Fiction in translation
Scribe Publications At Dusk
Book SynopsisIn the evening of his life, a wealthy man begins to wonder if he might have missed the point. Park Minwoo is, by every measure, a success story. Born into poverty in a miserable neighbourhood of Seoul, he has ridden the wave of development in a rapidly modernising society. Now the director of a large architectural firm, his hard work and ambition have brought him triumph and satisfaction. But when his company is investigated for corruption, he’s forced to reconsider his role in the transformation of his country. At the same time, he receives an unexpected message from an old friend, Cha Soona, a woman that he had once loved, and then betrayed. As memories return unbidden, Minwoo recalls a world he thought had been left behind — a world he now understands that he has helped to destroy. In At Dusk, one of Korea's most renowned and respected authors continues his gentle yet urgent project of evaluating Korea’s past, and examining the things, and the people, that have been given up in a never-ending quest to move forward.Trade Review‘It’s a regretful, bittersweet exploration of modernisation, which picks away at the country’s past and present, slowly becoming a moving reflection of what we gain and lose as individuals and a society in the name of progress … [Hwang’s] writing is laced with the hard-won wisdom of a man with plenty left to say.’ -- Ben East * The Observer *‘Hwang Sok-yong’s At Dusk is a perfect slice of Koreana … shows the underbelly of a nation through the life of characters inhabiting society's bottom rung … Sok-yong proves once again that fiction can be the best way to tell devastating truths.’ -- Gabino Iglesias * NPR *‘At Dusk is a small but powerful novel from one of South Korea’s most esteemed novelists … The questions At Dusk raises are timeless, and perfect for more serious book-group discussions.’ -- Annie Condon * Readings *‘Quietly probing.’ * The Irish Times *‘A stirring and quietly moving novel … a sharply perceptive account of the struggle to maintain body and soul, roughly speaking, in the decades before Chun dooh-hwan's military coup of 1980.’ FIVE STARS -- Paddy Kehoe * RTÉ *‘The melancholic artistry of his bare prose shines through in At Dusk, with the juxtaposition of the nostalgia of a bygone era and a soulless modernity ... this voice is resounding in At Dusk, with its bittersweet meditation of regret.’ FOUR STARS -- Walter Sim * Straits Times *‘Celebrated author Hwang Sok-yong explores the human toll of South Korea’s rapid modernisation ... Through the lens of Seoul’s urban housing and architecture, he traces the development of South Korean modernisation and highlights the extremes to which its citizens are pushed, challenging readers in the process to reexamine if the nation’s transformation can truly be considered successful.’ * International Examiner *‘Thoughtful and affecting.’ -- Jane Graham * The Big Issue *‘Having been imprisoned for political reasons, Hwang has a restrained, delicate touch, alive to the nuances of memory, the slipperiness of the past, and the difficult choices life forces us to make ... Subtly political, deeply humane, a story about home, loss, and the cost of a country's advancement.’ -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review‘Here [Sok-yong] scrutinises the quiet disconnect of contemporary relationships through the life of a successful, sixty–something Seoul architect … A piercing modern tale about all we can never know about our loved ones and ourselves.’ -- Terry Hong, Booklist, starred review‘Hwang is a master storyteller … his writing is sparse and evocative.’ * Asymptote Journal *‘[A] solid portrait of changing times and society.’ -- M.A. Orthofer * The Complete Review *‘The book is on the verge of something, and despite the gentle care in Hwang’s storytelling, there is an urgency to his words.’ * The Skinny *‘At Dusk is a book steeped in melancholy — for times gone by, for relationships lost or abandoned, for a world that no longer exists. Hwang delves deeply into the psyche of his characters and in doing so tells universal stories of love, ambition and regret … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.’ * psnews.com.au *‘At Dusk has Hwang’s customary blend of fragility and brutality, of tenderness and raw pain … At Dusk is a journey through memory and through the necessary potential and duty of architecture; through human spaces and urban topographies of existence and non-being. For Korea, this is a novel that should mark a turning point in its sense of identity; for non-Korean readers, it is a blueprint of the critical elenchus we need to undertake before it is tragically far too late for all our local traditions, cultures and individual lives.’ -- Mika Provata–Carline * Bookanista *‘What elevates this work, is how the gritty psychological exploration of contemporary Korean society is packaged within a taut and compelling mystery regarding how the two disparate narratives might be connected. At Dusk is another short but impactful novel from Hwang Sok-yong.’ * Booklover Book Reviews *‘These characters illustrate South Korea’s sharp economic divides and explore what is required to improve one’s lot in life — and whether it’s even possible for more than a very few. It captures so much in under 200 pages: economic inequality; gender, class, and educational divides; and the complex relationships individuals and the culture at large have with their own history.’ -- Rebecca Hussey * Bookriot *‘At Dusk provides the reader with an excellent picture of Seoul now and several decades ago, with a mournful, nostalgic feel pervading the novel … Hwang is a masterful storyteller, and the final third of the book skilfully brings the disparate stories together, with a clever, and surprising, twist to round matters off.’ -- Tony Malone * Tony’s Reading List *‘[A] beautifully observed tale … another superb novel from a writer at the top of his craft.’ * Pile by the Bed *
£11.69
The Indigo Press Epic Annette: A Heroine's Tale
