Fiction in translation
Open Letter Abahn Sabana David
Book Synopsis
£12.34
Open Letter Gesell Dome
Book Synopsis
£16.19
Open Letter A Greater Music
Book Synopsis
£13.29
Open Letter Salki
Book SynopsisA work of contemporary reportage in which the author traverses Europe while recounting stories from his family's past.
£13.49
Open Letter Tomas Jonsson, Bestseller
Book SynopsisIceland's first modernist novel is a wild excursion through the mind of a senile man trying to write his memoirs.
£15.29
Open Letter Island Of Point Nemo
Book SynopsisTwo stories - one a grandiose adventure-mystery, the other a tale of erotic exploits - humorously intertwine in a French e-reader factory.
£13.29
Open Letter The Same Night Awaits Us All
Book SynopsisAnarchism, dissent, poetry, and the avant-garde mix in this playful retelling of the assassination of Bulgaria's greatest poet.
£14.39
Open Letter The Bottom Of The Sky
Book SynopsisInspired by Slaughterhouse-Five, this is a love letter to the science fiction genre as a whole.
£14.39
Open Letter Narrator
Book SynopsisThe World Cup, La Grande Bouffe, and the post office drive this journey through Reykjavik and the narrator's mind.
£13.49
Open Letter 77
Book SynopsisHaunting, paranoid story of a gay insomniac forced to make very uncomfortable choices to stay alive during the Argentine dictatorship.
£13.29
Open Letter The Translator's Bride
Book SynopsisA unique Kafkaesque novel translated by the author himself
£13.49
Open Letter Spiritual Choreographies
Book SynopsisAn entirely original novel about the struggle between private and official biographies, and the fleeting nature of collective happiness.
£13.29
Open Letter The Incompletes
Book SynopsisA world-spanning intellectual thriller by a contemporary Argentinian master.
£13.49
Open Letter The Teacher
Book SynopsisThe story of a Holocaust survivor who spent her life trying to disappear, based on true events.
£13.49
Archipelago Books January
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£14.39
Penguin Random House Group A Question of Belonging
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£999.99
Hermits United The Peking Opera Reform
Book Synopsis‘I had seen so many men celebrated and then disgraced, and so many men disgraced and then rehabilitated, that for a long time I kept the hope of someday being held worthy of the history of our country. The wheel had turned, and would turn. Undoubtedly, I would not be there to witness it. I recited to myself the words that men condemned to die defiantly utter on the scaffold: “In twenty years, I shall be a handsome young man again, one of the brave…”’ In this enigmatic novella, one hears of the life of a litterateur before, during, and after the Great Revolution. The Peking Opera Reform was awarded Prix Décembre in 2013. This work is translated from the French, La réforme de l’opéra de Pékin (Payot & Rivages, Paris, 2013).
£11.99
IUDICIUM Verlag GmbH Magie
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£20.70
Rixdorf Editions Papa Hamlet: 2021
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£9.99
Twisted Spoon Press Boys and Murderers: Collected Short Fiction
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£9.50
Twisted Spoon Press The Legs of Izolda Morgan: Selected Writings
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£14.25
Twisted Spoon Press Miruna: A Tale
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£10.00
Twisted Spoon Press Aberrant
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£10.45
Twisted Spoon Press Blaugast
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£11.16
World Editions The Dutch Maiden
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£11.39
University of Chicago Press Norte A Novel Emersion Emergent Village resources
Book SynopsisThree unconnected people travel north, each passing in isolation over one of the most troubled and controversial dividing lines in the world: the Mexico?US border. But in a melee of language and blood, their stories and the stories of those they meet of a young serial killer, a waitress and graphic novelist and her lover (and former professor), and an outsider artist in a mental institution gradually begin to coalesce. Daring in both its protagonists and its structure, Edmundo Paz Sold n's Norte is a fast-paced, vivid, and operatic blending of distinct voices. Together, they lay bare the darkness of the line over which these souls like so many others have passed. A prominent member of a new generation of Latin American writers, Paz Soldan stands in defiant opposition to the magical realism of the past century, instead grounding his work in political, economic, and historical realities. Norte is no exception; it is a tale of displacement and the very human costs of immigration. Shocking with its violence even as it thrills with its language, confounding rather than cowering under the clich of the murderous, drug-dealing immigrant, Norte is a disquieting, imperative work an undeniable reflection of our fragmented modern world.
