Published by Zaffre, 2023, 280 pages Fiji, 1914. Sergeant Akal Singh, an Indian Sikh, has been sent to Fiji after a humiliating incident in Hong Kong, where he was serving. All he wants to do is crack an important case to prove himself, so his superiors can send him back to Hong Kong. When his …
Category: Fiction
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: Victor Hugo
Translated from French by Walter J. CobbPublished by Penguin, 1964 (this translation), 501 pages. Original version published in 1831. What makes a monster? Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, is physically deformed: he has a humpback, a protrusion on his chest, and only one eye because the other is covered by a wart. As …
The Road to the Country: Chigozie Obioma
Published by Hutchinson Heinemann / Penguin, 2024, 358 pages “The story of a war can only be fully and truly told by both the living and the dead.”—Igbo proverb Kunle is nine years old when he sends Tunde, his younger brother, out of the house, so that he can be alone with Nkechi. Tunde runs …
Poonachi, or the Story of a Black Goat: Perumal Murugan
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 …
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On a Woman’s Madness: Astrid Roemer
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 …
The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco
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 …
Dealing with the Dead: Alain Mabanckou
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 …
Theft: Abdulrazak Gurnah
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025, 246 pages This is the story of three young Tanzanians: Karim, Fauzia and Badar, and their relationship with each other. Karim’s mother Raya lives in Zanzibar and is forced into marrying a much older man by her parents. When she walks out of her marriage, she leaves Karim with her …
The Double: José Saramago
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 …
Butter: Asako Yuzuki
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 …
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