Book SynopsisCould you put your beliefs before your family? Epic Annette is the extraordinary true story of Annette Beaumanoir: brilliant and fierce, she was a medical student living in a world at war who, at nineteen years old, joined the French Resistance and saved the lives of two Jewish children in Paris on the eve of their deportation to the camps. As a doctor and mother devoted to justice and equality, Annette was later found guilty of treachery for supporting the Algerian FLN in France and sentenced to ten years in prison. The story of her dramatic escape, trial in absentia and decades in exile, separated from her children, resembles that of the great heroes whose love for individuals had to compete with their destiny and love of humanity. Annette will remain with you forever. With this gripping personal tale of heroism and grief, author Anne Weber joins Homer in her ability to conjure a titan in an epic poem.Trade Review‘A reading delight from start to finish.’ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/anne-weber-deutscher-buchpreis-annette-ein-heldinnenepos-rezension-buchkritik-1.4891164 -- Joseph Hanimann * Die Süddeutsche Zeitung *‘A bold and moving exploration of the ethics of heroism.’ https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/annette-ein-heldinnenepos-anne-weber-book-review/ - review of the German Edition -- Anna Katharina Schaffner * Times Literary Supplement *Editor’s Choice Preview ‘A riveting and highly original retelling of the life of Annette Beaumanoir.’ https://www.thebookseller.com/previews/epic-annette-a-heroine8217s-tale -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller *‘A heroine in a murky world: Anne Beaumanoir and the ethics of resistance’ ‘At the heart of Weber’s book is the instability of our conceptions of heroism, nuanced by hindsight.’ https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/annette-ein-heldinnenepos-anne-weber-book-review/ -- Anna Katharina Schaffner * The TLS *Guest review by Anne Sebba: Epic Annette - A Heroine’s Tale by Anne Weber, translated by Tess Lewis ‘Annette Beaumanoir is a rare heroine whose fierce courage almost demands an unusual, and beautiful, account of her life. She stood out in life and this epic will ensure that she is honoured in death. She deserves nothing less.’ http://reviewsbywriters.blogspot.com/2022/06/guest-review-by-anne-sebba-epic-annette.html -- Anne Sebba * Writer's Review *Epic Annette – Translation and international acclaim ‘An exceptional prose poem’ https://www.new-books-in-german.com/epic-annette/ -- Ruth Martin * New Books in German *Epic Annette: a nuanced, immensely moving testimony to an improbable life ‘While emulating an ancient form, Weber’s poem is charged with a political mission to bring to life stories historically left untold. It’s a bravura move that pays off; Epic Annette is a history lesson unlike any other’ https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2022/08/20/epic-annette-nuanced-immensely-moving-testimony-to-an-improbable-life/ -- Roisin Kiberd * The Irish Times *Book Review: “Epic Annette” — What is Heroism? "Historical asides like this one, stunning at least to this reader, provide more than enrichment; they expand the biography of an extraordinary individual into an expressionist portrait of a swath of one European century." https://artsfuse.org/269440/book-review-epic-annette-what-is-heroism/ -- Kai Maristed * The Arts Fuse *Epic Annette – Anne Weber https://www.full-stop.net/2023/03/31/reviews/emily-hershman/epic-annette-anne-weber/ -- Emilt Hershman * Full Stop *This Week in Books: The hair of an It Girl laid on an altar for the dead. https://endoftheworld.substack.com/p/this-week-in-books-the-hair-of-an * The End of the World Review *The Watchlist: May 2023 - Words Without Borders -- Tobias Carroll * Words Without Borders (WWB) *
£10.79
Seven Stories Press UK The Jewish Son
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£10.44
Seven Stories Press UK Kinderland
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£10.79
Seven Stories Press UK Fury
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£13.49
Seven Stories Press UK Sons Daughters
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£14.39
Seven Stories Press UK Simpatia
Book SynopsisSimpatia is set in the Venezuela of Nicolas Maduro amid a mass exodus of the intellectual class who have been leaving their pets behind. Ulises Kan, the protagonist and a movie buff, receives a text message from his wife, Paulina, saying she is leaving the country (and him). Ulises is not heartbroken but liberated by Paulina''s departure. Two other events end up disrupting his life even further: the return of Nadine, an unrequited love from the past, and the death of his father-in-law, General Martn Ayala. Thanks to Ayala''s will, Ulises discovers that he has been entrusted with a mission - to transform Los Argonautas, the great family home, into a shelter for abandoned dogs. If he manages to do it in time, he will inherit the luxurious apartment that he had shared with Paulina. This novel centers on themes of family and orphanhood in order to address the abuse of power by a patrilineage of political figures in Latin America, from Simon Bolivar to Hugo Chavez. The untranslatable title,
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Seven Stories Press UK Dr. Josefs Little Beauty
Book SynopsisIn the middle of summer, omnipresent heat radiates as a group of elderly people are remembering their youth. The story focuses on two sisters, Leokadia and Czechna, who live together in a retirement home not far from Warsaw. These are not ordinary stories they are sharing, because both of them spent time as children in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. At the center is Czechna, who at the age of 12 was saved from extermination by the notorious doctor Josef Mengele, the real-life Nazi officer and physician who was known as the ''angel of death'' for the experiments he conducted on prisoners, including twins and siblings. This is a story both provocative and disturbing about the fear that lingers in victims. Was the sisters'' relationship with the executioner a desperate attempt to save their lives, or perhaps they harbour a hideous pride and sense of superiority over other prisoners? Rudzka''s extraordinary writing turns unsettling questions about memory and survival into art.
