Fiction in translation

Book SynopsisEmma Bovary yearns for a life of luxury and passion of the kind she reads about in romantic novels. But life with her country doctor husband in the provinces is unutterably boring, and she embarks on love affairs to realize her fantasies. This new translation by Margaret Mauldon perfectly captures Flaubert's distinctive style.Trade ReviewA superb new translation. s

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Book Synopsis''He thought he could see, in a flash, the future of the Rougon-Macquart family, a pack of wild satiated appetites in the midst of a blaze of gold and blood.''Set in the fictitious Provençal town of Plassans, The Fortune of the Rougons tells the story of Silvère and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte''s coup d''état in December 1851. They join the woodcutters and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvère''s uncle, Pierre Rougon. Meanwhile, the foundations of the Rougon family and its illegitimate Macquart branch are being laid in the brutal beginnings of the Imperial regime.The Fortune of the Rougons is the first in Zola''s famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two branches of the family came about, and the origins of the hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder, treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the EmpireTrade ReviewReading Brian Nelson's Introduction to The Fortune of the Rougons is a real treat. * Lisa Hill, ANZLitLovers *The edition I read was the Oxford World's Classics translation by Brian Nelson and it's excellent ... as an introduction [to Zola] this has been such an inspiring read. * Desperate Reader *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE''Portrays the breakdown of a murderer in ways that recall Camus'' The Stranger'' The New York TimesJoseph Bloch, a once-famous goalkeeper turned construction worker, commits a random murder without thought or regret. As he wanders the streets, from hotel to bar, cinema to tram stop, experiencing strange and violent encounters on the way, he finds himself, and everything around him, disintegrating. Told in spare and icy prose, Peter Handke''s masterpiece of alienation takes apart our ideas of humanity and reality itself.''A Kafkaesque crime novel'' Los Angeles TimesTranslated by Michael RoloffTrade ReviewA seamless blend of lyricism and horror seen in the runes of a disintegrating world * Boston Sunday Globe *Handke became the enfant terrible of the European avant-garde, denouncing all social, psychological and historical categories of experience as species of linguistic fraud. But [he] has aged well and now...is regarded as one of the most important writers in German -- Richard Locke * The New York Times *One of Europe's great writers -- Karl Ove KnausgaardThe author reports and meditates upon the silent catastrophes that continuously befall the human interior -- WG Sebald

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Book SynopsisThe hilarious international bestselling novel that has had pensioners ditching their sticks and zimmers to follow the age-defying, youth inducing antics inside The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 Years Old . . . ''Terrific. This geriatric Adrian Mole made me laugh'' Woman and Home ''Funny and touching'' BBC Radio 4 Meet Hendrik Groen. An octogenarian in a care home who has no intention of doing what he''s told, or dying quietly. To that end, he creates the Old-But-Not-Dead Club and with his fellow members sets about living his final years with careless abandon. Such anarchism infuriates the care home director but pleases Eefje, the woman who makes Hendrik''s frail heart palpitate. If it''s never too late to have fun, then can it ever be too late to meet the love of your life? ''So much more than just a comedy'' John Boyne ''A story with a great deal of heart'' Graeme Simsion, Trade Review'A great deal of heart' Graeme Simsion 'Praised for its wit' BBC Radio 4 Front Row 'When I'm an old man, I want to be Hendrik Groen' John Boyne 'I laughed until I cried' David Suchet 'Thoughtful, anxious and gruff... Laced with humour' Mail on Sunday 'Amusing [and] wickedly accurate' Sunday Express * - *A story with a great deal of heart, it pulled me in with its self-deprecating humour, finely drawn characters and important themes. Anyone who hopes to grow old with dignity will have much to reflect on -- Graeme Simsion, author of international phenomenon * The Rosie Project *Thoughtful, anxious and gruff... Laced with humour -- The Best New Fiction * Mail on Sunday *Full of off-beat charm and quirky characters -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * Stylist *A joy to read, as much concerned with friendship and dignity as it is with the debilitating effects of aging ... An entertaining and uplifting story of a man in the winter of his days, stoic in the face of bureaucratic nonsense and an unabashed need to wear a nappy. Imagined or not, this is the diary of someone who wants nothing more than to be allowed see out his days with dignity and respect. It's not too much to ask, really, is it? -- John Boyne * Irish Independent *Amusing [and] wickedly accurate ... I was constantly put in mind of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, another comi-tragedy concerning the tyranny of institutions of the unwanted. Enjoy Groen's light touch but do not be fooled by it. We live in an ageing society. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is a handbook of resistance for our time. ***** FIVE STARS * Daily Express *Hendrik Groen is king -- Ray KluunHighly entertaining ... a delightful and touching saga of one man's way of coping with old age ... we may assume that Hendrik Groen is a character of fiction. But it is a fiction so closely based on the observation of real life that it is utterly convincing * Daily Express *Hendrik pens an exposé of his care home, sets up the Old-But-Not-Dead club and relishes the arrival of a new female resident. This geriatric Adrian Mole made me laugh and think. Terrific -- Fanny Blake * Woman and Home *

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER''Magnificent: a dizzying tale of drama, intrigue and passion'' MAIL ON SUNDAY''A colossal, genre-crossing achievement'' GUARDIANAs a child, Daniel Sempere discovered among the passageways of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books an extraordinary novel that would change the course of his life. Now a young man in the Barcelona of the late 1950s, Daniel runs the Sempere & Sons bookshop and enjoys a seemingly fulfilling life with his loving wife and son. Yet the mystery surrounding the death of his mother continues to plague his soul.Just when Daniel believes he is close to solving this enigma, a conspiracy more sinister than he could have imagined spreads its tentacles from the hellish Franco regime. That is when Alicia Gris appears, a soul born out of the nightmare of the war. She is the one who will lead Daniel to the edge of the abyss and reveal the secret history of his family, although at a terrifying price.Trade ReviewMoving and engaging. This is a novel to lose oneself in, and it promotes the sort of reading experience we remember from childhood - of complete absorption into a fantasy world * Irish Times *Zafón is a master storyteller, combining the postmodern and the traditional in an enchanting hymn to literature... Magnificent: a dizzying tale of drama, intrigue and passion * Mail on Sunday *A colossal, genre-crossing achievement * Guardian *Rich, ambitious storytelling * Sunday Times *Sprawling, seductive and hugely atmospheric * Sunday Express *Neither too geeky nor too highbrow, Zafon's genre-mashing novels provide a high-definition, alternative account of Spain's turbulent 20th-century history, with added Hollywood blockbuster thrills. I was hooked * Daily Mail *This is a suspenseful story of loss, betrayal and redemption * Independent *By the author of the brilliant Shadow of the Wind, this is a good long read to relish on chilly winter evenings. * Saga *

