Fiction in translation
The New York Review of Books, Inc Virgin Soil
Book Synopsis
£15.29
University of Chicago Press Over the Waves and Other Stories Sobre las ola
Book SynopsisA collection of short stories that provides an intimate and critical view of Afro-Cuba. It confronts conflicts about identity, race, marginalization, and discrimination.
£19.95
St Martin's Press Woman of the Ashes 1 Sands of the Emperor
Book SynopsisThe first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa’s most important writers.
£15.57
Minotaur Books,US The Final Curtain
Book SynopsisFrom the acclaimed author of Malice and Newcomer, a confounding murder in Tokyo is connected to the mystery of the disappearance and death of Detective Kaga''s own mother.A decade ago, Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga went to collect the ashes of his recently deceased mother. Years before, she ran away from her husband and son without explanation or any further contact, only to die alone in an apartment far away, leaving her estranged son with many unanswered questions.Now in Tokyo, Michiko Oshitani is found dead many miles from home. Strangled to death, left in the bare apartment rented under a false name by a man who has disappeared without a trace. Oshitani lived far away in Sendai, with no known connection to Tokyo - and neither her family nor friends have any idea why she would have gone there.Hers is the second strangulation death in that approximate area of Tokyo - the other was a homeless man, killed and his body burned in a
£22.79
Minotaur Books,US A Death in Tokyo
Book SynopsisIn this mind-bending sequel from the international bestselling author Keigo Higashino, Tokyo Police Detective Kaga finds himself forced to try and makes sense of a most unusual murder.
£15.19
Random House USA Inc The House of the Spirits
Book Synopsis
£24.00
Amazon Publishing The Champagne Queen
Book SynopsisWhen Isabelle took a chance and eloped with Leon Feininger, her true love, she hadn’t stopped to consider what would happen next. Winter on his family’s isolated vineyard proves tougher than she expected, and Isabelle finds herself daydreaming, envisioning the wines she and Leon will make when they have their own land. An unexpected inheritance opens a door for the newlyweds—Leon’s uncle has left them a vineyard, and in champagne country no less! But all is not as it seems. The decrepit estate has very little staff to help, and Isabelle cannot focus her husband’s efforts on the farm. She soon decides to seize the opportunity to run the vineyard herself. Like her friends Clara and Josephine, she can learn anything she needs to face a new challenge. And with their help, she will even take on the fierce local competition, with generations of wine-making history tying them to the land she’s just learning to toil. Can Isabelle’s passion and perseverance bring Feininger champagne to the world? Will life with Leon become the happily ever after she’s always dreamed of?
£12.72
Shambhala Publications Inc Siddhartha: A New Translation
Book SynopsisBlends elements of psychoanalysis and Asian religions to probe an Indian aristocrat''s efforts to renounce sensual and material pleasures and discover spiritual truths.
£999.99
Counterpoint The Suitcase: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£11.39
Autonomedia Atlantic Island
Book Synopsis
£15.29
The New York Review of Books, Inc Irretrievable
Book Synopsis
£15.29
The New York Review of Books, Inc Transit
Book SynopsisAnna Seghers’s Transit is an existential, political, literary thriller that explores the agonies of boredom, the vitality of storytelling, and the plight of the exile with extraordinary compassion and insight. Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany in 1937, and later a camp in Rouen, the nameless twenty-seven-year-old German narrator of Seghers’s multilayered masterpiece ends up in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he is asked to deliver a letter to a man named Weidel in Paris and discovers Weidel has committed suicide, leaving behind a suitcase containing letters and the manuscript of a novel. As he makes his way to Marseille to find Weidel’s widow, the narrator assumes the identity of a refugee named Seidler, though the authorities think he is really Weidel. There in the giant waiting room of Marseille, the narrator converses with the refugees, listening to their stories over pizza and wine, while also gradually piecing together the story of Weidel, whose manuscript has shattered the narrator’s “deathly boredom,” bringing him to a deeper awareness of the transitory world the refugees inhabit as they wait and wait for that most precious of possessions: transit papers.
£13.01
The New York Review of Books, Inc Thus Were Their Faces
Book SynopsisAn NYRB Classics OriginalThus Were Their Faces offers a comprehensive selection of the short fiction of Silvina Ocampo, undoubtedly one of the twentieth century’s great masters of the story and the novella. Here are tales of doubles and impostors, angels and demons, a marble statue of a winged horse that speaks, a beautiful seer who writes the autobiography of her own death, a lapdog who records the dreams of an old woman, a suicidal romance, and much else that is incredible, mad, sublime, and delicious. Italo Calvino has written that no other writer “better captures the magic inside everyday rituals, the forbidden or hidden face that our mirrors don’t show us.” Jorge Luis Borges flatly declared, “Silvina Ocampo is one of our best writers. Her stories have no equal in our literature.”Dark, gothic, fantastic, and grotesque, these haunting stories are among the world’s most individual and finest.
