- Jacqueline Rose * Guardian *It's subject is so painful, its execution so charged, so wildly beautiful, its moral ambivalence so incendiary and eloquent that one has to put it down every few pages ... the mighty rush of its prose, with its creative syntax, its long, fibrous sentences, its combination of impassioned, unbridled lyricism and colloquial speech, is exhilarating ... How often can you say of a harrowing, unquiet book that it makes you wrestle with your soul -- Neel Mukherjee * The Times *S. Yizar's classic Khirbet Khizeh is available in a fine miniature new edition ... its original publication in 1949 was a landmark, both historically and linguistically * Jewish Chronicle *The luminous account of the clearing of an Arab village during the'48 war -- and of a protest that never quite leaves the throat of its narrator as the houses are demolished and the villagers driven from their land. It is a tribute to an open society that this novella was for many years required reading for Israeli schoolchildren. Khirbet Khizet remains painfully relevant, and the moral questioning lives on. -- Ian McEwan * Jerusalem Prize Acceptance Speech *Yizhar's extraordinary tale narrates the need, and the price, of remembering * Jacqueline Rose *Years after the tragic events it describes, Khirbet Khizeh retains its disturbing relevance ... Conveying in vivid microcosm the moral ambiguities attending Israel's establishment in 1948, [it] resonates as both historical experience and art * TLS *The entire novella, canonical in Hebrew literature, has the effect of pointing up how brutally unjust visitations of war inevitably are upon civilian populations, and how brutally coarsened soldiers must become to carry out the "operational orders" that steer, in the sanitized language of the generals and politicians who decide such things from a distance, the broad and heartless missions of armies -- Mark Kamine * The Believer *There's no false note, no generic anti-war rhetoric in Khirbet, and as long as we continue to kill one another, in the Middle East or elsewhere, Khirbet will retain its poetic relevance * Words Without Borders *Astonishing * The Economist *Sixty years on S. Yizhar's Khirbet Khizeh retains its extraordinary power ... No outline can do justice to a narrative that touches the very heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For anyone familiar with the 1948 war but reading Khirbet Khizeh for the first time, the story is both startling and uncanny in its predictive clarity -- Ian Black * Jewish Quarterly *Written by an Israeli soldier on a sortie to forcibly expel the Palestinian villagers of Khirbet Khizeh during the 1948 war, this mesmerising and prophetic testimony is just as potent today against the backdrop of continuing conflict ...The account unfolds with a magnificent, biblical simplicity, and none of its terrible beauty is lost in this shimmering translation by Nicholas De Lange and Yaacob Dweck -- Arifa Akbar * Independent *[This] poetic, anguished and uncompromising portrayal of the eviction of an Arab village was based on experience ... the lyricism of the writing has been beautifully captured by Nicolas de Lange and Yaacob Dweck -- Toby Lichtig * Times Literary Supplement *
£10.44
Granta Books The Collected Tales Of Nikolai Gogol
Book SynopsisCollected here are Gogol's finest tales - from the demon-haunted 'St John's Eve' to the strange surrealism of 'The Nose', from the heart-rending trials of the copyist in 'The Overcoat' to those of the delusional clerk in 'The Diary of a Madman' - allowing readers to experience anew the unmistakable genius of a writer who paved the way for Dostoevsky and Kafka. To this superb new translation - the first in twenty-five years and destined to become the definitive edition of Gogol's short fiction - Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky bring the same clarity and fidelity to the original that they brought to their brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's works and to War and Peace.Trade ReviewGogol's occasional weirdness is just as weird today, of such a strange order of invention, that even a word like "exuberant" doesn't begin to cover it ... Gogol is strangely timeless -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *This was, for me, an electric introduction to Russian literature. -- AD Miller * The Independent *Nabokov was right about Gogol's greatness, and right to point out that he was a creator of a new reality -- A.S. ByattGogol's narratives take on a compelling logic of their own and the details are by turn comic, sinister, and even touching ... Gogol doesn't ignore the conventions of realism, but, rather, jumbles them up, as in a dream. His stories build their hilarious fantasies on solid observational foundations -- Edmund Gordon * Observer *One of the most unfathomable minds and most spellbinding narrators in literary history. Shrewd observer, Romantic dreamer, idiot savant, parodist, or a comic Dante, Gogol still eludes all categories -- Donald Rayfield * Literary Review *The "father of Russian Modernism" came to fame very early which possibly burned him out, as he wrote little in the last 10 years of his life. His tales might have been written weeks ago though, so fresh and vibrant are they, a testament to the youth of their author when he wrote them -- Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald *Such is Gogol's all-pervasive influence on European writing that both of these new editions are great value -- Eileen Battersby, Books of the Year * Irish Times *
£11.69
Granta Books Equal Danger
Book SynopsisDistrict Attorney Varga is shot dead while picking a sprig of jasmine. Then Judge Sanza is killed. Then Judge Azar. Is this string of murders an individual vendetta or a more sinister plot? The charming Inspector Rogas is determined to find out. The pursuit of truth and justice are Rogas's vocation, but his work is frustrated by a system which defies his understanding. He needs a key, a way in, a map, and he is sure that his chief suspect Cres can provide it... The book, written in 1971, uncannily prefigures the Red Brigade's subsequent killing of magistrates and the Catholic-Communist pact of the late 1970s in Italy. Developed under Sciascia's hand in the spirit of a parody, Equal Danger has come to be regarded as a wide-ranging political thriller, one of the masterpieces of the genre.
