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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Translated by Ralph Manheim, illustrated by Marie-Alice Harel Review by Lory Widmer Hess He picked up the book and examined it from all sides. It was bound in copper-colored silk,…
Greek Lessons by Han Kang
Translated by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite It has been eight years now since Deborah Smith’s translation of The Vegetarian was published (reviewed here), and…
The Man With Miraculous Hands by Joseph Kessel
Translated by Helen Weaver and Leo Raditsa Reviewed by Rob Spence If you were asked to suggest which real-life character was to be played by Woody Harrelson in his next…
Darkness Manifesto: How light pollution threatens the ancient rhythms of life, by Johan Eklöf
Translated by Elizabeth DeNoma Review by Peter Reason I leave my front door late one evening and walk along the driveway we share with our neighbours towards the narrow unlit…
Devils and Saints by Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet You know me. Just think, and you’ll remember. The old man who plays those public pianos that you see in various transport hubs….
Tell Me About it by Sacha Naspini
Translated by Clarissa Botsford Review by Annabel This novella, first published in Italian in 2020, has a mere 120 pages, yet there is a full life between its covers. On…
Reviewer’s Choice: Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Translated by Sondra Silverston Reviewed by Harriet ‘One lie can have a thousand consequences in this page-turning psychological suspense’, says the blurb. This is a fair description of what happens,…
Water Over Stones by Bernardo Atxaga
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Thomas Bunstead Reviewed by Gill Davies In his witty alphabetical epilogue to this novel, Bernardo Atxaga states that there are “two kinds of literature,…
Three by Valérie Perrin
Translated by Hildegarde Serle Reviewed by Harriet My name is Virginie. I’m the same age as them. Today, out of the three, only Adrian still speaks to me.Nina despises me.As for…
In the Margins by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Anna Hollingsworth There’s something fascinating about writers writing about, well, writing and reading. I care more about writers’ preferred pens and books on their…