Walking in Berlin by Franz Hessel
Translated by Amanda DeMarco Reviewed by Rob Spence Berlin is one of my favourite cities, and I have spent a lot of time walking around its fascinating streets. So the…
The Longest Night by Otto de Kat
Translated by Laura Watkinson Reviewed by Gill Davies Otto de Kat is the pseudonym of a Dutch writer (journalist, poet, translator and editor) whose novels are set in Holland and…
Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yoko Tawada
Translated by Susan Bernofsky Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a rather engaging book, which on the surface is not entirely innocent of the grave crime of being cute, but…
The Pledge, by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Translated by Joel Agee Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén In a mountainous Swiss canton not far from Zurich, a little girl’s body is found. She is only seven or eight, with…
Mortal Engines by Stanislaw Lem
Edited and translated by Michael Kandel Review by Karen Langley Polish author Stanislaw Lem is probably best known for his novel “Solaris”, a book that’s been filmed twice – once…
The Gardens of Consolation by Parisa Reza
Translated by Adriana Hunter Reviewed by Terence Jagger “To the east, bare earth as far as the eye can see. To the west, hills … then on the horizon, mountains. …
Death Going Down by María Angélica Bosco
Translated by Lucy Greaves Reviewed by Gill Davies Thanks to Shiny – and the publishers – I am discovering and enjoying new crime writers. The latest one is the Argentine…
A Different Sea – Claudio Magris
Translated from the Italian by M. S. Spurr Reviewed by Hayley Anderton This is a book that really needs an introduction, or even an afterword, unfortunately it doesn’t have one….
Human Acts by Han Kang
Translated by Deborah Smith Paperback review by David Hebblethwaite When you shake off the hundred-plus books of a year’s reading and find that the one that clings the longest is…
The History of a Town by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
Translated by I.P. Foote Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian literature has long had a tradition of satire stretching all the way back to Gogol, one of its best exponents. However,…
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler
Translated by Charlotte Collins Reviewed by Susan Osborne It’s a both a joy and a worry when a second novel appears on the horizon following one quite so spectacularly good…
Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum
Translated by Basil Creighton / revised by Margot Bettauer Dembo Reviewed by Karen Langley Being known as the author of one successful book can be as much of a curse…
Where Roses Never Die by Gunnar Staalesen
Translated by Don Bartlett Reviewed by Gill Davies Where Roses Never Die is my first Gunnar Staalesen novel. Staalesen is Norwegian and he has been successfully writing crime fiction since 1977,…
French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain
Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel I experienced the sheer joy of reading French author Antoine Laurain earlier this summer when I finally read his first…
Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Translated by David Carter Reviewed by Simon If the name Antoine de Saint-Exupéry means anything to you, it probably only means one thing: The Little Prince. It was this contrast…
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi
Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Rose France Reviewed by Karen Langley One of my highlights from 2014 was the discovery of the writings of the…
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Dora O’Brien Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky is best known in the west for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Demons/Devils/The Possessed and…
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
Translated by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe Reviewed by Simon Madonna in a Fur Coat, was first published in Turkish in 1943. This translation is the first time this Turkish…
For All the Gold in the World by Massimo Carlotto
Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is ‘an Alligator mystery’, latest in a series featuring an independent and unlicensed private investigator, Marco Buratti, tough but not personally violent,…
The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerlöf
Translated by Paul Norlén Reviewed by Annabel We don’t feature many children’s books here at Shiny, but occasionally new editions of much-loved childhood favourites or rediscovered classics will emerge. As…
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz
Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Basma Abdel Aziz is a writer, artist and psychiatrist from Egypt, noted as a critic of government oppression. The Queue is her…
Marie by Madeleine Bourdouxhe
Translated by Faith Evans Reviewed by Rachel Fenn Belgian writer Madeleine Bourdouxhe’s intriguing novella, originally published in 1943, has been newly translated by Faith Evans in a beautiful edition produced…
Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa Reviewed by Harriet As a couple, they had spotted me like one of those distant shapes on the ocean that can’t be ignored and had…
Paris Vagabond by Jean-Paul Clébert
Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith Reviewed by Karen Langley There’s a current literary trend of reissuing lost classics, and one of the most reliable imprints which is at the vanguard is…