Montréal. XYZ. 2011. ISBN 9782892616040In the early decades of the twentieth century, a number of devastating forest fires swept through northern Ontario, leaving behind a lasting legacy of loss, legi…
FICTION
- Roger Allen, tr. Syracuse, New York. Syracuse University Press. 2011. ISBN 9780815609667This is the third novel by the award-winning Moroccan writer Bensalem Himmich that Roger Allen has translated. L…
- New York. Knopf. 2012. ISBN 9780307958709One of the most intriguing things about Nathan Englander’s stories is the element of surprise. Even if I think I know where the tale is going, it’s probably no…
- Helen Mitsios, ed. Pico Iyer, intro. Boston. Cheng & Tsui. 2011. ISBN 9780887277924In 1991 the gods of publishing granted fiction lovers a boon: two anthologies of newly translated contemporary Ja…
- Jamie Bulloch, tr. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2012. ISBN 9780374533298“Walk, young lady, walk if you want to walk . . .” So begins the narrative journey of this elegant 2006 novel…
- Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. Easthampton, Mass. Small Beer Press. 2011. ISBN 9781931520317Since the publication in 1912 of its first tale of the fantastic, “La cena” by Alfonso Reye…
- Samuel Salter, Zahra Jishi, and Rafah Abuinnab, trs. Syracuse, New York. Syracuse University Press. 2011. ISBN 9780815609919A prolific writer with nearly thirty novels and short-story collections to h…
- Easthampton, Massachusetts. Small Beer Press. 2011. ISBN 9781931520294Look on the back cover of Maureen F. McHugh’s new collection of stories, After the Apocalypse, and you’ll find a list of…
- Minneapolis, Minnesota. Coffee House. 2012. ISBN 9781566892957The Last Warner Woman features compelling settings, masterful story-tellers, a mystery, colorful characters, and language that re…
- Shaun Whiteside, tr. New York. Knopf. 2011. ISBN 9780307273550Like many recent thrillers, Sorry weaves a lurid tale of multigenerational pedophilia and consequences that include two grotesque…
- Osama Hornsea, England. PS Publishing. 2011. ISBN 9781848631922Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God Hornsea, England. PS Publishing. 2011. ISBN 9781848631588Cloud Permutations…
- New York. Vertigo. 2011. ISBN 9781401229696Daytripper is the rarest of graphic novels—a work meeting all the expectations of great literature that somehow emerged from the grinding gears of the Americ…
- José Francisco Fernández, ed. New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. ISBN 978-0547550404The fourteen stories in A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman are arranged chronologically from 1964…
- Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping, tr. Rochester, New York. Open Letter. 2011. ISBN 9781934824375In just a few short years, Open Letter Books, based out of the University of Rochester, has quite impress…
- New York. Black Lawrence. 2009 (rel. 2010). 191 pages. $16. isbn 978-0-9815899-5-4"The link between butterflies and dreams is poorly understood." So begins the title story of this wry and witty collec…
- Adriana Hunter, tr. New York. Other Press. 2011. 231 pages. $11.95. isbn 978-1-59051-399-6There are many things to like in this smart, droll, finely crafted novel—and not least the sleek narrative sym…
- Thomas Teal, tr. New York. New York Review Books. 2011. 120 pages. $14. isbn 978-1-59017-378-7Were it possible to measure novels in decibels, as though the action left some sonic footprint on the worl…
- Kim Thompson, tr. Seattle, Washington. Fantagraphics (W. W. Norton, distr.). 2010. 96 pages, ill. $24.99. isbn 978-1-60699-382-8Caught somewhere on the structural continuum between the comic book and…
- Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi & Victoria Offredi Poletto, tr. Bloomington. Indiana University Press. 2011. 264 pages. $22.95. isbn 978-0-253-22296-1Cristina Ali Farah, born of a Somali father and an…
- Arthur B. Evans et al., eds. Middletown, Connecticut. Wesleyan University Press. 2010. xviii + 767 pages. $39.95. isbn 978-0-8195-6955-4Readers who know science fiction (sf) largely from movies, telev…
- Munich. Carl Hanser. 2010. 331 pages. €21.90. isbn 978-3-446-23562-5The title of Was davor geschah refers to the narrator's response to his new girlfriend's question, "What went on…
- Peter Bush, tr. Rochester, New York. Open Letter. 2011. ISBN 9781934824191In "Family Life," the opening story to Quim Monzó's newly translated collection of stories, a little boy—fearing a ritual dism…
- New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2011. ISBN 9780374174231Throughout his work, Amitav Ghosh writes with a global perspective, evident not only in the range of locations and variety of characters…
- Edward Gauvin, tr. Atlanta, Georgia. Top Shelf. 2011. ISBN 9781603090735Ludovic Debeurme's Lucille is an entrancing addition to the library of contemporary bande dessinée …
- New York. Knopf. 2011. ISBN 9780307957122When it comes to contemporary British fiction, I've always been more of a Martin Amis man than a Julian Barnes one. However, after reading Barnes's latest Man…