£20.43
The University of Chicago Press Doña Barbara
Book SynopsisDona Barbara is a beautiful and mysterious woman - rumored to be a witch - with a ferocious power over men. When her cousin Santos Luzardo returns to the plains in order to reclaim his land and cattle, he reluctantly faces off against Dona Barbara, and their battle becomes simultaneously one of violence and seduction.Trade Review"Remarkable.... From its first pages it reveals why it made Romulo Gallegos famous.... If Senor Gallegos is one-half as good a President as he is a novelist, Venezuela is a lucky land." (New York Times) "An exciting heroic tale of the life of Venezuelan plainsmen, master and peons, ranchers and cowboys and horse thieves." (New Republic)"
£17.40
The University of Chicago Press Exemplary Tales of Love and Tales of Disillusion
Book SynopsisAt the height of Maria de Zayas' popularity in the mid-eighteenth century, the number of editions in print of her work was exceeded only by the novels of Cervantes. This book gathers a representative sample of seven stories, featuring Zayas' signature topics - gender equality and domestic violence.
£28.00
McGill-Queen's University Press Hunter with Harpoon
Book SynopsisA new English translation of an acclaimed 1970 novel reveals a stark, powerful story, an Inuit worldview, and the unique voice of Markoosie Patsauq.Trade Review"Both a pivotal work of Indigenous fiction and an effort to acknowledge and correct injustices, Hunter with Harpoon is a testament to the resilience of the Inuit people." Foreword Reviews«Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut priorise l’écrit en inuktitut pour sa valeur en soi et dans ses propres termes. Enfin, la collaboration entre Henitiuk, Mahieu et Patsauq contribue à donner une visibilité à un auteur à la langue riche et vivante et à une culture littéraire proprement inuit.» Anthropologie et Sociétés
£17.09
Columbia University Press Tales of Moonlight and Rain
Book SynopsisContains nine gothic tales that are Japan's celebrated examples of the literature of the occult. They subtly merge the world of reason with the realm of the uncanny and exemplify the period's fascination with the strange and the grotesque. They were also the inspiration for Mizoguchi Kenji's brilliant 1953 film "Ugetsu".Trade ReviewChambers's edition of Tales of Moonlight and Rain is well worthwhile... Highly Recommended. The Complete Review A shining new version of a living Japanese classic. Japan Times Japan scholars and people who just like weird, spooky stuff should enjoy this new edition of Akinari's classic. -- Brad Quinn Daily Yomiuri Chambers's new translation is a lucid addition to the handful of previous versions. -- James Lasdun's The GuardianTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Tales of Moonlight and Rain Preface Book One Shiramine The Chrysanthemum Vow Book Two The Reed-Choked House The Carp of My Dreams Book Three The Owl of the Three Jewels The Kibitsu Caldron Book Four A Serpent's Lust Book Five The Blue Hood On Poverty and Wealth Bibliography
£64.01
Columbia University Press Running Mother and Other Stories
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGuo's compassion, insight and understated style shine through, tying his characters' lives to the contemporary cultural questions with grace and skill. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Guo's impressionistic style hones in on the details of everyday life... [and] captures moments of rare beauty. -- Melissa McClements Financial Times Guo refreshingly and poignantly portrays the political reverberations of Taiwan's turbulent 20th century. -- Paul Mozur Far Eastern Economic Review A very valuable publication, and an important addition [to] Columbia's indispensable Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan series. -- Bradley Winterton Taipei TimesTable of ContentsForeword: Summer 1961 Introduction: Guo Songfen, Taiwan's "Lost" Modernist Moon Seal Wailing Moon Running Mother Clover Snow Blind Brightly Shine the Stars Tonight
£27.00
Columbia University Press The Curious Tale of Mandogis Ghost
Book Synopsis
£60.00
Columbia University Press The Curious Tale of Mandogis Ghost
Book Synopsis
£17.60
Columbia University Press A Room Where The StarSpangled Banner Cannot Be
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPraise for Levy Hideo:Have we failed to catch the calm but earnest tone that echoes like music through Levy Hideo's prose? With his unique literary voice, this writer clearly represents a new kind of novelist for Japanese literature. As a superior symbol of mutual understanding between two languages and two nations, this accomplishment surely rivals the work of Masao Miyoshi. -- Oe Kenzaburo Asahi Shimbun A Room Where the Star-Spangled Banner Cannot Be Heard opens up a new frontier in contemporary Japanese exophonic literature for readers in the West. It demystifies the linkage, dear to the Japanese, of a nation to its language. Levy Hideo's moving exploration of the multilingual, transcultural experiences of the young Ben tells the timeless tale of a boy coming of age in the context of a globalizing world, in which boundaries of language, nationality, and home are blurred. -- Faye Yuan Kleeman, University of Colorado, Boulder An engaging coming-of-age novel that resonates with Nobel Prize winner Oe Kenzaburo's A Personal Matter in its exploration of the complexities of sexual identity and the longing for cultural hybridity. Christopher D. Scott's conscientious translation evokes the grittiness of his young protagonist's quest yet also the compassion and tenderness of Levy Hideo's novel. -- Ann Sherif, author of Japan's Cold War: Media, Literature, and the Law Discovering this book