Published by Jonathan Cape / Vintage / Penguin, 2019, 242 pages. “In a previous draft of this letter, one I’ve since deleted, I told you how I came to be a writer. How I, the first in our family to go to college, squandered it on a degree in English. … But none of that …
Continue reading On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: Ocean Vuong
Translated from Japanese by Philip GabrielPublished by Doubleday, 2017, 247 pages. Original version published in 2012. Nana is a cat. He was once a stray cat with no name, sleeping on the bonnet of a silver van, made “warm and toasty” by the sun. But when Nana is hit by a car, the owner of …
Continue reading The Travelling Cat Chronicles: Hiro Arikawa
Published by Orbit, 2015, 468 pages. “This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say ‘the world has ended,’ it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine."But …
Translated from German by Tess LewisPublished by And Other Stories, 2023, 495 pages. Original version published in 2020. East Germany, November 1989. The Berlin Wall has fallen. Carl Bischoff, a student, is heading home, summoned by a telegram from his parents saying, “we need help please do come immediately your parents”. When Carl gets home, …
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