Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction
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
Cassava Republic Press A Man Who Is Not a Man
Book SynopsisA Man Who Is Not A Man recounts the personal trauma of a young Xhosa initiate after a rite-of-passage circumcision goes wrong. With frankness and courage, this powerful novel details the pain and lifelong shame this protagonist experiences as a result not only of the physical trauma, but the social ostracism from being labeled 'a failed man.' He decodes the mysteries of this long-standing cultural tradition and calls to account the elders for the disintegrating support systems that allow such tragic outcomes. But it is also through this life-changing experience that the protagonist is forced to find his strength and humanity, and reassess what it really means to be a man.Trade Review"Highly original." - Nadine Gordimer "His straightforward no-frills prose tells an effective story of a botched circumcision and its consequences." - Zakes Mda, Sunday Independent "A brave book, triumphant and a testament to the indefatigable will to live." - Mail & Guardian
£11.39
Charco Press Never Did the Fire
Book SynopsisWhat happens when two revolutionaries are left with nothing to believe in, not even each other?Never Did the Fire unfolds in the humdrum of everyday working class existence, making the afterlife of an agitator that of anyone living next door. For one old couple, brought together years ago in an underground cell, the revolution has ended in a small apartment, a grinding job caring for the bodies of the unwell well-to-do, and all the aches and pains that go with a long life and a long marriage. Untethered from the political action that defined them, and mourning the loss of their child, their bonds dissolve, but the consequences of their former life, and their dependence on each other, won't let them go.A literary icon in Chile and a major figure in the anti-Pinochet resistance, Diamela Eltit is at the height of her powers in this novel of breakdowns. Never Did the Fire evokes the charged air of Chile's violent past, and the burdens it carries into the present-day, when the structures we built, and the ones we succumbed to, no longer offer us any comfort or prospect of salvation.Trade Review"Never Did the Fire will be a first-rate literary experience for any reader." —El País"One of the greatest merits of Diamela Eltit’s work is the way she narrates failure from the interior of her language." —Letras Libres************Praise for Diamela Eltit Guggenheim Fellowship, 1985 Prize José Nuez Martín, 1995 for Los vigilantes Nominated to Altazor Award 2001 in the category of literary essay with Emergencias. Escritos sobre literatura, arte y política Prize Iberoamericano de Letras José Donoso 2010 Nominated to Altazor Award 2011 with the novel with Impuesto a la carne Finalist in the Prize Rómulo Gallegos 2011 with Impuesto a la carne Finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature 2012 Altazor Award 2014 in the fiction category for Fuerzas especiales Simón Bolívar Professor at University of Cambridge (2014) National Prize for Literature (Chile), 2018 "Her novels are radical projects that dispute the public space, the national interpretation and the role of genres under authoritarian conditions. (...) Her writing has an avant-gardist’s freedom of forms, a political reaffirmation of margins, and an exploratory and rebellious edge." Julio Ortega, BOMB magazine‘One of the most brilliant literary voices in the region (…). Eltit writes furiously.’BBC Mundo
£9.49
Charco Press Two Sherpas
Book SynopsisMount Everest, and all it means to royalty, explorers, imperialists, and two sherpas, perched on a cliffside, waiting for a man on the ledge below to move.A British climber has fallen from a cliffside in Nepal, and lies inert on a ledge below. Two sherpas kneel at the edge, stand, exchange the odd word, waiting for him to move, to make a decision, to descend. In those minutes, the world opens up to Kathmandu, a sun-bleached beach town on another continent, and the pages of Julius Caesar. Mountaineering, colonialism, obligation—in Sebastián Martínez Daniell's effortless prose each breath is crystalline, and the whole world is visible from here.Trade Review"Daniell reveals a fascinating universe in scintillating prose, precisely translated by Croft….It’s a stunner." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"An ambitiously inventive, profoundly intelligent trek through highly personal experiences of lingering imperialism." —Kirkus, starred review"Brilliantly tangential...this book becomes a viewpoint from which we can see the whole world." —The Observer"Daniell uses a neat cast of characters, a sprinkling of sub-tales and a touch of comedy to create a story far broader than the reader might expect, an acerbic dissection of a tired world order and personal history of two very different individuals." —Lunate"Two Sherpas is sheer brilliance, a book that had me hooked in anticipation from its opening pages. It’s a wake up call." —Word by Word**********Praise for Sebastián Martínez Daniell"Daniell reveals a fascinating universe in scintillating prose, precisely translated by Croft….It’s a stunner." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"An ambitiously inventive, profoundly intelligent trek through highly personal experiences of lingering imperialism." —Kirkus, starred review"Brilliantly tangential...this book becomes a viewpoint from which we can see the whole world." —The Observer
£10.79
Charco Press Dos sherpas