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd Faust: New Translation
In a series of nine letters, the narrator tells his friend how he introduced Vera Nikolayevna, a married woman who had been forbidden as a child to read fiction and poetry, to the intellectual pleasures of Goethe's masterpiece. Opening up in front of Vera's eyes is not only the realm of imagination, but also a world of unbridled feelings and tempestuous passions, which can only shatter the comfort and safety of her existence and force her to set off on a journey of spiritual awakening.
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd Pushkin Hills: First English Translation
Book SynopsisAn unsuccessful writer and an inveterate alcoholic, Boris Alikhanov is running out of money and has recently divorced from his wife Tatyana, who intends to emigrate to the West with their daughter Masha. The prospect of a summer job as a tourist guide at the Pushkin Hills preserve offers him hope of bringing back some balance into his existence, but during his stay in the rural estate of Mikhaylovskoye, Alikhanov's life continues to unravel.Trade ReviewVodka-fuelled mishaps, grotesque comic cameos and – above all – quick-fire dialogue that swings and stings propel this furious twilight romp from the final days of Soviet power. * The Independent *Katherine Dovlatov's translation captures the wit and bittersweet irony of her father's Russian rural comedy. * The Guardian *A desperately hilarious, flippantly tragic gem. Read it--and weep. And laugh. But read it. -- A.D. MillerDovlatov greeted his success in America with mixed feelings, fearing that in English he would never be appreciated for what he most valued - his language. This first translation, by his daughter Katherine, of a work he particularly cherished is a powerful argument to the contrary. Its great merit is to recreate the varied speech patterns and colloquial mode of storytelling that Dovlatov worked so hard to render natural in Russian. * TLS *Amusing and richly disconcerting. * TLS *I loved Katherine Dovlatov's translation of Sergei Dovlatov's novel Pushkin Hills, one of the late Soviet émigré writer's most personal works. Katherine Dovlatov brings into English her father's gritty mix of elegy and wit. -- Rachel Polonsky * TLS *One wishes that he’d lived longer, been published sooner, given us more. -- Francine ProseFrom the opening page of Pushkin Hills, Sergei Dovlatov’s witty observations and descriptive brilliance are a delight… Dovlatov’s writing deserves to be better known among foreigners. His daughter, Katherine, has helped that process by creating a wonderful translation of Zapovednik, the first ever in English. * Russia Beyond the Headlines *A black comedy of eyes-wide-open excess... And a fine rumination on being Russian, besides. * Kirkus Reviews *Katherine Dovlatov’s translation feels almost transparent at times, as though the original Russian were visible through the text. * The New York Review of Books *The descent of the drunkard in Pushkin Hills, from qualified hope to utter despair, is arguably one of Dovlatov’s greatest contributions to Russian literature. * The New York Review of Books *
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd London Bridge
Book SynopsisA major work by one of France’s most important authors of the twentieth century, London Bridge is a riotous novel about the London underworld during the First World War. Picking up where its predecessor Guignol’s Band left off, Céline’s narrator recounts his disastrous partnership with an eccentric Frenchman intent on financing a trip to Tibet by winning a gas-mask competition; his uneasy relationship with London’s pimps and whores and their common nemesis, Inspector Matthew of Scotland Yard; and, most scandalous of all, his affair with a colonel’s daughter. Written in Céline’s trademark style – a headlong rush of slang, brusque observation and quirky lyricism, delivered in machine-gun bursts of prose and ellipses – London Bridge recreates the dark days during the Great War with sordid verisimilitude and desperate hilarity.Trade ReviewWriting as alive as speech. -- Simone de BeauvoirIf the French demand bad behaviour from their novelists, they got more than they bargained for with the antisemitic Céline. But they were also getting the prose stylist of the century. -- Tibor Fischer * The Guardian *The most blackly humorous and disenchanted voice in all of French literature… * London Review of Books *
£11.69
Alma Books Ltd The Village
Book SynopsisThe Village, Ivan Bunin's first full-length novel, is a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of rural life in south-west Russia. Set at the time of the 1905 Revolution and centring on episodes in the lives of a landowner and his self-educated peasant brother, the book follows characters sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarcely human. A triumph of bitter realism, Bunin's cruel, lyrical prose reveals the pettiness, violence and ignorance of life on the land, foreshadowing the turbulences of Russia in the twentieth century.Trade ReviewLike Chekhov, Bunin matches the most elegant, economical prose to the coarsest and most profligate characters. * TLS * I do not know any other writer whose external world is so closely tied to another, whose sensations are more exact and indispensable, and whose world is more genuine and also more unexpected. -- Andre Gide