is like meeting a fascinating person. Never before and never since have I encountered such a magical book. As a freshly peeled fruit, the language's flavor is raw and alive: ripe with intellect and replete with seeds. Seventeen-year-old Ben Isaac escapes from the confines of the American consulate in Yokohama where his father works and slips into the urban jungle of civilization called Tokyo. The characters written on the signs around him--some readable, some not--shine with a mysterious appeal for Ben, luring him into the city. The deeper he goes, the narrower the rooms and alleyways become, in inverse proportion to the world of the protagonist's memories, which come alive and spread outward to China, America, and the past his parents' generation lived through. Full of intense longing and pointed social critique, this is a tale that crosses many borders. -- Tawada Yoko, author of The Naked Eye though this was Levy's first novel, he already had a firm grasp of the novelist's art -- David Cozy Japan Times
£16.19
Columbia University Press River of Fire and Other Stories
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewRiver of Fire and Other Stories tracks the career of one of South Korea's most consummate writers, subtly suggesting the violent undertones of life under military dictatorship and the malaise of urban life, and coming to a close with a moving meditation upon aging. The themes here are universal, yet their expression is unique to the controlled precision and delicate interior description that are so characteristic of O Chonghui's style. A highly enjoyable read. -- Janet Poole, University of Toronto A strong addition to any international fiction collection, not to be overlooked. Midwest Book Review A wonderful collection of stories... a great writer, great translators and a beautiful-looking book - it all makes for an excellent addition. Tony's Reading ListTable of ContentsThe Toy Shop Woman One Spring Day A Portrait of Magnolias River of Fire Morning Star Fireworks Lake P'aro The Release The Old Well Afterword
£17.09
Columbia University Press The Matchmaker the Apprentice and the Football
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewZhu's quirky rogue's gallery is both entertaining and revealing, as murderers ('The Football Fan') and apostates (all the rest) illuminate the volatile period that preceded contemporary China's espousal of capitalist enterprise-if not democratic reform. Publishers Weekly Zhu Wen's plotting is brilliant, and his writing is cinematic and evocative. These eight stories are both funny and complex, and offer a true insight into the life of the modern Chinese. -- Tom Zelman Star Tribune This collection of dark tales by Zhu Wen offers an unflinching social commentary on post-communist China, though it could as easily be read as that of universal human nature. -- Su Hsing Loh Asian Review of Books A fascinating, often bleakly amusing, snapshot of China's urban anomie. -- Sam Sacks The Wall Street Journal A solid, well-written collection... [that] certainly offers some interesting glimpses of life in modern China. Worthwhile. -- M.A.Orthofer The Complete Review Sly humor... suffuses these stories, which, unlike some of the lives [Zhu Wen] describes, are never dreary. -- Alison McCulloch The New York Times Book Review [The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan] will appeal to readers looking for a more vivid, more human picture of modern China... Funny and inventive. -- David Wolf Prospect Compelling and entertaining. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom Los Angeles Review of Books A hilarious, touchingly candid look at modern urban China. -- Farisa Khalid PopMatters Zhu Wen offers a quick, observant account of contemporary Chinese society. World Literature TodayTable of ContentsA Note About Chinese Names and Romanization Acknowledgments Da Ma's Way of Talking The Matchmaker The Apprentice The Football Fan Xiao Liu Mr. Hu, Are You Coming Out to Play Basketball This Afternoon? Reeducation The Wharf
£48.29
Columbia University Press The Matchmaker the Apprentice and the Football
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewZhu's quirky rogue's gallery is both entertaining and revealing, as murderers ('The Football Fan') and apostates (all the rest) illuminate the volatile period that preceded contemporary China's espousal of capitalist enterprise-if not democratic reform. Publishers Weekly Zhu Wen's plotting is brilliant, and his writing is cinematic and evocative. These eight stories are both funny and complex, and offer a true insight into the life of the modern Chinese. -- Tom Zelman Star Tribune This collection of dark tales by Zhu Wen offers an unflinching social commentary on post-communist China, though it could as easily be read as that of universal human nature. -- Su Hsing Loh Asian Review of Books A fascinating, often bleakly amusing, snapshot of China's urban anomie. -- Sam Sacks The Wall Street Journal A solid, well-written collection... [that] certainly offers some interesting glimpses of life in modern China. Worthwhile. -- M.A.Orthofer The Complete Review Sly humor... suffuses these stories, which, unlike some of the lives [Zhu Wen] describes, are never dreary. -- Alison McCulloch The New York Times Book Review [The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan] will appeal to readers looking for a more vivid, more human picture of modern China... Funny and inventive. -- David Wolf Prospect Compelling and entertaining. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom Los Angeles Review of Books A hilarious, touchingly candid look at modern urban China. -- Farisa Khalid PopMatters Zhu Wen offers a quick, observant account of contemporary Chinese society. World Literature TodayTable of ContentsA Note About Chinese Names and Romanization Acknowledgments Da Ma's Way of Talking The Matchmaker The Apprentice The Football Fan Xiao Liu Mr. Hu, Are You Coming Out to Play Basketball This Afternoon? Reeducation The Wharf
