Published by Faber & Faber, 1952, 136 pages. This is the story of a man who does nothing but drink palm wine, something he has done since he was ten years old. His father, realizing that his son would never do anything else, gives him a palm-tree farm with 560,000 palm trees so that he …
Category: Fiction
The Gurkha’s Daughter: Prajwal Parajuly
Published by Quercus, 2013, 296 pages. A maid with a cleft lip dreams about going to India, a daughter tries to understand her father’s problems, a young woman chooses the wrong husband, and a young man gets so worked up about relatives visiting his tiny house that he ends up upsetting everyone around him. These …
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 …
The Piano Lesson and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone: August Wilson
Published by Penguin, 228 pages. The Piano Lesson was first published in 1986. Joe Turner's Come and Gone was first published in 1984. (Note: the dates of first publication are not clear; these may not be accurate.) These two plays form part of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of 10 plays, each set in …
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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 …
Middlemarch—A Study of Provincial Life: George Eliot
Published by Penguin / Everyman's Library, first published in 1871-72, 364 pages. Welcome to Middlemarch: an English town in the Midlands, during the late 1800s, home to dreamers, idealists, people trying to remake themselves, and people on the make. They represent a cross-section of society: landowners, traders, estate managers, artists, clerics and workers. The people …
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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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A Map of the World: Jane Hamilton
Published by Anchor Books / Doubleday, 1994, 390 pages. “I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn’t learned that it can happen so gradually you don’t lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. …
Milkman: Anna Burns
Published by Faber & Faber, 2018, 348 pages. A town in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, during the Troubles. A time of suspicion, deep divisions and violence. The unnamed narrator is an 18-year-old woman—referred to only as Middle Sister. She has mapped out a space for herself, staying out of political discussions. She avoids unnecessary …
Enemies at Home: Lindsey Davis
Published by Hodder, 2014, 385 pages. Rome, 89 AD, during the reign of Emperor Domitian. Valerius Aviola and Mucia Lucilia, a recently married middle-aged couple, are found murdered in their rented ground-floor apartment. It seems to be a burglary gone wrong: a large quantity of silverware was taken, and the porter Nicostratus was badly beaten. …
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