Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisIn the chaos of early 199s Russia, a paralyzed veteran’s wife and stepdaughter conceal the Soviet Union’s collapse from him in order to keep him—and his pension—alive, until it turns out the tough old man has other plans. Olga Slavnikova’s The Man Who Couldn’t Die is an instant classic of post-Soviet Russian literature.Trade ReviewDarkly sardonic . . . . oddly timely, for there are all sorts of understated hints about voter fraud, graft, payoffs, and the endless promises of politicians who have no intention of keeping them. It is also deftly constructed, portraying a world and a cast of characters who are caught between the orderly if drab world of old and the chaos of the 'new rich' in a putative democracy. . . . Slavnikova is a writer American readers will want to have more of. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *Rather than celebrate the crumbling of walls, Slavnikova’s novel shows us all the Lenin statues still in place. It portrays a culture chained to old realities, unable to establish a new understanding of itself. This is a funhouse mirror worth looking into, especially in today’s United States with its alternative facts, unpoetic assertions, and morbid relationship with the past. -- Leeore Schnairsohn * Los Angeles Review of Books *The Man Who Couldn’t Die, lucidly translated by Marian Schwartz, will resound with American readers. Bristling with voter fraud, fake news, and the cozy top-and-tail of media moguls and politicians, Slavnikova’s book is fluent in new language of the damaged reality principle. -- Olivia Parkes * The Baffler *The Man Who Couldn’t Die is a Gogolian portrait of the Kharitonovs, a Moscow family who 'had not been handed any party favors at capitalism’s kiddie party' after the fall of the Soviet Union. -- Natasha Randall * Times Literary Supplement *The Man Who Couldn’t Die is an overlooked masterpiece of post-Soviet prose by one of contemporary Russia’s most important authors. It reveals how Slavnikova’s descriptions (and Schwartz’s English equivalent) belong alongside those of Vladimir Nabokov, Iurii Olesha, and Nikolai Gogol as truly revolutionary in Russian prose. -- Benjamin Sutcliffe, Miami UniversityThe Man Who Couldn’t Die is a wonderful depiction of a society in flux, and of the people caught up in these waves of change. * Tony's Reading List *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Mark LipovetskyThe Man Who Couldn’t Die

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Book SynopsisThe tales collected in The Nose and Other Stories are among the greatest achievements of world literature. They showcase Nikolai Gogol’s vivid, haunting imagination: an encounter with evil in a darkened church, a downtrodden clerk who dreams only of a new overcoat, a nose that falls off a face and reappears around town on its own.Trade Review[A] first-rate collection . . . Admirers of Gogol and his odd sensibilities will devour this excellent gathering. * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *While they deal in subjects including witchcraft, demonic influence, and madness, Gogol’s stories are as humorous as they are bizarre . . . The Nose and Other Stories is filled with ill-fated characters, strange happenings, and satirical commentary. * Foreword Reviews *Since much of Gogol’s humor depends on linguistic play, he has proven resistant to adequate translation. . . Fusso’s ear for humor makes all the difference. * New York Review of Books *Crazy, colorful, delightful, and sad, Gogol’s short stories are among the great gems of Russian literature. Susanne Fusso’s scholarly and stylish new translations bring them alive once again and make this selection a pleasure to read. -- David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of EverythingThe first major English translation of Gogol’s stories in more than twenty years, The Nose and Other Stories captures his humor and complexity brilliantly. This volume will prove to be a great read for students and Russian literature enthusiasts alike. -- Bruce Holl, Trinity University[A] really wonderful collection of Gogol’s writings, and essential for any lover of his work. * Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings *An erudite, modern translation of [Gogol’s] work that shows clearly how this strange writer became a defining influence on Russian literature and beyond. * Paperback Paris *In a move that preserves a sense of foreignness in the English translation, Fusso employs something closer to a literal translation than the more idiomatic one used by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky in their 2011 rendering of Gogol’s stories. Fusso maintains the pacing and eeriness of Gogol’s narrative flow while also stretching out some of the language . . . Such choices in translation create a subtle nod to the linguistic distance Russian readers would have experienced reading Gogol’s prose. * The Nation *Susanne Fusso does excellent work making the Russian-to-English prose accessible, readable, and unfussily poetic. * Jason Half's Blog *[Fusso's] translation captures all of Gogol’s magic. * Evilcyclist's Bookshelf *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction, by Susanne FussoNotes on the TranslationTable of Ranks1. The Lost Letter2. Viy3. The Portrait (1835 version)4. Nevsky Avenue5. Diary of a Madman6. The Carriage7. The Nose8. Rome (A Fragment)9. The OvercoatNotes

