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 …
Category: Books in translation
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 …
The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild: Mathias Enard
Translated from French by Frank WynnePublished by Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2023, 486 pages. Original version published in 2020. David Mazon, a student of ethnography in Paris, moves for a year to La Pierre-Saint-Christophe, a village in the Deux-Sèvres region of western France, to conduct research for his thesis on agrarian life. He finds a place to …
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Mephisto: Klaus Mann
Translated from German by Robin SmythPublished by Penguin, 1977, 263 pages. Original version published in 1936. “What do men want from me? Why do they pursue me? Why are they so hard? All I am is a perfectly ordinary actor...” Hendrik Höfgen is, first and foremost, an actor. In fact, that could describe him entirely. …
A Bookshop in Algiers: Kaouther Adimi
Translated from French by Chris AndrewsPublished by Serpent's Tail, 2020, 146 pages. Original version published in 2017. “This will be a library, a bookstore, a publishing house, but above all a place for friends who love the literature of the Mediterranean.” 1936, Algiers. Edmond Charlot, a Frenchman born in Algeria, opens a bookshop, Les Vraies …
No Gods Live Here: Conceição Lima
Translated from Portuguese by Shook.Published by Phoneme Media and Deep Vellum, 2024, 255 pages. The original versions of the books from which the poems are taken were published in 2004, 2006, 2011, 2014 and 2024. “The dead ask:Why do roots sprout from our feet? ...What was this kingdom that we planted?”—From Plantation “The enigma is some …
Not a River: Selva Almada
Translated from Spanish by Annie McDermottPublished by Charco Press, 2024, 99 pages. Original version published in 2021. Three men go to an island in the Paraná Delta in Argentina to fish: two middle-aged men, El Negro and Enero, and a younger one, Tilo, son of their dead friend Eusebio. They are haunted by the death …
Les Rivières pourpres: Jean-Christophe Grangé
Published by Éditions Albin Michel, 1982, 442 pages. Published in English as The Crimson Rivers, Harvill Press, 1999, 328 pages. Translated from French by Ian Monk. A mutilated body, suspended in a crevice, has been found in the French town of Guernon, a town surrounded by mountains. Commissaire Pierre Niémans is sent from Paris to …
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The Last Day: Jaroslavas Melnikas
Translated from Lithuanian by Marija MarcinkutePublished by Noir Press, 2018, 175 pages. Original version published in 2018. The Last Day is a book of absurdist short stories by a Lithuanian writer. The protagonists, mainly men (with one exception), are victims of circumstance, caught up in strange situations that they cannot control. In the title story, …
No One Prayed Over Their Graves: Khaled Khalifa
Translated from Arabic by Leri Price.Published by Faber, 2023, 404 pages. Original version published in 2019. January 1907. A flood wipes out the village of Hosh Hanna, near Aleppo, leaving only two survivors. At the time, Hanna Gregoros—who had built this village—is away with his friend Zakariya Bayazidi. They return home to total devastation: Hanna’s …
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