Barcelona. Planeta. 2013. ISBN 9788408019619 Hot Sur, the latest book by Colombian novelist Laura Restrepo, contains all the ingredients of what could be considered a successful nov…
FICTION
Craig Cravens, tr. New York. Bellevue Literary Press. 2014. ISBN 9781934137703 Czech author Magdaléna Platzová has written poems, two collections of short stories, three well-received plays,…
Frankfurt am Main. S. Fischer Verlag. 2013. ISBN 9783100488213In a new novel laced with autobiographical allusions, Monica Maron combines two highly distinct subjects into a successful work of thought…
Paris. Albin Michel. 2013. ISBN 9782226249678The title of Au revoir là-haut (Goodbye until we meet in heaven) comes from a letter written by a soldier just before his execution for treason in…
Northampton, Massachusetts. Interlink. 2014. ISBN 9781566569705First published in India in 2012, Tabish Khair’s latest novel—alive with wit and style from beginning to end—is set in Århus, Denmark. It…
Tomoko Aoyama & Paul McCarthy, tr. Fukuoka, Japan. Kurodahan Press. 2014. ISBN 9784902075670Oh, Tama! is a study of parallel lives. At its center is the character Natsuyuki, an erstwhile…
Lima / Madrid. Alfaguara. 2013 (©2012). ISBN 9786123090739 / 9788420414140Jorge Eduardo Benavides is a Peruvian writer who, like Santiago Roncagliolo and Fernando Iwasaki, left his homeland in th…
Camilla Stein, ed. Jim Dingley, tr. London. Glagoslav. 2013. ISBN 9781782670766Natalka Babina’s Down Among the Fishes has all the charm of a bad adventure novel. Any aspirations of liter…
New York. Knopf. 2013. ISBN 9780307961716Moving among the sensuous gardens, Christian and Muslim schools, contested mosques and villages, and scarred battlefields of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where ji…
New York. Henry Holt / Macmillan. 2013. ISBN 9780805097450“But did any of it make him an asshole?” That is the question. Notably, it is the question posed by protagonist Nate Piven to Nate Piven. I su…
Rosalind Harvey, tr. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2014. ISBN 9780374533953Continuing the exploration of Mexico that began in Down the Rabbit Hole, Quesadillas searches…
Mahendra Singh, ill. Brooklyn, New York. Melville House. 2013. ISBN 9781612191416Luminous Chaos is an enchanting twist on the steampunk novel and serves as a powerful sequel (and, in many way…
Arch Tait, tr. Moscow. GLAS. 2013 ISBN 9785717200974Russian literature’s geography, traditionally focused on the capitals and the surrounding countryside, has expanded dramatically in recent years. Ma…
Greenville, North Carolina. Old Harbour Press. 2013. ISBN 9780615774749In the town of Eskişehir, Turkey, fate is called kismet. In Silk Armor, debut novelist Claire Sydenham never le…
Translated by the author. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Daily Star Books. 2013. ISBN 9789849027171The first thing that strikes the reader who encounters the stories in this collection is the narrator’s role: how…
Northampton, Massachusetts. Interlink. 2013. ISBN 9781566569576Hedy Habra’s collection of short stories is divided into four sections. The first two consist of nine delicately observed tales set in Eg…
Translated by the author. New Delhi. Penguin Books India. 2013. ISBN 97806700866448 Shanta Gokhale’s Crowfall (originally in Marathi) starts with a paradox. Before she can begin telling…
New York. Knopf. 2013. ISBN 9780307701633The protagonist of Middle C is one Professor Joseph Skizzen, head of the music department at Augsberg Community College, later Whittlebaurer Coll…
New York. Knopf. 2013. ISBN 9780307271792Max Ardin Sr., the suspiciously high-minded schoolmaster in Claire of the Sea Light, says something memorable about life’s painful separations wh…
Dhaka, Bangladesh. Daily Star Books. 2013. ISBN 9789849027188Sharbari Ahmed’s debut collection of short fiction, The Ocean of Mrs. Nagai: Stories, took her fifteen years to complete, includin…
Kaija Straumanis, tr. Rochester, New York. Open Letter. 2013. ISBN 9781934824801High Tide is a challenging novel. It is not easy to read—the action jumps from present to past, then from past…
Montpellier, France. Éditions Chèvre-feuille étoilée. 2013. ISBN 9782367950037Évelyne Trouillot’s new novel is ostensibly about border laws separating father and daughter. Gérard, having lived in Broo…
Charleston, South Carolina. CreateSpace. 2012. ISBN 9781475126327To the growing list of East African literature focusing on the heritage of that region’s Asian population we may now add the title …
Enska textasmidjan. 2013. ISBN 9789979723110Unraveled is an absorbing read. It mixes the life story of the principal character, Frida, and the mechanisms she uses to survive abandonment by he…
Kay Heikkinen, tr. Northampton, Massachusetts. Interlink. 2013. ISBN 9781566569262Best known as the author of Saddam City (2003), a harrowing, partly autobiographical account of life in Sadda…