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Book SynopsisThis book presents three tales that encapsulate Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s gift for creating philosophical, satirical, and lyrical phantasmagorias. It also includes excerpts from his notebooks—aphoristic glimpses of his worldview, moods, humor, and writing methods—and reminiscences of Krzhizhanovsky by his lifelong companion, Anna Bovshek.Trade ReviewIf H. G. Wells had been a poet, if Emily Dickinson were born a Slav, and if they had teamed up to write darkly hilarious, meandering novellas of fantastic realism, they might have equaled the bleak wit of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. Joanne Turnbull’s deft, dazzlingly inventive translation and Caryl Emerson’s lucid and moving introduction reveal the human side of this brilliant, tragically frustrated talent. -- Muireann Maguire, author of Stalin's Ghosts: Gothic Themes in Early Soviet LiteratureKrzhizhanovsky is unmatched for the droll humor with which he fictionalizes philosophers, from Kant to the imaginary Katafalaki. “Logic for children,” he wrote in his notebook; yes, children of the universe, old as we are, and still bewildered. I am so grateful for his gentle pathos in the face of great odds. -- Ange Mlinko, author of Venice: PoemsSince his rediscovery in the waning days of the Soviet Union, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky has completely overturned the canon of Russian literature. Joanne Turnbull and Nikolai Formozov’s blistering translations of these three novellas, which provoke frequent guffaws of delight and horror, show us why. -- Benjamin Paloff, author of Lost in the Shadow of the Word: Space, Time, and Freedom in Interwar Eastern EuropeIt is now clear that Krzhizhanovsky is one of the greatest Russian writers of the last century. -- Robert Chandler, The Financial TimesKrzhizhanovsky is often compared to Borges, Swift, Poe, Gogol, Kafka, and Beckett, yet his fiction relies on its own special mixture of heresy and logic...phantasmagoric. -- Natasha Randall, BookforumKrzhizhanovsky takes the reader through realms of magic and science alike. It’s like little else you’ll encounter anywhere—politically resonant fables where people and places turn malleable at a moment’s notice. -- Tobias Carroll * Words Without Borders *[A] richly rewarding read with great depths to mine for the dedicated reader. -- Axie Barclay * Seattle Book Review *Just brilliant. -- Karen Langley * Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings *Would Krzhizhanovsky have dared write something so esoteric if he expected to be published? There is an exhilarating sense that the deeper his obscurity ran, the wilder his intellectual frolics became. -- Sam Sacks * Wall Street Journal *This collection of playful metaphysical tales and memoirs, by and about the Kyiv-born author Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, will delight admirers and enchant new readers. -- Muireann Maguire * Times Literary Supplement *This lively, thought-provoking new translation represents an important step in bringing [Krzhizhanovsky’s] work into being for Anglophones. -- A. J. DeBlasio * Choice Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction, by Caryl EmersonStravaging “Strange”CatastropheMaterial for a Life of Gorgis KatafalakiKrzhizhanovsky’s Notebooks and Loose-Leaf NotesAfterwordNotes

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together remarkable short stories by the Russian Symbolist Fyodor Sologub that explore the lengths to which people will go to transcend the mundane. Renowned as one of late imperial Russia’s finest stylists, Sologub bridges the great nineteenth-century novel and the fin-de-siècle avant-garde.Trade ReviewSologub's prose is beautiful: limpid, clear, balanced, poetical, but with a keen sense of measure. . . . -- Dmitri Svatopolk-Mirsky, author of A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900[Sologub’s] vivid, honed, stinging style . . . combines simplicity and elegance, coldness and fire, tenderness and austerity. . . . His anguishing conceptions more and more convincingly lift the cover of enchantment that all of reality turns out to be. He is the singer of death: but he sings of death with all the tenderness of a prayer, all the ardor of passion; he speaks of death the way a passionate lover speaks of his beloved. -- Andrei Bely, author of PetersburgAlternately funny and frightening, charming and chilling, Sologub's short fiction remains curiously undervalued. Fusso's excellently selected and masterfully translated collection, accompanied by an exemplary introduction and copious notes, finally allows readers of English to appreciate the full power of Sologub's relentlessly double vision and the depth of his literary craft. -- Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Amherst College[A] richly painted world . . . The stories collected in To the Stars contain echoes of Baudelaire, Huysmans and Wilde. . . [Fusso's] English versions capture not just the morbid corporeality of Sologub’s prose, but also its radiant poetry and extravagant wordplay. -- Philip Ross Bullock * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Susanne FussoSelected Works About Sologub in EnglishNote on Transliteration and Translation Issues1. To the Stars (1896)2. Beauty (1899)3. In Captivity (1905)4. The Two Gotiks (1906)5. The Youth Linus (1906)6. In the Crowd (1907)7. Death by Advertisement (1907)8. The White Dog (1908)9. The Saddened Fiancée (1908)10. The Sixty-Seventh Day. A Novella (1908)11. The Road to Damascus (1910) (written with Anastasia Chebotarevskaya)12. The Kiss of the Unborn Child (1911)13. The Lady in Shackles. A Legend of the White Nights (1912)14. Little Fairy Tales (selection, 1898–1906)NotesPublication History of the Stories