£16.19
Columbia University Press Trees Without Wind
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewElegant and spare, Trees Without Wind is a valuable, authentic work that lays bare the corruption of the Cultural Revolution. -- Alice Stephens Washington Independent Review of Books
£999.99
Columbia University Press Trees Without Wind
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewElegant and spare, Trees Without Wind is a valuable, authentic work that lays bare the corruption of the Cultural Revolution. -- Alice Stephens Washington Independent Review of Books
£19.80
Columbia University Press The Lost Garden
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA beautifully written novel, from a prominent and prolific Taiwanese writer, including multiple themes of love, gender, sex, capitalism, as well as ethnic identity and Taiwan's historical and political memory. This expertly executed translation is long overdue. -- Yenna Wu, University of California, Riverside Encoded with an impressive array of tantalizing allegorical meanings, complete with a fantastical re-envisioning of Taiwan's local history and its ancestral ties with China, Li Ang's The Lost Garden has often been read as a political parable. Yet the novel boasts other arresting features as well, among them the author's daring treatment of female sexuality-taken here as the core of the relentless war between the sexes-in the mise en scene of a modish urban romance. -- Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, University of Texas at Austin This novel's dense sensuality-from its tropical flora to its frenetic lust-weaves time and space into mesmerizing patterns, like the looping paths of the title garden itself. -- Joseph Allen, author of Taipei: City of Displacements Stories of an old Chinese garden replanted with native Taiwanese species, a sultry island with a buried past, and liaisons between old money and nouveau riche hint at torrid energies and hidden traps in Taiwan's postwar past. -- Jeffrey Kinkley, author of Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political Novel An exploration of contemporary Taiwan through the lens of the past, this novel hits many poignant notes as it threads its way. Kirkus Reviews The lush, descriptive narrative immerses the reader in the humid garden of the title that sits at the core of the novel, standing for history, desire, and family. World Literature Today Ably translated... a consistently compelling read. Midwest Book Review A knowing and astute novel. -- Bradley Winterton Taipei Times Lin and Goldblatt's translation of The Lost Garden is a significant accomplishment that succeeds in presenting this masterpiece to English readers... Li's portrayal of post-World War II Taiwan is both sophisticated and penetrating. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Striking in its ambitious reach and political slant... The Lost Garden is a distinctive contribution to the literature of place, and its translation into English gives welcome access to a country and culture often obscured by its neighbours, China and Japan. -- Francesca Rhydderch Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsWhat Separates Us from China Translator's Note The Lost Garden
£63.00
Columbia University Press The Lost Garden
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA beautifully written novel, from a prominent and prolific Taiwanese writer, including multiple themes of love, gender, sex, capitalism, as well as ethnic identity and Taiwan's historical and political memory. This expertly executed translation is long overdue. -- Yenna Wu, University of California, Riverside Encoded with an impressive array of tantalizing allegorical meanings, complete with a fantastical re-envisioning of Taiwan's local history and its ancestral ties with China, Li Ang's The Lost Garden has often been read as a political parable. Yet the novel boasts other arresting features as well, among them the author's daring treatment of female sexuality-taken here as the core of the relentless war between the sexes-in the mise en scene of a modish urban romance. -- Sung-Sheng Yvonne Chang, University of Texas at Austin This novel's dense sensuality-from its tropical flora to its frenetic lust-weaves time and space into mesmerizing patterns, like the looping paths of the title garden itself. -- Joseph Allen, author of Taipei: City of Displacements Stories of an old Chinese garden replanted with native Taiwanese species, a sultry island with a buried past, and liaisons between old money and nouveau riche hint at torrid energies and hidden traps in Taiwan's postwar past. -- Jeffrey Kinkley, author of Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political Novel An exploration of contemporary Taiwan through the lens of the past, this novel hits many poignant notes as it threads its way. Kirkus Reviews The lush, descriptive narrative immerses the reader in the humid garden of the title that sits at the core of the novel, standing for history, desire, and family. World Literature Today Ably translated... a consistently compelling read. Midwest Book Review A knowing and astute novel. -- Bradley Winterton Taipei Times Lin and Goldblatt's translation of The Lost Garden is a significant accomplishment that succeeds in presenting this masterpiece to English readers... Li's portrayal of post-World War II Taiwan is both sophisticated and penetrating. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature Striking in its ambitious reach and political slant... The Lost Garden is a distinctive contribution to the literature of place, and its translation into English gives welcome access to a country and culture often obscured by its neighbours, China and Japan. -- Francesca Rhydderch Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsWhat Separates Us from China Translator's Note The Lost Garden