Book SynopsisEl Monte Everest, con toda su relevancia para la realeza, los exploradores, los imperialistas. Y dos sherpas, posados en un acantilado, esperando que el hombre de la cornisa de abajo se mueva.Un inglés cae de un acantilado en Nepal, y yace inerte en la cornisa. Dos sherpas se arrodillan en el borde del abismo, permanecen allí, intercambian algunas palabras a la espera de que el hombre tome la decisión de moverse, de descender. En esos minutos, el mundo se abre para Kathmandu: un pueblo soleado en otro continente, las páginas de Julio César. Montañismo, colonialismo, compromisos y obligaciones; en la fluida prosa de Sebastián Martínez Daniell, cada respiro es cristalino, y brinda una perspectiva desde la que se puede ver la inmensidad del mundo. An Englishman has fallen from a cliffside in Nepal, and lies inert on a ledge below. Two sherpas kneel at the edge, stand, exchange the odd word, waiting for him to move, to make a decision, to descend. In those minutes, the world opens up to Kathmandu, a sun-bleached beach town on another continent, and the pages of Julius Caesar. Mountaineering, colonialism, obligation—in Sebastián Martinez Daniell's effortless prose each breath is crystalline, and the whole world is visible from here.Mount Everest, and all it means to royalty, explorers, imperialists, and two sherpas, perched on a cliffside, waiting for a man on the ledge below to move.A British climber has fallen from a cliffside in Nepal, and lies inert on a ledge below. Two sherpas kneel at the edge, stand, exchange the odd word, waiting for him to move, to make a decision, to descend. In those minutes, the world opens up to Kathmandu, a sun-bleached beach town on another continent, and the pages of Julius Caesar. Mountaineering, colonialism, obligation—in Sebastián Martínez Daniell's effortless prose each breath is crystalline, and the whole world is visible from here.Trade Review"Daniell reveals a fascinating universe in scintillating prose, precisely translated by Croft….It’s a stunner." —Publishers Weekly, starred review"An ambitiously inventive, profoundly intelligent trek through highly personal experiences of lingering imperialism." —Kirkus, starred review"Brilliantly tangential...this book becomes a viewpoint from which we can see the whole world." —The Observer
£10.79
Charco Press The Remains
Book SynopsisAfter her ex-husband dies unexpectedly, Nora García travels to the funeral, back to a Mexican village from her past and the art and music of their life together.The way you hold a cello, the way light lands on a Caravaggio, the way the castrati hit notes like no one else could—a lifetime of conversations about art and music and history unfolds for Nora García as she and a crowd of friends and fans send off her recently deceased ex-husband, Juan. Like any good symphony, there are themes and repetitions and contrapuntal notes. We pingpong back and forth between Nora’s life with Juan (a renowned pianist and composer, and just as accomplished a raconteur) and the present day (the presentness of the past), where she sits among his familiar things, next to his coffin, breathing in the particular mix of mildew and lilies that overwhelm this day and her thoughts. In Glantz’s hands, music and art access our most intimate selves, illustrating and creating our identities, and offering us ways to express love and loss and bewilderment when words cannot suffice. As Nora says, “Life is an absurd wound: I think I deserve to be given condolences.”Trade Review"An erudite meditation on the link between mortality and the nature of art." —Publishers Weekly"An original and highly recommended masterstroke." —Library Journal"A fine novel, full of engaging curiosities." —Irish Times"Reading Margo Glantz's virtuoso novel is like letting oneself go while listening to Glenn Gould interpret Mozart."" —Ilan Stavans , author of ON BORROWED WORDS: A MEMOIR OF LANGUAGE and DICTIONARY DAYS: A DEFINING PASSION
£10.79
Scribe Publications Vista Chinesa: ‘Sits somewhere between the
Book SynopsisFrom one of Brazil’s rising literary stars, an acclaimed novella about the violation of a woman and a city, based on true events. It is 2014. There is euphoria in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro. The World Cup is about to take place and the Olympics are in sight. It is a time of hope and frenzied construction. Júlia is a partner with an architectural firm working on the future Olympic village. During a break from a meeting at the town hall, she goes for a run in the hillside neighbourhood of Alto da Boa Vista. There, a man puts a revolver to her head, takes her to a secluded spot, and rapes her. Left abandoned in the woods, she drags herself home, where her boyfriend and family members are waiting for her. Vista Chinesa brings light and shadow to a city whose stunning beauty cannot conceal the most serious human and political problems, and gives voice to a story that is tragically not uncommon.Trade Review‘Visceral, haunting … her fiction is original, startling and sits somewhere between the experimental novels of Eimear McBride and Leila Slimani’s more shocking output … This is not an easy subject to write about, but Levy has pulled it off. The result is an immediate, powerful novel that should gain her talent wider recognition.’ -- Francesca Angelini * The Sunday Times *‘The novel is a searing study of the lasting effects of sexual violence, of the inadequacies of memory, and of the failures of Brazil’s political and judicial systems.’ -- Ángel Gurría-Quintana * Financial Times *‘Beautifully paced … It is a reckoning and a rebirth; an unsparing look at the consequences of gendered violence, and of the complex history of a city, a land, and a people.’ -- Catherine Taylor * The Irish Times *‘An impressive power, which takes us by storm in the first pages … as if the book were the forest itself, to accompany with extreme distress, with half-closed eyes, the maximum harshness.’ -- Julián Fuks, Brazilian writer and literary critic‘And that is what Vista Chinesa does: surviving a rape is not a shame, but a victory.’ -- Antonia Pellegrino, award-winning writer and screenwriter‘The author’s focus on a corrupted body is interesting ... A body that in the eyes of the world is just another body, but which the person who inhabits it feels as the standard of the greatest shame. The victim is once again held responsible for the actions of the abuser, a harrowing experience that Salem Levy portrays to perfection.’ -- Paula Bonet * El País *‘That is the great thing and it is what literature can do — to put into words what is unbearable … Vista Chinesa is a slim book, a stunning piece of literature, and also an image of society. Intimacy becomes public and the personal becomes political.’ * Deutschlandfunk *‘A book full of beauty, depth, and space for reflection. The author does not exploit her story, but in a sense unfolds it to analyse it, and the way she does this, with prudence, economy, and veracity, makes this slim book unusual.’ * FAZ *‘Of impressive literary brilliance.’ * Expresso *‘A must-read.’ * Elle Brazil *‘A powerful story in which the voice of the victim is magnified, and where the focus is on recovery and moving on. Between the descriptions of unspeakable aggression, there are also moments of light, warmth and love.’ * Tony's Reading List *‘Full of bravery and insight.’ -- Eric Karl Anderson * Lonesome Reader *‘Vista Chinesa is based on the experiences of Levy’s friend, Joana Jabace. Levy built up the narrative through a series of interviews. Jabace would then read what she had written and comment and, if necessary, Levy would revise. This approach gives a sense of immediacy and the account of the rape and its aftermath is shocking in its intensity. Levy’s retelling, deftly translated by Alison Entrekin, is also a powerful act of female solidarity.’ -- Lucy Popescu * Financial Times *‘[A] work of genius. This is a bold daring book that will change your life.’ * The Bobosphere *‘[T]his powerful epistolary novel is narrated by Júlia, an architect reflecting on being “torn apart” by an intimate violation amid the tumult of the city, which is rife with violent fissures of its own.’ * The New York Times *‘[Levy] makes vital fiction out of a woman’s attempt to process trauma.’ * Publishers Weekly *‘Capturing confusion, desperation, anger, and introspection, Vista Chinesa is a detailed, visceral novel in which a woman struggles to heal after surviving a sexual assault.’ * Foreword Reviews *‘A powerful and important book.’ -- Eric Karl Anderson * Lonesome Reader *Praise for The House in Smyrna: ‘Wonderful … deceptively simple prose carrying a great power of sorrow and, interestingly, hope.’ -- Ian McEwanPraise for The House in Smyrna: ‘Levy’s writing is a joy … Her prose is rich, filled with a sense of the vividness and generosity of an author’s available inspirations: the clamour of the senses, the restless truths of the body, the turns and consolations and perils of thought, the wonders of both beauty and ugliness and the meaning and architecture of words themselves.’ -- A.L. Kennedy * Granta *Praise for The House in Smyrna: ‘Teasing … Levy has crafted a puzzling, disturbing story that at times leaves the reader feeling blindfolded in a maze.’ -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times *
£8.54
Bloodhound Books Girl: Inside
Book SynopsisThe author of Girl: Broken returns with a terrifying new novel of a shadowy cult and the woman fighting to escape their murderous grasp . . . During the 1990s, Daisy grew up abused by the cult known as The Fishermen. The house she was imprisoned in was destroyed by an explosion and all the members killed—or at least that was what people assumed. Jay, an ex-police officer, and Joseph, a professor specialising in cults and the effects of coercive control, discover that some members survived. Inspector Slane was a key member of The Fishermen and is still at large and she, along with her network of abusers, remains active and hunting for Daisy. Jay is determined to find the remnants of the cult before they can find Daisy and finish the evil they started when she was a child. But the trail seems cold—until the murders resume . . .
£9.99
Mirador Publishing Lana Walked on the Shore: A post-Soviet trip
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£14.57
Jantar Publishing Ltd Among the Ruins
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£15.00
Scribe Publications Bird Life: a novel
Book Synopsis‘Astonishing’ Emily Perkins, author of Lioness ‘Beautifully lyrical’ Mat Osman, bassist of Suede and author of The Ghost Theatre A lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently, from the Booker Prize–longlisted author of The Chimes. In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another’s lives. Dinah has come to Japan from New Zealand to teach English and grieve the death of her brother, Michael, a troubled genius who was able to channel his problems into music as a classical pianist — until he wasn’t. In the seemingly empty, eerie apartment block where Dinah has been housed, she sees Michael everywhere, even as she feels his absence sharply. Yasuko is polished, precise, and keenly observant — of her students and colleagues at the language school, and of the natural world. When she was thirteen, animals began to speak to her, to tell her things she did not always want to hear. She has suppressed these powers for many years, but sometimes she allows them to resurface, to the dismay of her adult son, Jun. One day, she returns home, and Jun has gone. Even her special gifts cannot bring him back. As these two women deal with their individual traumas, they form an unlikely friendship in which each will help the other to see a different possible world, as Smaill teases out the tension between our internal and external lives and asks what we lose by having to choose between them.Trade Review‘Bird Life is a deeply affecting novel, transcending cultural barriers while reaching through them to the essentially human.’ -- David Mills * The Times *‘A playful study of genius, grief, and special powers.’ -- Caleb Klaces * The Guardian *‘The two women at the centre of Anna Smaill’s lovely, disconcerting novel Bird Life feel certain something is about to happen — something that’s about to change everything. These kinds of proclamations in a novel can feel unfulfillable, but when Dinah and Yasuko finally do meet, the transformations each affects upon the other are surprising, consuming, and satisfying. Smaill’s crystalline prose brings us inside each of their minds as they manoeuvre through a thoroughly modern cityscape into which the natural world is forever making incursions. An unusual, empathetic, and compulsively readable tale.’ -- Dan Kois, author of Vintage Contemporaries‘A beautifully lyrical tale of loss, grief, and madness, whose central characters are so deftly drawn that you find yourself breathlessly following them down. Magically strange yet horribly real.’ -- Mat Osman, bassist of Suede and author of The Ghost Theatre‘Bird Life is an astonishing book about grief, beauty, and survival ... the writing enters your bloodstream like a strange and wonderful drug.’ -- Emily Perkins, author of Lioness‘[Bird Life is] as richly sensory and exquisite as Smaill’s previous novel, The Chimes. The world tilts and becomes strange and marvellous through her eyes.’ -- Lucy Treloar, author of Wolfe Island‘Smaill writes compellingly about the all-consuming nature of grief and the afterlife of those left behind. She also absorbingly evokes Yasuko’s mental illness, which sees her consulting beetles and birds for their counsel.’ -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *‘Magic, mental illness, and sorrow drive this powerful offering … Smaill excels equally at emotional drama, magical realism, and horror. Readers will find much to love.’ -- Publishers Weekly, starred review“[E]lliptical, poetic … [A]n evocative and sensitive depiction of mental distress and the importance of perseverance … The key message of this subtle book: Though it might be difficult to detect them during times of hardship, glimmers of hope are always visible if one knows where to look.” * Bookpage *‘Bird Life is immersive, beautifully constructed and fascinating in its portrayal of love and sorrow and the ways in which a mind constructs its world. It’s a fresh, beautifully written book, perfect for a reader looking for something out of the ordinary.’ -- Louise Ward * NZ Herald *Praise for The Chimes: ‘A totalitarian regime inflicts amnesia through music in this fresh and complex novel, which shows the social importance of an understanding of the past … fresh and original … cleverly orchestrated and poignantly conveyed throughout.’ -- Catherine Taylor * The Guardian *Praise for The Chimes: ‘To call The Chimes striking is I dare say to underplay what might be the most distinctive debut of the decade. Certainly, Smaill’s experience as a poet come through clearly in her perfectly poised prose. There’s a real richness to her images; a depth to her descriptions; her dialogue practically sparkles; and the structure of the whole thing sings.’ -- Niall Alexander * tor.com *Praise for The Chimes: ‘The novel is hypnotic, melancholic, and requires concentration, but it builds to an incredibly tense and emotionally satisfying climax that rewards all the effort.’ * Elle Magazine *
£15.29
Charco Press A Perfect Cemetery
Book Synopsis"His stories shimmer like revelations – the clarity, mystery, beauty, depth, and sheer, thrilling peculiarity of ordinary life when the veil lifts. They’re exhilarating to read, just as exhilarating to re-read." —Deborah EisenbergChildhood does not last long in the Argentine mountains of Córdoba, and adult lives fall apart quickly. In disarming, darkly humorous stories, Federico Falco explores themes of obsessive love, romantic attachment and the strategies we must find to cope with death and painful longing.In the middle of a blizzard a widow watches the ruin of her late-husband’s garden, until suddenly she sees a woman running naked in the falling snow. After telling her parents she is abandoning her Christian faith, a girl becomes infatuated with a Mormon missionary who reminds her of a boy killed in her village years before. When his family’s home is lost, a father desperately offers his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who will take them in. And a town’s mayor tries to fulfill his father’s dying wish – to design the perfect cemetery.Trade Review"The quiet assurance with which Falco addresses rural environments represents a departure recalling the perspectives of writers from the northern hemisphere such as Denis Johnson, Knut Hamsun or Tobias Wolff." —The Times Literary Supplement"Expansive and ingeniously crafted—an unforgettable collection." —Kirkus, starred review"Falco proves himself as a fine storyteller." —Publishers Weekly"These rich and authentic portraits of Argentinian lives are well worth seeking out...You could imagine Alastair McLeod or John McGahern paying homage. (5 stars)" —RTÉ"Moving, morbid, and humorous at the same time." —LA Review of Books"Falco is a master of the short story."" —Martin MacInnes , author of INFINITE GROUND and GATHERING EVIDENCE"His stories shimmer like revelations – the clarity, mystery, beauty, depth, and sheer, thrilling peculiarity of ordinary life when the veil lifts. They’re exhilarating to read, just as exhilarating to re-read."" —Deborah Eisenberg , author of YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK"Each powerful story captivates and I cannot recommend this collection enough." —Morning Star"When people praise Chekhov, stories like this are what they're thinking of." —James Crossley, Madison Books"Croft’s translations of the stories in A Perfect Cemetery are loyal to the profound beauty, rootedness, and longing they portray." —World Literature Today"At long last, Argentine author Federico Falco finally has a full-length work in translation. A Perfect Cemetery is a 2016 collection of five stories, several of which are much longer than traditional short stories (thankfully so). With confident prose, storytelling verve, and remarkable consideration for both character and landscape, Falco writes impressively well. Though plights of fancy embroil each of Falco’s characters, they are conveyed with a compassion and authenticity that make them seem utterly lifelike." —Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop"Every word and sentence, including those of Croft’s sincere and illuminating note that concludes the volume, should be savored, consumed in a rush only during those moments when you’re flying down the summer streets with Silvi on her bicycle as she searches for the boy she believes she loves." —On the Seawall"As so often in this compelling collection, the stories only open out once you finish them." —David's Book World"The succinctness of the plotlines in these stories is inversely proportional to their vast narrative expanse, to everything the writing is able to carve out between the sharply curtailed dialogues and all that simmers underneath." —La Nación"Perfectly honed... [Falco’s] skill is apparent in the originality of these plots, the economy and naturalness of the characters’ conversations, and in the meticulous observation of a gesture that may encapsulate whole central motifs" —Ñ Magazine
£9.49
Muswell Press Scent
Book SynopsisWhen Clementine and Edouard's last child leaves home, the cracks in their marriage become impossible to ignore. Her work as a perfumer is no longer providing solace and her sense of self is withering. Then, her former lover resurfaces, decades after the end of their bisexual affair, and her world tilts irreversibly. Set in Paris and Provence, this is an intimate portrait of a woman navigating conflicting desires and a troubled past whilst dreaming of a fulfilling future.Trade Review'It is very, very good - an intense and unflinching expose of desire and its legacy'. Elizabeth Buchan. 'A skilled storyteller. Inventive, vivid and distinctive'. Mary Loudon. 'Vividly passionate, this is assured, addictive precision storytelling. Costello's prose is reminiscent of masters like Leila Slimane - but her voice is entirely unique. Thrillingly stylish.' Daisy Buchanan. 'Costello poses unwavering questions about choice and honesty, about submerging pain to orchestrate survival. Showing how sacrifice can impair an entire existence and that profound passion will return always.' Catherine McNamara.