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Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2020 A powerful criticism of modern life by one of the most provocative and prophetic writers of our ageFlorent-Claude Labrouste is dying of sadness. Despised by his girlfriend and on the brink of career failure, his last hope for relief comes in the form of a newly available antidepressant that alters the brain's release of serotonin.When he returns to the Normandy countryside in search of serenity, he instead finds a rural community left behind by globalisation and red-tape agricultural policies, with local farmers longing for an impossible return towhat they remember as a golden age.'Despite its provocations, this is a novel of romantic and sorrowful ideas: Houellebecq as troubadour, singing lost loves' Rachel Kushner Michel Houellebecq has good claim to be the most interesting novelist of our times. . . Exhilarating in its nihilism, often very funny and always enjoyable' Evening StandardTrade ReviewExhilarating in its nihilism, often very funny and always enjoyable… Serotonin burns with anger… [Michel Houellebecq is] the most interesting novelist of our times’ * Evening Standard *Houellebecq has once again managed to put his finger on modern French (and Western) society’s wounds, and it hurts * Economist *Any new book by Houellebecq is guaranteed to make waves, and Serotonin is no exception ... A bleak, uncompromising novel. But it also feels like an important one, asking some necessary questions in characteristically mordant fashion * Mail on Sunday *A cautionary tale about dissipated manhood… Houellebecq may be, in certain respects, a man for our times * Literary Review *While Houellebecq is provocative and at times deliberately controversial, his success is not based solely on his ability to shock. He also has a beautiful fluid writing style…and an uncanny ability to evoke the spleen that for him is at the core of existence * Irish Times *The author’s prescience has certainly proved as eerie as his reported politics are contentious, yet Serotonin’s brilliance far exceeds its accuracy as a cultural barometer… Houellebecq is a disarmingly rich and nuanced writer; Serotonin is mordant, haunting but never (quite) embittered -- Lisa Hilton * TLS *Despite its provocations, this is a novel of romantic and sorrowful ideas: Houellebecq as troubadour, singing lost loves -- Rachel KushnerHouellebecq has a sociological curiosity few other novelists possess... The agony and rage of the demoted, the discarded, the “deplorable” (a segment of them, if not the whole basket), laid bare. What other novelist would have the willingness to go there, let alone the wherewithal * Guardian *To some, he is the only serious writer prepared to look at disagreeable aspects of the modern world – sex tourism, radical Islam, airports, free markets, pornography ... [Houellebecq’s] novels have a journalistic knack of chiming with events * Sunday Times *Houellebecq’s disdain for the emptiness of modern western life often leaves him spookily ahead of the game ... The satirist carves up the branded ghastliness of restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and the like with a steady butcher’s hand * Financial Times *Houellebecq is a supreme chronicler of the psyche of modern European man * Spiked *Houellebecq’s vision in his new novel, Serotonin, is blacker and sharper than ever…in Shaun Whiteside’s English translation, Houellebecq has never sounded more fluent * i *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ADVERSARYLittle Nicolas is a delicate, timid schoolboy, with an excitable, if morbid imagination – the child of an overbearing father. So, two weeks away on the class trip is already enough to fill him with dread. But when a child goes missing, Nicolas’ mind turns to gruesome possibilities, impelling him to take up the role of detective – and edge closer to a truth more shocking than Nicolas’ worst fears. Translated by Linda Coverdale 'There are few great writers in France today, and Emmanuel Carrère is one of them' Paris ReviewElegant, pocket-sized paperbacks, VINTAGE Editions celebrate the audacity and ambition of the written word, transporting readers to wherever in the world literary innovation may be found.Trade ReviewThe most important French writer you've never heard ofThere are few great writers in France today, and Emmanuel Carrère is one of them * Paris Review *

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Book Synopsis'This series will soon become a Netflix series... so get in on the ground floor while you still can' Esquire Imagine a universe patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. Imagine what might happen to any civilisation unwise enough to broadcast its location. This is Cixin Liu's THREE-BODY PROBLEM TRILOGY. Weaving a complex web of stratagem, subterfuge, philosophy and physics across light years of space and 18.9 million years of time, this tale of humanity's struggle to reach the stars is a visionary masterwork of unprecedented scale and momentum. Available now in a single volume, including: 1 THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM 2 THE DARK FOREST 3 DEATH'S END Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-selling phenomenon – soon to be a Netflix Original Series from the creators of Game of Thrones. Reviews for Cixin Liu: 'A milestone' New York Times 'Immense' Barack Obama 'Unique' George R.R. Martin 'SF in the grand style' Guardian 'Mind-altering and immersive' Daily MailTrade ReviewA unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology -- George R.R. MartinWildly imaginative, really interesting... The scope of it was immense' -- Barack ObamaA milestone in Chinese science fiction * New York Times *A marvellous mélange of awe-inspiring scientific concepts, clever plotting and quirky yet plausible characters * TLS *China's answer to Arthur C. Clarke * The New Yorker *Table of ContentsThe Three-Body Problem. The Dark Forest. Death's End.

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Book SynopsisTroubled by an inability to find any meaning in his life, the 25-year-old narrator of this deceptively simple novel quits university and eventually arrives at his brother's New York apartment.In a bid to discover what life is all about, he writes lists. He becomes obsessed by time and whether it actually matters. He faxes his meteorologist friend. He endlessly bounces a ball against the wall. He befriends a small boy who lives next door. He yearns to get to the bottom of life and how best to live it.Funny, friendly, enigmatic and frequently poignant - superbly naive.Trade ReviewLoe certainly has some of Salinger's lightness of touch, and often comic voice of his unnamed narrator recalls Salinger's Holden Caulfield. A charming debut novel. * * The Times * *it displays a canny lightness of touch and a great deal of charm. An effortlessly hip and savvy antidote to the rainy day blues. * * Sleazenation * *It is fascinating, how much depth this young author can convey in a simple language - a major talent. * * Oldenburgische Volkzeitung, Germany * *A book overflowing with creative talent on just about every page. Well calculated naivety. * * Dagbladet, Norway * *

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Book SynopsisA mysterious stranger named Chichikov arrives in a small provincial Russian town and proceeds to visit a succession of landowners, making each of them an unusual and somewhat macabre proposition. He offers to buy the rights to the dead serfs who are still registered on the landowner's estate, thus reducing their liability for taxes. It is not clear what Chichikov's intentions are with the dead serfs he is purchasing, and despite his attempts to ingratiate himself, his strange behaviour arouses the suspicions of everyone in the town.A biting satire of social pretensions and pomposity, Dead Souls has been revered since its original publication in 1842 as one of the funniest and most brilliant novels of nineteenth-century Russia. Its unflinching and remorseless depiction of venality in Russian society is a lasting tribute to Gogol's comic genius.Trade Review"Gogol was a strange creature, but then genius is always strange." - Vladimir Nabokov