£999.99
The New York Review of Books, Inc Peplum
Book SynopsisThe man known as Blutch is one of the giants of contemporary comics, and Peplum may be his masterpiece: a grand, strange dream of ancient Rome. At the edge of the empire, a gang of bandits discovers the body of a beautiful woman in a cave; she is encased in ice but may still be alive. One of the bandits, bearing a stolen name and with the frozen maiden in tow, makes his way toward Rome—seeking power, or maybe just survival, as the world unravels.Thrilling and hallucinatory, vast in scope yet unnervingly intimate, Peplum weaves together threads from Shakespeare and the Satyricon along with Blutch’s own distinctive vision. His hypnotic storytelling and stark, gorgeous art pull us into one of the great works of graphic literature, translated into English for the first time.This NYRC edition features new English hand-lettering and is an oversized paperback with French flaps and extra-thick paper.
£20.70
Other Press LLC The Second Winter
Book Synopsis
£21.24
Other Press LLC Women: A Novel
Book SynopsisA rediscovered classic from the author of For Two Thousand Years, this remarkable novel presents nuanced snapshots of love in the early twentieth century.
£13.29
Soho Press Inc Protected By The Shadows: Irene Huss
Book SynopsisWith gang violence escaling in Goteborg, Sweden, the Organized Crimes Unit pairs with the Violent Crimes Unit to help defuse the situation. But could there be a mole on the force?
£8.54
WW Norton & Co The World Between Two Covers: Reading the Globe
Book SynopsisAnn Morgan writes in the opening of this delightful book, "I glanced up at my bookshelves, the proud record of more than twenty years of reading, and found a host of English and North American greats starting down at me…I had barely touched a work by a foreign language author in years…The awful truth dawned. I was a literary xenophobe." Prompted to read a book translated into English from each of the world's 195 UN-recognized countries (plus Taiwan and one extra), Ann sought out classics, folktales, current favorites and commercial triumphs, novels, short stories, memoirs, and countless mixtures of all these things. The world between two covers, the world to which Ann introduces us with affection and no small measure of wit, is a world rich in the kind of narratives that engage us passionately: we meet an irreverent junk food–obsessed heroine in Kuwait, an explorer from Togo who spent years among the Inuit in Greenland, and a former child circus performer of Roma background seeking sanctuary in Switzerland. Ann's quest explores issues that affect us all: personal, political, national, and global. What is cultural heritage? How do we define national identity? Is it possible to overcome censorship and propaganda? And, above all, why and how should we read from other cultures, languages, and traditions? Illuminating and inspiring, The World Between Two Covers welcomes us into the global community of stories.Trade Review"[The World Between Two Covers] offers a persuasive rebuttal to the indifference some may feel regarding the limited availability of foreign-language works, given that there are already more books than anyone has time to read. The power wielded by the Anglo-American publishing industry over what gets translated produces uniformity; to encounter a true diversity of perspectives, Morgan demonstrates, may require some research and even some legwork." -- Timothy Aubry - New York Times Book Review"Only a writer like Morgan could make reading about reading so sublimely fascinating: over a year, she immerses herself in a book from every country on the globe, and shares the profound fruits of her pursuit." -- Entertainment Weekly"In her lively, debut book, journalist and blogger Morgan, regretting that she has been 'a literary xenophobe,' recounts her project to spend a year reading one book, translated or written in English, from every country in the world…Morgan's intrepid literary project underscores the crucial importance of stretching the boundaries of one’s aesthetic and intellectual worlds." -- Kirkus Reviews"Extraordinary…. [The World Between Two Covers] reads less like a collection of book reviews and more of a cultural excavation of the global literary landscape. It challenges the reader instead of merely suggesting reading material, and turns our own literary prejudices inside out. Why do we choose the books we read? What does that say about us? Should we even bother reading books in translation? The answer is an unequivocal yes…. At its heart, The World Between Two Covers is a love letter to literature and a battle cry to read world literature." -- Elizabeth Silver - The Rumpus"As journalist Morgan relates in this introspective debut, she took it upon herself to learn more about international literature after looking at her shelves and realizing that her reading has been almost exclusively British and North American… The book’s themes include the difficulties of getting published in other languages, the imperfection of translation, and the inequities of a global cultural tradition still dominated by Western imperialism… The reward for readers in this volume is a greater appreciation for global literature and the inspiration to reexamine one’s own reading habits." -- Publishers Weekly"This book has a very neat conceit…Morgan covers the 'landscape' of global literature, the state of publishing…the politics of translation and how the west is represented in non-occidental literatures. It is a vast field but the breezy style, infectious enthusiasm and nicely pitched tone mean it is both diverting and illuminating." -- Stuart Kelly - Guardian"The World Between Two Covers is an exquisitely written book that manages to be both a compelling quest narrative and a moving exploration into the joys of reading. Ann Morgan is a wonderful writer—astute and accessible, lyrical and lush—and this is a book so compelling it's impossible to put down." -- Molly Antopol, author of The Un-Americans"Morgan knows how important it is to see things from other perspectives, to dispel the myths of superiority that our cultures have instilled in us. Her project and her book are important, vital even, in an ever-expanding global community." -- Jonathan Russell Clark - Literary Hub
£18.99
Astra Publishing House Golden Age: A Novel