£19.80
Columbia University Press Klotsvog
Book SynopsisKlotsvog is a novel about being Jewish in the Soviet Union and the historical trauma of World War II—and it’s a novel about the petty dramas and demons of one wonderfully vain woman. Maya Abramovna Klotsvog has had quite a life, and she wants you to know all about it.Trade ReviewMasterful . . . The storytelling is sumptuous throughout, and Klotsvog is also memorable for its bold grasp on the legacy of anxiety . . . Between the suffering of the past and the fear of the future, Khemlin shows how our relationship with love can be determined by our reckoning with ancestral pain. -- Yelena Moskovich * Times Literary Supplement *Maya Abramovna Klotsvog is materialistic and manipulative. She’s a kind of Soviet Becky Sharp, in a 1950s version of Vanity Fair, trying to survive in a hostile world. . . . In giving voice to this complex, wounded character, Khemlin invites us to empathize even as we judge and to better understand our own common, terrified, irrational humanity. -- Phoebe Taplin * Los Angeles Review of Books *In many ways, Khemlin has written the picaresque novel for the Soviet Era. . . . Maya Klotsvog’s life recalls a Jewish adage mentioned in the novel, 'The house is burning but the clock still keeps time.' We see a life that moves forward even while it smolders. Her survival is triumphant, as is this novel. -- Austin Sanchez-Moran * Jewish Book Council *Khemlin has created an unforgettable character and opened a window onto a world more people should know about. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *Funny and enraging, moving and deeply felt. . . . A subtle, nuanced take on one apparently selfish woman and the difficult choices she makes. * Kirkus Reviews *Klotsvog is a story of everyday darkness told by the ultimate unreliable narrator. Armed with endless justifications, Maya’s compelled by the power of what she sheds, whether it’s her Jewish heritage, her Ukrainian roots, her failed relationships, or her self-awareness. Yet part of what makes her confusing and compelling is the core of practical ambition, survivorship, and threat that lies beneath her vanity. As Maya vibrates on a frequency between ruthless self-determination and charming narcissism, Klotsvog infects its audience with a compulsion to determine which dominates. * Foreword Reviews *This singular novel is simultaneously an intimate portrait of a woman who does not see the consequences of her actions and an exploration of the corrosive effects of anti-Semitism on individuals and society. Set after World War II, it feels eerily timely. A most necessary read. -- Aviya Kushner, author of The Grammar of God and language columnist at The ForwardThrough the defensive, abject, yet utterly seductive voice of its untrustworthy narrator, Klotsvog entices us to enter the suspect schemes and shameless denials that characterize the dailiness of Soviet Jewish lives. As a novel, it is so utterly honest, it will make you cringe. -- Marianne Hirsch, author of The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the HolocaustLike some of her predecessors—Jewish writers born in small Ukrainian towns—the talented Margarita Khemlin infused the lives of her characters with grand ambitions and luminous failures. A valuable and welcome addition to the growing body of Jewish-Russian literature in English translation. -- Maxim D. Shrayer, author of A Russian Immigrant and editor of Voices of Jewish-Russian LiteratureTruly a masterpiece of Russian fiction. -- Brian Horowitz, author of Empire Jews: Jewish Nationalism and Acculturation in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century RussiaTable of ContentsForeword by Lara VapnyarTranslator’s NoteKlotsvog
£48.29
Columbia University Press Klotsvog
Book SynopsisKlotsvog is a novel about being Jewish in the Soviet Union and the historical trauma of World War II—and it’s a novel about the petty dramas and demons of one wonderfully vain woman. Maya Abramovna Klotsvog has had quite a life, and she wants you to know all about it.Trade ReviewMasterful . . . The storytelling is sumptuous throughout, and Klotsvog is also memorable for its bold grasp on the legacy of anxiety . . . Between the suffering of the past and the fear of the future, Khemlin shows how our relationship with love can be determined by our reckoning with ancestral pain. -- Yelena Moskovich * Times Literary Supplement *Maya Abramovna Klotsvog is materialistic and manipulative. She’s a kind of Soviet Becky Sharp, in a 1950s version of Vanity Fair, trying to survive in a hostile world. . . . In giving voice to this complex, wounded character, Khemlin invites us to empathize even as we judge and to better understand our own common, terrified, irrational humanity. -- Phoebe Taplin * Los Angeles Review of Books *In many ways, Khemlin has written the picaresque novel for the Soviet Era. . . . Maya Klotsvog’s life recalls a Jewish adage mentioned in the novel, 'The house is burning but the clock still keeps time.' We see a life that moves forward even while it smolders. Her survival is triumphant, as is this novel. -- Austin Sanchez-Moran * Jewish Book Council *Khemlin has created an unforgettable character and opened a window onto a world more people should know about. