Published by Ballantine Books, 2009, 369 pages. This is a gripping story set in 18th century London. Thief-taker[1] Benjamin Weaver is asked by a mysterious man called Cobb to carry out a dangerous assignment. When Weaver declines, Cobb resorts to other means. He threatens three people close to Weaver with destitution unless Weaver agrees to …
Category: Fiction
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: Michael Chabon
Published by HarperCollins, 2007, 432 pages. “Nine months Landsman’s been flopping at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered. Now somebody has put a bullet in the brain of the occupant of 208...” The year is 1998. When, after World War II, plans to create a homeland for …
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Nightwoods: Charles Frazier
Published by Hodder & Stoughton and Random House, 2011, 336 pages. “Luce’s new stranger children were small and beautiful and violent.” “Nothing changes what already happened. It will always have happened. You either let it break you down or you don't.” Luce is the caretaker of an almost abandoned lodge in a forest by a …
The Silence of the Rain: Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
Translated from Portuguese by Benjamin MoserPublished by Picador, 2002, 256 pages. Original version published in 1996. Ricardo Carvalho, a well-to-do executive, gets into his car in a multistoried car park in Rio de Janeiro, smokes a cigarette and then shoots himself. He leaves behind a gun, a briefcase, 20,000 dollars and a note to the …
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And Then There Were None: Agatha Christie
Published by William Morrow and Harper Collins, 1939, 256 pages. “Ten little soldiers went out to dine; / One choked his little self and then there were nine.” Ten people are summoned to a weekend on Soldier Island, a rugged piece of rock off the Cornish coast with a single large house. Some have received …
The Taiga Syndrome: Cristina Rivera Garza
Translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva KanaPublished by And Other Stories, 2019, 128 pages. Original version published in 2012. “‘But you must know about the taiga syndrome, right?’ he asked...‘It seems,’ he continued, almost whispering, ‘that certain inhabitants of the taiga begin to suffer terrible anxiety attacks and make suicidal attempts to …
The Black Locomotive: Rian Hughes
Published by Picador, 2021, 400 pages. “It had been designated Anomaly 36. “The previous thirty-five anomalies had all been examined, evaluated, excavated and catalogued; then work had continued on the undocumented Crossrail tunnel extension under central London, the one that would never appear on any map.” The construction of a secret Crossrail tunnel linking Buckingham …
Small World: Martin Suter
Translated from German by Sandra HarperPublished by Vintage, 2002, 256 pages. Original version published in 1997. Konrad Lang is losing his memory to Alzheimer’s. As his recent memories fade, earlier ones come to the fore. This has Elvira Koch worried. There are secrets buried in Konrad’s mind which, if he unearths, could bring down her …
Tomb of Sand: Geetanjali Shree
Translated from Hindi by Daisy RockwellPublished by Tilted Axis Press, 2021, 320 pages. Original version published in 2018. 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 …
This Tilting World: Colette Fellous
Translated from French by Sophie LewisPublished by Les Fugitives, 2019, 190 pages. Original version published in 2017. “[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 …
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