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Book SynopsisJun’ichirō Tanizaki is one of the most prominent Japanese writers of the twentieth century. This book presents three powerful stories of family from the first decade of Tanizaki’s career. Written in different genres, they are united by a focus on mothers and sons and a concern for Japan’s traditional culture in the face of Westernization.Trade ReviewThough Tanizaki was prolific, by now most of his major works have found their way into English. That there are still delights to be uncovered, however, is confirmed by the arrival of Longing and Other Stories . . . the stories are satisfying in themselves and additionally pleasing for their hints of an emergent mastery. -- Brad Leithauser * Wall Street Journal *Tanizaki enthralls with sharp, human(e) observations. -- Terry Hong * Booklist *A kind of master class in voice . . . The world of literature is much richer now that Longing and Other Stories is available for English readers. -- Marissa Moss * New York Journal of Books *This is a beautiful and immaculate Japanese short story collection from one of Japan’s greatest writers. -- Willow Heath * Books and Bao *A fine and nicely varied little sampler of Tanizaki's early writing. -- M.A. Orthofer * Complete Review *These three early works by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki explore family bonds—the mother-son relationship in particular—using different angles and styles: dreamy and lyrical, painfully realistic, tragically fraught. In stories rendered with elegant precision by the veterans Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy, Tanizaki masterfully probes the complexities of the human heart. -- Juliet Winters Carpenter, translator of Minae Mizumura’s An I-NovelAmong the most original and insightful novelists of twentieth-century world literature, Tanizaki creates richly idiosyncratic characters embodying the paradoxes of modern life. As deftly translated by veteran Tanizaki specialists Chambers and McCarthy, his short fiction will fascinate and delight readers. -- Keiichiro Hirano, award-winning author of A ManChambers and McCarthy capture well distinctly different voices in these early Tanizaki stories exploring three modes of storytelling. Lyrical dream-memory, naturalistic fictionalized self-revelation, and ironic commentary on conventional social morality presage the author’s later writing. The afterword draws on the translators’ deep knowledge of Tanizaki’s work to enhance our understanding. -- Phyllis Lyons, translator of Tanizaki’s In Black and White: A NovelVivid yet hazy, nostalgic and soothing yet disturbing, Tanizaki’s tale of longing for the mother is made available in this beautiful translation, together with two other strikingly different “mother” narratives. This book expands and enriches the Tanizaki corpus in English. -- Tomoko Aoyama, author of Reading Food in Modern Japanese LiteratureIn all of these three very different stories we hear Tanizaki’s distinctive voice and enjoy the products of his overwrought imagination. This translation is a valuable addition to the canon. -- Lesley Downer * Times Literary Supplement *There’s a tremendous sense of loss shared by all three of the stories collected in this volume, with regret lurking close behind. Whether focusing on a dreamer wandering through a mythic landscape or a man becoming acutely aware of his own flaws, Tanizaki creates characters whose psychologies resonate and whose flaws are engaging. -- Tobias Carroll * Words Without Borders *A brilliantly efficient introduction to [Tanizaki’s] work. -- Anna Hollingsworth * Shiny New Books *Longing and Other Stories provides not only three thematically-linked stories to the canon, the afterword also adds an excellent resource of accessible scholarship and close-reading. -- Alison Fincher * Asian Review of Books *Such brilliant storytelling . . . Tanizaki’s luminous and lucid prose forces the reader into an existential dilemma faced by the author and his characters, one of children torn between the old world and the new. -- Ella Kelleher * Asia Media International *A heady accomplishment . . . Longing and Other Stories blends artful translation, gorgeous prose, and round, imperfect human people that are truly terrifying. -- Caren Gussoff Sumption * Locus Magazine *Tanizaki was a master of different styles and voices, a skill in evident display in these new translations by Anthony H. Chambers and Paul McCarthy . . . this short collection really runs the gamut of mother-son relationships, allowing these disparate stories to achieve something close to unity of theme. Authors often return to the same topic over the course of their careers but few have the breadth of talent to take such fresh approaches each time. -- Iain Maloney * Japan Times *The translators … have rendered the English seamlessly. Moreover, by taking all three stories from early in the author’s career, they give us a valuable window on to his development. They also showcase his inventiveness in tackling entirely different modes of narrative. -- Mark Robinson * Mekong Review *This is literature for the soul at its finest. * Asia Media International *Table of Contents1. Longing2. Sorrows of a Heretic3. The Story of an Unhappy MotherTranslators’ AfterwordAcknowledgments

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Book SynopsisBy depicting one woman as a Jewish refugee in the US during WWII, A Jewish Refugee in New York provides keen insight into the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place and reveals the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York.Trade ReviewMolodovsky's novel adds further dimension to our ever-growing understanding of the diverse ways postwar Jewish literature responded to the destruction of Eastern European Jewish civilization. -- Rachel Rubinstein * In Geveb A Journal of Yiddish Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Anita NorichFrom Lublin to New York: The Journal of Rivke Zilberg, A Young Jewish Refugee / A novel by Kadya Molodovsky