£11.69
Seven Stories Press UK Too Great A Sky
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£13.49
Seven Stories Press UK Rock Paper Grenade
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£13.49
Seven Stories Press UK The Night Trembles
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£10.79
Seven Stories Press UK Eye of the Monkey
£13.49
Monsoon Books Harvesting the Storm: A fable from the shores of
Book SynopsisIn this ecological parable, author John Waromi, a member of the Ambai tribe, sheds light on not only the ecology of the southern Papuan coast but also the struggle of the indigenous Papuan people to survive the environmental destruction that is inflicted upon them.
£8.54
Parthian Books Insomnia
Book SynopsisCensored in Latvia until 2003 Translated by Jayde Will. Originally written in 1967 and not released in its uncensored form until 2003, Bels’s infamous novel, Insomnia, has become a classic of Cold War writing and continues to exert a major influence over Latvian literature. The story is filtered through the thoughts, emotions and fantasies of the main character, a man of detachment who is content to observe his fellow tenants and the wider world around him from the tired luxury of his apartment and daily routines. When a young woman, fleeing some unknown threat and in desperate need of help, comes into his orbit, he’s forced out of this inertia and into the active role of protector. There begins a quest which, for both of them, has the power to jolt them into a new way of being and living. This edition contains the official transcripts of the investigative reports regarding the banning of the book, as well as a statement by Bels himself. Translated from the Latvian by Jayde Will. Insomnia is part of the Parthian Baltic project which was launched on time for the London Book Fair 2018. The poetry collections were launched at the Wheatsheaf Parthian Poetry Festival in April 2018.
£8.54
Smith|Doorstop Books Kolme Tre: Three Writers from Finland
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£7.55
Smith|Doorstop Books Stockholm Syndrome
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£6.19
Saraband Shocked Earth
Book SynopsisFemke, her mother Trijn and her grandfather have very different ideas about how to run their family farm. Tensions between mother and daughter are growing; Femke wants to switch to sustainable growing principles, whilst her mother considers this an attack on tradition. To make matters worse, their home province of Groningen is experiencing a series of earthquakes caused by drilling for gas at a site close to their farm. While the cracks and splinters in their farmhouse increase, the authorities and the state-owned gas company refuse to offer the local farming community any help. In Shocked Earth, Saskia Goldschmidt investigates what it means to have your identity intensely entwined with your place of birth and your principles at odds with your closest kin. And how to keep standing when the world as you know it is slowly falling apart.Trade Review'Shocked Earth shows us the impact of natural disasters on people's lives. This is what literature can do.' Nieuwsweekend; 'Goldschmidt manages to portray the lives of farmers in great literary style, and with authentic vocabulary.' Het Parool; 'Goldschmidt writes eloquently... showing the way the North of the Netherlands is held captive by the gas sourcing business.' NRC; 'In order to be able to write Shocked Earth, Saskia Goldschmidt moved to a rural region ... worked on a dairy farm and spoke to its inhabitants. This effort pays off in this thorough novel with a lot of empathy, showing how the earthquakes ... forever change the lives of the people trying to keep this business going.' Dagblad van het Noorden; "Shocked Earth exquisitely captures the way our lives and identities are interwoven with the land we live on, and how its destruction will ultimately be our own. A powerful portrait of a family, an exploration of love and grief, it is perhaps most of all an essential call to action - I was both heartbroken and inspired." Helen Sedgwick; "A novel with great ambitions, which remains credible." Faithful; "Last weekend I read the book in one breath. How little did I know about the problems and life in the Groningen countryside ... I will definitely recommend this beautiful novel!" Ria van Halem, bookseller Boekaa Verkaaik
£8.99
Orenda Books We Were the Salt of the Sea
Book SynopsisWhen the body of a woman is discovered in a fisherman’s net in Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, new recruit Detective Sergeant Joaquin Moralès is thrown in at the deep end… First in a beautifully written, atmospheric and addictive new series. ***Runner-up for the Scott Moncrieff Prize for Translations from French*** ‘Wonderfully atmospheric … I genuinely couldn’t put this book down’ Gill Paul 'You might want to grab this release if you've read everything by Louise Penny and need more Quebecois noir to feed your crime-loving tendencies’ Crime Fiction Lover ________________ Truth lingers in murky waters… As Montrealer Catherine Day sets foot in a remote fishing village and starts asking around about her birth mother, the body of a woman dredges up in a fisherman’s nets. Not just any woman, though: Marie Garant, an elusive, nomadic sailor and unbridled beauty who once tied many a man’s heart in knots. Detective Sergeant Joaquin Moralès, newly drafted to the area from the suburbs of Montreal, barely has time to unpack his suitcase before he’s thrown into the deep end of the investigation. On Quebec’s outlying Gaspé Peninsula, the truth can be slippery, especially down on the fishermen’s wharves. Interviews drift into idle chit-chat, evidence floats off with the tide and the truth lingers in murky waters. It’s enough to make DS Moralès reach straight for a large whisky… Both a dark and consuming crime thriller and a lyrical, poetic ode to the sea, We Were the Salt of the Sea is a stunning, page-turning novel, from one of the most exciting new names in crime fiction. ________________ Praise for Roxanne Bouchard: ‘Colourful, authentic characters with the kind of flavour that can only be inspired by real locals. So good it’ll make you want to pack your bags and drive straight to the seaside’ Journal de Montréal ‘Lyrical and elegiac, full of quirks and twists’ William Ryan ‘Asks questions right from page one’ Quentin Bates ‘An isolated Canadian fishing community, a missing mother, and some lovely prose. Very impressed by this debut so far’ Eva Dolan 'A tour de force of both writing and translation’ Su Bristow 'The translation from French has retained a dreamily poetic cast to the language, but it's det-fic for all that, as DS Joaquin Morales, transplanted from balmy Mexican shores to a remote Quebecois fishing community, investigates a woman's death at sea. This is the first book by Bouchard, renowned Canadian playwright and author, to be translated into English' Sunday Times 'Characters are well-drawn, from Moralès, the cop, and his sturdy inspector, Marlène, to the husky fishermen who were Marie's devoted suitors three decades ago. There's a comic element: the chef at the bistro, a mine of misleading information; the alcoholic priest who was never ordained - and the appalling undertaker who was once a used-car salesman and never forgot the spiel … An exotic curiosity, raw nugget’ Shots MagTrade Review"This book is the definition of atmospheric."--Book Riot
