Translated from Hindi by Daisy RockwellPublished by Tilted Axis Press Tomb of Sand is the story of Ma, an 80-year-old woman who comes into her own after spending her life in roles dictated by society: as daughter, wife, mother and grandmother. When the book begins, Ma’s husband has died. So she takes to her bed, …
Category: Fiction
This Tilting World: Colette Fellous
Translated from French by Sophie LewisPublished by Les Fugitives “[B]ut now it’s over, my novel is damaged, the world is damaged, I too am deeply wounded, something has happened here, something real, but everything can still begin, everything can begin again, I firmly believe it... “I must tell this before tomorrow, I must bear witness …
Mother’s Beloved—Stories from Laos: Outhine Bounyavong
Translated from Lao by Bounheng Inversin, Roger Rumpf, Jacqui Chagnon, Thipason Phimviengkham and William GallowayPublished by University of Washington Press A poor cobbler finds a way to make his contribution to his country's war effort; a young man offers strangers lifts on his bicycle; and a young woman tries to return a silver belt she …
Continue reading Mother’s Beloved—Stories from Laos: Outhine Bounyavong
XX—A Novel, Graphic: Rian Hughes
Published by Picador “...the Signal might already have the ability to manipulate its environment in subtle ways. In minds, where it can be thought, an idea can finally find some kind of expression. It can influence the behaviour of the person who thinks it. It can inspire people to spread the idea. We become missionaries …
The Almost Wife: Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Published by Harper Avenue “What you see in the bush is rarely what’s really there.” Kira is engaged to the handsome and rich Aaron with whom she has a child, Evie. They live in a beautiful house with Olive, Aaron’s 13-year-old daughter from his first marriage. Aaron loves his daughters and seems to be a …
Lucina’s Letters: Barbara Francesca Murphy
Published by Austin Macauly Publishers Three girls playing in a forest are pestered by a young boy. When they cannot get rid of him, they throw him into a nearby river to teach him a lesson. They expect him to crawl out, repentant. But the boy drowns. When the girls realize they have killed him, …
The Death of the Perfect Sentence: Rein Raud
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
We Are All Birds of Uganda: Hafsa Zayyan
Published by Penguin/Random House This is the story of a Ugandan family of Indian origin, told from the perspectives of two men: Hasan in 1960s Kampala, who writes letters to dead wife, and Sameer, a young ambitious man in London in the mid-2000s. Hasan’s family is originally from Gujarat, but he sees himself as Ugandan—he …
A Passage North: Anuk Arudpragasam
Published by Granta Books and Hogarth Press This is a story about loss and obsession, about ghosts from the past and the violence of war. Krishan gets a call one day informing him of the death of Rani, his grandmother’s caregiver. The funeral is to be held in a village in northern Sri Lanka in …
Grey Bees: Andrey Kurkov
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 …
Talking About Books 