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Alma Books Ltd Leonardo da Vinci: The Resurrection of the Gods
Book SynopsisThis evocative account of the life of the Renaissance’s greatest figure traces Leonardo’s early development as an artist and court figure to his final years in exile, portraying his loves and sufferings, as well as his intellectual curiosity and tireless loyalty to his ideals. But it is the background to his famous painting La Gioconda and his relationship with the mysterious Florentine woman who modelled for it that are at the heart of the novel – here presented for the first time in an unabridged translation. The result is an engrossing and unforgettable read. An unjustly forgotten masterpiece of Russian literature that inspired one of Freud’s most important essays, Leonardo da Vinci also offers an illuminating snapshot of the society of the period – beset with intrigue and religious and social tension – and a host of memorable historical figures such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Savonarola and the infamous Borgias.Trade ReviewWe are given a rare insight into what is probably the nearest anyone has come to Leonardo's character. * Yorkshire Gazette *
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Alma Books Ltd A Journey Around My Room and A Nocturnal
Book SynopsisFinding himself locked in his room for six weeks, a young officer journeys around his room in his imagination, using the various objects it contains as inspiration for a delightful parody of contemporary travel-writing and an exercise in Sternean picaresque, and humorously demonstrating what one can explore without having set off to exotic locations. Accompanied in this volume by its equally superb sequel, ‘Nocturnal Expedition around my Room’, in which a similar voyage is made at night several years later, ‘A Journey around My Room’ is a masterly and innovative piece of writing, which was immensely popular in its time and would later influence Victor Hugo and Marcel Proust, among others.Trade ReviewIt was Blaise Pascal who said that all the troubles of humanity came about because of the difficulty men had in simply being happy to sit alone in their rooms; here is the result of such an enforced confinement. And it is wonderful. (…) This edition also includes the 1825 sequel, A Nocturnal Expedition Around My Room, which is just as good, as funny and deceptively profound as its predecessor; and he even makes it to the window-ledge this time. Andrew Brown's translation is excellent too. -- Nicholas Lezard * The Guardian *De Maistre… found the utmost strangeness in himself and the things he had taken for granted. * The Times *
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd The Dream: Annotated edition with a forward by
Book Synopsis"Finding the young Angélique on their doorstep one Christmas Eve, the pious Hubert couple decide to bring her up as their own. As the girl grows up in the vicinity of the town’s towering cathedral and learns her parents’ trade of embroidery, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the lives of the saints, a passion fuelled by her reading of the Golden Legend and other mystical Christian writings. One day love, in the shape of Felicien Hautecoeur, enters the dream world she has constructed around herself, bringing about upheaval and distress. Although it provides a detailed portrait of provincial nineteenth-century life and adheres to a naturalist approach, The Dream eschews many of the characteristics of Zola’s other novels of the Rougon-Macquart cycle – such as a pronounced polemical agenda or a gritty subject matter – offering instead a timeless, lyrical tale of love and innocence."Trade ReviewI consider Zola’s books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh
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Alma Books Ltd The Ladies' Paradise