£11.69
Michael Hanrahan Publishing Standing Part Hidden
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£17.06
Two Lines Press Lord
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£10.79
Two Lines Press The Skin Is the Elastic Covering That Encases the
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£10.79
Turtle Point Press The Lisbon Syndrome: A Novel
Book SynopsisA WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE TRANSLATION OF 2022A sudden catastrophe in Europe exposes the slow-motion destruction of a generation of Venezuelans and their struggle against repression. In The Lisbon Syndrome, a disaster annihilates Portugal's capital. In Caracas, Lisbon's sister city and home to many thousands of Portuguese, few details filter through the censored state media. Fernando runs a theater program for young people in Caracas, teaching and performing classics like Macbeth and Mother Courage. His benefactor, Old Moreira, is a childless Portuguese immigrant who recalls the Lisbon of his youth. Fernando’s students suffer from what they begin to call “the Lisbon syndrome,” an acute awareness that there are no possibilities left for them in a country devastated by a murderous, criminal regime. A series of confrontations between demonstrators and government forces draw the students and their teacher toward danger. One disappears into the state secret prisons where dissidents are tortured. The arts center that was their sanctuary is attacked, and Fernando is pulled into the battle in the streets. The Lisbon Syndrome is the most trenchant contemporary novel to offer a glimpse of life and death in Venezuela. But Sánchez Rugeles’s bleak vision is lightened by his wry humor, and by characters who show us the humanity behind stark headlines. Trade Review“[The Lisbon Syndrome] celebrates...the power of stories to raise our awareness of the value of life in the midst of tragedies.... [The] novel offers many surprises right up to the end.”—Edward Waters Hood, World Literature Today "The Lisbon Syndrome is very dark, but [with]...an underlying sense of hopefulness, a human spirit that still finds its way through.... [A]n effective portrait of contemporary Venezuela."—M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review “The Lisbon Syndrome is a love song for two places, one that has vanished suddenly, another whose disappearance is unbearably slow. It’s also a love song for the people who inhabited these places and keep fighting for them to the very end. Eduardo Sánchez Rugeles has written a courageous, beautiful novel.” ―Rodrigo Hasbún, author of Affections “The Lisbon Syndrome uses the notion of the apocalypse as a very explicit symbol, as a metaphor for a political debacle. Because if each human being is a universe, the world has ended once and again with each death. . . . The universes obliterated by the Venezuelan dictatorship cannot come back to life. Nevertheless, an apparent pessimistic view turns into a narration about the love for freedom and the ability to walk over ruins in order to protect it, to regain it, to own it." ―Keila Vall de la Ville, author of The Animal Days
£12.34
Norilana Books Pan
£12.00
Valancourt Books The Intruder (L'innocente)
£17.67
She Writes Press Hysterical: Anna Freud's Story
Book SynopsisImagine growing up smart, ambitious, and queer in a home where your father Sigmund Freud thinks that women should aspire to be wives and calls lesbianism a gateway to mental illness. He also says that lesbianism is always caused by the father, and is usually curable by psychoanalysis. Then he analyzes you. Ultimately Anna Freud loved Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham (heir to the Tiffany fortune) for 54 years. They raised a family together and became psychoanalysts in their own right, specializing in work with children. But first Anna had to navigate childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood in a famous family where her kind of romantic longings were considered dangerous. What was it like to grow up the lesbian daughter of “the great Sigmund Freud”? Aside from Anna’s sexuality and from her father’s intrusive psychoanalysis of her, what were the Freud family's most closely closeted skeletons? What is it about the birth of psychoanalysis that even today's psychoanalysts would prefer to keep secret? How did Anna defy her father so thoroughly while continuing to love him and learn from him? Weaving a grand tale out of a pile of crazy facts, Hysterical: Anna Freud's Story lets the pioneering child psychologist freely examine the forces that shaped her life.Trade ReviewCoffey presents an avidly researched, shrewd, and unnerving first novel that purports to be the lost autobiography of Anna Freud…. Coffey offers some truly shocking disclosures about the Freud family in this complexly entertaining, sexually dramatic, acidly funny novel of genius and absurdity, insight and delusion, independence and loyalty. Illustrated with archival photographs and backed by a substantial bibliography, this is an electrifying, imaginative portrait of an overlooked historical figure of great significance: fascinating, courageous, and steadfast Anna Freud.' —Booklist 'Though fiction, Hysterical is structured as an autobiography, with Anna’s voice assuming the narration. It’s an interesting trick, and one Coffey pulls off quite well—she captures Anna’s formality, smart but plain spoken, straightforward to the point of creating emotional distance. . . . Like a therapy session, Hysterical tunnels very deeply into Anna’s childhood experiences—thoughts, events, dreams, fantasies—and like a therapy session, the facets of what are revealed are at times disturbing and uncomfortable. Add to all that the inherent struggle between Sigmund and Anna, which twists and deepens as they both age, especially as Anna comes into her sexuality, and you’ve got a plot so rife with tension it’ll make you squirm. . . .' —LAMBDA Literary 'Coffey's tale uses Jewish jokes and other humor to humanize the family dynamic, and delicately delineate the tension between Anna's devotion to her father and her enduring attachment to Dorothy Burlingham, an heir to the Tiffany fortune. … [I]n this fictional version, Anna confesses: 'Of course in my account to Papa, I elaborated and lied. Personally, I think that honesty in psychoanalysis is over-rated.' —O, The Oprah Magazine 'Completely absorbing and entirely believable, Hysterical is both a lovely work and a treasure. This is the book we all wish Anna Freud had had the courage to write.” —Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author and former Projects Director of The Freud Archives '…[A] wonderfully insightful fictional glimpse into the Freud family dynamic and, most notably, its impact on Sigmund’s theories about lesbianism. How did Freud père receive the announcement that the daughter to whom he was closest—his right-hand girl and protégé—loved women? How did he deal with her long domestic partnership with another woman? Coffey’s presentation of what may have happened between Sigmund and Anna is nuanced, intelligent, and wonderfully persuasive.' —Lillian Faderman, author of Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir 'Rebecca Coffey's imagination knows no bounds. She makes you believe this is exactly the way it all happened. HYSTERICAL is sad, funny, painful, strange, outrageous, and disturbing. If we can't have Anna's diaries, this is the next best thing.' —Ellen Bass, author of The Courage to Heal “Moving, irreverent, often very funny, and a remarkable tour de force, Hysterical lets us eavesdrop at the keyhole of the Freud family. And, oh, what we learn!” —Leonard Foglia, Broadway director of Thurgood, Wait Until Dark, and Master Class