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Orenda Books The Ice Swimmer
Book SynopsisThe discovery of a body in the freezing waters of Oslo Harbour spark an investigation that takes the Oslo Detectives right to the heart of the government … with life-shattering results. The godfather of Nordic Noir is back… ***Shortlisted for the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year*** ‘Fiercely powerful and convincing’ LoveReading ‘A masterclass in plotting, atmosphere and character’ The Times ‘Lena Stigersand, one of the decent, talented, hard-working Oslo police detectives in Dahl’s ensemble procedural series, takes center stage in this excellent sixth instalment … fans of Scandinavian noir will be eager for Dahl’s next book’ Publishers Weekly **Book of the Month** ____________________ When a dead man is lifted from the freezing waters of Oslo Harbour just before Christmas, Detective Lena Stigersand’s stressful life suddenly becomes even more complicated. Not only is she dealing with a cancer scare, a stalker and an untrustworthy boyfriend, but it seems that both a politician and Norway’s security services might be involved in the murder. With her trusted colleagues, Gunnarstranda and Frølich, at her side, Lena digs deep into the case and finds that it not only goes to the heart of the Norwegian establishment, but it might be rather to close to her personal life for comfort. Dark, complex and nail-bitingly tense, The Ice Swimmer is a simply unforgettable instalment in the critically acclaimed Oslo Detective series, by the godfather of Nordic Noir. ____________________ ‘If you want your worst fears about what goes on inside a cop's mind confirmed, meet Kjell Ola Dahl's Oslo sleuths, Gunnarstranda and Frølich … impossible to put down’ Guardian ‘A chilling novel about betrayal’ Sunday Times ‘If you have never sampled Dahl, now is the time to try’ Daily Mail ‘More than gripping’ European Literature Network ‘The perfect example of why Nordic Noir has become such a popular genre’ Reader’s Digest ‘Dramatic, fast-paced and character-focused’ Crime Review ‘Skilful blend of police procedural and psychological insight’ Crime Fiction Lover ‘I have read many clever and thrilling crime novels through my life, but often they have nothing to do with real life. If I don’t believe in them, they don’t impress me. But when Kjell Ola Dahl tells his stories, I believe every single word’ Karin Fossum 'Kjell Ola Dahl's novels are superb. If you haven't read one, you need to – right now' William RyanTrade Review`If you want your worst fears about what goes on inside a cop's mind confirmed, meet K.O. Dahl's Oslo sleuths, Gunnarstranda and Frolich ... impossible to put down' Guardian * `A masterclass in plotting, atmosphere and character that finely balances shocking twists with the coppers' complicated personal lives.' Sunday Times Crime Club * `If you have never sampled Dahl, now is the time to try' Daily Mail * `...action comes to a climax in an utterly convincing chase through Oslo's sewage system' Sunday Times
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Aurora Metro Publications The Town With Acacia Trees
Book SynopsisBored by religious instruction and painting lessons, a group of friends at a convent school spend their days dreaming of romance, fashion and the latest gramophone records. One by one, they give up their visions of adventure and submit to provincial life, marrying for money and status, like their mothers before them. Plain, jaundiced Lucretia, becomes the envy of her friends when Paul, a glamorous dandy proposes, but she hides a shocking secret that will destroy their marriage and expose them to scandal. Only Adriana Dunea, the most beautiful and talented girl in the school seems destined for happiness with her childhood sweetheart, Gelu. But everything changes when, on a trip to Bucharest, she meets Cello Viorin, a famous composer...Trade Review"Sebastian gives a remarkably sensitive, candid portrayal of the coming of age of a girl seen through the eyes of a suitor. The author's sensitivity to the emotions of his heroine Adriana is captured vividly in this translation in such passages as "every kiss was a wound, in which their lips, their breath, their teeth, the tips of their tongues drowned, warm and wet, and parted slowly, with a final hesitation, leaving on each mouth a blurred, faded smile." - Dennis Deletant, Ion Ratiu Visiting Professor of Romanian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC "Reigh handily preserves Sebastian's supple, languid syntax, shaping each sentence to accentuate his exquisite lyricism, as when the couple remains unable to yield entirely to their desire "to be held in such a way that it obliterated everything apart from the ecstasy of the flesh. An endearingly wistful story of young love." - Kirkus Reviews Blue Starred review "In The Town with Acacia Trees, Mihail Sebastian writes with the sensibility of a master jeweller. He crafts with precision and delicacy his characters' intricate souls. Sebastian's profound humanism, his utopian universalism, is as refreshing and urgent in today's climate of rising nationalisms as it was in the interwar period. Gabi Reigh's riveting translation matches Sebastian's writing like a glove." -Alex Boican, PhD in Romanian LiteratureTable of ContentsIntroduction Novel Afterword
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Valley Press The Howl of the Wolf
Book SynopsisA man does battle with a wolf, two sworn brothers lock horns literally as they drink and brag the night away and an old man turns to his flame-bellied stove for comfort when facing a bitter winter alone. These are just some of the fascinating folk who inhabit the magical stories of Hong Ke. Set in Xinjiang, the gateway between China and Middle Asia, The Howl of the Wolf paints a colourful picture of frontier life in all its earthy glory.
