International fiction
Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq & Shaun Whiteside (trans.)
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…
Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
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…
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
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…
A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez & Megan McDowell (trans.)
‘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…
Rosarita by Anita Desai
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…
The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar & Frank Wynne (trans.)
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…
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
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…
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
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…
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida & E. Madison Shimoda (trans.)
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…
Asa: The Girl Who Turned into a Pair of Chopsticks by Natsuko Imamura & Lucy North (trans.)
In 2023 I was introduced to Natsuko Imamura through her book The Woman in the Purple Skirt. I was so pleased to meet her (Imamura, that is), and so I was excited to learn that she had a new…