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Book SynopsisTHE NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR27 MILLION BOOKS SOLDWINNER OF THE GLASS KEY AWARDJussi Adler-Olsen returns with his most captivating and suspenseful novel yet...In a Copenhagen park the body of an elderly woman is discovered. Though the case bears a striking resemblance to another unsolved homicide from over a decade ago, the police cannot find any connection between the two victims. Across town a group of young women are being hunted down. The attacks seem random, but could these brutal acts of violence be related? Detective Carl Mørck of Department Q is charged with solving the mystery.Back at headquarters, Carl and his team are under pressure to deliver results: failure to meet his superiors' expectations will mean the end of Department Q. Solving the case, however, is not their only concern. After a breakdown, their colleague Rose is struggling to deal with the ghosts of her past - a past seemingly connected to one of the division's most sinister case-files. It is up to Carl, Assad and Gordon to unearth the dark and violent truth plaguing Rose before it is too late.Translated by William FrostPerfect for fans of Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo.Trade ReviewThe new "it" boy of Nordic Noir * Times *Gripping story-telling * Guardian *Adler-Olsen's prose is superior to Larsson's, his tortures are less discomfiting, and he has a sense of humour * Booklist on Mercy *[A] sordid tale . . . inspired by actual events during a dark period of Danish history. Ah, but there is more, so much more in this frenzied thriller * New York Times on Guilt *Mesmerising writing * Independent *Scandinavian crime novels don't get much darker than Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q police procedurals * New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisTranslated by Marilyn Booth Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction 2023 Longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary AwardAn extraordinary novel from a Man Booker International Prize-winning author that follows one young Omani woman as she builds a life for herself in Britain and reflects on the relationships that have made her from a “remarkable” writer who has “constructed her own novelistic form” (James Wood, The New Yorker). ‘Alharthi makes lyrical shifts between past and present, memory and folklore, oneiric surrealism and grimy realism.’ Guardian [A] stirring tale of a woman who battles every social and religious constraint. The juxtaposition with the narrator’s reflections on modern life and the speed of change is brilliantly judged in Marilyn Booth’s agile translation from Arabic.’ T

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Book SynopsisThe electrifying new novel from the sensational bestselling winners of the International Booker Prize and ''one of the boldest writers alive today'' (Max Porter).It's been a long time since a book has destroyed me like this.'' Max Porter''Obsessed me from the first line.'' Daisy Johnson''I''m in awe.'' Brandon TaylorWINNER OF THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024In the tempestuous summer of 2005, a local veterinarian becomes enraptured by a 14-year-old farmer's daughter his favourite' as he tends her father's cows. This deeply troubled soul is our narrator: a man who believes he offers the object of his love a tantalizing path out of the constrictions of her conservative rural life, a chance to escape to a world of fantasy. But the obsessive reliance he cultivates builds into a terrifying trap, with a crime and confession at the heart of it that threatens to rip their small community apart.''Mesmerising . . . A singular, deeply discomforting talent.' Financial Times''An extraordinary literary achievement.' Daily Telegraph *****I was floored by this novel . . . Unholy brilliance.' Observer''A unique creation and a tour de force of transgressive imagination.' Guardian (Book of the Day)

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Book SynopsisA visionary novel about our interconnected world, about the collision of horror and humanity, from the Man Booker-shortlisted master of the spine-tingling tale A Guardian & Observer Best Fiction Book of 2020 * A Sunday Times Best Science Fiction Book of the Year * The Times Best Science Fiction Books of the Year * NPR Best Books of the Year World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2020 * Ebook Travel Guides Best 5 Books of 2020 * A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 They’re not pets. Not ghosts or robots. These are kentukis, and they are in your home. You can trust them. They care about you... They've infiltrated apartments in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of Sierra Leone, town squares of Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. Anonymous and untraceable, these seemingly cute cuddly toys reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung souls – but they also expose the ugly truth of our interconnected society. Samanta Schweblin's wildly imaginative new novel pulls us into a dark and complex world of unexpected love, playful encounters and marvellous adventures. But beneath the cuddly exterior, kentukis conceal a truth that is unsettlingly familiar and exhilaratingly real. This is our present and we’re living it – we just don’t know it yet. *Little Eyes comes with two different covers, and the cover you receive will be chosen at random*Trade Review'Ingenious... An artful exploration of solitude and empathy in a globalised world… In a nimble, fast-moving narrative, what’s most impressive is the way she foregrounds her characters’ inner hopes and fears.' * Guardian *'Disturbing... Schweblin enjoys hovering just above the normal. Inspired by Samuel Beckett, she is interested in exposing absurdities.' * Financial Times *‘Little Eyes makes for masterfully uneasy reading; it’s a book that burrows under your skin.’ * Telegraph *'I cannot remember a book so efficient in establishing character and propelling narrative; there’s material for a hundred novels in these deft, rich 242 pages... The writing, ably translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, is superb, fully living up to the promise of Schweblin's stunning previous novel, Fever Dream... A slim volume as expansive and ambitious as an epic.' * New York Times *'A timely meditation on humanity and technology.' * Harper's Bazaar *'Little Eyes provides us with a powerful examination of the underlining disparities that persist. It is a fable for a society in which we are all made to feel simultaneously exposed and anonymous, connected and alone.' * Times Literary Supplement *‘Little Eyes acts as a clear warning that every digital decision we make has consequences... It does feel alarmingly real.’ * i *'This dazzling inquiry into loneliness and connection...has been given added resonance by the atomisation of lockdown.' * Guardian, '50 Brilliant Books to Transport You This Summer' *'A dark story, beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, it leaves the reader in a world from which there is no escape, as it questions our growing complicity in social media and neocapitalist technologies.' * Morning Star *'Creepy as hell.' * Weekend Sport *‘Enjoyable reading… riffing on everyday human foibles – jealousy, capriciousness, existential restlessness…the understatedly arch tone is well served by Megan McDowell’s translation, which is so slick that one hardly seems to be reading a translated work.’ * Literary Review *'Daring and original... Schweblin deftly explores both the loneliness and casual cruelty that can inform our attempts to connect in this modern world.' * Booklist *'If you want a spookily prescient vision of human isolation both assuaged and deepened by inscrutable, glitch-prone tech, then Little Eyes more than fits the brief... Adroitly served by Megan McDowell’s winningly deadpan translation, these stories deal not in 'truly brutal plots' but 'desperately human and quotidian' urges, fears and scams... In the middle of our stay-at-home, broadband-enabled apocalypse, that feels right.' * Spectator *'The 'toys' Schweblin has created are the perfect hybrid between a pet and a social network, enabling her to dissect problems that touch all of our lives: the dark side of the internet; the global epidemic of loneliness; the dumb inertia that leads us to jump on board with the latest trend… As always in the worlds Schweblin creates, the real monsters are to be found not in the outside world, but inside each of us.' * New York Times (Spanish edition) *'A dystopian novel that is necessary, hypnotic, irresistible.' * Elle Italia *'This brilliant and disturbing book resembles Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale in how it speculates…Schweblin unspools a disquieting portrait of the dark sides of connectivity and the kinds of animalistic cyborgs it can make of us, as we walk through barriers that even spirits cannot cross.' * Literary Hub *'The finest novel of the past five years. Quite exceptional. Little Eyes will certainly feature in future lists of the ten best novels of this century.' * Luisgé Martín, author of The Same City *'A nuanced exploration of anonymous connection and distant intimacy in our heavily accessible yet increasingly isolated lives...Capacious, touching, and disquieting, this is not-so-speculative fiction for an overnetworked and underconnected age.' * Kirkus Reviews *'Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, is a chilling and often hilarious book on the pitfalls of living in a highly interconnected world. Schweblin has a true talent for getting to the centre of our fears and drawing them out. An intensely clever title that will have you examining your own relationship to the internet.' -- Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters'This has a propulsive, Dave Eggers-ish readability.' * Daily Mail *'Little Eyes is a short, powerful, disquieting novel. The story explores the grey area that constitutes an invasion of privacy, and the line between intimacy and exhibitionism. Samanta Schweblin guides the narrative with a skilful hand reminiscent of her very finest short stories. An excellent storyteller, but above all, a true writer.' * La Razón *'Readers will be fascinated by the kentuki-human interactions, which smartly reveal how hungry we are for connection in a technology-bent world. Of a piece with Schweblin’s elliptical Fever Dream and the disturbing story collection Mouthful of Birds...this jittery eye-opener will appeal to a wide range of readers.' * Library Journal *'Schweblin’s handling of tension and her viscously instantaneous ironic twists, familiar from her short story collection Mouthful of Birds, are delicious... An eerie sense of disjuncture characterises the entire reading experience...an indicator of the deep, discomforting place it has made itself under my skin.' * 3:AM magazine *'Schweblin unfurls an eerie, uncanny story… Daring, bold, and devious.' * Publishers Weekly *'Her most unsettling work yet – and her most realistic.' * New York Times *‘A master of the unsettling… the imaginary technology at the heart of Little Eyes feels all too real, and Schweblin persuasively elaborates its operations and implications… the novel’s breadth provides much of its pleasure, allowing an inventiveness that balances the bleakness of its characters’ lives.’ -- Hannah Rosefield * The New Statesman *'In Samanta Schweblin's fiendishly readable Little Eyes, the new must-have tech gadget allows users to leapfrog into the lives of strangers – a sharp idea that became even more pertinent with the isolation and atomisation of lockdown.' -- Guardian, Best Fiction of 2020'Schweblin's clear and brisk language, aided by a seemingly effortless translation from Spanish by Megan McDowell, drives home the accessibility of this outlandish story. Little Eyes is strange and addictive, an experience made even more frightening by how familiar this feels.' * Salon *‘Alluring and unsettling in equal measure… A subtle and scathing parody of modern communications technology and social media… Colourful and near-hypnotic prose… A rare, yet powerful, indictment of a society that tolerates and even encourages violations of one of our most precious moral commodities – privacy.’ * E&T *'She has a gift for fiction that is pure, original, revelatory.' * El País *'Little Eyes calls to mind the world of Black Mirror. The result is suffocating and addictive in equal measure; combining the minutiae of domestic life with a picture of the dark side of technology in a disconcertingly natural style. A story about voyeurism, and the pleasure of looking at the world through someone else’s eyes.' * El Mundo *'An insightful reflection on solitude and privacy.' * ABC *'[Schweblin is] a literary explorer of 21st century fears.' * La Vanguardia *'Schweblin plunges herself once again into the disturbing limits of what we think of as 'normal'.' * Letras Libres *'This isn’t science fiction; this is the here and now.' * El Diario *'Drawn in quotidian elegance, the novel is a string of nonstop, colorful vignettes… If Schweblin’s sci-fi thriller Fever Dream made sleep difficult, Little Eyes raises the unease quotient. The book seems to watch viewers creepily as it unfolds.' * BookPage *'Like a true master, Schweblin manages to lure us in with a story that leaves us both bruised and fascinated.' * Culturas *'The undisputed star of Latin American fiction.' * ABC Sevilla *'The fantastic and strange worlds of Samanta Schweblin’s work are described with wisdom and ferocity.' * La Repubblica *'[Little Eyes is] yet another unsettling glimpse of life...providing us with the disturbing psychological insights which we associate with her work... Once again Schweblin has produced a novel which is prescient and frightening in equal measure.’ * 1streading *'Embedded within this novel of international interconnectivity are questions of the exhibitionism and voyeurism tied up in our use of technology. Expect echoes of the Wachowskis' Sense8, except told with what has been characterized as Schweblin's "neurotic unease."' * The Millions, Most Anticipated Titles of 2020 *'Samanta Schweblin will injure you, however safe you may feel.' * Jesse Ball, author of Census *'Samanta Schweblin is one of the most promising voices in modern literature.' * Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature *'Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin was pure sorcery. Hands down, one of the best books of 2020 (so far)... I was intoxicated.' * The Book Satchel *'In accentuating so many of the dangers of online communities, as well as [the] advantages, Schweblin takes you on a psychological journey that feels like a Black Mirror episode and has you questioning actions that seemed mundane before.' * The Book Slut *'Brilliantly creepy.' -- New York Times, Notable Books of 2020'Little Eyes supposes a world that is our world, 5 minutes from now... It then introduces one small thing — one little change, one product, one tweaked application of a totally familiar technology — and tracks the ripples of chaos that it creates... Think for just a moment the kind of joy and the kind of horror something like that would create. Then read Little Eyes and see how whatever it was that you imagined was just the beginning of how awful it could be.' -- NPR, Best Books of the Year'A smart and timely meditation on what the internet is doing to the human soul... Funny, frightening and bound to make you turn off your mobile.' -- Tablet, Summer reads