Book SynopsisEncapsulating in luxurious detail the phenomenon of consumer society - obsessed with image, fashion and instant gratification - Ladies' Delight vividly depicts the workings of a new commercial entity, the department store. The novel centres around the story of Denise, a young shopgirl from the provinces, and Octave Mouret, the dashing young director of a shopping emporium, who find themselves torn between the conflicting forces of love, loyalty and ambition. Set in the heart of the city, Zola's novel - the eleventh in his Rougon-Macquart series - evokes the giddy pace of Paris's transition into a modern city and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place during the second half of the nineteenth century.Trade ReviewIt's sex and shopping for 400 pulsating pages in Zola's gripping 1883 novel (recently adapted for television by the BBC). From the opening image of the great Parisian dress emporium, all gilded cherubs and lavish window displays of satins and silks, you are hooked. (...) Fireworks, passion, lust, heartbreak, class-conflict... all the crucial elements are in this rip-roaring classic. * The Daily Mail * Zola overwhelms us with an abundance of description that oscillates between fantastical lyricism and meticulous realism, with plenty of rather wry psychological analysis to hold the two poles together. -- Tim Parks I consider Zola's books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh To enjoy Zola at his best, you have to read one of the great novels, in which a whole panorama emerges, as in the work of one of those highly realistic nineteenth-century painters. -- A.N. Wilson Perhaps the most famous novel about shopping is Emile Zola's The Ladies' Paradise... For Zola, the department store was a metaphor for the triumph of capitalism... but he also saw it as the place where women were duped and enslaved into the new habit of consumerism. * The Guardian * It's an excellent edition! -- P.D. Smith Nothing gets a crowd going like sex and shopping. Emile Zola was one of the first to describe this new consumerist link... * The Times *
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd Pleasures and Days
Book SynopsisProust's only other work of fiction published in his lifetime apart from the monumental novel cycle 'In Search of Lost Time, Pleasures and Days' takes the reader on a journey through the high-society circles of fin-de-siecle Paris, presenting the lives, loves and attitudes of a host of unforgettable characters.Trade ReviewPleasure and Days yields the earliest blooms from [Proust's] emerging, lifelong fascination with the labyrinths of snobbery and sexuality in Parisian high society. * The Independent *
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd The Idiot: New Translation
Book SynopsisAfter spending several years in a sanatorium recovering from an illness that caused him to lose his memory and ability to reason, Prince Myshkin arrives in St Petersburg and is at once confronted with the stark realities of life in the Russian capital – from greed, murder and nihilism to passion, vanity and love. Mocked for his childlike naivety yet valued for his openness and understanding, Prince Myshkin finds himself entangled with two women in a position he cannot bring himself to resolve. Dostoevsky, who wrote that in the character of Prince Myshkin he hoped to portray a “wholly virtuous man”, shows the workings of the human mind and our relationships with others in all their complex and contradictory nature. Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters, from the beautiful, self-destructive Nastasya Filippovna to the dangerously obsessed Rogozhin and the radical student Ippolit, The Idiot is one of Dostoevsky’s most personal and intense works of fiction.
£7.99
Alma Books Ltd The Metamorphosis and Other Stories: Newly
Book SynopsisWhen the young salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a monstrous insect, his shock and incomprehension are coupled with the panic of being late for work and having to reveal his appearance to family and colleagues. Although over the following weeks he gradually becomes used to this new existence confined within the bounds of the apartment, and his parents and sister adapt to living with a grotesque bug, Gregor notices that their attitudes towards him are changing and he feels increasingly alienated. One of the masterpieces of twentieth-century world literature, ‘The Metamorphosis’ is accompanied in this volume by a selection of other classic tales and sketches by Kafka – such as ‘The Judgement’, ‘In the Penal Colony’ and ‘A Country Doctor’ – all presented in a lively and meticulous new translation by Christopher Moncrieff.Trade ReviewThe only artist I felt could be my brother was Kafka. -- David LynchTable of ContentsContains: Children on a Country Road, Exposing a Confidence Trickster, An Impromptu Walk Resolutions, A Trip to the Mountains, The Plight of a Bachelor, The Shopkeeper, Gazing Distractedly out of the Window, Walking Home, Men Running Past, The Passenger, Dresses, Mutual Rejection, For the Consideration of Gentleman Jockeys, A Window onto the Street, Oh to Be a Red Indian Trees, An Unhappy Being, The Sentence, The Metamorphosis, The Penal Colony, The New Barrister, A Country Doctor, Up in the Gods, An Old Manuscript, The Door of Justice, Jackals and Arabs, A Visit to the Mine, The Next Village, A Message from the Emperor, The Concerns of a Father, Eleven Sons, Fratricide, A Dream, A Report for and Academy, First Sorrow, The Little Woman, The Hunger Artist, Josephine the Singer or the Mousefolk, The Great Wall of China, The Bridge, The Truth about Sancho Panza, The City Coat of Arms, Poseidon, The Silence of the Sirens.