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Valley Press The Blood Red Sun
Book SynopsisMadame Spots is lauded for setting up a free school in her village, but her seductive silk qipao and obvious wealth elicit deadly envy as well as admiration. The Phoenix Widow finds a jar of ingots but loses her precious son to wily and, ultimately, unwise kidnappers. Little Spoon stumbles into Running Cow Valley Village with two pails on her water pole and inadvertently becomes a hero to people parched of leadership. Feng Laicai, a diminutive farmer with a life of bad luck behind him, is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, thanks to a scholarly goat. Set in the counties of the Western Plain, these bleak yet beautiful stories shed an incisive light on the extraordinary lives of colourful people. While closely observing the triumphs and tragedies of a cast of unforgettable characters, the ten stories that make up this important collection also bear witness to the evolution of rural China from the early days of the 20th century to the late 1980s, skillfully illustrating the often brutal battle between tradition and progress.
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Valley Press The Earthen Gate
Book SynopsisConstantly bickering with her shallow friend Brow, beginning correspondence courses she will never finish, helping sage-like Grandpa Cloud Forest with his mystical healing and stealthily avoiding matrimony with her less-than-impressive fiancé Old Ran, Plum''s life appears to be puttering along what seems like a tediously predictable path. But when the village home she cherishes comes under threat from big city capitalists, she finds herself thrust into a series of adventures with a mercurial rogue called Chivalry.Jia Pingwa''s The Earthen Gate was an instant bestseller in his native China and now looks set to make waves in its first-ever English translation, two decades later. This raucous, and at times achingly poignant tale combines earthy humour, ancient wisdom and thrilling action to highlight the impact of creeping urbanisation on traditional country folk.
£14.39
Valley Press The Hour of the Locust
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Istros Books Doppelganger
Book SynopsisDoppelganger consists of two stories that skillfully revisit the question of "doubles" (famously explored by Stevenson, Dostoyevsky and others), and how an individual is perpetually caught between their own beliefs and those imposed on them by society. `Arthur and Isabella' is a story of the relationship between two elderly people who meet on New Year's Eve - a romantic encounter which turns into a grotesque portrayal of the loneliness of old age. The second story `Pupi' - a strange mirror of the first - centres on the life of a man who ends up on the streets and associates only with street-sellers the rhinoceroses in the zoo. Together these tales crate the highly original atmosphere that Drndic t is famous for in all her works.Trade Review"The capacity to see the bricolage of a reticent, morally compromised, elegiac past-and, more unsettlingly, how that past might see us-is a central feature of the work of the Croatian writer Dasa Drndic." Dustin Illingworth, Paris Review; `Drndic is relentless; her righteousness is passionate. Human anguish seeps from the pages, yet her writing proves unexpectedly exhilarating.'m Eileen Battersby, LA Review of Books; `Dasa Drndic is a writer who digs tunnels and refuses to make compromises; her prose attracts the same uncompromising readers.' Zdravko Zima, Novi List
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Istros Books Dogs and Others
Book SynopsisThe protagonist in Dogs and Others is the first openly lesbian character in modern Serbian literature, but she is also so much more than that, as she encapsulates the zeitgeist of her generation. Coming of age in 1970s Belgrade, then the capital city of thriving, socialist Yugoslavia, we follow Lida and the bohemian life she leads, made more complicated by the trials and tribulations of her eccentric family. The whole novel breathes with a raw sensibility so aptly captured in the voice of the heroine - a striking, rebellious, overtly feminist and somewhat neurotic young woman.Trade ReviewBiljana Jovanovic came into the Serbian literary scene as a new phenomenon. . Such girls in literature bring with them spite, devastating erotica, a new language, and new rules, especially when the old rules break down painfully..." Svetlana Slapsak, ; ". . . a rich amalgam of unvarnished bohemian life in socialist Belgrade, narrative experimentation, a sensitive but provocative depiction of family life in the shadow of old age, disability, and `madness'. . . " WORDS without BORDERS; "In her novel Dogs & Others, Biljana Jovanovic went a step further in breaking down all taboos regarding women's sexuality in Serbian literature." LOM (Serbian publisher)
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Istros Books The Fig Tree
Book SynopsisThe Fig Tree is a novel composed of the intertwining stories of the family of Jadran, a 30-something who tries to piece together the story of his relatives in order to better understand himself. Because he cannot understand why Anja walked out of their shared life, he tries to understand the suspicious death of his grandfather and the withdrawal of his grandmother into oblivion and dementia. With all his might, Jadran tries to understand the departure of his father in the first year of the war in the Balkans as he also tries to comprehend his mother, with her bewildering resentment of his grandfather, and her silent disappointment with his father. The Fig Tree is a multigenerational family saga, a tour de force spanning three generations from the mid-20th century through the Balkans wars of the 90s until present day. Vojnovic is a master storyteller, and while fateful choices made by his characters are often dictated by the historical realities of the times they live in, at its heart this is an intimate story of family, of relationships, of love and freedom and the choices we make.Trade Review"The Fig Tree is an exquisitely rendered novel, it's a big and satisfying read, and among others calls to mind Colum McCann's TransAtlantic and Orhan Pamuk's Silent House." Kon-teksti
£12.59
Istros Books The End. And Again