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Book SynopsisPin is a bawdy, adolescent cobbler''s assistant, both arrogant and insecure who - while the Second World War rages - sings songs and tells jokes to endear himself to the grown-ups of his town - particularly jokes about his sister, who they all know as the town''s ''mattress''. Among those his sister sleeps with is a German sailor, and Pin dares to steal his pistol, hiding it among the spiders'' nests in an act of rebellion that entangles him in the adults'' war.Italo Calvino, one of Italy''s finest postwar writers, has delighted readers around the world with his deceptively simple, fable-like stories. He was born in Cuba in 1923 and raised in San Remo, Italy; he fought for the Italian Resistance from 1943-45. His major works include Cosmicomics (1968), Invisible Cities (1972), and If on a winter''s night a traveler (1979). He died in Siena in 1985. Martin L. McLaughlin is Professor of Italian and Fiat-Serena Professor of Italian Studies at the University of Oxford where he is a Fellow of Magdalen College. In addition to his published academic works he is the English translator of Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino among many others.Trade Review'An insight into the making of a European' Observer 'The crucial novel of Calvino's early years' Mail on Sunday

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Book SynopsisSet against the backdrop of Russian high society, this novel charts the course of the doomed love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer who pursues Anna after becoming infatuated with her at a ball.Trade ReviewOne of the greatest love stories in world literature -- Vladimir NabokovTolstoy's historical and human sweep is breathtaking. His vision, humanity and his knowledge that love and pain are at the heart of life is the most important of all the profound truths revealed in this great novel -- Jonathan DimblebyIn Anna Karenina, Tolstoy got totally inside the mind of a woman who is prepared to lose everything for the sake of man and who is so much in love that she commits suicide. I don't like her as a woman, but I think it is a brilliant portrait, unequalled in literature -- Amanda Craig * Independent *I've read and re-read this novel and every time I find another layer in the story -- Philippa GregoryI first read Anna Karenina 20 years ago when travelling across the Peruvian desert on a long bus journey, and it has stayed with me ever since -- Hugh Thomson * Independent *