£12.34
Valancourt Books The Smaller Sky
£15.73
Wakefield Press Bruges-la-Morte
Book SynopsisThe archetypal Symbolist novel, and a gorgeous tapestry of death and melancholy, Bruges-la-Morte was also the first work of fiction to employ photographs in the style of Breton, Drndic and Sebald A widower, Hugues Viane, takes refuge in the decay of Bruges, living among the relics of his dead wife as he transforms his home and the very city he inhabits into her spatial embalmment. Spinning out his existence in a mournful, silent labyrinth of entombed streets and the cold arteries of canals, Viane takes comfort in his narcissistic delirium, until his world is shaken by the appearance of his wife’s doppelganger: a young dancer encountered in the street, whose appearance conjures a sequence of events that will introduce the specter of reality into his ritualist dream-state to disastrous effect. The archetype of the Symbolist novel, Bruges-la-Morte, first published in 1892, remains Georges Rodenbach’s most famous work; it has seen numerous cinematic and operatic adaptations, and inspired the source material for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It was also a precursor to such authors as André Breton and W.G. Sebald in being the first novel to employ photographs as illustrations—to allow readers, as Rodenbach put it, to “be subject to the presence of the town, feel the contagion of the neighboring waters, sense in their turn the shadow of the high towers reaching across the text.” Georges Rodenbach (1855–98) was one of the major figures of Belgian Symbolism, an essential bridge between the Belgian and Parisian literary scenes, and a friend and colleague of Verhaeren, Maeterlinck, Mallarmé and Huysmans. He was the author of four novels, eight collections of verse and numerous short stories, plays and critical works.
£11.99
Archipelago Books The Storm
Book SynopsisBy one of Colombia's most acclaimed contemporary novelists, The Storm is an atmospheric, gripping portrait of the tensions that devastate one family. Twins Mario and Jose do not know how to cope with the hatred they feel for their father, an arrogant man whose pride seems to taint everything he touches. Over the course of a fateful fishing trip straight into the heart of a storm, father and sons are confronted with the unspoken secrets and resentments that are destroying them.Trade Review"There is humor in the frequent revelation of self-delusions. There is also suspense as the storm—more interpersonal than weather-related—builds and breaks. Fabulist elements, lyrical prose, and a chorus of narrative voices give this slim novel depth and breadth." — Kirkus Reviews"Self-delusion, hallucinations, anger, volatility chafe against the soothing waters and the stars above, and González, one of South America’s most acclaimed and pitch-perfect novelists, plunges you into the brutality of man and nature alike." – Kerri Arsenault, Lit Hub"In Andrea Rosenberg’s translation, the author’s stylistic traits—short and pointed phrases, poetic descriptions and poetic monologues—shine and linger in the reader’s ear...The Storm arrives as a welcome addition to the international recognition of one Colombia’s most prolific and poetic writers." – Nicolás Llano, Asymptote Journal"A complex psychological portrait of a family on the verge of self-made disaster." --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books, in Shelf AwarenessPraise for In the Beginning was the Sea (Pushkin Press, 2014): • "Gonzalez poetically and comically captures the inevitable destruction of those who live in a world of fantasy and hubris, depicting beauty and despair by turns." -- Publishers Weekly • In the Beginning Was the Sea [is] a book that simultaneously works as a political parable, a novel, and a mournful confessional... written in a fashion meant to hold up his own grief and disorientation as its own strange flower, an emotional germination meant both to stand on its own and be inseparable from all that surrounds it, an individual "you," straining to emerge from a ceaseless body of discovery, loss, memory, and their insatiable repetition." -- Los Angeles Review of Books • "The lyrical, haunting story has the feel of a fable--a young man and his beautiful wife abandon their hectic, intellectual, night-clubbing life in the city to buy a farm on an undeveloped stretch of coast--while the spare, disquieting prose suggests the start of an art-house horror film." - Daniel Levine, Words Without Borders
£12.34
Archipelago Books A Change Of Time
Book SynopsisSet in rural Denmark in the early 20th century, A Change of Time tells the story of a schoolteacher whose husband, the town doctor, has passed away. Her subsequent diary entries form an intimate portrait of a woman rebuilding her identity, and a small rural town whose path to modernity echoes her own path to joyful independence.Trade Review“Jessen is a talented and empathetic writer (and kudos must be given to translator Aitken, whose translation is supple and luminous), and has imbued a quiet story about a woman finding herself after her husband’s death with poignancy and stunning humanity.