Book SynopsisA roofless library in the middle of war-torn Bosnia, staffed by a mysterious woman who leads a young solider through hidden doorways. A businessman hiding from an angry mob of unpaid workers in a suitcase and a lonely divorce who picks up a mysterious hitch-hiker, only to be lured by her into an unfamiliar forest. The End. And Again offers a beguiling, imaginative reworking of the history of the independence of Slovenia and the break-up of Yugoslavia through the eyes of its four main characters - like the line-up of a pop group - Peter, Goran, Denis and Mary. Their memories of the years when their interests revolved more around music and love than around the turbulent political situation that derailed their lives intersect with those of Denis, the only one of them to be enlisted and sent into battle. A lack of any meaningful resolution to their mutual story haunts them all and forces them to search for a different end(ing). (And) Again.Trade Review"Bauk's novel throbs with the wounds of his generation and at the same time tells an intense, dazzling story of love and friendship." --Kreuzer Magazine "An exciting and remarkable portrait of a generation, a book about books and what they can do to and with people." --Kleine Zeitung
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Istros Books Let's Go Home, Son
Book SynopsisThere are three of them and they have no names: they are a family whose roles superseded by destiny. This is the story of man's struggle for dignity of a man who has only a short time left to live. In the first months of lockdown a mother and son struggle against bureacracy to be able to visit the father in hospital and to fulfil his last wish to return to their Dalmatian terrace just as the cherries blossom and the swallows' nests are full of hatchlings. In this novel, Prtenjaca deals with loss, short-lived hope and memory, his voice is that of a child - one that asks questions - alongside that of a mature voice of a man who has to make difficult decisions. These voices overlap in a rhythmical exchange of scenes and images from the past and the present, comprising an elegy in which love reverberates like the sound of cymbals. There's three of them, and they have no names. Sometimes they seem alone in this world.
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Istros Books The Fate of Yaakov Maggid
Book SynopsisOnce again, the extraordinary storyteller, Ludovic Bruckstein, opens the door onto a lost world of Jewish history and lore in the central European Carpathian region, now parts of Hungary, Romania and Ukraine. Invoking the tales of a great maggid – a wandering storyteller within the East-European tradition of Hassidism - he weaves tales of wisdom and mystery which linger inside us long after the story has ended. Bruckstein's previous titles (The Trap, 2019 and With an Unopened Umbrella in the Pouring Rain, 2021) have gained him a growing audience of dedicated readers in the English-speaking world, where his work has been too-long absent. This edition comes complete with a fascinating glossary of terms and historical references complied by the translator.
£11.69
Istros Books Balkan Bombshells: Contemporary Women's Writing
Book SynopsisA collection to whet the appetite of anyone wishing to learn more about a region rich in history, folklore and (her)stories. Telling it like a woman does not mean literature for women only: it provides an insight into half of humanity, a window onto the lives of citizens who work, love and develop their inner lives. This collection brings together the voices of a wide selection of prize-winning and established authors
£10.44
Istros Books Singer in the NIght
Book SynopsisFamous soap opera scriptwriter, Naranča, is slowly losing her memory and decides to embark on a road trip down memory lane (in a golden convertible) in search of her greatest love and ex-husband, an artist whose uncompromising artistic integrity is opposed to Naranča’s fickle life in the world of TV drama. It is the memory of a series of letters written over several weeks and hand-delivered to the inhabitants of the street where they lived, that cracks open the novel. The letters, triggered by a mysterious couple who make love loudly for hours in the middle of the night, keeping the neighbourhood awake, touch upon the nature of love, war, lust, nationalism, capitalism, and childhood, highlighting the paradox of the human condition through playful humour.Singer in the Night is a rich, sensual novel which comments on communal perception, on how life is really lived. In its final message, the novel gives a playful warning about the consequences of choosing banality over true human connection.
£9.49
Parthian Books The Night Circus and Other Stories
Book SynopsisBlending the naturalistic and the fabulistic, these elusive, delicate stories fold fable and fairy tale into the everyday, domestic settings of kitchen, garden, car. Women love, and lose, strange creatures they find by the garden gate; dream dogs are liberated from the icy prison of a fridge; bathrooms bloom into rainforests that souls can lose themselves in forever. Seemingly quotidian routines and unremarkable lives are pierced by Kovalyk’s precise, sensual prose, to reveal the magic lurking just beneath the surface of the daily skin of existence.
£8.54
Parthian Books La Blanche
Book SynopsisCasablanca, 1992. In a white Art Deco villa, a man is pushed down the marble staircase to his death. His murder, never truly explained, fractures a family, a way of life, and the minds of both his wife and his daughter. To survive, his nine-year-old granddaughter carefully suppresses her memories until twenty years later, when her life is once more ripped apart, this time by a disastrous love affair. Returning to Casablanca, she relives the tragedy of her grandfather's murder and the events surrounding it. But now she sees it all not simply through the eyes of an innocent child, but with an adult's awareness that things - and people - might not always be quite as they seem. In a beautifully constructed first-person narrative that shifts in time and place, young French-Moroccan writer Ma -Do Hamisultane weaves a delicate web of fact and fiction. Her prose - sometimes luminous, often powerfully cinematographic - has drawn comparisons with Marguerite Duras, one of France's most famous novelists and experimental film-makers.