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Book SynopsisA dark classic of Russia''s silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher''s descent into sadism, arson and murder.Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provincial schoolteacher Peredonov torments his students and has hallucinatory fantasies about acts of savagery and degradation, yet to everyone else he is an upstanding member of society. As he pursues the idea of marrying to gain promotion, he descends into paranoia, sexual perversion, arson, torture and murder. Sologub''s anti-hero is one of the great comic monsters of twentieth-century fiction, subsequently lending his name to the brand of sado-masochism known as Peredonovism. The Little Demon (1907) made an immediate star of its author who, refuting suggestions that the work was autobiographical, stated ''No, my dear contemporaries ... it is about you''. This grotesque mirror of a spiritually bankrupt society is arguably the finest Russian novel to have come out of the Symbolist movTrade ReviewA novel that reigns supreme - or anti-supreme, if one prefers - in the black arts game * Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisA major new collection of Japanese short stories, many appearing in English for the first time, with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, author of Killing CommendatoreA Penguin Classics HardcoverThis fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the art of the Japanese short story, from its origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable practitioners writing today. Edited by acclaimed translator Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated some of the stories, and with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, this book is a revelation.Stories by writers already well known to English-language readers are included--like Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata, and Yoshimoto--as well as many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's "Flames" to Yuten Sawanishi's "Filling Up with Sugar" to Shin'ichi Hoshi's "Shoulder-Top Secretary" to Banana Yoshimoto's "Bee Honey," The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fTrade ReviewBrilliant, startling, a goldmine ... unfolds like an idiosyncratic mixtape, compiled with expert zeal by veteran translator Jay Rubin ... incredibly varied. Horror and mythology jostle with character comedies, domestic dramas and Proustian reveries ... it challenges notions of what translated literature should be -- Alex Dudok de Wit * Daily Telegraph *A feast of literature, a smorgasbord of over 30 widely varied modern Japanese writers ... Each lodges itself in memory ... Penguin's new anthology is a literature lover's dream, page after page of memorable writing, stories that leave a lasting impression yet can be fully absorbed in one sitting -- Kris Kosaka * Japan Times *An exhilarating glimpse into Japanese literature -- Patti Smith

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Book SynopsisIntroducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world''s greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith.Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Like his Austrian contemporary Sigmund Freud, the doctor and writer Arthur Schnitzlerwas a bold pioneer in exploring the dark tangled roots of human consciousness. His novella Dream Story tells the tale of a young married man who, after a discussion with his wife about their fantasises, experiences an eery reverie through Vienna''s underbelly.Trade ReviewThe amoral voice of fin-de-siècle Vienna—New Yorker

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Book SynopsisAn eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra person – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.At the older woman's insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist. Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree's playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

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Book SynopsisA thriller of love and revenge, and an imaginative literary obituary for Kafka, bringing the Cold War to life, from Paris and Istanbul to West Berlin and Tel Aviv. While the youth uprising sweeps across Europe, a debate about Franz Kafka appears in student magazines, arguing that publishing the texts Kafka left behind against his will is unfaithful to his legacy. When Kafka's best friend, Brod, is injured in an attempted assassination, assailant Ferdy Kaplan is captured and questioned by Commissioner Muller at the West Berlin police station. As his interrogation progresses, Kaplan's background is revealed piece by piece, from the love story between him and his childhood friend Amalya, to their shared passion for Kafka, which leads them to join a radical group. But when a shocking discovery is made about the person who ultimately set Brod's attempted murder in motion, Kaplan and Muller agree to work together to expose the truth. In this gripping, thought-provoking tribute to Kafka, Burhan Sönmez vividly recreates a key period of history in the 1960s, when the Berlin Wall divided Europe. More than a typical mystery, Lovers of Franz K. is a brilliant exploration of the value of books, and the issues of anti-Semitism, immigration, and violence that recur in Kafka's life and writings.

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Book SynopsisYukio Mishima was born into a samurai family and imbued with the code of complete control over mind and body, and loyalty to the Emperor - the same code that produced the austerity and self-sacrifice of Zen. He wrote countless stories and thirty-three plays, in some of which he performed. Several films have been made from his novels, including The Sound of Waves, Enjo which was based on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea. Among his other works are the novels Confessions of a Mask and Thirst for Love and the short story collections Death in Midsummer and Acts of Worship. The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, however, is his masterpiece. After Mishima conceived the idea of The Sea of Fertility in 1964, he frequently said he would die when it was completed. On 25 November 1970, the day he completed The Decay of the Angel, the last novel of the cycle, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide) at the age of forty-five.Trade ReviewA work of art...altogether a joyous and lovely thing * New York Times *Of such classic design its action might take place at any point across a thousand years * San Francisco Chronicle *A pastoral with ancient Greek overtones * Boston Globe *A sunny masterpiece * Los Angeles Times *

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Book SynopsisKarl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle cycle has been heralded as a masterpiece all over the world. From A Death in the Family to The End, the novels move through childhood into adulthood and, together, form an enthralling portrait of human life. Knausgaard has been awarded the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, the Brage Prize and the Jerusalem Prize. His work, which also includes the Seasons Quartet and the Morning Star series (The Morning Star, The Wolves of Eternity and The Third Realm) is published in thirty-five languages.Trade ReviewA stunningly eloquent set of reflections on masculinity, domesticity and the artist's itch to escape -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent *Compelling, rewarding, maddening...breathtaking * Observer *My favourite book of the year… He has the ability to make the small details of his life fascinating -- William Leith * Spectator *Shocking and compulsive * Dazed & Confused *This is a reading experience like no other. Fearless in its truth-telling and as real as life, it is an epic study of what it feels like to be alive -- Carys Davies * Metro *

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Book SynopsisKikuji has been invited to a tea ceremony by a mistress of his dead father. He is shocked to find there the mistress''s rival and successor, Mrs. Ota, and that the ceremony has been awkwardly arranged for him to meet his potential future bride. But he is most shocked to be drawn into a relationship with Mrs. Ota - a relationship that will bring only suffering and destruction to all of them. Thousand Cranes reflects the tea ceremony''s poetic precision with understated, lyrical style and beautiful prose.Trade ReviewA literary habitat like no other . . . quietly devastating fiction. . . . Behind a lyrical and understated surface, chaotic passions pulse * The Independent (London) *Thousand Cranes has the qualities of the best Japanese writing: a stunning economy, delicacy of feeling, and a painter's sensitivity to the visible world * The Atlantic *A novel of exquisite artistry . . . rich suggestibility . . . and a story that is human, vivid and moving * New York Herald Tribune *Kawabata is a poet of the gentlest shades, of the evanescent, the imperceptible. This is a tragedy in soft focus, but its passions are fierce * Commonweal *

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Book SynopsisIndiana (1831) is an absorbing and vivid romantic novel, set partly in provincial France, partly in Paris, and partly on a tropical island. It tells the story of a beautiful and innocent young woman, married at sixteen to a much older man.

