Published by Fourth Estate, 2013, 374 pages. Things are not going well for Nelson. His girlfriend Ixta has left him, and his acting career is floundering. His older brother has moved to the United States, promising to help Nelson move there, but has made no attempt to start the process. So when Nelson’s hero, the …
Continue reading At Night We Walk in Circles: Daniel Alarcón
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 …
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 …
Continue reading The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: Michael Chabon
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 …
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 …
Continue reading The Silence of the Rain: Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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