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Biography & Memoir, Diaries Books About Books, Publishing Non Fiction Translated

Conversations with Rilke by Maurice Betz

Translated by Will Stone Review by Karen Langley Aside from his verses, Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke is probably best known to the English-speaking world for his prose work, The…

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Shiny New Books June 19, 2025
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Fiction Translated

The Brittle Age, by Donatella Di Pietrantonio

Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Rob Spence In the mountainous rural region of Abruzzo, a local community is blighted by an event of brutal savagery. Thirty years later, its…

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Shiny New Books April 17, 2025
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Fiction Translated

City of Fiction by Yu Hua

Translated from the Chinese by Todd Foley Review by Frances Spurrier Lin Xiangfu was on edge that evening. Moonlight streamed down through the hole in the roof like a sparkling column…

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Shiny New Books April 3, 2025
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Fiction Translated

Nothing Grows by Moonlight by Torborg Nedreaas

Translated by Bibbi Lee Review by Karen Langley Recent years have seen a spate of newly translated fictions being made available by Penguin Classics in their ‘Demy’ series; these works…

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Shiny New Books April 1, 2025
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Fiction Translated

Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida

Translated by Hayden Trowell Review by Rob Spence Quirky Japanese literature seems to be all the rage these days. Every British bookshop seems well-stocked with Tokyo-based stories about cats or…

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Shiny New Books March 20, 2025
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Biography & Memoir, Diaries History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology Non Fiction Translated

A Man of Few Words by Carlo Greppi

Translated by Howard Curtis Review by Karen Langley, 6 Mar 2025 Italian author and chemist Primo Levi is possibly one of the best-known commentators on the Holocaust; he began writing…

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Shiny New Books March 6, 2025
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Fiction Reprint Translated

The Last of the Aldinis by George Sand

Translated by George Burnham Ives Review by Rob Spence Opposite the title page of this new edition of George Sand’s novel is a list of her works of fiction. It…

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Shiny New Books February 27, 2025
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Fiction Translated

Abandonment by Erminia Dell’Oro

Translated by Oonagh Stransky Review by Annabel Such is my woeful lack of knowledge of African history, I had no idea that Eritrea had been colonized by Italy in the…

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Shiny New Books January 16, 2025
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Fiction Translated

Mammoth by Eva Baltasar

Translated by Julia Sanches Review by Michael Eaude Ice and Fire Mammoth is the third novel in Eva Baltasar’s big-selling trilogy, each featuring young women in search of love with…

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Shiny New Books November 14, 2024
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Fiction Translated

Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes

Translated by Frank Wynne Review by Annabel I would never have predicted that Virginie Despentes, creator/director of the 2000 rape-revenge novel and film Baise-moi, author of the superb ‘State of…

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Shiny New Books October 24, 2024
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Biography & Memoir, Diaries Essays Non Fiction Translated

And Time Was No More: Essential Stories and Memories, by Teffi

Edited and annotated by Robert Chandler Review by Karen Langley The last decade or so has seen a resurgence of interest in Russian émigré writing with a host of forgotten…

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Shiny New Books May 16, 2024
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Fiction Translated

The Time of Cherries by Montserrat Roig

Translated by Julia Sanches Review by Michael Eaude Lemons and Cherries Most reviews I write are of Catalan fiction translated to English. I often wonder whether my commitment to learning…

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Shiny New Books May 9, 2024
3 2415 1
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Fiction Translated

Shiny Prize Season – A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare – International Booker Prize

Translated by John Hodgson Review by Karen Langley The International Booker Prize is one of the more high profile literary awards, and its stated aim is to introduce readers to…

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Shiny New Books April 3, 2024
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Fiction Translated

Shiny Prize Season – The Details by Ia Genberg – International Booker Prize

Translated by Kira Josefsson Review by Susan Osborne While enduring a light fever, the unnamed narrator of Ia Genberg’s The Details is seized with the urge to read the novel…

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Shiny New Books April 3, 2024
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Essays Non Fiction Philosophy Reprint Translated

What Do I Know? by Michel de Montaigne

Translated by David Coward Review by Karen Langley The essay as a form of writing has existed for centuries, and one of its pre-eminent practitioners was the French author Michel…

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Shiny New Books March 28, 2024
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Fiction Translated

Shiny Prize Season – Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck – International Booker Prize

Translated by Michael Hofmann Review by Susan Osborne Jenny Erpenbeck’s novels offer much food for thought on the events that have shaped modern Germany. Opening in 1986, Kairos charts an…

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Shiny New Books March 27, 2024
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Fiction Reprint Translated

Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig

Translated by Anthea Bell Review by Terence Jagger Stefan Zweig was born in Vienna, but lived in England, the USA and Brazil, where he apparently died in a double suicide…

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Shiny New Books November 9, 2023
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Fiction Reprint Translated

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Translated by Hilda Rosner Reviewed by Harriet Siddhartha had one single goal – to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow – to let the…

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Shiny New Books November 2, 2023
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Fiction New Translations of Older Works Reprint Translated

The Siren’s Lament: Essential Stories  by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki

Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Review by Karen Langley Jun’ichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) was a Japanese author known for his erotically charged stories, and is considered one of his country’s best-known modern…

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Shiny New Books October 26, 2023
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Fiction Reprint Translated

The Evenings by Gerard Reve

Translated by Sam Garrett Review by Rob Spence In Amsterdam, just after the Second World War, Frits, a young office worker, lives a dreary and unfulfilling existence. He lives in…

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Shiny New Books October 12, 2023
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Fiction Translated

My Men by Victoria Kielland

Translated by Damion Searls Reviewed by Harriet This extraordinary, powerful novel begins in Norway, in 1876, and it begins as it means to go on: Brynhild’s head was wrapped in…

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Shiny New Books August 31, 2023
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Fiction Translated

The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Translated by Ho-Ling Wong Review by Terence Jagger This is another of Yukito Ayatsuji’s homages to the British Golden Age of mystery writing, like The Decagon House Murders I reviewed…

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Shiny New Books July 27, 2023
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Fiction Translated

Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto

Translated by Jesse Kirkwood Review by Karen Langley Summer reading tastes vary, but for me there’s nothing better than settling down with a satisfying mystery novel, particularly of the Golden…

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Shiny New Books July 13, 2023
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Fiction Translated

The House on the Via Gemito by Domenico Starnone

Translated by Oonagh Stransky Review by Rob Spence The British are not receptive to literature in translation. Sure, any decent bookshop will have a smattering of foreign classics – Proust,…

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Shiny New Books July 6, 2023
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