Translated from Estonian by Matthew HydePublished by Vagabond Voices On 20 August 1991, Estonia formally declared its independence from the Soviet Union, even as Soviet authorities were trying to crush this movement. Set during the last days of the Soviet Union in Estonia, The Death of the Perfect Sentence follows freedom fighters, students, KGB operatives …
Continue reading The Death of the Perfect Sentence: Rein Raud
Translated from Russian by Boris DralyukPublished by MacLehose Press Set in the period after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, this book by Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov is particularly timely, given the war that is now unfolding in Ukraine. Sergey Sergeyich lives in Little Starhorodivka, an almost deserted village with three streets in the grey …
Translated from Uzbek and Russian by Shelley Fairweather-VegaPublished by Tilted Axis Press “Life in exile! May it be cursed. Once you have become a stranger, a stranger you shall remain; you may endeavour to make friends, but the task is a difficult one, full end to end with uncertainty.” One night, Uzbek writer Sheikov dreams …
Translated from Croatian by Ellen Elias-BursaćPublished by Seven Stories Press UK “Everyone is running from someone, or from their own past.” Corruption and the long shadows thrown by war are at the heart of this political thriller from Croatia. Nora, a young journalist in Zagreb, is sent to report on a story in another city. …
Continue reading We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day: Ivana Bodrožić
Translated from Portuguese by Helena Cavendish de Moura with Andrew Michael BrownPublished in a bilingual edition by Casa Forte Press Lula Falcão is an award-winning journalist, political advocate and writer. His criticism of the current President Jai Bolsonaro has landed him on the list of “intellectuals to be watched”. This is the first of Falcão’s …
Continue reading Vultures in the Living Room and Other Stories: Lula Falcão
Translated from Japanese by Jay Rubin and Philip GabrielPublished by Vintage Prepare to walk into Haruki Murakami’s strange world. You can slip through the thin barrier between this world and an alternate one simply by taking an emergency exit off a highway or ghost-writing a particular book. Things are just a bit off in this …
Translated from Polish by Jennifer CroftPublished by Fitzcarraldo Editions “Clearly I did not inherit whatever gene it is that makes it so that when you linger in a place you start to put down roots. I’ve tried, a number of times but my roots have always been shallow; the littlest breeze could always blow me …
Selected and translated by M. Asaduddin with additional translations by Ralph RussellPublished by Penguin “In my stories, I’ve put down everything with objectivity. Now, if people find them obscene, let them go to hell. It’s my belief that experiences can never be obscene if they are based on authentic realities of life.”[1] Ismat Chugtai is …
Continue reading Lifting the Veil: Selected Writings of Ismat Chugtai
Translated from French by Shaun WhitesidePublished by W&N Giverny: a beautiful, picturesque village in France, known for its most famous resident, the impressionist painter Claude Monet, who is famous for his paintings of water lilies. Artists and tourists flock to the village to see the beautiful gardens that Monet painted. But death appears in even …
Translated from German by Ross BenjaminPublished by riverrun The jester or trickster is a ubiquitous figure, popping up in mythologies, literature, street theatre, and in playing cards and tarot. He (it’s almost always a man) is an entertainer, mentally and physically agile, and able to speak truth to power. He lives by his wits and …
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