£7.44
Alma Books Ltd Black Snow
Book SynopsisAfter being saved from a suicide attempt by the appearance of a literary editor, the journalist and failed novelist Sergei Maxudov has a book suddenly accepted for stage adaptation at a prestigious venue and finds himself propelled into Moscow's theatrical world. In a cut-throat environment tainted by Soviet politics, censorship and egomania - epitomized by the arrogant and tyrannical director Ivan Vasilyevich - mayhem gradually gives way to absurdity. Unpublished in Bulgakov's own lifetime, Black Snow is peppered with darkly comic set pieces and draws on its author's own bitter experience as a playwright with the Moscow Arts Theatre, showcasing his inimitable gift for shrewd observation and razor-sharp satire.Trade ReviewCockrell's light touch often lifts the text on to a playful plane. * Russia Beyond the Headlines * High quality, attractively produced and moderately priced. * East-West Review *
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd The Confusions of Young Master Törless
Book SynopsisMusil's limpid, psychological evocation of adolescent sexuality and its often sadistic eroticism which anticipates the carnage of both World Wars. As the nineteenth century draws to an end, young Törless is sent to a military boarding school for the sons of the nobility on the eastern outreaches of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Far from his comfortable, free-thinking bourgeois home and left to his own devices, he experiences the joy, pain and self-doubt of adolescence. He is confronted with desire and love, but also his own cruelty, as he finds himself participating in his fellow pupils’ bullying campaigns. A dark Bildungsroman which shocked its readership at the time, Robert Musil’s first novel is a fresco of psychoanalysis, philosophy, eroticism, snobbery, sado-masochism and schoolboy humour, a hothouse of alternately repressed and unchained desires that prefigure the carnage of both World Wars.
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd Anna Karenina: New Translation
Book SynopsisLeo Tolstoy’s most personal novel, Anna Karenina scrutinizes fundamental ethical and theological questions through the tragic story of its eponymous heroine. Anna is desperately pursuing a good, “moral” life, standing for honesty and sincerity. Passion drives her to adultery, and this flies in the face of the corrupt Russian bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the aristocrat Konstantin Levin is struggling to reconcile reason with passion, espousing a Christian anarchism that Tolstoy himself believed in. Acclaimed by critics and readers alike, Anna Karenina presents a poignant blend of realism and lyricism that makes it one of the most perfect, enduring novels of all time.Trade ReviewThe truth is we are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art: we are to take it as a piece of life. -- Matthew ArnoldAnna Karenina is a perfect work of art. This novel contains a humane message that has not yet been heeded in Europe and that is much needed by the people of the western world. -- Fyodor DostoevskyWhat I confidently named the greatest social novel of world literature is in fact a novel against society. -- Thomas MannTolstoy’s greatness lies in not turning the story into sentimental tragedy… His world is huge and vast, filled with complex family lives and great social events. His characters are well-rounded presences. They have complete passions: a desire for love, but also an inner moral depth. -- Malcolm BradburyIt’s so fantastic that it can be read over and over again… I don’t know any other writer who is so adept at peopling their pages. -- Maggie O’FarrellTolstoy is the greatest Russian writer of prose fiction. -- Vladimir NabokovThe new translation into accurate and readable English by Kyril Zinovieff and Jenny Hughes surpasses even the most recent version by Richard Pevear and Melissa Volokhonsky...[it] makes the word order sound as natural in English as was the original in Tolstoy's Russian. * The Times Literary Supplement *Kyril Zinovieff has produced a fine, intelligent, sensitive translation that brings the Russian text alive in a way that immediately enriches a reader's awareness of its intentions and nuances. * East West Review *
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Alma Books Ltd Don Quixote: Newly Translated and Annotated (Alma
Book SynopsisWhen an ageing, impoverished nobleman decides to style himself “Don Quixote” and embarks upon a series of daring endeavours, it is clear that his ability to distinguish between reality and the fantasy world of literary romance has broken down. His exploits turn into comic misadventures, in which everyday objects are transformed into the accoutrements of chivalry, peasant girls become princesses and windmills are mistaken for formidable giants, leading the hero and his squire Sancho Panza into the realms of absurdity and humiliation. Renowned for its comical set pieces, Don Quixote is a profound meditation on the relationship between truth and fiction and the morality of deception, as well as the foundation stone of the modern novel.Trade ReviewThe ultimate and most sublime example of human thought. -- Fyodor DostoevskyThis translation is a valuable addition to the many resources Tom Lathrop has already produced for understanding Cervantes. It should have a wide appeal. * TLS *