Book SynopsisLike Gary Shteyngart or Michel Houellebecq, Wang Xiaobo is a Chinese literary icon whose satire forces us to reconsider the ironies of history. Apparently, there was a rumour that Chen Qingyang and I were having an affair. She wanted me to prove our innocence. I said, to prove our innocence, we must prove one of the following: Chen Qingyang is a virgin I was born without a penis Both propositions were hard to prove, therefore, we couldn’t prove our innocence. In fact, I was leaning more toward proving that we weren’t innocent.” And so begins Wang Er’s story of his long affair with Chen Qinyang. Wang Er, a 21-year-old ox herder, is shamed by the local authorities and forced to write a confession for his crimes but instead, takes it upon himself to write a modernist literary tract. Later, as a lecturer at a chaotic, newly built university, Wang Er navigates the bureaucratic maze of 1980’s China, boldly writing about the Cultural Revolution’s impact on his life and those around him. Finally, alone, and humbled, Wang Er must come to terms with the banality of his own existence. But what makes this novel both hilarious and important is Xiaobo’s use of the awkwardness of sex as a metaphor for all that occurred during the Cultural Revolution. This achievement was revolutionary in China and places Golden Age in the great pantheon of novels that argue against governmental control. A leading icon of his generation, Wang Xiaobo’s cerebral and sarcastic narrative is a reflection on the failures of individuals and the enormous political, social, and personal changes in 20thcentury China. "At the time Wang was writing, novels about the Cultural Revolution tended to be fairly conventional tales of how good people suffered nobly during this decade of madness. The system itself was rarely called into question. Wang’s book was radically different . . . The idea of how to stand up to power underlies Golden Age." —Ian Johnson, The New York Times Book ReviewTrade Review"Mixing absurdist satire and incisive commentary, Wang provides a powerful dissident view of state control." -The New York Times Book Review "This new translation captures Wang Xiaobo's absurdist and surprisingly lewd sense of humor, as well as the grimly amusing satire of China's Cultural Revolution that lurks within it . . . Golden Age is never less than entertaining, its sharp insights existing alongside endless sexual innuendo and jokes that mine humor from the darkest recesses of Chinese history." -Hank Stephenson, Shelf Awareness "Golden Age . . . is a tour de force satire of the Cultural Revolution, a brave and bawdy work that will appeal to fans of Gary Shteyngart and Michel Houellebecq alike." -Chicago Review of Books "Until reading Wang Xiaobo's Golden Age, I had not seen a work that captures the ironies and contradictions Wang Er endures living in a communist country in a decidedly capitalist world. Just my saying this sounds academic, but the novel is not academic. It's hilarious, loose, surprising and so smart. I am reminded of Heller's Catch 22, but whereas circularity was the enemy for Yossarian, it might well be Wang Er's ally." -Percival Everett, author of Erasure and The Trees "Golden Age, long admired in many circles, may prove a revelation to readers outside China. Wang Xiaobo steeped himself in the literatures of East and West, and the blending of influences-including Proust and Twain-makes for a searingly funny and fearless narration full of brilliant headlong riffs on sex, time, history and the terrifying absurdities of the Cultural Revolution. Bawdy, earthy, cerebral, outrageous, bleakly hilarious and off-handedly brave, this novel is like nothing else." -Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask and The Subject Steve "A leading icon of his generation, [Wang's] cerebral and sarcastic narrative is a reflection on the failures of individuals and the enormous political, social and personal changes that traumatized 20th century China." -Alan Chong Lau, International Examiner Every page is a surprise. The novel is outrageous, startling, and very, very funny -Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
£21.25
Astra Publishing House Identitti: A Novel
Book SynopsisThe Sellout meets Interior Chinatown in this satirical debut about a German Indian student whose world is upended when she discovers that her beloved professor who passed for Indian is, in fact, white. Nivedita (a.k.a. Identitti), a well-known blogger and doctoral student is, in awe of her supervisor superstar postcolonial and race studies professor Saraswati. But her life and sense of self are turned upside down when it emerges that Saraswati is actually white. Nivedita's praise of Saraswati during a radio interview just hours before the news breaks and before she learns the truth calls into question her own reputation as a young activist. Following the uproar, Nivedita is forced to reflect on the key moments in her life, when she doubted her identity and her place in the world. As debates on the scandal rage on social media, blogs, and among her closest friends, Nivedita's assumptions are called into question as she reconsiders the lessons she learned from her adored professor. In her thought-provoking, genre-bending debut, Mithu Sanyal enlisted the contributions and commentary of real life public intellectuals as if Saraswati were a real person. A darkly comedic tour de force, Identitti showcases the outsized power of social media in the current debates about identity politics and the power of claiming your own voice.Trade Review"A mercilessly funny search for identity that spares nothing and nobody. Anyone who has ever asked themselves who they actually are (and why), will not only be smarter after reading it -- they're also guaranteed to be in a better mood." -Alina Bronsky, author of The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine "A combination of campus novel, intellectual chamber play, blogosphere romp and satire in identity politics. You'll laugh out loud at least three times on each page. Mithu Sanyal has an incredible talent for showing both the effects of freedom of thought pushed to the extreme and the limits of discourse." -Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Sanyal actually manages to pack the whole identity-politics debate into one story -- and in such a way that you have to laugh on almost every page." -ZDF "Sanyal portrays her characters in the labyrinth of identity politics with elegance, delicious humor and deep knowledge of the issues. A book for our times." -Der Tagesspiegel
£21.25
Astra Publishing House I Went To See My Father: A Novel