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Book SynopsisBy depicting one woman as a Jewish refugee in the US during WWII, A Jewish Refugee in New York provides keen insight into the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place and reveals the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York.Trade ReviewMolodovsky's novel adds further dimension to our ever-growing understanding of the diverse ways postwar Jewish literature responded to the destruction of Eastern European Jewish civilization. -- Rachel Rubinstein * In Geveb A Journal of Yiddish Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Anita NorichFrom Lublin to New York: The Journal of Rivke Zilberg, A Young Jewish Refugee / A novel by Kadya Molodovsky

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Through this story the author restores a past that has been erased by history and emphasizes the historical memory of what must never be repeated or forgotten." * Daejon Ilbo *"[An] exceptional novel… Soom captures the agonizing legacy of a dark chapter from the recent past." * Booklist *"The process of directly confronting the comfort women’s hellish experiences is truly painful. However, because the novel is not a product of the author’s imagination but in fact based on historical reality, we cannot turn our heads away. No, we must not." * Donga Ilbo *"Though it is fiction, Kim Soom’s novel is steeped in fact. One Left dignifies its subjects as an authentic memorial that makes an indelible mark on history." * Foreword Reviews *"It may seem cliché to state that a novel is necessary. But this one really is." * Asian Review of Books *"This is a painful, powerful literary indictment of the systemic subjugation of Korean comfortwomen, whose own #MeToo movement has yet to be fully reckoned with, decades after the fact." * Bookmonger *"This Korean novel dramatizes, with indelible force, the utter dehumanization of women confined to authoritarian patriarchal imprisonment." * The Arts Fuse *"[A] landmark — the first novel dedicated to depicting comfort women, a topic that invokes as much weariness as it does outrage among today’s public. Though a work of fiction, Kim Soom’s story is based on exhaustive research and testimonies given by actual comfort women...By rendering this topic in the form of a novel, Kim injects a new sense of emotional urgency in recognizing these very real and hauntingly painful experiences." * International Examiner *"[S]ynthesizes acute personal memories with painful history, straddling the line between fact and fiction. The result is a gut-wrenching narrative." * Korean Herald *"All credit then, to author, translators and publisher for bringing this important book to us." * London Korean Links *"In their even, experienced hands the translation avoids any temptation toward melodrama or obscenity, especially tricky and crucial given the raw, violent subject at hand... For English readers, one must note commensurate, masterful sensitivity to every word and nuance in the translation." * Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature (TSWL) *"[T]he first Korean novel devoted exclusively to the subject of the “comfort women.” In direct opposition to the Japanese government’s efforts to suppress the memory of its sex slave camps, Kim chooses to deploy language like a scalpel, crafting her narrative from the testimonies of dozens of Korean survivors... Granting dignity to the few living survivors is a matter of urgency, as highlighted by the fictional construct of One Left." * Ploughshares *"In this a telling of a tragic history from the perspective of one elderly former sex slave who sees herself as “the last one,” Kim revitalizes energy for this irreconcilable injustice in a new generation of readers." * Korean Quarterly *

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Book SynopsisSet at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when idleness was still looked upon by Russia's serf-owning rural gentry as a plausible and worthy goal, Ivan Goncharov's "Oblomov" follows the travails of an unlikely hero, a young aristocrat incapable of making a decision. This title presents the translation the novel.Trade Review"[Goncharov is] ten heads above me in talent.”—Anton Chekhov -- Anton Chekhov“Oblomov is a truly great work, the likes of which one has not seen for a long, long time. I am in rapture over Oblomov and keep rereading it.”—Leo Tolstoy -- Leo Tolstoy"Offers a fine example of sly and compassionate satire, a very rare genre indeed"—Michael Wood, London Review of Books -- London Review of Books"You can't help but be captivated by the 'rapture' that Tolstoy spoke of when reading and rereading it."—Ron Rosenblum, Slate, A Slate Best Book of 2008 -- Slate“The combination of Goncharov's edits and Schwartz’s translation left me thumbing back to the copyright page to confirm 1862, not 1962, as this translation sparkles with contemporary lyricism and humor."—Karen Vanuska, Quarterly Conversation -- Quarterly Conversation“Long before Jerry Seinfeld and Samuel Beckett, there was Ivan Goncharov, a minor government official in czarist Russia, and his classic novel about an ordinary Russian aristocrat mired in his own extraordinary inertia.”—Chris Lehman, Bookforum -- Bookforum