£9.25
Alma Books Ltd Notes on a Cuff and Other Stories: New
Book SynopsisBegun in 1920 while Bulgakov was employed in a hospital in the remote Caucasian outpost of Vladikavkaz, and continued when he started working for a government literary department in Moscow, Notes on a Cuff is a series of journalistic sketches which show the young doctor trying to embark on a literary career among the chaos of war, disease, politics and bureaucracy. Stylistically brilliant and brimming with humour and literary allusion, Notes on a Cuff is presented here in a new translation, along with a collection of other short pieces by Bulgakov, many of them - such as 'The Cockroach' and 'A Dissolute Man' - published for the first time in the English language.Trade ReviewThis is a very good place to start on Bulgakov if you haven't read any of his work before. All his manic energy is here; and so, largely, is his talent. (...) In Notes on a Cuff you can see one of the most original voices of the 20th century starting to find itself. Congratulations to the publisher for making it available to us. * The Guardian * Loyal fans will enjoy spotting the great writer's early seeds of talent. * The Times * Roger Cockrell's unstrained and highly readable translations capture with admirable versatility the whole gamut of situations, characters and voices encompassed in this absorbing collection of stories. * East-West Review * Vigorous, unevenly brilliant and deeply felt, (these stories) amply justify Bulgakov's attraction to the darker aspects of his times... they sparkle with herlter-skelter Gogolian verve. * TLS *Table of ContentsContains: Notes on a Cuff, The Fire of the Khans, The Crimson Island, A Week of Enlightenment, The Unusual Adventureof a Doctor, Psalm, Moonshine Lake, Makar Devushkin's Story, A Scurvy Character, The Murderer, The Cockroach, A Dissolute Man
£7.99
Alma Books Ltd Childhood Memories and Other Stories: First
Book SynopsisGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the author of one of the most poignant and enduringly popular novels of the twentieth century, left only a few other pieces of fiction when he died prematurely at the age of sixty. Childhood Memories and Other Stories, here presented in a new translation by Stephen Parkin and including previously deleted passages and the unpublished fragment ‘Torretta’, collects all of Lampedusa’s extant shorter fiction and provides a revealing glimpse into the writer’s workshop and the background to the composition of his masterpiece. From the atmospheric recollections of the Palazzo Lampedusa and the Palazzo Filangeri Cutò at the turn of the twentieth century in ‘Childhood Memories’ to the delightful fable ‘The Siren’, from the gently humorous, bittersweet tones of ‘Joy and the Law’ to ‘The Blind Kittens’ – the first chapter of what was intended to be a sequel to The Leopard – this volume showcases Lampedusa’s unparalleled observational powers and narrative skills.Trade ReviewThis is a bundle of his short fiction and (the pearl) his memories of his childhood in a lost world of almost unimaginable privilege and beauty. * The Times *Handsome book... Parkin's translation does justice to Lampedusa's elegant, elaborate prose… The prose flows with the allegro and cadences of a Mozart piano composition. * TLS *[The Siren] is an enigmatic, tantalizing and haunting tale of rare beauty which glints like a finely cut diamond. * TLS *Lampedusa wrote two masterpieces and this, as bizarre as it sounds, is the other one. * The Telegraph *A man with the deep soul of an Old European, who was wise and witty. * The Lady *
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories: New
Book SynopsisOn a train journey, Pozdnyshev tells his story to a stranger: how his relationship with his wife gradually deteriorated from one of love and passion to jealousy and resentfulness, culminating in a mad act of desperation while she practised Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata with her violin teacher. An uncompromising examination of lust, suspicion and infidelity which was once forbidden by censors in Russia and banned in the US due to its shocking content, Tolstoy’s controversial novella – here presented in a new translation, along with ‘The Prisoner of the Caucasus’, ‘Master and Man’ and ‘After the Ball’ – is now considered one of the masterpieces of Tolstoy’s late period.Trade ReviewTolstoy is the greatest Russian writer of prose fiction. -- Vladimir NabokovIt showcases the questioning, unsettling and perfectly crafted prose of the author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace. * The Good Book Guide *In Roger Cockrell's fluid rendering in English, the story shines and glimmers beautifully. * RTÉ *Table of ContentsContains: The Kreutzer Sonata, After the Ball, Master and Man, The Prisoner of the Caucasus.