Book SynopsisAn instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom; centering on a woman’s efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets.Two years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Hon finally returns to her home in the countryside to take care of her father. At first, her father only appears withdrawn and fragile, an aging man, awkward but kind around his own daughter. Then, after stumbling upon a chest of letters, Hon discovers the truth of her father’s past and reconstructs her own family history. Consumed with her own grief, Hon had been blind to her father’s vulnerability and her family’s fragility. Unraveling secret after secret and thanks to conversations with loving family and friends, Hon grows closer to her father, who proves to be more complex than she ever gave him credit for. After living through one of the most tumultuous times in Korean history, her father’s life was once vibrant and ambitious, but spiraled during the postwar years. Now, after years of emotional isolation, Hon learns the whole truth, from her father’s affair and involvement in a religious sect, to the dynamic lives of her own siblings, to her family’s financial hardships. What Hon uncovers about her father builds towards her understanding of the great scope of his sacrifice and heroism, and of his generation as a whole. More than just the portrait of a single man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss, and war. With this long-awaited follow-up to Please Look After Mom—flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator Anton Hur—Kyung-Sook Shin has crafted an ambitious, global, epic, and lasting novel.Trade Review"A powerful and haunting novel about family, war, loss, and fatherhood." —Pierce Alquist, Book Riot"Kyung-Sook Shin’s I Went to See My Father, deftly translated by Anton Hur, is a quietly epic contemplation on grief and the relationships, responsibilities, and expectations between family members." —Lauren Bo, World Literature Today"Shin successfully crafts yet another beautifully presented and heart-rending tale, giving readers much to ponder. Not to be missed, it will appeal not just to fans of Please Look After Mom but to anyone who enjoys strong, introspective storytelling; also a good candidate for book groups." —Shirley Quan, Library Journal (starred review)"[An] entrancing, subtly insightful novel . . . I Went to See My Father is one of the most fair and balanced treatments I’ve seen of the estrangement that can accompany growing up. This novel, in excellent translation by Anton Hur, is a well-crafted work of realist fiction that explores the power of communication to bring families to a point of greater understanding . . . The way Kyung-Sook Shin draws characters, revealing them layer by nuanced layer, is a marvel. How fortunate we are to have this translation by Anton Hur, providing English-speaking audiences access to the talents of one of South Korea’s most lauded contemporary authors." —David Vogel, Words Without Borders"What begins as a family melodrama becomes a fascinating piece of historical fiction . . . Shin’s profound and passionate love for her home country and its traditions is manifest." —Douglas MacLeod, On the Seawall"[Comprising] quiet, tender exchanges between father and daughter . . . [I Went to See My Father] is a slow and deeply interior novel, dense with memories." —Jung Yun, The Washington Post "Touching . . . Like life itself, this digressive meditation alternates from moments of dullness to startling beauty."—Publishers Weekly "Once more, Shin masterfully glides between quotidian details and astounding feats of survival revealed through multiple voices (older brothers, their mother, a wartime friend) and formats (letters, recordings, long chat messages) to create another universally empathic masterpiece." —Terry Hong, Booklist (starred review)"Gentle yet piercing . . . [I Went to See My Father is a] sensitively crafted family portrait that's both specific and universal and, above all, humane." —Kirkus Reviews"This is one you’ll definitely want to put on your literary map." —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review"Viewers and readers of Korean dramas and novels love a bit of teary nostalgia, and Shin provides it here in spades, and does a good job of it, too . . . Readers who enjoyed Please Look After Mom will find a lot to like here. I Went to See My Father is an interesting work looking at the life of a man who lived through one of the most turbulent periods of Korea’s history, as well as a reminder to the young (and not so young) that older people, our parents and grandparents, lived lives of their own, and have stories that are well worth listening to."—Tony Malone, Tony's Reading List "This is a book which reminds us that we all suffer from the same wounds, that no individual is free from the pains of their geography and that the greatest losses can only be healed where they all begin. Shin, once again, brings the unique history of a distant land into our homes and masterfully catches our hearts from the core, from the familiar bond of a child and a father. " —Defne Suman, author of The Silence of Scheherazade and At The Breakfast Table"A book that makes you hurt all over, and yet smile at the same time. A book where the experience being shared is so immediately palpable, so universal yet Korean, and beautiful and powerful at the same time." —Kim Hyesoon, award-winning author of Autobiography of Death"Kyung-Sook Shin is the writer who made me into a writer. Reading her novel The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness made me discover a loneliness and unsettledness inside me that I didn't know existed, and thus comforted me on a sincere level. I Went to See My Father features the author's hallmark emotional richness combined with a precision of language that pierces the soul. I Went to See My Father shows us an entire generation that suffered through war, in the single character of a father, a modest cattle farmer. Just as Shin's Please Look After Mom gives a voice to the forgotten mother, this novel vividly shows the father as a figure whom we often overlook. Through a narrative so true as to be almost autobiographical, Shin guides us on a journey of heartache to literary catharsis." —Sang Young Park, author of Love in the Big City"An insightful contemplation of memory and connectedness between family members. Shin threads together a lyrical family drama and the multilayered spectrum of Korean history in a compelling epic. It is not only a story of love and pain between father and daughter, but of how memories can heal tragic wounds and restore damaged relationships. A powerful, elegant, page-turner." —J.M. Lee, author of Broken SummerTable of ContentsContentsChapter 1: It’s Been a Long Time Since I’ve Seen YouChapter 2: When You Walk into the NightChapter 3: Inside the Wooden ChestChapter 4: Talking about Him Chapter 5: On the Verge of Goodbye Glossary
£21.60
The New York Review of Books, Inc Melville: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£12.59
The New York Review of Books, Inc Blood Dark
Book SynopsisSet during World War I, this monumental philosophical novel about human despair inspired Albert Camus'' own writing and prefigured the greater existential movement.Blood Dark tells the story of a brilliant philosopher trapped in a provincial town and of his spiraling descent into self-destruction. Cripure, as his students call him—the name a mocking contraction of Critique of Pure Reason—despises his colleagues, despairs of his charges, and is at odds with his family. The year is 1917, and the slaughter of the First World War goes on and on, with French soldiers not only dying in droves but also beginning to rise up in protest. Still haunted by the memory of the wife who left him long ago, Cripure turns his fury and scathing wit on everyone around him. Before he knows it, a trivial dispute with a complacently patriotic colleague has embroiled him in a duel.