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *Funny and enraging, moving and deeply felt. . . . A subtle, nuanced take on one apparently selfish woman and the difficult choices she makes. * Kirkus Reviews *Klotsvog is a story of everyday darkness told by the ultimate unreliable narrator. Armed with endless justifications, Maya’s compelled by the power of what she sheds, whether it’s her Jewish heritage, her Ukrainian roots, her failed relationships, or her self-awareness. Yet part of what makes her confusing and compelling is the core of practical ambition, survivorship, and threat that lies beneath her vanity. As Maya vibrates on a frequency between ruthless self-determination and charming narcissism, Klotsvog infects its audience with a compulsion to determine which dominates. * Foreword Reviews *This singular novel is simultaneously an intimate portrait of a woman who does not see the consequences of her actions and an exploration of the corrosive effects of anti-Semitism on individuals and society. Set after World War II, it feels eerily timely. A most necessary read. -- Aviya Kushner, author of The Grammar of God and language columnist at The ForwardThrough the defensive, abject, yet utterly seductive voice of its untrustworthy narrator, Klotsvog entices us to enter the suspect schemes and shameless denials that characterize the dailiness of Soviet Jewish lives. As a novel, it is so utterly honest, it will make you cringe. -- Marianne Hirsch, author of The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the HolocaustLike some of her predecessors—Jewish writers born in small Ukrainian towns—the talented Margarita Khemlin infused the lives of her characters with grand ambitions and luminous failures. A valuable and welcome addition to the growing body of Jewish-Russian literature in English translation. -- Maxim D. Shrayer, author of A Russian Immigrant and editor of Voices of Jewish-Russian LiteratureTruly a masterpiece of Russian fiction. -- Brian Horowitz, author of Empire Jews: Jewish Nationalism and Acculturation in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century RussiaTable of ContentsForeword by Lara VapnyarTranslator’s NoteKlotsvog
£12.99
Columbia University Press City Folk and Country Folk
Book SynopsisAn unsung gem of nineteenth-century Russian literature, City Folk and Country Folk is a satire of Russia’s aristocratic and pseudo-intellectual elites in the 1860s. Sofia Khvoshchinskaya, writing under a male pseudonym, centers her story on a common-sense, hardworking noblewoman and her self-assured daughter living on their small rural estate.Trade ReviewA single man of property comes to a country village-unsettling young and older ladies. The village is in Russia, soon after the emancipation of the serfs; Ovcharov is a hypochondriac intellectual. "A comical people," he reflects at one point, and the women and the reader must agree. Admirers of Jane Austen will delight in this charming satire. -- Rachel Brownstein, The Graduate Center at CUNYTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction by Hilde Hoogenboom Notes on the Translation City Folk and Country Folk Notes
£12.34
Columbia University Press Quelling the Demons Revolt
Book SynopsisIn this Ming-era novel, historical narrative, raucous humor, and the supernatural are interwoven to tell the tale of an attempt to overthrow the Song dynasty. Quelling the Demons’ Revolt is centered on the rebellion led by Wang Ze in 1047–48, warning of the vulnerability of a world plagued by demonic forces as well as mundane corruption.Trade ReviewQuelling the Demons' Revolt is a marvelous late Ming novel, here beautifully translated by Patrick Hanan. It features a strong heroine, Eterna Hu (or is she a villain?). The demonic exists just under the surface of everyday life, and when it erupts into full revolt, supernatural powers are called upon to restore order. Martial ardor, political authority, and magic propel the plot of the novel. Although I do not want to diminish the ways in which it would be useful in classrooms in a variety of disciplines (literature, religion, gender studies), its utility should not obscure the fact that it is a rollicking good read. -- Ann Waltner, University of Minnesota Quelling the Demon's Revolt by Patrick Hanan is a spirited translation. Beginning with a revolt led by a messianic Buddhist movement, the novel moves from historical events of the eleventh century to stories of folly and venality that resonate with audiences of any era. This comic novel is a cornucopia of tales about trickery, seduction, demonology and the supernatural, played out by pawnbrokers, seducers, rebels, dim-witted magistrates and strong-minded women. Hanan's translation deftly captures the wit and vitality of the original work. -- Anne McLaren, The University of Melbourne Good tidings! In this new, posthumous translation of one of the most delightful and neglected examples of the early modern Chinese novel, Patrick Hanan's stylish brush lives again. There is near perfect fusion between the magic feats depicted in this riotous novel of unruly demons run amok in the everyday world and the magic of the translator's voice to conjure them up for us. The perfect length and subject matter for classroom teaching. -- Judith Zeitlin, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsIntroduction Quelling the Demons' Revolt Notes
£999.99
Columbia University Press The Little Devil and Other Stories