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Book Synopsis''I have so much and my feeling for her devours everything, I have so much and without her everything is nothing.''The Sorrows of Young Werther propelled Goethe to instant fame when it first appeared in 1774. Goethe drew on his own unhappy experiences to tell the story of Werther, a young man tormented by his love for Lotte, a tender-hearted girl who is promised to someone else. Overwhelmed by his feelings, Werther begins to see only one way to escape from his anguish.Goethe''s story of a sensitive young artist alienated from society channelled the Romantic sensibility of the day and led to a wave of imitations. Werther''s searching introspection and the passionate intensity with which he bares his soul have an immediacy that is all the more powerful for being expressed in letters; charting the course of his emotions, they give added drama to the unfolding account. David Constantine''s new translation captures the novel''s lyric clarity, and his introduction and notes illuminate Goethe''s achievement. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewIn a new translation which skilfully draws attention to elements of self-imprisonments within the novella, we come to understand Goethe's desire to exorcise a part of himself. * Kristen Treen, The Observer *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewMishima is the Japanese Hemingway * Life Magazine *Strikingly different... Stephen Dodd's translation captures Mishima's dark humour, succinct style and dry wit -- Vanora Bennett * The Times Literary Supplement *A brilliant black comedy following the Osugi family, who come to the understanding that they are each from a different planet. This new knowledge strengthens their bond while solidifying a mission: to seek others of their kind and save humanity from the looming threat of the atomic bomb. This is an insightful, moving read. Mishima deserves a wider readership -- Irenosen Okojie * The i *Set in the early 1960s, this bonkers story of aliens trying to save mankind from nuclear war is told from the perspective of one family, all of whom come from a different planet. It's a biting social satire that's utterly transporting * Sunday Times Best Books for Summer 2023 *Ordinary people harbour the grandest (and most terrible) thoughts in a cosmological fable as disconcerting as it is funny: behind the simplest actions lie visions of worlds in collision -- Simon Ings * The Times *The Oscar Wilde of Japan ... one of Japan's great novelists ... his subtlety, warmth and wit shine through * Telegraph *A mixture of humour, high literary seriousness and flying saucers ... remarkable -- Sam Leith * Spectator *A writer of immense energy and ability * Time Out *One of the greatest avant-garde Japanese writers of the twentieth century * New Yorker *Among Japan's most celebrated post-war authors * Little White Lies *Interplanetary, quite extraordinary ... a fusion of sci-fi and social satire with great pathos, awash with dark humour and scenes of intense beauty ... Mishima blends the sublime and ridiculous in provocative and surprising ways ... a fresh and limpid translation -- Bryan Karetnyk * Financial Times *Moves from vividly described scenes of ordinary human life and the beauties of the natural world to arguments about human nature and whether peace is possible this side of death -- Lisa Tuttle * Guardian Best Recent Science Fiction *Its humour may be the book's most brilliant trait ... intense and earnest, the novel contains plenty of Mishima's spectacular writing ... an impressive accomplishment by Dodd in conveying a sense of import, sophistication and mastery of prose -- Eric Margolis * Japan Times *A delightfully strange, absorbing work. Full of humour and insight. Highly recommended -- Irenosen OkojieThe wunderkind of the Japanese literary world ... an extraordinary literary talent * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisSENSATIONAL WINNERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE''It''s been a long time since a novel has destroyed me like this . . . One of the boldest writers alive today.'' Max Porter''A novel of exquisite discomfort and delicious poetry . . . Made me laugh and gasp . . . I''m in awe.'' Brandon Taylor''Rejuvenating, glorious, brilliant. A book about obsession with prose that obsessed me from the first line.'' Daisy JohnsonIn the tempestuous summer of 2005, a local veterinarian becomes enraptured by a 14-year-old farmer's daughter his favourite' as he tends her father's cows. This deeply troubled soul is our narrator: a man who believes he offers the object of his love a tantalizing path out of the constrictions of her conservative rural life, a chance to escape to a world of fantasy. But the obsessive reliance he cultivates builds into a terrifying trap, with a crime and confession at the heart of it that threatens to rip their small c

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Book Synopsis**THE GLOBAL BESTSELLERWINNER OF FRANCE'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS AWARD, THE PRIX GONCOURTLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS**'A masterpiece' The TimesA love letter to literature' Leïla SlimaniA rollicking literary mystery Propulsive' New YorkerParis, 2018. Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers a legendary book titled The Maze of Inhumanity. It has an immediate hold over him. No one knows what happened to its author, T.C. Elimane, who was accused of plagiarism, his reputation destroyed by the critics. Obsessed with discovering the truth about Elimane's disappearance, Faye weaves past and present, countries and continents, to follow the author's labyrinthine trail from Senegal to Argentina and France and to confront the great tragedies of history. Will he get to the truth at the centre of the maze?'The style as well as the sweep is Bolaño-esque' ObserverAs enthralling as it is thought-provoking' Eric NguyenTerrific' Daily MailTranslated by Lara Vernaud

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Book SynopsisNamed after one of Iceland's most magnificent volcanoes, Hekla always knew she wanted to be a writer. In a nation of poets, where each household proudly displays leatherbound volumes of the Sagas, and there are more writers per capita than anywhere else in the world, there is only one problem: she is a woman. She decides to try her luck in Reykjavik, and moves in with her friend Jon, a gay man who longs to work in the theatre, but can only find dangerous, backbreaking work on fishing trawlers. Hekla's opportunities are equally limited: marriage and babies, or a job as a waitress, in which harassment from customers is part of the daily grind. They both feel completely out of place in a small and conservative world. And yet that world is changing: JFK is shot, hemlines are rising, and in Iceland another volcano erupts, and Hekla knows she must escape to find freedom abroad, whatever must be left behind.

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Book SynopsisFrom Bolivian writer Liliana Colanzi comes a collection of short fiction: unearthly and radiating with power.

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Book SynopsisThe thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope.Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all. New translation Includes introduction, suggestions for further reading, filmography, chronology, explanatory notes, and glossary Trade Review“[Germinal] made me realize that when books are considered ‘classics,’ most of the time they’re actually very readable and exciting.” —Daniel Radcliffe

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Book SynopsisPaulo's writing is a visionary blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore. His stories are simple and direct, yet they have the power to change lives and inspire you with the courage to follow your dreamsHis fifth novel, The Fifth Mountain, is set in the 9th century BC. Elijah is a young man struggling to maintain his sanity amidst a chaotic world of tyranny and war. Forced to flee his home, then choose between his new found love and security and his overwhelming sense of duty, this is a moving and inspiring story about how we can transcend even the most terrible ordeals by keeping faith and love alive.Trade Review‘His books have and a life-enhancing impact on millions of people’The Times ‘His writing is like a path of energy that inadvertently leads readers to themselves, toward their mysterious and faraway souls.’Figaro Litteraire, France ‘Paulo Coelho represents the legend of the wise storyteller.’Corriere della Sera, Italy

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Book SynopsisIn Kafka's powerful and disturbing novel, an innocent man is arrested and repeatedly interrogated for a crime that is never ever explained. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is translated from German by Douglas Scott and Chris Waller, and features an afterword by David Stuart Davies.On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, a young bank official named Joseph K is arrested although he has done nothing wrong and is never told what he’s been charged with. The Trial is the chronicle of his fight to prove his innocence, of his struggles and encounters with the invisible Law and the untouchable Court where he must make regular visits. It is an account, ultimately, of state-induced self-destruction presenting in a nightmarish scenario the persecution of the outsider and the incomprehensible machinations of the state. Using the power of simple, straightforward language Kafka draws the reader into this bleak and frightening world so that we too experience the fears, uncertainties and tragedy of Joseph K.Trade ReviewThe Dante of the twentieth century -- W. H. AudenNo other voice has borne truer witness to the dark of our times -- George Steiner