£18.90
Quercus Publishing Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything
Book SynopsisIt is summer 1990, only months after the border dividing Germany has dissolved. Maria, nearly seventeen, moves in with her boyfriend on his family farm. A chance encounter with enigmatic loner Henner, a neighbouring farmer, quickly develops into a passionate relationship. But Maria soon finds that Henner can be as brutal as he is tender - his love reveals itself through both animal violence and unexpected sensitivity. Maria builds a fantasy of their future life together, but her expectations differ dramatically from those of Henner himself, until it seems their story can only end in tragedy. Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything is a bold and impressive debut in which love and violence, conflict and longing, are inextricably entwined.Trade Review'A candid tale of raw passion, whose essence and timelessness shines through the spare prose' Süddeutsche Zeitung. * Süddeutsche Zeitung *'A wonderful novel; a magnificent love story' Le Monde. * Le Monde *'Daniela Krien is not afraid. Not of language, either. Which shines in this novel ... A novel that portrays so much turmoil so thoughtfully that the spellbound reader abandons themselves to it' Gabriele von Arnim, Die Zeit. * Die Zeit *'One can almost physically feel the sensuality evoked by Daniela Krien's simple and emotionally precise language. A love story of extraordinary intensity, and a brilliant account of the demise of the D.D.R.' Brigitte. * Brigitte *'This deceptively elegant story reveals great emotional and cultural upheaval' Kirkus Reviews. * Kirkus Reviews *
£15.16
Steerforth Press Spark
Book SynopsisHilarious, strange and moving in equal measure - a Japanese multi-million-copy smash hit about the struggles of a pair of young manzai stand-up comediansTokunaga is a young comedian struggling to make a name for himself when he is taken under the wing of Kamiya, who is either a crazy genius or perhaps just crazy. Kamiya's indestructible confidence inspires Tokunaga, but it also makes him doubt the limits of his own talent, and dedication to Manzai comedy.Spark is a story about art and friendship, about countless bizarre drunken conversations and how far it's acceptable to go for a laugh. A novel about comedy that's as moving and thoughtful as it is funny, it's already been a sensation in Japan.
£12.09
Pushkin Press Of Sunshine and Bedbugs: Essential Stories
Book SynopsisIsaac Babel honed one of the most distinctive styles in all Russian literature. Brashly conversational one moment, dreamily lyrical the next, his stories exult in the richness of everyday speech and sensual pleasure only to be shaken by brutal jolts of violence. These stories take us from the underworld of Babel's native Odessa, city of gangsters and lowlives, of drunken brawls and bleeding sunsets, to the terror and absurdity of life as a soldier in the Polish-Soviet War. Selected and translated by the prize-winning Boris Dralyuk, this collection captures the irreverence, passion and coarse beauty of Babel's singular voice.Trade Review'Compact, irreverent, enigmatic, savage and tender... it is impossible to look at the world the same way after reading Babel... one of the enduring jewels of 20th-century Russian literature' - Financial Times'Fractured, jarring, beautiful, alive to humour... they have the ring of contemporaneity, and probably always will' - Guardian'Unforgettable stories, lyrical and earthy' - Irish Times'Marvelously subtle, tragic, and often comic' - James Wood'Elegiac, but not in the usual sense: Babel's is an ebullient elegy, filled with violence, sex, and life' - LA Review of BooksTable of ContentsTable of Contents Translator’s Preface Guy de Maupassant (Part I) Childhood and Youth The Story of My Dovecote First Love In the Basement The Awakening Di Grasso (Part II) Gangsters and “Old Odessans” The King How It Was Done in Odessa Lyubka the Cossack Father Justice in Quotes The End of the Almshouse (Part III) Red Cavalry Crossing the Zbrucz The Catholic Church in Novograd A Letter Pan Apolek The Italian Sun Gedali My First Goose The Rebbe The Tachanka Doctrine The Death of Dolgushov The Life Story of Pavlichenko, Matvei Rodionych Salt The Rebbe’s Son Argamak
£12.00
Hesperus Press Ltd The Flood
Book Synopsis
£13.46
Paths International Ltd Fish by Candlelight
Book SynopsisThis set of poems is a well-crafted display of current children's poetry combining beautiful words, fantastic pictures and lovely sounds. It emphasises the world's beauty and opens the imagination of children appreciating the world and the stars beyond.This book provides a wonderful insight into poems for children that will appeal to parents, teachers and children from around the world.