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Book SynopsisThe foremost Proust scholar of our time offers a brilliantly revised and annotated edition of the first volume of the twentieth century's most acclaimed novelTrade Review“A perfect entry point to begin the journey of a lifetime . . . a more engaging version.”—Mayank Austen Soofi, Live Mint"For William C. Carter, the dean of American Proust studies, to agree to do a new edition of the Scott Moncrieff translation of Swann’s Way is a coup for readers. The new version corrects numerous thematic and lexical errors, and preserves much of Scott Moncrieff’s celebrated style. Carter’s very readable revision is wisely and discreetly annotated, and it offers as accurate a translation as possible. It is also an unmitigated delight to read."—Allan H. Pasco, Hall Distinguished Professor, University of Kansas"No one has grasped the interplay of Proust's life and work better than William Carter. He has now applied that knowledge to the iconic but flawed translation of In Search of Lost Time by Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff, correcting Scott Moncrieff's faults-- his outright errors and his idiosyncratic Victorianisms--and providing essential notes to Proust's many cultural references. The result is a volume of enormous use to both first-time readers and those who are returning to Proust for further understanding and pleasure."—Harold Augenbraum, Editor, Collected Poems of Marcel Proust"In this thoroughly revised, updated and annotated version of Swann’s Way, William C. Carter, the prominent expert of Marcel Proust’s life and work, offers American readers the most accurate and valuable rendition of Scott Moncrieff’s translation to date. When appropriate and without altering the beauty of Moncrieff’s version, Carter has modernized it, made it compatible with U.S. spelling, and perceptively restored the French original’s simplicity as well as its intended meaning. Unobtrusive and yet detailed notes in this first volume of Proust’s monumental novel will guide general readers, students, and scholars alike in appreciating a text that has captivated millions of readers worldwide for the past hundred years."—Catherine Perry, University of Notre Dame“My favorite translation of Proust is Proust’s first English translator, Scott Moncrieff, but updated and corrected and annotated by one of the greatest Proustians alive today, William C. Carter . . . of whom I’m an enormous fan. . . . Beautifully annotated . . . An invaluable resource.”—Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris

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Book SynopsisNow available for the first time in English, Manea's acclaimed novel of émigrés in America, free yet imprisoned by the pastTrade Review“An intelligent, erudite, inexhaustible story-teller, in his essays as much as in his fiction, Norman Manea is above all a witness, someone who has lived to tell the tale. In [The Lair], as in all his work, we find the defining experiences of the twentieth century—the death camps, deportation, totalitarianism (both Fascism and Communism), marginalisation, deracination, exile, self-regeneration—filtered through the sensibility of one of its most astute survivors.”—Costa Bradatan, Times Literary Supplement A New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice”“[An] acclaimed novel of love, isolation and the disorientation of being submerged in another culture.”—GrantaLonglisted by Three Percent for their 2013 Best Translated Book in FictionA New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice” * New York Times *“Compelling.”—Tess Lewis, Arts Fuse -- Tess Lewis * Arts Fuse *“Great imaginative energy. . . . An elaborate, intricate, delicate narrative structure, balanced just so. . . . The Lair shows us life as a richly incomplete and unresolved experience.”—Reginald Gibbons, TriQuarterly -- Reginald Gibbons * TriQuarterly *

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Book SynopsisA vivid picture of nineteenth-century Russian society, but above all the poignant story of a man whose mortality becomes the only aspect of life that he shares with his fellow man.

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Book SynopsisA novel that tells the story of a young Muslim who, when his life is threatened, finds sanctuary in a community of Coptic monks.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on Transliteration and Pronunciation Glossary Introduction Chapter One: The Miqaddis Bishai Chapter Two: Aunt Safiyya Chapter Three: The Outlaws Chapter Four: Al-naksa Epilogue

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Book SynopsisGemini is a novel of extraordinary proportions, intricate images, and profound thought, in which Michel Tournier tells his fascinating story with an irresistible humor.Trade ReviewAstonishing; an El Dorado of ideas. New Statesman

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Book SynopsisUgo Foscolo's Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis, written between 1799 and 1815, was the first true Italian novel. Jacopo's tragic love for Teresa and his subsequent suicide recall The Sorrows of Young Werther. In addition to being an intensely political novel, this work also expresses the author's romantic conception of nature as a mirror of human emotions.

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Book SynopsisCastellanos Moya's most thrilling book to date, about the senselessness of tyranny.Trade Review"Brilliantly funny and unsettling. Despite his estrangement from his country and his merciless criticism of it, he has put El Salvador on the literary map, giving it an international existence." -- Natasha Wimmer - The Nation"A welcome, eye-opening addition to this new literature of the Latin American nightmare." -- Anderson Tepper - Time Out New York"In Tyrant Memory, Castellanos Moya’s ambitious and deft handling of his characters’ stories and political milieus reveal a writer unparalleled in his ability to portray the anxieties and messy complexities of political and personal turmoil." -- Jeffery Zuckerman - Review of Contemporary Fiction"Tyrant Memory stands out because of its scrupulous evocation of an atmosphere of conspiracy and its use of historical events." -- Times Literary Supplement"The only writer of my generation who knows how to narrate the horror, the secret Vietnam that Latin America was for a long time." -- Roberto Bolan~o"Castellanos Moya can be a brilliant practitioner of edge of collapse, culling searing narratives of exile and estrangement." -- Julia Haav - Three Percent

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Book SynopsisA novel that depicts the deleterious effects of the Romantic malaise that swept through western Europe in the early part of the nineteenth century.

