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…
Ladivine by Marie Ndiaye
Translated from French by Jordan Stump Reviewed by Kate Gardner Marie Ndiaye’s latest book could be described as a surrealist family saga, perhaps even magic realist, if I’m allowed to…
Sergio Y. by Alexandre Vidal Porto
Translated by Alex Ladd Reviewed by Victoria I really love shrink lit. There’s something about the lucid and detailed focus on the interaction between patient and psychotherapist that is somehow…
The Sun King Conspiracy by Yves Jégo & Denis Lépée
Translated by Sue Dyson Reviewed by Helen Skinner This fascinating and complex historical thriller is set in 1661 at the court of France’s Sun King, Louis XIV. As the novel…
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue
Translated by Natasha Wimmer Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite There’s some remarkable literature from Mexico being published in English translation at the moment. Writers such as Valeria Luiselli, Yuri Herrera, Paulette Jonguitud,…
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
Translated by Helen Constantine, Editor Patrick Coleman Reviewed by Victoria If you’ve read a book by the 19th century French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, the chances are that it was Madame Bovary,…
Himmler’s Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert
Translated by Anthea Bell Reviewed by Susan Osborne Perhaps it’s because many of us in the privileged developed world are living longer these days but there seems to be a…
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Robert Vilain Reviewed by Karen Langley Back in 2013, I read a really lovely book called Rilke in Paris, which focused on the life of the great German poet…
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
Translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies Reviewed by Gill Davies What an odd novel! It is Yokoyama’s sixth, his first to be translated into English, and was an immediate best-seller in Japan….
Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal
Translated by Jessica Moore Reviewed by Annabel It is easy to see why this novel (in this translation; Sam Taylor has translated it in the USA as The Heart) has been…
Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujilla
Translated by Roland Glasser Reviewed by Terence Jagger TRAM 83: BY DAY AS BY NIGHT, ETERNAL IN ITS SPLENDOUR OF A PARADISE GOING TO HELL IN A HANDCART, WITH THE…
Earth by Émile Zola
Translated by Brian Nelson and Julie Rose Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Regular readers of my blog might remember that I set myself the task of reading through Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series…
Maresi by Mari Turtschaninoff
Translated by Annie Prime Reviewed by Eleanor Franzen Maresi is thirteen or so. She lives in a fantastical realm on an island called Menos, under the protection of the Sisters…
The Flight by Gaito Gazdanov
Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Reviewed by Karen Langley As well as being the driving force behind the Stefan Zweig revival, Pushkin Press has also done fans of Russian authors a…
For Two Thousand Years by Mihail Sebastian
Translated by Philip Ó Ceallaigh Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne I’ve been beaten and the world doesn’t stand still for such things. Published in 1934 when he was only 27, Mihail…
The Roar of Morning by Tip Marugg
Translated by Paul Vincent Reviewed by Karen Langley Silvio Alberto ‘Tip’ Marugg is an author new to me, and one who has quite a small body of work. Of Dutch-Antillean…
Dry Season by Gabriela Babnik
Translated by Rawley Grau Reviewed by Chelsea McGill Ana, a 62-year-old graphic designer from Slovenia, has run away to a completely foreign place – Burkina Faso. There she meets Ismael,…
Numero Zero by Umberto Eco
Translated by Richard Dixon Reviewed by Paul Fishman For a short novel, Numero Zero is amazingly leisurely and discursive. It’s like an Arabian Nights for conspiracy theorists, historians of the late 20th century and…
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel French author Lemaitre is best known for his gory yet gripping trilogy of serial killer novels featuring the detective Camille Verhoeven. They aren’t…
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
Translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson Reviewed by Alice Farrant The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende is a tender love story, traversing from the 1930s through to the present day,…
Journey Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
Translated by Alexander O Smith with Joseph Reeder. Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel I’ve read by Keigo Higashino – indeed, my first Japanese crime novel –…