£17.05
Paths International Ltd Children Counting Stars
Book SynopsisThe poems selected for this collection are dreams of childhood, stories of childhood, and fantasies of childhood. The scenes in the poems are memories of childhood. It emphasises the world's beauty and opens the imagination of children appreciating the world and the stars beyond.This book provides a wonderful insight into poems for children that will appeal to parents, teachers and children from around the world.
£17.05
Paths International Ltd Children Counting Stars
Book SynopsisThe poems selected for this collection are dreams of childhood, stories of childhood, and fantasies of childhood. The scenes in the poems are memories of childhood. It emphasises the world's beauty and opens the imagination of children appreciating the world and the stars beyond.This book provides a wonderful insight into poems for children that will appeal to parents, teachers and children from around the world.
£14.20
Carcanet Press Ltd Satyrica
Book SynopsisPetronius lived during the reign of the notorious emperor Nero, a writer in a decadent empire, and in Frederic Raphael he finds a translator who brings his words vividly alive. Petronius' Rome is not the noble civilisation of classical ideals; his Romans are lascivious, amoral and stylish, inhabiting a louche world of ostentatious, nouveau riche extravagance and flirtation with the seductive menace of the Roman underclass. In Raphael's hands, the "Satyrica" becomes a modern novel, Petronius a contemporary. Freed of the weight of classical decorum, the "Satyrica" is racily subversive, scandalously entertaining. This work, writes Raphael, has always been excluded from the curriculum: it offers no improving pieties. Petronius' - and Raphael's - ancient Rome is recognisably the city of Pasolini and Fellini as much as of Virgil.
£19.16
Comma Press Swallow Summer
Book SynopsisTwo music producers pack up their studio – along with their dreams of ever making it in the industry – after too many bands fail to pay their bills… A woman takes up an invitation to visit an ex-lover in Arizona, only to find his apartment is no bigger than a motel room… A former drama student runs into an old classmate from ten years before, hardly recognising the timid creature he’s become… Each character in Larissa Boehning’s debut collection experiences a moment where they’re forced to confront how differently things turned out, how quickly ambitions were shelved, or how easily people change. Former colleagues meet up to reminisce about the failed agency they used to work for; brothers-in-law find themselves co-habiting long after the one person they had in common passed away; fellow performers watch as their careers slowly drift in opposite directions. Boehning’s stories offer a rich store of metaphors for this abandonment: the downed tools of a deserted East German factory, lying exactly where they were dropped the day Communism fell; the old, collected cameras of a late father that seem to stare, wide-eyed, at the world he left behind. And yet, underpinning this abandonment, there is also great resilience. Like the cat spotted by a demolition worker in the penultimate story that sits, unflinching, as its home is bulldozed around it, certain spirits abide.Trade Review'Just as her stories seem made up of random incidents yoked casually together by place or time, so, too, does their very telling appear contingent, uncertain. It’s as though she has created her own literature of non sequiturs, stops and starts - yet each detail... is rivetingly real and mysterious, mimesis and metaphor both... These quiet, idiosyncratic stories are highly articulate even in their silences.' - Dundee University Review of the Arts
£11.77
Haus Publishing Life is Good
Book SynopsisMax has been married to Tina for twenty-five years. She is the love of his life but now he must come to terms with the fact she is to spend weeks away on a work assignment; away, for the first time, from their home, their children and their life together. Her absence might only be temporary but leaves a huge gap. Left contemplating life and with the little bar of which he is the proprietor, Max turns to the regulars who hang out there. When the stuffed bull's head that has hung above the bar for years goes missing Max is forced to act. This latest novel by Alex Capus is a hymn to trust, friendship and love, and is told with his trademark humour.