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “An engaging, honest, and beautifully written look at love, loss, and self-realization.” —Kirkus Reviews “In A Change of Time, Ida Jessen has crafted a masterpiece of the epistolary novel told in diary entries. Each log is rich with detail ... Here, one-liners—beautifully translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken—are deeply felt.” —Bookforum “The text shines as an honest reckoning with the death of a spouse—but one in a deeply companionless marriage—and the life of two people who shared little but space ... Jessen, the Danish translator of Marilynne Robinson, among others, proves to have a keen Robinsonian streak of her own. She writes with the same narrative generosity, the same belief in the dignity and voice of characters that might usually be dismissed.” —The Millions “A Change of Time is a book of masterful restraint, and this restraint is a kind of tenderness. It is a book that understands that desire permeates everything - nothing human can be be cleansed of it; and that sometimes love clings most inextricably to the smallest places - misjudgment, invisibility, loneliness. It is a book that deepens and dignifies both our innocence and our fallibility.” —Anne Michaels, author of Fugitive Pieces “A masterful psychological portrait of an individual, who is set free into a new era, after many years of great loneliness.” —Jury of the Danish Writers Association's Blixen Award for A Change of Time “A successful portrait of a widow and her coming freedom. Ida Jessen is sensible and solid in her historical novel A Change in Time.” —Mikkel Krause Frantzen, Politiken “One rejoices at how clearly and precisely the book is written.” —Dagbladet Information “Once again, Ida Jessen has succeeded in creating a small masterpiece.” —Weekendavisen “Set in a rural Danish village in the early 20th century, A Change of Time is a beautiful, quiet and reflective novel told through the diary entries of a schoolteacher called Frau Bagge . . . The novel charts her response to [her husband's] death and her attempts to build herself a new life, find herself a new place and identity and discover meaning in life again. An exquisitely written novel.” —Radz Pandit, Rhadika's Reading Retreat
£13.49
Archipelago Books The Society of Reluctant Dreamers
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£14.40
Foremost Press In His Right Mind
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£10.79
Bellevue Literary Press Moss
Book SynopsisAn aging botanist withdraws to the seclusion of his family’s vacation home in the German countryside. In his final days, he realizes that his life’s work of scientific classification has led him astray from the hidden secrets of the natural world. As his body slows and his mind expands, he recalls his family’s escape from budding fascism in Germany, his father’s need to prune and control, and his tender moments with first loves. But as his disintegration into moss begins, his fascination with botany culminates in a profound understanding of life’s meaning and his own mortality.Visionary and poetic, Moss explores our fundamental human desires for both transcendence and connection and serves as a testament to our tenuous and intimate relationship with nature.Klaus Modick is an award-winning author and translator who has published over a dozen novels as well as short stories, essays, and poetry. His translations into German include work by William Goldman, William Gaddis, and Victor LaValle, and he has taught at Dartmouth College, Middlebury College, and several other universities in the United States, Japan, and Germany. Moss, Modick’s debut novel, is his first book to be published in English. He lives in Oldenburg, Germany.Trade ReviewBig Other Book Award FinalistReading Group Choices “Editors’ Pick” selectionArts Fuse “Recommended Books of the Year” selectionWords Without Borders “Watchlist” selection“[Moss] opens with the death of a renowned botanist, whose . . . hypnotic reflections and biographical recollections disavow the ‘botanist’s penetrating gaze’—its ‘classifications without real knowledge’—to arrive at a rejuvenating, anarchic conception of the natural world.” —Millions“A powerful exercise in eco-fiction. . . . Modick’s writing, at its best, presents the ‘mossifcation’ of the mind, combining clinical observation with philosophical lyricism.” —Arts Fuse“[Moss] taps into a host of humanitarian and ecological concerns, even as it reminds the reader of the complex web of connections humans dwell within.” —Words Without Borders“A masterful examination of internal conflict, gratifying for readers inspired by ecofiction and literary theory. . . . Inner explorations transform into a Weltanschauung of epiphany and new understanding of love, death, and the natural world.” —Booklist“A graceful, thought-provoking portrait of memory and mortality.” —Publishers Weekly“Thoughtful and thought-provoking.” —Midwest Book Review
£12.34
Black Rose Writing Whippoorwill Chronicles
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£14.95
Secant Publishing The Life and Deaths of Blanche Nero
Book SynopsisAt fifteen Blanche Nero watches the electrocution of her Italian immigrant father, punishment for the inexplicable brutal murder of his recently acquired friend Old Man Flaherty. She resolves to do something with her life that values humanity over justice, mercy over sacrifice. But she is forever haunted by the mystery of her father. She is also drawn irresistibly to the bigger human mysteries of violence and death. After a gruelling but successful academic career at some of the nation's finest university hospitals, Blanche is almost sixty. Her long career as a trauma surgeon at Charity Hospital in New Orleans has been abruptly ended by Hurricane Katrina. She takes a year sabbatical from the medical school and leases a small flat in Venice, seeking an understanding of her father in the place where he lived his formative years--and of herself by reliving and recording her own remarkable life. On a cold morning in Piazza San Marco, Blanche meets Count Lorenzo Ludovici (Ludo), an aging, elegant, and charming Venetian who is dying of AIDS. Blanche is drawn to him and is uncharacteristically self-revealing. As he introduces her to his beautiful city as their relationship develops and is health deteriorates Blanche becomes ever more fond of the count. As she relives her past by writing down what she remembers, she sees the girl she was and the woman she became with new eyes; the mystery of her father's death; her distant mother; her sometimes misguided adolescent efforts to grow up. And then discovering the thrill of medicine, especially the sensual trill of trauma surgery and losing herself in in that career, immersed in violence. She recalls her attempts at relationships, especially with Jesse Pinto, the one man whom she has ever loved, and how she ended that. She remembers her love affair with the Big Easy and Charity Hospital (the Big Free) that came suddenly to a violent end. Through a series of painful and revealing conversations, Blanche and Ludo discover that each of them has private knowledge of interlocking pieces of their history. Blanche feels sadness of a depth that she has not felt before, but also a strange sense of freedom. Perhaps, at last, she is ready to begin her life.