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Book SynopsisIn this powerful story of life, love, and the demands of marriage and motherhood, Fariba Vafi gives readers a portrait of one woman's struggle to adapt to the complexity of life in modern Iran. Vafi's brilliant minimalist style showcases the narrator's reticence and passivity.

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Book SynopsisA novel that recounts the efforts of a young man to explore his own history and identity through his encounters with the family and friends who surround him.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1936, The People of Godlbozhits depicts the ordinary yet deeply complex life of a Jewish community, following the fortunes of one family and its many descendants. Set in a shtetl in Poland between the world wars, Rashkin's satiric novel offers a vivid cross-section not only of the residents' triumphs and struggles but also of their dense and complicated web of humanity.Trade ReviewThe novel is an element—an important, albeit neglected, one—in the puzzle of Yiddish literature created in the pre-Holocaust decades of the 20th century. Jordan Finkin’s excellent translation gives a chance to include Rashkin’s literary legacy in the contemporary academic discourse.' - Gennady Estraikh, clinical professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University 'A major work capturing the penultimate hour of Polish Jewish existence. . . . It is both hilarious and gruesome. The act of translating [it]is an invaluable gift for mankind, for we are offered an inside view of a battered but still vibrant Jewish world that no one could have expected to be exterminated to its roots within three years.' - Seth Wolitz, professor emeritus, Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, University of Texas

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Book SynopsisIn Pezeshkzad's fictional account, Hafez's life in fourteenth-century Shiraz is a mix of peril and humour. Set in a city that is at once beautiful and cutthroat, the novel includes a cast of historical figures to illuminate this elusive poet of the Persian literary tradition.Trade ReviewPezeshkzad is one of Iran’s beloved modern writers. Hafez in Love is an extraordinary English rendering showing why this Persian poet of wine, love, and honesty has been the most widely read author from the Balkan to the Bay of Bengal for seven hundred years in the Islamic world…. A fantastic read to be recommended to everyone who loves Persia, Persian poetry, and historical novels.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in China in 2009 and appearing in English for the first time, Liu Zhenyun’s award-winning Someone to Talk To follows two men living seventy years apart who in their loneliness and struggle to find meaningful personal connections highlight the contours of everyday life in pre- and post-Mao China.Trade Review(Starred Review) "A chronicle of lives of quiet desperation lived half a world away, understated and thoughtful, cheerless without being morose." * Kirkus Reviews *"Dense with dozens of interwoven narratives of living through pre- and post-Mao China, Liu's scathing and illuminating tome is highly recommended for internationally savvy fans of Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Yan Lianke." -- Terry Hong * Library Journal *Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface / Carlos Rojas vii Part I. Leaving Yanjin Chapter 1. 3 Chapter 2. 10 Chapter 3. 23 Chapter 4. 35 Chapter 5. 45 Chapter 6. 54 Chapter 7. 64 Chapter 8. 78 Chapter 9. 98 Chapter 10. 116 Chapter 11. 137 Chapter 12. 160 Chapter 13. 185 Chapter 14. 202 Part II. Returning to Yanjin Chapter 1. 227 Chapter 2. 243 Chapter 3. 254 Chapter 4. 267 Chapter 5. 277 Chapter 6. 289 Chapter 7. 306 Chapter 8. 325 Chapter 9. 339 Chapter 10. 351

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in China in 2009 and appearing in English for the first time, Liu Zhenyun’s award-winning Someone to Talk To follows two men living seventy years apart who in their loneliness and struggle to find meaningful personal connections highlight the contours of everyday life in pre- and post-Mao China.Trade Review(Starred Review) "A chronicle of lives of quiet desperation lived half a world away, understated and thoughtful, cheerless without being morose." * Kirkus Reviews *"Dense with dozens of interwoven narratives of living through pre- and post-Mao China, Liu's scathing and illuminating tome is highly recommended for internationally savvy fans of Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Yan Lianke." -- Terry Hong * Library Journal *Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface / Carlos Rojas vii Part I. Leaving Yanjin Chapter 1. 3 Chapter 2. 10 Chapter 3. 23 Chapter 4. 35 Chapter 5. 45 Chapter 6. 54 Chapter 7. 64 Chapter 8. 78 Chapter 9. 98 Chapter 10. 116 Chapter 11. 137 Chapter 12. 160 Chapter 13. 185 Chapter 14. 202 Part II. Returning to Yanjin Chapter 1. 227 Chapter 2. 243 Chapter 3. 254 Chapter 4. 267 Chapter 5. 277 Chapter 6. 289 Chapter 7. 306 Chapter 8. 325 Chapter 9. 339 Chapter 10. 351