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Book SynopsisWith the death of her aunt, Maria Stepanova is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia. Carefully reassembled with calm, steady hands, these shards tell the story of how a seemingly ordinary Jewish family somehow managed to survive the myriad persecutions and repressions of the last century. Dipping into various forms – essay, fiction, memoir, travelogue and historical documents – Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory assembles a vast panorama of ideas and personalities and offers an entirely new and bold exploration of cultural and personal memory.Trade Review‘Stepanova’s tour de force blends memoir, literary criticism, essay and fiction. Although this is a personal and intimate work using photographs, postcards and diaries, it succeeds in mining a universal theme in contemporary Russian cultural life: how does a family – or a country – process the events of the past 100 years?’ — Viv Groskop, Guardian‘A brilliant evocation of the last years of the Soviet Union, extending deep into the past. In a work that crosses the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction, Russian poet and journalist Stepanova recounts the lives of her ancestors, rural Russian Jews who, on moving to Moscow, could never quite go home again…. Apart from delivering a mine of family and national history, Stepanova exercises a well-honed sense of the apposite literary allusion (“The chimneys in the view from the window resembled flowerpots, Kafka said something similar about them”). Stretching from the days before Lenin took power to the “Doctor’s Plot” and the collapse of the USSR and beyond, Stepanova’s book is lyrical and philosophical throughout…. A remarkable work of the imagination – and, yes, memory.’ — Kirkus, starred review‘This remarkable account of the author’s Russian-Jewish family expands into a reflection on the role of art and ethics in informing memory.… Stepanova is both sensitive and rigorous.’ — New Yorker‘A luminous, rigorous, and mesmerizing interrogation of the relationship between personal history, family history, and capital-H History. I couldn’t put it down; it felt sort of like watching a hypnotic YouTube unboxing-video of the gift-and-burden that is the twentieth century. In Memory of Memory has that trick of feeling both completely original and already classic, and I confidently expect this translation to bring Maria Stepanova a rabid fan base on the order of the one she already enjoys in Russia.’ — Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot‘There is simply no book in contemporary Russian literature like In Memory of Memory. A microcosm all its own, it is an inimitable journey through a family history which, as the reader quickly realizes, becomes a much larger quest than yet another captivating family narrative. Why? Because it asks us if history can be examined at all, yes, but does so with incredible lyricism and fearlessness. Because Stepanova teaches us to find beauty where no one else sees it. Because Stepanova teaches us to show tenderness towards the tiny, awkward, missed details of our beautiful private lives. Because she shows us that in the end our hidden strangeness is what makes us human. This, I think, is what makes her a truly major European writer. I am especially grateful to Sasha Dugdale for her precise and flawless translation which makes this book such a joy to read in English. This is a voice to live with.’ — Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic‘Dazzling erudition and deep empathy come together in Maria Stepanova’s profound engagement with the power and potential of memory, the mother of all muses. An exploration of the vast field between reminiscence and remembrance, In Memory of Memory is a poetic appraisal of the ways the stories of others are the fabric of our history.’ — Esther Kinsky, author of Grove‘Extraordinary – a work of haunting power, grace and originality’ — Philippe Sands, author of East West Street‘The poet Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory, beautifully translated by Sasha Dugdale, is a deeply intelligent quest for the significance of minutiae that survive while grand narratives of history sweep over them. It makes for powerful and magical reading, reminiscent of Nabokov’s Speak Memory. Time and again the sheer richness of the task sustains us and drives us on. This is a wholly marvellous book that extends our knowledge of all that is valued and lost.’ — George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at Sixteen

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Book Synopsis*BY THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE*'Laxness at his best: a reminder of the mad hilarity of the Icelandic sensibility. An endearing and unforgettable voice' Nicholas ShakespeareAbandoned as a baby, Alfgrimur is content to spend his days as a fisherman living in the turf cottage outside Reykjavik with the elderly couple he calls grandmother and grandfather. There he shares the mid-loft with a motley bunch of eccentrics and philosophers who find refuge in the simple respect for their fellow men that is the ethos at the Brekkukot. But the narrow horizons of Alfgrimur's idyllic childhood are challenged when he starts school and meets Iceland's most famous singer, the mysterious Garoar Holm. Garoar encourages him to aim for the 'one true note', but how can he attain it without leaving behind the world that he loves?'It is a novel (a world) that transmits something of the wonder of life' Murray BailTrade ReviewLaxness is a poet who writes to the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot: he takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in an Evelyn Waugh-like humour: it is not possible to be unimpressed * Daily Telegraph *This weird and wonderful novel, about the price you pay for 'the one true note', is Laxness at his best: a reminder of the mad hilarity of the Icelandic sensibility. An endearing and unforgettable voice * Nicholas Shakespeare *It is a novel (a world) that transmits something of the wonder of life, its strangeness, its goodness, ocassions for stubbornness, and the stoicism of people - people everywhere * Murray Bail *Laxness's view of a child's bounded universe has humour and a light touch * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisThe inspiration for such works as Joseph Heller''s Catch-22, Jaroslav Hašek''s black satire The Good Soldier Švejk is translated with an introduction by Cecil Parrott in Penguin Classics.Good-natured and garrulous, Švejk becomes the Austro-Hungarian army''s most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of the First World War - although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards, getting drunk and becoming a general nuisance, the resourceful Švejk uses all his natural cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the doctors, police, clergy and officers who chivvy him towards battle. The story of a ''little man'' caught in a vast bureaucratic machine, The Good Soldier Švejk combines dazzling wordplay and piercing satire to create a hilariously subversive depiction of the futility of war.Cecil Parrott''s vibrant, unabridged and unbowdlerized translation is accompanied by an intro

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Book SynopsisOne of the most widely read books of all time, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio is a riotous, tragicomic tale that will charm young and old with its endearing blend of mischief and magic.Now a criticially acclaimed film, awarded the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, directed by Guillermo del Toro.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition of Pinocchio features the charming illustrations of the classic British illustrator Charles Folkard and an afterword by Anna South.Geppetto, a poor woodcarver, crafts a marionette from a strange piece of talking wood and inadvertently brings the mischievous Pinocchio – a walking, talking, wooden boy – into the world. The naughty, selfish puppet heads off into the world and encounters all manner of unusual and dangerous characters on his adventures, undergoing a series of fiendishly imaginative trials – among them being swallowed by a giant dogfish and turned into a donkey – that will lead him to self-knowledge. Along the way he will be helped by a beautiful fairy, a talking cricket and his loving father as he learns how to become what he most longs to be – a real boy.