Book SynopsisAlexei Remizov was one of the greatest writers of the Russian Symbolist movement. In the thirteen stories collected in this volume, his exceptional stylistic achievements are on full display. The Little Devil and Other Stories includes works from across Remizov’s career encompassing his thematic preoccupations and stylistic experimentation.Trade ReviewThe Little Devil and Other Stories offers a dazzling range of the little-known symbolist writer’s work. The beautiful translation by Antonina W. Bouis captures the nuances of every selection, including the tour de force—Bouis’s sensitive rendering of “Princess Mymra.” A book for fans of Remizov and readers discovering him. -- Anna Vassilieva, translator of The Road to HomeAntonina Bouis gives a generous selection of the shorter prose of Alexei Remizov, a leading exponent of modernist fiction in Russia, whose work has remained largely inaccessible to readers in English-speaking countries. The translator is to be congratulated on the clarity with which she has rendered into English the stories of this most Russian of Russian writers. -- Roger Keys, cotranslator of Sisters of the CrossIn the stories there are connivers, inseparable lovers, destiny, the will of human beings, the confusion of fate, death, long cold winters, shoemakers, the revolution, peasants, and a long suffering grandmother . . . The stories are rich, the writing is beautiful and certainly there is an audience for it. * Book Stalker *I was in awe of Remizov's boundless imagination, his elaborate set-pieces, and his dazzling imagery. -- Ian Mond * Locus Magazine *Includes fascinating reworkings of classic Russian fairy tales, as well as semi-autobiographical and historical pieces interwoven with necromancy and magical realism. * Locus Magazine, New & Notable Books Selection *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Bebka2. Petushok the Cockerel3. The Sacrifice4. The Little Devil5. The Profaner6. Princess Mymra7. Panna Maria8. The Kind Guard9. The Venerable Lis10. Martin Zadeka11. Savva Grudtsyn12. About Pyotr and Fevronia of Murom13. Grigory and Ksenia
£48.29
Columbia University Press Sisters of the Cross
Book SynopsisThe first English translation of this remarkable 1910 novel by Alexei Remizov, Sisters of the Cross is a masterpiece of early modernist fiction. It tell the story of a poor clerk who rebels against the suffering and humiliation afflicting his own life and the women he encounters in the tenement building where he lives in Petersburg.Trade ReviewA seminal novel by one of the most important of the Symbolist writers. . . . Whether you read it to get a sense of Petersburg in the pre-revolutionary era, or to savor the poeticism of Remizov’s prose, you won’t be disappointed. * Russian Life *In gorgeous prose, the novel blends together the seemingly disparate narratives of its individual characters to form a harmonious whole. The narrative sings of age-old dichotomies—rich and poor, truth and illusion, love and lust. Phrases, sentences, and even entire paragraphs occasionally resurface throughout, like motifs in a symphony of human suffering. * Foreword Reviews *Dark and beguiling; Remizov is a writer worth knowing about, and this slender volume makes a good start. * Kirkus Reviews *An assured and vivid translation by Roger Keys and Brian Murphy. . . . Sisters of the Cross freely blends the symbolic with the explicit, the arcane with the colloquial, and the spiritual with the profane, depicting life in all its irrationality and absurdity. -- Bryan Karetnyk * Times Literary Supplement *Remizov's sketches and episodes offer a vividly drawn good cross-section of Russian life at the beginning of the twentieth century. -- M.A. Orthofer * The Complete Review *Now that Sisters of the Cross is accessible in a skilled translation, those teaching undergraduate courses have the opportunity to assign what is arguably Remizov’s finest work as well as an excellent example of Russian modernist prose. . . . For Anglophone readers with an interest in Russian literature who have not yet come across Remizov, Sisters of the Cross will be a pleasing discovery. -- Barry P. Scherr * Slavic and East European Journal *In Sisters of the Cross, we get an expertly accurate translation of perhaps the only masterpiece of Russian prose before 1917 that remains unknown to Anglophone readers. Keys and Murphy capture Remizov’s teeming, intensely human post-Dostoevskian Petersburg, where the sordid, the surreal, and the spiritual are inextricable. -- Gerald Smith, University of OxfordSisters of the Cross is a tale set in Burkov’s boardinghouse—a microcosm of Petersburg and the whole of Russia—filled with minor civil servants, wronged women, and holy wanderers, accident-prone circus artistes set to conquer the heart of Europe, the indifferent rich, and a Moscow merchant, haphazard patron of the protagonist. All this buzzes and sings, expands and contracts in mesmerizing spirals—until the shock of the last line, a scream for help in an empty world. Wisely, Keys and Murphy preserve the authorial intonation, and thereby achieve simplicity and poetic resonance without losing immediate human interest among the echoes of another culture. -- Avril Pyman, University of DurhamAn English translation of Alexei Remizov’s Sisters of the Cross has long been overdue. Roger Keys and Brian Murphy successfully tackle the challenges of Remizov’s unique and quirky style, which fuses archaic and folkloric traits with a modernist flair reminiscent of surrealism. -- Adrian Wanner, Pennsylvania State UniversityRemizov reveals the way trauma recurs in the mind, body, and speech of the survivor. He exposes the absurd normalization of sexual violence in Russian society in his time. And he shows how individuals — Marakulin, Father Lis, and others — embody this societal threat. -- Fiona Bell * Los Angeles Review of Books *Table of ContentsIntroductionList of Characters Sisters of the Cross
£36.50
Columbia University Press Dust and Other Stories