£22.09
Transit Books The Touch System
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£11.99
Transit Books Septology
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£16.14
White Pine Press Bruno Folner's Last Tango
Book SynopsisOut of love and desperation, a man suddenly sees the possibility of changing his life completely and goes for it. It’s a daring move, and as with every bold venture, there’s a price to pay. In this case, a very high one that involves the death of all that he loves, and the need to abandon his identity and reinvent himself. Bruno Fólner’s Last Tango tells the story of the transformation of a man who knows death is stalking him and so he bets all he has on life, even at the cost of losing everything. With an absolute control over the psychology of a character who knows himself less than he believes, and an exquisite prose, translated by Rhonda Dahl Buchanan, this new novel by the Argentine writer Mempo Giardinelli narrates a journey of passion toward the unknown. It may end in tragedy or liberation, but the journey, justifies the end.Trade Review“The most recent novel by the Argentine writer Mempo Giardinelli narrates the journey of a man in search of happiness. Giardinelli’s novel is based on the fantasy of living another life, leaving everything behind and starting over. It shifts between the paradox of a man who feels guilty and one who found happiness by making a radical change in his life.” — Revista Diners Club “The book ends without betraying its driving force. Parting from a restrained liberating despair, it remains faithful to an existentialist stoicism that unites transparency with passion.” — Diario La Nación, Buenos Aires
£9.74
Dzanc Books The Conviction of Cora Burns
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£12.34
Oliver-Heber Books A Righteous Kill
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£22.95
Bookpress Publishing Mars Hospital: A Doctor's Novel
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£26.06
Tin House Books Divide Me by Zero
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£19.96
City Point Press Dreamland Court
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£14.45
Arcade Publishing The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau: An Inspector
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£14.44
Ediciones B Jaque al psicoanalista / The Analyst
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£16.96
Two Lines Press Harmada
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£11.69
Two Lines Press Rabbit Island
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£16.19
Two Lines Press That Time of Year
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£11.69
Tin House Books Bright and Dangerous Objects
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£14.36
Arcade Publishing Jacob the Liar: A Novel--50th Anniversary Edition
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£14.44
Strategic Book Publishing Random Summer Storms: Book Three - Family
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£13.62
Two Dollar Radio Other Minds and Other Stories
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£15.16
Zerogram Press Panthers and the Museum of Fire
Book SynopsisComplex, urgent, and fascinating, this novel about walking, memory, and writing has earned comparisons from Virginia Woolf to Karl Ove Knausgård. The narrator walks from Glebe to a central Sydney, Australia café to return a manuscript by a recently deceased writer. While she walks, the reader enters the narrator's entire world: life with family and neighbors, narrow misses with cars, her singular friendships, dinner conversations, and work. We learn of her adolescent desire for maturity and acceptance, and her struggle with religion and anorexia. Photos are provided by Bettina Kaiser. Jen Craig's first novel is Since the Accident (2009). Panthers and the Museum of Fire was long-listed for the 2016 Stella Prize.
£11.66
Archipelago Books Ti Amo
Book SynopsisA penetrating study of passion, suffering, and loss from one of Norway’s most tenacious writers: National Book Award Finalist and PEN translation prize winner Hanne ØrstavikCelebrated throughout the world for her candor and sensitivity to the rhythms of language, Hanne Ørstavik is a leading light on the international stage. Ørstavik writes with “a compulsion for truth that feels like [her] very life force itself.” Laced with a tingling frankness, Ørstavik’s prose adheres so closely to the inner workings of its narrator’s mind as to nearly undo itself. In Martin Aitken’s translation, Ørstavik’s piercing story sings. Ti Amo brings a new, deeply personal approach, as the novel is based in Ørstavik’s own experience of losing her Italian husband to cancer. By facing loss directly, she includes readers in an experience that many face in isolation. Written and set in the early months of 2020, its themes of loss and suffering are particularly well suited for a time of international mourning. What can be found within a gaze? What lies inside a painting or behind a handful of repeated words? These are the questions that haunt our unnamed narrator as she tends to her husband, stricken with cancer, in the final months of his life. She examines the elements of their life together: their Vietnamese rose-colored folding table where they eat their meals, each of the New Year’s Eves they’ve shared, their friendships, and their most intimate exchanges. With everything in flux, she searches for the facets that will remain.
£14.40