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Book SynopsisTo research his thesis on contemporary agrarian life, anthropology student David Mazon moves from Paris to La Pierre-Saint-Christophe, a village in the marshlands of western France. Determined to capture the essence of rurality, the intrepid scholar shuttles around on his moped to interview local residents. Unbeknownst to David, in these nondescript lands, once theatres of wars and revolutions, Death leads the dance. When an existence ends, the Wheel of Life recycles its soul and hurls it back into the world as microbe, human or wild animal, sometimes in the past, sometimes in the future. Only once a year do Death and the living observe a temporary truce, during a gargantuan three-day feast where gravediggers gorge themselves on food, libations and language. Brimming with Mathias Enard’s characteristic wit and encyclopaedic brilliance, The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild is a riotous novel where the edges between past and present are constantly dissolving against a Rabelaisian backdrop of excess – and a paradoxically macabre paean to life’s richness.Trade Review‘Enard is a writer of singular talent…. Just buy it and open up the field diary of a pretentious young man in the arse-end of nowhere in France, and see what a really great writer can do with almost anything.’ — John Phipps, The Times‘Énard is wickedly, brilliantly, subversive of sanctity….Despite its macabre title and subject matter, this novel is a capacious celebration of life, love and language.’ — Ruth Scurr, Guardian‘The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild is an earthy, Rabelaisian riot of a novel, dripping with slime, bugs, gluttony, death and bawdy decay….It is a dizzying concoction, which almost topples under its own inventive weight. In the end, though, it is held together by David’s own story which, like Maître Susane’s, carries a surprising tenderness.’ — Sophie Pedder, Economist ‘[T]he real story becomes history, the fluidity of time, the democratizing powers of death, and — through a stew of Buddhist, Christian and Islamic philosophies — the cyclical jumble of life. This is Énard at his best, calling to mind the erudite historical sweep of his 2008 debut, Zone.’ — Martin Riker, New York Times ‘When French gravediggers gather for their annual banquet in Mathias Enard’s magnificent new novel, they banish the ghosts by feasting on a grand, Rabelaisian scale[...]In The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild the focus shifts from the macroscopic to the microscopic, opening up La Pierre-Saint-Christophe to the relentless fractal curiosity of a writer fascinated by the depths of the infinitely small. The epic nosh-up, hosted by the local undertaker Martial Pouvreau, allows Enard to engage in an alternative history of France, looking to the inexhaustible resources of the provinces rather than to the gilded stories of the metropolis. The challenges for the translator of Enard’s remarkable novel are endless from the rendering of punning proper names to the encyclopedic survey of French gastronomy and the capture of French dialect speech. Frank Wynne, the prize-winning Irish translator, proves himself more than equal to the task and ensures that, for English-readers, the invitation to the banquet leaves us hungry for more.’ — Michael Cronin, Irish Times‘Recklessly, omnisciently, dazzlingly, Mathias Enard over the last twenty years has been inventing one of the most visionary oeuvres in French literature. In this book, by excavating a remote rural corner and inhabiting in turn every living thing there, man, woman and beast, he gives us the gift of deep verticality, where a sentence spools into other sentences, other stories, other epochs, and resolves into a history of Europe.’ — Jeet Thayil, author of Names of the Women‘Mathias Enard is one of the best contemporary French writers, and his works – ambitious, erudite, multifaceted, surprising and unconventional – are always worth reading, because they always strike a perfect balance between the best that literature can offer: pleasure and knowledge.’ — Javier Cercas, author of The Impostor‘Every novel by Mathias Enard reminds me of the reasons why I read fiction. He is ambitious, erudite, full of life, and a wonderful stylist to boot. He is one of the great novelists of our time.’ — Juan Gabriel Vásquez, author of The Shape of the Ruins‘Mathias Enard is an immensely ambitious writer.... Fortunately, his ambition is matched by an equally extraordinary talent. His elegant prose ... is admirably precise and intellectually limpid – he makes no concessions.’ — Alberto Manguel, El País‘All of Enard’s books share the hope of transposing prose into the empyrean of pure sound, where words can never correspond to stable meanings. He’s the composer of a discomposing age.’ — Joshua Cohen, New York Times ‘A novelist like Enard feels particularly necessary right now, though to say this may actually be to undersell his work. He is not a polemicist but an artist, one whose novels will always have something to say to us.’ — Christopher Beha, Harper’s‘The most brazenly lapel-grabbing French writer since Michel Houellebecq.’ — Leo Robson, New Statesman ‘Rarely has a book about death been so joyful.... With The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, Mathias Enard offers up both the most excessive and the most consolatory novel written in a long time.’ — Florence Buchy, Le Monde‘Although his focus here is on the Poitevin marshes, Mathias Enard remains above all an explorer who is peerless in his ability to join together places, cultures and epochs, always returning to love, to death and to what they can generate together.’ — Baptiste Liger, Lire‘A baroque, Rabelaisian tale.... Mathias Enard’s pen and unbridled imagination lead the saraband, the bacchanalia, until we've had our fill.’ — Thierry Clermont, Le Figaro‘A wonderfully unclassifiable novel. Contemporary, historical, comical, truculent, poetic, with elements of the diary, the fable, the short story... The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild is shot through with Mathias Enard’s deep love of literature.’ — Muriel Mingaud, Centre France‘This is a book that elicits a visceral response from the reader.’ — Josh Zajdman, Washington Post

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Book SynopsisWITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOROn his third birthday Oskar decides to stop growing. Haunted by the deaths of his parents and wielding his tin drum Oskar recounts the events of his extraordinary life; from the long nightmare of the Nazi era to his anarchic adventures is post-war Germany.Trade ReviewGiven Grass's close involvement with this new translation, it is fair to call this the definitive version of arguably the most important German novel of the post-war era. * Observer *Grass published his milestone of postwar literature 50 years ago, and the event is being celebrated with new translations...Mitchell's excellent translation reveals the novel as a timeless masterpiece. * The Times *At the ages of fourteen and fifteen, I had read Great Expectations twice - Dickens made me want to be a writer - but it was reading The Tin Drum at nineteen and twenty that showed me how. It was Günter Grass who demonstrated that it was possible to be a living writer who wrote with Dickens' full range of emotion and relentless outpouring of language. Grass wrote with fury, love, derision, slapstick, pathos - all with an unforgiving conscience. -- John Irving * New York Times Book Review *Funny, macabre, disgusting, blasphemous, pathetic, horrifying, erotic, it is an endless delirium, an outrageous phantasmagoria in which dust from Goethe, Hans Andersen, Swift, Rabelais, Joyce, Aristophanes and Rochester dances on the point of a needle in the flame of a candle that was not worth the game * Daily Telegraph *Encountering The Tin Drum in the early sixties was like discovering a new planet, a reinvention of literature. It brings the exhilaration of discovery, linked with an enormous gratitude for the way in which Günter Grass makes the world a worthwhile place to be in, and living a worthwhile thing to do. He has forever pushed back - and opened up - our concept and awareness of what is real, and what is possible, and what we dare to dream about. * André Brink *

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Book SynopsisEileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang''s achievement is her short fictiontales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when she was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this dazzling body of work, introduces readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.

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Book SynopsisOgata Shingo is growing old, and his memory is failing him. At night he hears only the sound of death in the distant rumble from the mountain. The relationships which have previously defined his life - with his son, his wife, and his attractive daughter-in-law - are dissolving, and Shingo is caught between love and destruction. Lyrical and precise, The Sound of the Mountain explores in immaculately crafted prose the changing roles of love and the truth we face in ageing.Trade ReviewKawabata is a poet of the gentlest shades, of the evanescent, the imperceptible * Commonweal *A rich, complicated novel. . . . Of all modern Japanese fiction, Kawabata's is the closest to poetry * The New York Times Book Review *

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