£8.54
Parthian Books Hana
Book SynopsisIt's 1954 and nine-year-old Mira's life is about to change forever. After a typhoid outbreak rages through her town, robbing her of her parents and siblings, the orphaned child is forced to live with her mysterious, depressive Aunt Hana, a figure both frightening and fragile.Gradually, Mira uncovers the secrets of their troubled family history and begins to understand why her aunt is so incapable of trusting herself and the world around her. Deftly weaving two separate timelines, the harrowing reasons behind Hana's reclusive way of life, the guilt she wears as palpably as a cloak, and the tattoo on her wrist, are revealed to Mira. Alena Mornstajnova's gripping novel, which is based on real events, has won numerous awards and been translated into over a dozen languages across the world.
£10.44
Comma Press The Book of Shanghai: A City in Short Fiction
Book SynopsisThe characters in this literary exploration of one of the world’s biggest cities are all on a mission. Whether it is responding to events around them, or following some impulse of their own, they are defined by their determination – a refusal to lose themselves in a city that might otherwise leave them anonymous, disconnected, alone. From the neglected mother whose side-hustle in collecting sellable waste becomes an obsession, to the schoolboy determined to end a long-standing feud between his family and another, the characters in The Book of Shanghai show a defiance that reminds us why Shanghai – despite its hurtling economic growth –remains an epicentre for individual creativity.
£9.49
Comma Press The Book of Jakarta: A City in Short Fiction
Book SynopsisMade up of over 17,000 islands, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country on the planet. It is home to hundreds of different ethnicities and languages, and a cultural identity that is therefore constantly in flux. Like the country as a whole, the capital Jakarta is a multiplicity of irreducible, unpredictable and contradictory perspectives. From down-and-out philosophers to roadside entertainers, the characters in these stories see Jakarta from all angles. Traversing different neighbourhoods and social strata, their stories capture the energy, aspirations, and ever-changing landscape of what is also the world's fastest-sinking city. Translated by Mikael Johani, Zoe McLaughlin, Shaffira Gayatri, Khairani Barokka, Daniel Owen, Paul Agusta, Eliza Vitri Handayani, Syarafina Vidyadhana, Rara Rizal and Annie Tucker. This book has been published with the support of the British Council.Trade Review'Words are one of the most powerful ways in which to travel - so if you've ever fancied visiting the Indonesian capital, this book is an initial glimpse into its very heart.' - Bad Form Review
£10.44
Comma Press Kurdistan +100: Stories from a Future State
Book SynopsisKurdistan + 100 poses a question to twelve contemporary Kurdish writers: might the Kurds have a country to call their own by the year 2046 - exactly a century after the last glimmer of independence (the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad)? Or might the struggle for independence have taken new turns and new forms? Throughout the 20th century (and so far in the 21st), the Kurds have been betrayed, suppressed, stripped of their basic rights (from citizenship to the freedom to speak their own language) and had their political aspirations crushed at every turn. In this groundbreaking anthology, Kurdish authors (including several former political prisoners, and one currently serving a 183-year sentence for his views) imagine a freer future, one in which it is no longer effectively illegal to be a Kurd. From future eco-activism, to drone warfare, to the resuscitation of victims of past massacres, these stories explore different sides of the present struggle through the metaphor of futurism to dazzling effect. The first anthology of Kurdish science fiction ever collected and published in the UK, we have invited authors from all parts of 'Kurdistan' and the diaspora to write specially commissioned stories set in their own versions of the future.
£9.49
Comma Press The Book of Ramallah: A City in Short Fiction
Book SynopsisUnlike most other Palestinian cities, Ramallah is a relatively new town, a de facto capital of the West Bank allowed to thrive after the Oslo Peace Accords, but just as quickly hemmed in and suffocated by the Occupation as the Accords have failed. Perched along the top of a mountainous ridge, it plays host to many contradictions: traditional Palestinian architecture jostling against aspirational developments and cultural initiatives, a thriving nightlife in one district, with much more conservative, religious attitudes in the next. Most striking however - as these stories show - is the quiet dignity, resilience and humour of its people; citizens who take their lives into their hands every time they travel from one place to the next, who continue to live through countless sieges, and yet still find the time, and resourcefulness, to create. Translated by Basma Ghalayini, Alexander Hong, Thoraya El-Rayyes, Mohammed Ghalaieny, Raph Cormack, Adam Talib, Yasmine Seale, Andrew Leber, Emre Bennett & Raph Cohen.
