Originally published in four volumes. Volumes 1 and 2 translated from French by Blake Ferris and Mattias Ripa, and Volumes 3 and 4 translated by Anjali Singh.The complete volume published by Pantheon, 2007, 341 pages. The four volumes in the original version published between 2000 and 2003. English versions: Vols. 1 and 2 published as …
The Po—An Elegy for Italy’s Longest River: Tobias Jones
Published by Head of Zeus, 2022, 276 pages “You need to understand the Po to understand Italy”, wrote the poet Guido Ceronetti. So Tobias Jones sets out to explore the river, going against its current: he starts from where it flows into the Adriatic Sea, tracing it back to its source in the Alps. Compared …
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The Last Nomad—Coming of Age in the Somali Desert: Shugri Said Salh
Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2021, 302 pages “I am the last nomad. … What I am really trying to say is, I am the last person in my direct line to have once lived like that, and now I feel like the sole keeper of my family’s stories.” Shugri Said Salh’s family …
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Poonachi, or the Story of a Black Goat: Perumal Murugan
Translated from Tamil by N. Kalyan RamanPublished by Eka (Westland Books), 2018, 173 pages. Original version published in 2017. “Once, in a village, there was a goat. No one knew where she was born. The birth of an ordinary life never leaves a trace, does it?” Near a village in Tamil Nadu, an old man …
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On a Woman’s Madness: Astrid Roemer
Translated from Dutch by Lucy ScottPublished by Tilted Axis Press, 2023, 230 pages. Original version published in 1982. “I’m Noenka, which means Never Again. Born of two polar opposites, a woman and a man who pull even my dreams apart. I’m a woman, even though I don’t know where being female begins and where it …
The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco
Translated from Italian by William WeaverPublished by Picador / Vintage / HarperVia, 1983, 502 pages. Original version published in 1980. “Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was …
Dealing with the Dead: Alain Mabanckou
Translated from French by Helen StevensonPublished by Serpent's Tail, 2025, 207 pages. Original version published in 2022. “Once you’ve been laid in the earth, time will start to do its work, and for all their good intentions, the people who knew you will gradually forget, till one dry season comes when not a soul ventures …
Theft: Abdulrazak Gurnah
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025, 246 pages This is the story of three young Tanzanians: Karim, Fauzia and Badar, and their relationship with each other. Karim’s mother Raya lives in Zanzibar and is forced into marrying a much older man by her parents. When she walks out of her marriage, she leaves Karim with her …
Stories from Bhutan: An Interview with Kunzang Choden
Kunzang Choden is a Bhutanese writer. Her books include the first novel in English to be written by a Bhutanese woman, The Circle of Karma (2005); her memoirs, Telling Me My Stories (2025); Membar Tsho: The Flaming Lake (2012); Tales in Colour and Other Stories (2009); Chilli and Cheese: Food and Society in Bhutan (2008); …
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The Double: José Saramago
Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull CostaPublished by The Harvill Press, 2004, 292 pages. Original version published in 2002. Tertuliano Máximo Afonso, a history teacher, is depressed. His colleague, the Mathematics Teacher (never named), suggests he watch a light video to cheer himself up. The video he recommends is one made five years ago called …
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