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd The Kiss and Other Stories: New Translation
Book SynopsisWhile at a party organized by the local landowner for the officers of his brigade, the shy and awkward Ryabovich is suddenly kissed by an unknown woman in a dark room. This unexpected, electrifying encounter, which he relives in his mind day after day, marks a turning point for Ryabovich, showing him that everything in life – joy, sorrow, hope – is equally pointless and subject to chance. One of Chekhov’s most admired stories, ‘The Kiss’ is joined in this volume by six other celebrated tales in a new translation by Hugh Aplin: ‘The Lady with the Little Dog’, ‘Ward Six’, ‘The Black Monk’, ‘The House with a Mezzanine’, ‘The Bishop’ and ‘Peasants’ – making this an indispensable collection for those wanting to discover Chekhov at his creative best.Trade ReviewWhat writers influenced me as a young man? Chekhov! As a dramatist? Chekhov! As a story writer? Chekhov! -- Tennessee Williams The virtue of this story is its completeness, its summoning of human feelings perfectly matched to the events that produce them. * The Independent *Table of ContentsTHIS VOLUME INCLUDES: The Lady with the Little Dog The Kiss Ward Number Six The Black Monk The House with the Mezzanine The Peasants
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd Diaboliad and Other Stories: New Translation
Book SynopsisIn Bulgakov’s ‘Diaboliad’, the modest and unassuming office clerk Korotkov is summarily sacked for a trifling error from his job at the Main Central Depot of Match Materials, and tries to seek out his newly assigned superior, responsible for his dismissal. His quest through the labyrinth of Soviet bureaucracy takes on the increasingly surreal dimensions of a nightmare. This early satirical story, reminiscent of Gogol and Dostoevsky, was first published in 1924 and incurred the wrath of pro-Soviet critics. Along with the three other stories in this volume, which also explore the themes of the absurd and bizarre, it provides a fascinating glimpse into the artistic development of the author of The Master and Margarita.Trade ReviewOne of the great writers of the twentieth century. -- A.S. ByattOne of the greatest modern Russian writers, perhaps the greatest. * The Independent *A writer of fantastic genius. * The Sunday Times *Bulgakov is a wild, mobile, crafty devotee of ideas. * The Guardian *Table of ContentsContains: Diaboliad', No.13 - The Elpit, Workers' Commune Building, A Chinese Tale, The Adventures of Chichikov
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd The Same Old Story: New Translation
Book SynopsisFilled with dreams of pursuing a career as a poet, the young Alexander Aduev moves from the country to St Petersburg, where he takes up lodgings next to his uncle Pyotr, a shrewd and world-weary businessman. As his ideals are challenged by disappointment in the fields of love, friendship and poetical ambition, Alexander must decide whether to return to the homely values he has left behind or adapt to the ruthless rules and morals of city life. Told in the author's trademark humorous style and presented in a sparkling new translation by Stephen Pearl, The Same Old Story - Goncharov's first novel, preceding his masterpiece Oblomov by twelve years - is a study of lost illusions and rude spiritual awakening in the modern world.Trade ReviewGoncharov is ten heads above me in talent. -- Anton Chekhov That Stephen Pearl has been able to recreate such an authentic representation of the text that...evokes the epoch it was written in its diction and rhythm as well as being extremely "readable" for contemporary readers pronounces this translation to be an admirable accomplishment. * Bookish Ramblings * An entertaining and thought-provoking read. * Shiny New Books * This book made Goncharov famous in Russia. And from half a continent and three lifetimes away he can still make new readers laugh and gasp with recognition over timeless human foibles. The -- Nicholas Lezard * The Guardian * Reading The Same Old Story conveys the pleasure of an overheard conversation -- A.N. Wilson * The Times Literary Supplement *
£8.54