£10.44
Comma Press All Walls Collapse: Stories of Separation
Book SynopsisThe history of walls – as a way to keep people in or out – is also the history of people managing to get around, over and under them. From the Berlin Wall and the Mexico–US border, to the barbed wire fences of Bangladesh’s refugee camps, the short stories in this anthology explore the barriers that have sought to divide communities and nations, and their traumatic effects on people’s lives and histories. At a time when more walls are being built than are being brought down, All Walls Collapse brings together writing from across national, ethnic and linguistic borders, challenging the political impulse to separate and segregate, and celebrating the role of literature in traversing division.Table of ContentsForeword vii Philippe Sands Introduction ix Will Forrester & Sarah Cleave Translucency 1 Paulo Scott Translated by Daniel Hahn These Days 11 Geetanjali Shree Translated by Daisy Rockwell The Gap 23 Maya Abu Al-Hayat Translated by Yasmine Seale Collateral Damage 29 Zahra El Hasnaoui Ahmed Translated by Dorothy Odartey-Wellington What the Cat Passed On 39 Kyung-Sook Shin Translated by Anton Hur This Side of the Wall 53 Juan Pablo Villalobos Translated by Rosalind Harvey The Fence 65 Krisztina Tóth Translated by Peter Sherwood Reunited 77 Muyesser Abdul’ehed Translated by Munawwar Abdulla Brandy Sour 89 Constantia Soteriou Translated by Lina Protopapa Between Two Infernos 107 Rezuwan Khan Translated by Hla Hla Win Mother’s MacGuffin 115 Larissa Boehning Translated by Lyn Marven
£12.34
Comma Press Ma is Scared
Book Synopsis"Ma is Scared is the long-overdue debut of Anjali Kajal in English, representing the best of her short fiction, written and published over the last twenty years. From the anxious mother waiting for her daughter to return home safely, to the young student accused of stealing because of her caste, the stories gathered here explore the experience of women in small towns and urban centres across North India. Kajal writes about desire, abuse, silence, love and oppression in nuanced ways; how they are negotiated in the world; through relationships, family, motherhood, school, university, jobs. Her language, imagery and concerns are thoroughly contemporary, capturing the yearnings, restrictions and possibilities of modern life from a feminist and anti-caste perspective. "
£9.49
Scribe Publications Prosopagnosia
Book SynopsisA sly and playful novel about the many faces we all have. Fifteen-year-old Berta says that beautiful things aren’t made for her, she isn’t destined to have them, the only things she deserves are ugly. It’s why her main activity, when she’s not at school, is playing the ‘prosopagnosia game’ — standing in front of the mirror and holding her breath until she can no longer recognise her own face. Berta’s mother is in her forties. By her own estimation, she is at least twenty kilos overweight, and her husband has just left her. Her whole life, she has felt a keen sense of being very near to the end of things. She used to be a cultural critic for a regional newspaper. Now she feels it is her responsibility to make her and her daughter’s lives as happy as possible. A man who claims to be the famous Mexican artist Vicente Rojo becomes entangled in their lives when he sees Berta faint at school and offers her the gift of a painting. This sets in motion an uncanny game of assumed and ignored identities, where the limits of what one wants and what one can achieve become blurred.Trade Review‘Fascinating.’ -- Siobhan Murphy * The Times *‘With [Prosopagnosia], Sònia Hernández cements her place as one of the most individual voices of her generation.’ * La Vanguardia *‘In this warm, lively, and intellectual novel, Hernández’s greatest achievement is allowing the protagonist to release her trauma in a way that is both simple and true.’ -- Santos Sanz Villanueva * El Cultural *‘One of the best writers of her generation.’ -- Inés Martín Rodrigo * ABC *‘A novel of our times that explores the difficulty of constructing oneself as a person and the chaos of how things seem to happen to us.’ -- Lluís Satorras * Babelia *‘A tale of the conflict between reality and deception, and how the many forms of exile and solitude come together. A beautiful, enigmatic novel.’ -- Enrique Vila-Matas * El País *‘A reflection on false appearances, assumed identities, the need to invent other lives for ourselves, and the need for art itself.’ -- Ángel Ortín Pascual * Heraldo de Aragón *‘As structured and well-articulated as the paintings that inspired it.’ -- Isabel Gómez Melenchón * La Vanguardia *‘[D]elivers a serious reflection on the purpose and meaning of literary fiction.’ -- Domingo Ródenas * El Periódico *‘For Hernández, plot is just an excuse to articulate her own original ideas about beauty, identity, and exile, and this makes each of her books a declaration of ethical and aesthetic principles. This novel is not a means but an end in itself: the materialisation of her most important themes from life and literature.’ -- Liliana Muñoz * Criticismo *‘Sònia Hernández’ writing is unsettling and unconventional, marked by a complete independence from the dominant trends of contemporary novels in Spanish.’ -- Santos Sanz Villanueva * El Mundo *‘Hernández offers many insights into the value of experience, of travel as personal discovery, and the difficulty of explaining ourselves in our own words. A novel of reflection.’ -- Suárez Lafuente * La Nueva España *‘A narratively ambitious reflection on art, beauty, motherhood, and identity … A conceptually fascinating book.’ * Kirkus Reviews *‘Bewitching and intelligent.’ * Happy Magazine *‘This quirky coming-of-age novel by a celebrated young Spanish writer centres on a tender mother-daughter relationship.’ * New York Times ‘New & Noteworthy’ *‘[B]eguiling … the various characters’ deceptions are unveiled skillfully by Hernández as she distorts the reader’s sense of reality. This novel is more than it seems.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘Hernández leads us on a reflection about truth and reality, about perception and beauty. The book is best read slowly, with time to absorb and contemplate our own reality and how we might be deceiving ourselves.’ * Asymptote ‘New in Translation’ *‘[A]n intellectual and unflinching novel that is not afraid to ask the big questions. What is art? What is beauty? What is truth? Does any of it matter? … Hernández’s economy of language is masterful as she delves into questions that define a culture. Prosopagnosia is an uncanny portrait of what it means to be a human in the world today grappling with beauty, and confronting the way the internet has changed our relationship to art.’ * Write or Die Tribe *
£11.69
Dedalus Ltd The Medusa Child
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£9.49
Dedalus Ltd Baltic Belles: The Dedalus Book of Latvian
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£9.49
Dedalus Ltd The White Dominican
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£9.49
Dedalus Ltd Chasing the Dream
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£9.49
Dedalus Ltd Days of Anger
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Dedalus Ltd Catalogue of a Private Life
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£7.99
