International fiction

Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq & Shaun Whiteside (trans.)

Reviewed by Justin Cantrell Harvey

Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation shoves us into the existential despair of the French civil servant Paul Raison, who is navigating the crumbling foundations of his personal life and the society which surrounds him. The title itself is suggestive – an obliteration…

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Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

Reviewed by Joanna Di Mattia

I’ll start at the end and say that when I finished reading Our Evenings I felt quite bereft. I can’t recall when I was last so invested in the lives of fictional people. Some tears were shed.

In his seventh…

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The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

Reviewed by Pierre Sutcliffe

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Louise Erdrich has composed one of the most compelling and rewarding novels I have read in a very long time. I defy anyone to read the first page and not be intrigued and drawn instantly into the…

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A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez & Megan McDowell (trans.)

Reviewed by Joe Murray

‘It was the terror that came from the cold of the grave … a glimpse beyond the walls of sleep.’ To step into Mariana Enriquez’s vision of Argentina is to step into a world of chilling strangeness and abject terror…

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Rosarita by Anita Desai

Reviewed by Nishtha Banavalikar

Rosarita opens with Bonita, a young language student from India who arrives in Mexico to study Spanish. The novel alternates between the languid environmental bliss of Mexico and the busy domesticity of India, each city providing an invasive friction to…

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The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar & Frank Wynne (trans.)

Reviewed by Tamuz Ellazam

From one of Spain’s most iconic filmmakers comes The Last Dream, a mix of short stories, diary entries and reflections on writing, filmmaking and the many passions that drive the creative mind of Pedro Almodóvar.

The stories range from…

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Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Reviewed by Chris Gordon

In the end, of course, it is Olive Kitteridge who tells it like it is. However, before that happens, you do get to spend an entire wonderful year with Bob Burgess and his dear friend, Lucy Barton. Elizabeth Strout’s poignant…

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Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Reviewed by Melanie Basta

Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room, is back with a literary spy novel, Creation Lake. In it, we meet former FBI agent Sadie Smith, who takes on undercover work in remote France. She is…

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We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida & E. Madison Shimoda (trans.)

Reviewed by Jennifer Varela

Nestled in an old and rundown building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul (which conveniently is next to a veterinarian’s office) is a mysterious place somewhere in between East of Takoyakushi…

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