Book SynopsisYi T’aejun was one of twentieth-century Korea’s true masters of the short story—and a man who in 1946 stunned his contemporaries by moving to the Soviet-occupied North. Dust and Other Stories offers a selection of Yi’s stories across time and place, showcasing a superb stylist caught up in his era’s most urgent ideological and aesthetic divides.Trade ReviewTo read Janet Poole’s sensitive translation of Yi T'aejun’s Dust and Other Stories is to experience both amazed discovery and a profound sense of loss. How could such a remarkable writer have his legacy effaced in his lifetime, and his death go unrecorded? Yet while the darkness about which Yi wrote might have swallowed him whole, Janet Poole has here achieved a reclamation. Dust brings Yi back to the light. -- Susan Choi, author of My EducationReminiscent of comic naturalists like Gogol and Guy de Maupassant, Yi excelled at portraiture. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *This book of short stories captures the precarious daily life of ordinary Koreans under post-war occupation. * International Examiner *Yi T’aejun’s charming stories about everyday Koreans made him one of the country’s most beloved writers. But with the onset of World War II, Yi went from a contemplative chronicler of the world around him to a political firebrand. He defected to the North in 1946, and subsequently his books were banned from publication in South Korea (a prohibition that would last 40 years). Dust, a new collection of Yi’s short stories selected and translated by the Korean scholar Janet Poole, offers a chronological survey of his life’s work to explain how so drastic a transformation came about. -- Kyle Paoletta * Harvard Review *Translator Poole’s impressive introduction not only contextualizes Yi’s significance in the Korean canon but champions the rightful restoration of his erased stature, an unfortunate result of Yi’s 1946 Seoul-to- Pyongyang move. With Korea’s 1950 separation came the censorship of Yi’s work on both sides of the thirty-eighth parallel. . . . Loosely linked by Yi’s alter ego, writer Hyn, these stories capture precarious daily life under occupation, the challenges of liberation, and the ensuing chaos of U.S. military control. Extraordinary as both historical record and illuminating literature, Yi’s stories reveal modern Korea through the voices of young women unbroken by destitution, lonely traitors searching for companionship, aging friends reliving lost youth, jobless men dreaming of comfort, even truculent old women finally lured into literacy. * Booklist (starred review) *An excellent collection of stories and historical insights, showing us that reflecting on past events is far easier than predicting how history will unfold. Of course, it’s also, coincidentally, a rather timely publication. . . . when all Koreans are hoping for another small step towards peace on the peninsula, perhaps Yi’s story is a necessary and telling reminder of the human cost of international politics * Tony's Reading List *Yi T’aejun was among Korea’s most acclaimed short-story writers. . . . This collection, assembled and translated by University of Toronto historian Janet Poole, brings together 12 of his best short fiction, spanning his entire career, written in both the south and the north. -- Sarah Murdoch * The Toronto Star *This book is a must read in post-colonial literary criticism as well as in colonial- and Cold War-period Korean literature. * Acta Koreana *[Yi's] urge to preserve culture and bear witness to history make the thematic positioning of this short-story collection particularly salient in today’s political climate. * World Literature Today *Offers intriguing short stories that look at the effects of the colonial era and liberation on writers and teachers, as well as observations about life in North Korea in the years just after the partition. * Korean Quarterly *In its critical selection and introduction of Yi T’aejun’s short fiction, Dust stands alongside Poole’s Eastern Sentiments in bringing before an English-language readership the masterworks of this important author, here in a superb translation that does justice to the nuanced complexity of Yi’s prose. -- Christopher Hanscom, University of California, Los AngelesIn this sensitive, nuanced, and eminently readable translation, Janet Poole brings us a full spectrum of short stories by a writer whose work has been sorely underrepresented and unavailable. This volume is an absolute must-have for anyone wanting to study Korean literature or, in these urgent times, gain insight into the rifts between North and South Korea. -- Heinz Insu Fenkl, State University of New York at New PaltzThis eloquent book masterfully restores the quiet, nostalgic voices of Yi T’aejun’s fiction while also positing a connection between early North Korean literature and its colonial antecedent. Poole’s judicious selection of midcentury short stories is an important contribution to Korean literature in translation. -- Samuel Perry, Brown UniversityDust and Other Stories is an evocative collection by one of Korea’s modernist masters that explores some of twentieth-century Korea’s tortured relations: those between art and life, the individual and history, and the private and public. Poole’s deep knowledge of this era and her profound empathy for the writer breathe life into colonial Korea’s most memorable characters. -- Dafna Zur, Stanford UniversityTable of ContentsTranslator’s AcknowledgmentsTranslator’s IntroductionOmongnyŏMr. Son, of Great WealthThe Rainy SeasonThe Broker’s OfficeThe Frozen River P’aeA Tale of RabbitsThe HuntEvening SunUnconditionedBefore and After Liberation: A Writer’s NotesTiger GrandmaDustGlossary
£63.00
