Translated from Italian by Howard CurtisPublished by Abacus, 2007, 357 pages. Original version published in 2005. A man is brutally murdered in a shop in Greve, a town near Florence. Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of the Squadra Mobile, is called to investigate. The victim, Stefano Micali, worked at a shop selling religious artefacts. He …
Category: Books in translation
The Owl, The River and the Valley: Arupa Patangia Kalita
Translated from Assamese by Mitra PhukanPublished by Penguin, 2025, 338 pages. Stories in the original version published over several years. “Certainly, their parents must have given these women a name. Those names were lost in the river of time. What indeed did they have that would allow them to hold their names firmly in their …
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Why Did You Come Back Every Summer: Belén López Peiró
Translated from Spanish by Maureen ShaughnessyPublished by Charco Press, 2024, 188 pages. Original version published in 2021. “So then, why did you come back every summer? Do you like to suffer? Why didn’t you just stay home? There, in Buenos Aires, dying of heat. Ah. No. That’s right—it’s because you couldn’t. You didn’t have anyone …
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The Count of Monte Cristo: Alexandre Dumas
Translated from French by Robin BussPublished by Penguin, 1996, 1276 pages. Original version serialized in 1844-46 and published as a book in 1846. First unabridged translation by Emma Hardy, 1846. France, 1815. Napoleon is in exile, but has escaped from Elba. The Bourbons are on the throne. France is divided between the Bonapartists, who secretly …
Snow Country: Yasunari Kawabata
Translated from Japanese by Edward G. SeidenstickerPublished by Penguin, 1956, 121 pages. Original version published in 1948. Shimamura takes a train to a town in the mountains of Japan. It is cold, and there is heavy snow. Shimamura, a wealthy married man from Tokyo, is travelling to the town to see a geisha called Komako. …
The Dark Side of Skin: Jeferson Tenório
Translated from Portuguese by Bruna Dantas LobatoPublished by Charco Press, 2024, 202 pages. Original version published in 2020. “Sometimes you’d have a thought and go to live inside it. Push everyone away. Build a house that way. Somewhere far. Deep inside yourself. That was how you dealt with things. These days, I choose to think …
The Devil’s Flute Murders: Seishi Yokomizo
Translated from Japanese by Jim Rion.Published by Pushkin Vertigo, 2023, 348 pages. Original version published in 1973. Japan 1947. The end of the Second World War has resulted in social upheaval, and the aristocracy has lost its privileges, which earns it the moniker of the “sunset clan”. This novel is about one of these families. …
Eurotrash: Christian Kracht
Translated from German by Daniel BowlesPublished by Serpent's Tail, 2024, 190 pages. Original version published in 2021. “So I shall go on a trip with her, I’d thought, and maybe it will be her last.” A man takes his 80-year-old mother for a trip around their native Switzerland, revisiting places from their past—and in the …
Heart Lamp—Selected Stories: Banu Mushtaq
Translated from Kannada by Deepa BhasthiPublished by Penguin India / And Other Stories, 2025, 216 pages. Original versions of stories first published in 2013 and 2023. A woman whose husband leaves her for another woman is saved by her children; a man who becomes obsessed with a pair of high-heeled shoes forces his wife to …
Time Shelter: Georgi Gospodinov
Translated from Bulgarian by Angela RodelPublished by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2023, 304 pages. Original version published in 2020. What if there was a way to turn back the clock and live in the past? A geriatric psychiatrist called Gaustine, living in Zurich, believes that patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s can be helped by going into …
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