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Book SynopsisThis exquisite collection of short fiction by Sata Ineko (1904â1998) offers readers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of women rarely dignified in fiction: glamorous cafà waitresses, feisty communist activists, a tortured novelist, a soldierâs wife, and single women in Japanâs Korean colony. Her delicately penned portraits challenge the tired, erotic tropes of the geisha and schoolgirl, while delving into the dilemmas women themselves faced in their personal and professional relationships. The stories and novella translated here span a period of two decades and the most important events and themes in twentieth-century history. âœCafà Kyotoâ (1929) takes up the glamorous, if tragic, lives of cafà waitresses in the wake of the late 1920s Depression. âœTears of a Factory Girl in the Union Leadershipâ (1931) offers a unique portrait of a woman who works with the underground Communist Party. âœThe Scent of Incenseâ (1942), written as a work of âœhome frontâ literature, was meant to he

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Book SynopsisRepresents a remarkable literary recovery. For the first time, the novella is presented in its original Spanish and in English, painstakingly translated and annotated by Phillip B. Gonzales.Trade ReviewThis book shifts our understanding of the vibrant world of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century nuevomexicano letters through recovering the literary contributions of Manuel Sariñana, a Mexican immigrant whose writing provides a unique perspective on the shifting political and cultural concerns of a territory in transition." - Anita Huizar-Hernández, author of Forging Arizona: A History of the Peralta Land Grant and Racial Identity in the West "This work recovers an important literary and social-political novella from 1908 that merits wider dissemination and analysis. It effectively unearths a critical portrait of New Mexican politics, its central ideas, the key historical characters, and the shifting allegiances found in such an environment. The pícaro protagonist here holds the key to unravelling the narration as well as the politics of its era." - Francisco A. Lomelí, coeditor of Aztlán: Essays on the Chicano Homeland

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Book SynopsisAfter the failed revolutions of 1848, Galicia has been brought under the rule of the Habsburg Empire, and the Zemka family find themselves embroiled in the struggle for Polish independence. This is a history of Eastern Europe told in miniature through the tumultuous saga of one family as they try to reclaim their estate.

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Book SynopsisThe eponymous Old Testament hero Noah fuels his local economy with a prescient plan to build the Ark. Though no one around him seriously believes in the coming flood, everyone is more than willing to do business with him: The people of Mesopotamia had never had it so good.

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Book SynopsisAlmost twenty years after the fall of the wall, the Kreuzberg district of Berlin has become unbearably trendy and deeply unappealing to Alina and Wolf. They move to Muggelsee, at the city's bucolic border. But there, Wolf finds himself increasingly strained by the triviality of his daily routine with Alina.Trade Review"Fire Doesn't Burn is intense and tragic, and unquestionably Rothmann's most personal work." (Peter Mohr, Kleine Zeitung)"

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Book SynopsisT, an acclaimed but aging actor, and Efina, a passionate theatergoer, are engaged in an obsessive love affair that careens from attraction to repulsion. They meet, they break up, they marry, and they get divorced. They neither can live with nor without one another, and this impossible state of affairs lasts all their lives.

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Book SynopsisThe day after his ninety-fourth birthday, a man is sitting in a beautiful garden. It is a paradise where he often played during his childhood, and it is here that he is recording the story of his adventures with Mr Adamson.Trade Review"One of the best representatives of Swiss literature." (Le Monde)

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Book SynopsisWhen Anna discovers a long letter that her mother, Marie, wrote, Marie has been dead for some time, and Anna is shocked to learn that her mother disappeared with a secret. The letter is addressed to Marie's first great love, a much older teacher who she describes as a great dinosaur.Trade Review"With the discovery of the letters sent (or maybe not) to a lost lover, the reader finds him- or herself bewitched by the sweet melancholy of passing time through the strength and beauty of personal connections and the words used to describe them." (La Vie) "This study of love-a vast and delicate subject-is told with grace. It resonates long after reading." (Femina)

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Book SynopsisAs he leaves the cinema where he has just watched Casablanca, one of his favorite films, Julien is approached by a mysterious young woman, Claire. Unbeknownst to Julien, Claire has been following him for several days. Outside the cinema she relays a cryptic message: "Someone's trying to find you."

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Book SynopsisIn The Red Sofa, we meet Anne, a young woman setting off on the Trans-Siberian Railway in order to find her former lover, Gyl, who left twenty years before. As the train moves across post-Soviet Russia and its devastated landscapes, Anne reflects on her past with Gyl and their patriotic struggles, as well as on the neighbor she has just left behind, Clemence Barrot. Rocked by the train's movements Anne is moved by her memory of Clemence, who is old and whose memory is failing, but who has not lost her taste for life and adventure. Ensconced on her red sofa at home, Clemence loves to tell Anne her life story, mourning lost loved ones and celebrating the lives of brave, rebellious women who went before her. Eventually, Anne's train trip returns her home having not found Gyl, but having found something much more meaningful herself. A luminous novel about desire, a clear text about the joy of living. Prix Pierre Mac Orlan 2007