£15.00
Parthian Books Goldfish memory
Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to have a connection with someone? Everyday you see tens and hundreds of faces and overhear countless conversations. Everyday you pass people by - on the street. In the office. In the car. In cafes and bars. Down the corridors of department stores and hotel rooms. But what makes one person a stranger, and another a friend, an accomplice, even a lover? A traveler shuts himself up in his hotel room, with no-one but room service to talk to; a teenager stalks her long-lost father; a journalist interviews a great poet with a dark past; a woman pursues a doomed liaison with an anonymous man she meets once a month at the casino; a bar lady locked in with the regulars at night...These are just some of the tales exploring the mysterious and random side of human relationships. From the winner of the prestigious Robert Walser First Novel Award and Switzerland's Schiller Foundation Writers Prize, Goldfish Memory is the first translation of Monique Schwitter's form-breaking work. With a contemporary style that's cool, quick and funny, this collection is a refreshing new voice, not to be missed.Trade Review"With intelligence and compassion, Schwitter portrays the sorry contradictions and sad inconsistencies of what it is to be human; the shoulds, coulds, woulds, what ifs and might have beens that litter our beautiful, flawed lives. Here is humanity stripped bare. It is in turn both discomfiting and strangely reassuring. The writing is stretched taut by the emotions and multiple layers it contains. The characters might be mad, sad, paranoid and delusional, but the clipped, incisive writing is stringently unsentimental. Eluned Gramich's wondrously imperceptible translation of Schwitter's German deserves more than a footnote or a brief aside... Not once did I feel the translation announce itself in an awkward sentence, an odd turn of phrase, a lazy word choice or even a misplaced comma. This, I think, is rare. Gramich has stepped into Schwitter's mind, just as Schwitter steps into the minds of her characters. It makes for a stylish dual debut." (New Welsh Review) "One of the most delightful [works] that our literature has brought forth in recent times." (Zurich Tages-Anzeiger) "In her prose style, Monique Schwitter succeeds in creating masterworks of the short form." (Klaus Zeyringer, Der Standard) "The fatalist power of these stories is enormous." (Michael Braun, Basler Zeitung) "This extraordinary book throws the reader against a wall." (Helmut Schodel, Suddeutsche Zeitung)
£16.10
Archipelago Books Ready To Burst
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Archipelago Books An Untouched House
Book SynopsisA brooding meditation on violence by a classic post-war Dutch writer who has drawn comparisons to Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut. An Untouched House is a mesmerising, dark meditation on the legacy of war. An interloper and opportunist makes a grand house his own in the chaos of a war-torn countryside, only to find himself involved with occupying forces and enraged locals.Trade ReviewOne of Ian McEwan’s “most underrated books” "Two contrasting energies galvanize Hermans’s fictions. The wry invitation to find symbols and deeper meanings is balanced by a wealth of detail and meticulously described action, all rapidly delivered, convincingly concrete, and psychologically persuasive . . . Hermans knows life intimately and that his knowledge is devastating." —Tim Parks, New York Review of Books "What’s most interesting, and what connects this novel with [Hermans's] others set in wartime—A Guardian Angel Recalls and The Darkroom of Damocles—are questions of identity, authenticity, and duplicity. As these novels chart the ways in which warfare can deform and degrade us, they measure the gap between their characters’ true inner selves and the false identities they assume: the roles they play and the lies they tell. And all three books monitor the terrifying ease with which that gap can narrow." —Francine Prose, Harper's "Profoundly unsettling . . . haunt[s] the mind for long afterwards." —The Sunday Times, A Book of the Year "Those who do simply open and read will find themselves immersed in a nightmare miniature where philosophical musing gives seamless way to beautiful but unyielding cruelty . . . this newer translation by David Colmer seems to better capture the unsettling horror." —Ben Murphy, Full Stop "Although An Untouched House is brief, it is worth pacing oneself and absorbing its remarkable density. Hermans’ is the architect of a masterful story—concise but expansive in vision...a lucid, exhilarating account." —Peyton Harvey, Zyzzyva "Hermans’s novella is a bleak depiction of the absurdity of war, which knows no winners." —Felix Haas, World Literature Today "A shocking Dutch classic . . . remarkable . . . It takes an hour or two to read, but An Untouched House is the kind of book that stays with you forever." —The Guardian "From the opening pages, the translator David Colmer brilliantly evokes the laconic tone of a narrator who proves intelligent, resourceful and increasingly deranged . . . By any light, this eloquent marvel teases, bewilders and unnerves." —Times Literary Supplement "This novella is a fascinating portrait of a solipsistic mind, a scrupulous rendering of the erosion of human empathy that resonates in these uncivil times." —Christopher Byrd, Vulture ‘I was struck by the compressed farce and horror in the 1951 Dutch novella An Untouched House.’ —Sam Leith, choosing An Untouched House as a Spectator Book of the Year "Taut . . . dark, thrillerish." —New Statesman "As disturbing and powerful as anything by Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut." —Michel Faber "Hermans is as alarming as a snake in the bread bin . . . hugely entertaining." —The Scotsman
£12.34
Archipelago Books Message From The Shadows: Selected Stories
