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 …
Continue reading Poonachi, or the Story of a Black Goat: Perumal Murugan
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Translated from Japanese by Polly BartonPublished by 4th Estate / Ecco, 2024, 452 pages. Original version published in 2017. Rika Machida is an ambitious journalist working at the Shūmei Weekly. She has been trying to get an exclusive interview with Manako Kajii, a woman being held in the Tokyo Detention House for killing three of …
Translated from Catalan into Spanish by Pere GimferrerPublished by Austral, 2002, 413 pages. Original version published in 1975. Published in English as Broken Mirror, translated by Josep Miquel Sobrer, University of Nebraska Press, 2006. The book opens with a visit to a jeweller. Teresa Goday—the beautiful daughter of a fishmonger—is at the jeweller’s shop with …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading The Owl, The River and the Valley: Arupa Patangia Kalita
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 …
Continue reading Why Did You Come Back Every Summer: Belén López Peiró
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