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Book SynopsisChandrasekhar Kambar is one of the most accomplished Indian writers working today. In each of Kambar's novels, the archetypical Mother, Karimayi, is at the center. The narrative of Karimayi moves through an astounding time span, beginning with the mythopoetic times of Goddess Karimayi's birth and moving through the historical and cultural shifts in the life of a small rural community called Shivapura during the British colonial era.Karimayi breaks the familiar narrative of an idyllic and traditional village community being destroyed by the incursion of modernity. Instead, the multilayered narrative of Karimayi weaves everything into itself the story of the village's past, the myth of Karimayi, the disorder that sets in with the invasion of colonial modernity and the lure of the city, and, most importantly, of the disruption of another form of native modernity that the village community has already begun to incorporate into its rhythms of life. Cleverly challenging colonial cartography,

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Book SynopsisChemmeen tells the story of the relationship between Karutthamma, a Hindu woman from the fisherfolk community, and Pareekkutty, the son of a Muslim fish wholesaler. Unable to marry Pareekkutty for religious reasons, Karutthamma instead marries Palani, who, despite his wife's scandalous past, never stops trusting her a trust that is reaffirmed each time he goes to sea and comes back safe. For the fishermen have an important saying: the safe return of a fisherman depends on the fidelity of his wife. Then, one fateful night, Karutthamma and Pareekkutty meet and their love is rekindled while Palani is at sea, baiting a shark. Previously available only in India, this hugely successful novel was adapted into a film, winning great critical acclaim and commercial success. Anita Nair's evocative translation from Malayalam brings this tale of love and longing, a classic of Indian literature, to a new audience.

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Book SynopsisA man scours the town he left fifty years ago for some modest evidence of past joys. Javed, who has returned to Lahore from East Pakistan, won't speak of what he witnessed in his time away. In her dreams, an old woman boards a train full of dead ancestors. A sage who cannot control his anger must seek out a butcher for redemption. Mahaban, once the home of monkeys, is now a city filled with human beings. Sheherzad, who once told Emperor Shaharyar one thousand and one stories, is now an old woman who has forgotten her fantastical yarns. The fifteen stories in The Death of Sheherzad ably represent Intizar Husain's oeuvre, defying narrative tradition and exploring the past, specifically the Partition of India, as a means of unraveling the present. He imaginatively revisits a syncretic, tolerant, pluralistic past to analyze why the tide turned so irreversibly. Questioning everything faith, violence, society Husain probes the horrors of Partition in a manner as oblique as it is trenchant. I

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Book SynopsisRuhiton Kurmi has been in jail for seven years. Once a notorious Naxalite a militant leftist revolutionary he is now a withered shell; a man broken by police torture, racked with fevers and sores. The only way he can endure his life is by shutting out the past. But when Ruhiton is moved to a better jail and eventually freed, memories return to haunt him. Ruhiton inevitably looks back upon his youth, his marriage, his home in the Himalayan foothills and he remembers, too, the friends he has killed, the revolutionary colleagues he worked with, and the ideals he once believed in. Dark, powerful, and full of ambiguities, the classic novel Fever, originally written in Bengali in 1977, questions the human cost of revolution and its inevitable transience. A sensation in its time, it remains one of the greatest novels about the Naxalite movement. Fever is an intense look at the universality of militancy, violence, and civil war, and the power of revolutionary ideals to seduce young minds.

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Book SynopsisTwo men talk in Tokyo. One, a Belgian, is a diplomat. The other, Dutch, is a photographer. What, they wonder, is the real face of Japan? How can they get beyond the European idea of the nation and its people with its exoticism and see Japan as it truly is? The Belgian has an idea: he helps the photographer find a model to shoot in front of Mount Fuji as the typical Japanese. The plan works better than either had imagined in fact, it works too well: the photographer falls in love, neglects his friend and his career, and, feeling out of place and disillusioned in Holland, returns to Japan as often as possible over the next five years. A reunion is planned: the three will meet again at Mount Fuji. Time, it seems, has stood still ...except the woman has a secret, and plans of her own. This moving novel of obsession and difference is the latest masterwork from one of the greatest European writers working today, redolent with the power of desire and alive to the limits of our understanding of others.

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Book SynopsisA novel by a Swiss writer that features figures from all over Europe from different walks of life coming together in secret to talk through their experiences, hopes, and dreams.

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Book SynopsisThe Scarecrow is the final volume of Ibrahim al-Koni’s Oasis trilogy, which chronicles the founding, flourishing, and decline of a Saharan oasis. Fittingly, this continuation of a tale of greed and corruption opens with a meeting of the conspirators who assassinated the community’s leader at the end of the previous novel, The Puppet. They punished him for opposing the use of gold in business transactions—a symptom of a critical break with their nomadic past—and now they must search for a leader who shares their fetishistic love of gold. A desert retreat inspires the group to select a leader at random, but their “choice,” it appears, is not entirely human. This interloper from the spirit world proves a self-righteous despot, whose intolerance of humanity presages disaster for an oasis besieged by an international alliance. Though al-Koni has repeatedly stressed that he is not a political author, readers may see parallels not only to aTable of Contents Introduction: Al-Koni’s Demons The Omen The Prophecy The Scarecrow The Gifts The Edicts Blindness Wantahet The Epidemic The Raids The Beauty The Idol The Sacrificial Offering About the Author

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