Book SynopsisMessage From the Shadows is a new collection featuring Antonio Tabucchi's finest short stories, spanning the breadth of his career. These playful tales explore Tabucchi's signature themes, from his inventive, lyrical meditations on language, art, and philosophy, to his fascination with the passage of time, and the mystery of storytelling.Trade Review"The 22 elegant short stories in this posthumous collection highlight the international perspective, melancholy tone, humor, and compassion of Italian author Tabucchi ... Tabucchi’s intelligence and humane perspective shine throughout this thoughtful, noteworthy volume." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"A career-spanning story collection from Tabucchi ... exploring the liminal spaces between dream and waking, fact and fiction. ... A fine tribute to a writer defined by his singular command of mood and mystery." — Kirkus Reviews"Tabucchi's prose creates a deep, heart-wrenching nostalgia and constantly evokes the pain of recognizing the speed of life's passing which everyone knows but few have the strength to accept... wonderfully thought-provoking and beautiful."-- Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered (for The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico)"Tabucchi's work has an almost palpable sympathy for the oppressed."--The New York Times "Tabucchi is a master of the form in imagination, beauty, scope, and scale even at the tiniest calibration." –Kerri Arsenault, Lit Hub"One could call him a great literary defender of the oppressed and marginalized (political prisoners or revolutionaries are among his stock figures), but he does not so much defend them, in the moralistic, paternalistic sense, as allow them a voice... Tabucchi delights in the metatheatricality of writing: more often than not the narrators in this collection are conscious of their role as storytellers, and are writing or speaking as if to a silent companion – a position that is filled by the reader. As a result, even the tamer stories feel on the verges of reality." — Samuel Graydon, Times Literary Supplement"A surprising tranquility pervades the stories, and it's to Tabucchi's great credit that they never feel muted...The melancholy tunes that fill the pages of Message from the Shadows are enigmas of longing, signals woven in the air that fade and disappear and leave only hunger in their wake...Tabucchi's generally incantatory prose here assumes a heightened air of ritual; the power of inexpressible sorrow becomes a dark vortex, vaguely barbaric in its strength." — The Threepenny Review"Tabucchi's stories — translated from Italian by Martha Cooley, Frances Frenaye, Elizabeth Harris, Tim Parks, Antonio Romani, and Janice M. Thresher, and published posthumously — drip with longing and, too, with a dreamlike quality that is tempting to characterize as magical realism. In these stories, the world as we know it and its author's "shadow world" are often indistinguishable — to the reader's great benefit. " — ThrillistPraise for Antonio Tabucchi:"The book has a mercurial, dream-like quality that is stunning in its subtlety. Never heavy-handed, this quiet novel is as beautiful and profound as a landscape painting."--Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore for For IsabelTo find one's way through For Isabel is certainly not easy, but it is rewarding, and its joyful confusion always rests firmly on the edge of genius, ready to be found.-- Samuel Graydon, The Times Literary Supplement"[For Isabel is] more than the story of a missing girl; it is history recalled as though in a dream, hovering briefly, through the combination of Tabucchi's elegiac prose and Harris's lucid translation, over life and death."-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "An essential testament to Tabucchi's talent, a masterwork written with diligence and care... The novel is an epitome of Tabucchi's work, an account of exotic travels and blossoming, abstruse identities, a dreamlike and ironic limbo... Literary alchemy."-- Javier Aparicio Maydeu, El Pais for For Isabel"What a strange and wonderful book this is! If, like me, you are interested in shipwrecks, whales, the Azores and the unique way in which only literature can bring a location to life, and if you like the unclassifiable, small works by authors such as Michael Ondaatje and Italo Calvino -- then have I got the book for you ... Wildly inventive."-- Minneapolis Star-Tribune for The Women of Porto Pim
£14.24
Archipelago Books Kin
Book SynopsisKin is a dazzling family epic from one of Croatia's most prized writers. In this sprawling narrative which spans the entire twentieth century, Miljenko Jergovic peers into the dusty corners of his family's past, illuminating them with a tender, poetic precision. Ordinary, forgotten objects - a grandfather's beekeeping journals, a rusty benzene lighter, an army issued raincoat - become the lenses through which Jergovic investigates the joys and sorrows of a family living through a century of war.Trade Review* [Jergovic is] a poet, novelist, and journalist of the highest caliber...His concern is for the living and in this collection of stories about Sarajevo and its inhabitants he writes about them with the seriousness, sensitivity, quirky intelligence, and gentle humor of a master of the short story. - The New Republic * Jergovic has the mien of the rare author whose gift is so innate he need only conquer a few demons and steady his hands enough to write it all down. - San Diego Union Tribune * ...a multilayered and complex text, which demonstrates why Jergovic is one of the most prominent Croatian authors and one of the most translated European writers. - World Literature Today on Mama Leone, a winner of Italy's 2003 Premio Grinzane Cavour for Best Book in Translation.
£26.91
University of Massachusetts Press Leaving Pico: A Novel
Book SynopsisIn the insular Portuguese fishing community of Provincetown, Josie Carvalho's life has been shaped by the annual influx of summer tourists and his great aunt's fervent, if idiosyncratic, Catholicism. The counterweight to these forces has always been Josie's relationship with his grandfather John Joseph, a drunk, clam-poaching old man who is nevertheless a sly and masterful storyteller.After a stranger starts dating Josie's mother and upsets the family's equilibrium, John Joseph heals the rift with the colorful and adventurous stories of their ancestor, Francisco Carvalho, a Portuguese explorer who just may have beaten Columbus to the New World. With the guidance of these obscure but inspired tales, Josie begins to find new ways of understanding his family and the outside world. This new edition of Leaving Pico makes Frank X. Gaspar's award-winning coming-of-age novel accessible to a new generation of readers.
£16.10
Logos Verlag Berlin Rezeption Der Deutschsprachigen Literatur in Der
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Logos Verlag Berlin Rezeption Der Deutschsprachigen Literatur in Der
Book Synopsis
£66.50
