International fiction
The Warm Hand of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
The Warm Hands of Ghosts is an unforgettable story centring on themes of war, love and loss. Throughout the novel, Katherine Arden brings about alternating timelines between two separated siblings, a wounded nurse and a traumatised soldier.
Set in January…
Tell by Jonathan Buckley
In Tell, a gardener talks about a wealthy businessman and art collector she used to work for in a series of interview transcripts. The man has disappeared, and the gardener is now being interviewed about his life at his…
It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over by Anne de Marcken
‘It is clear there is no simple beginning or simple ending. Every live thing is the history and future of all dead things. Every dead thing is the future of all live things.’ So muses the undead narrator of It…
Clear by Carys Davies
Set in Scotland in the 1840s during the Highland Clearances (when the land-owning gentry decided that it was more profitable to clear their land of tenant farmers and their families and replace them with sheep), this incendiary and concise novel…
The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
Irena Rey is ‘Our Author’, a woman revered and adored across the globe for her brilliant novels, and her charismatic ways. No one adores her more than her tribe of translators, all of whom have gathered at her home on…
Mona of the Manor by Armistead Maupin
Hallelujah! Tales of the City fans rejoice! This month sees the release of Armistead Maupin’s 10th book in the groundbreaking series that follows the lives of the residents of 28 Barbary Lane. For those of us who have aged along…
Practice by Rosalind Brown
Scholarly success demands a certain ascetic discipline and Annabel, the protagonist of Rosalind Brown’s exceptional debut novel, thinks she’s adopted all the right habits. She’s spending a cold Sunday at the end of January in her Oxford rooms, rising early…
Butter by Asako Yuzuki & Polly Barton (trans.)
A self-proclaimed domestic goddess turned murderer and a quietly obsessive journalist desperate for a story meet in a prison to discuss boeuf bourguignon. They couldn’t have anything in common, right? Or will they come to understand more about each other…
Your Utopia by Bora Chung & Anton Hur (trans.)
I didn’t think this was possible, but Bora Chung’s latest short-story collection, Your Utopia, is even better than her acclaimed Cursed Bunny. Though still steeped in the horrific and the gory – elements of writing that Chung has…
Bird Life by Anna Smaill
Bird Life is a profoundly poignant and mesmerising second novel from Booker Prize-nominated Anna Smaill. Set in Tokyo, the novel follows two women, Dinah and Yasuko, who are dealing with trauma from recent loss. Dinah is haunted by the sudden…