International fiction
Owlish by Dorothy Tse & Natascha Bruce (trans.)
In a world not quite our own, in a city that is not quite Hong Kong, a middle-aged professor is falling in love with a doll who is not quite human. Such reads the premise of Dorothy Tse’s entrancing Owlish…
The Guest by Emma Cline
The Guest is the second novel by Emma Cline, following her acclaimed 2016 debut The Girls. I read The Girls years ago and loved it, so I was very excited to find out that Cline was finally publishing a…
Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes & Ann Goldstein (trans.)
It is late autumn in 1950 and 43-year-old Valeria goes out to buy cigarettes for her husband. In the tobacco shop, she sees a stack of black, shiny, thick notebooks. She buys one on impulse but is immediately consumed with…
August Blue by Deborah Levy
Deborah Levy’s new novel unfolds like a dream – surreal, beguiling, enigmatic. As with most of Levy’s work, it creates a singular world, influenced by Duras and de Beauvoir and the films of Chantal Akerman, but mostly requiring navigation on…
Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda & Philip Gabriel (trans.)
Honeybees and Distant Thunder introduces an ensemble cast on the cusp of the internationally acclaimed, triennial Yoshigae International Piano Competition. The story launches with an extraordinary audition in Paris by a previously unknown pianist, Jin Kazama, who arrives with a…
The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng
The fishing village of Lee Ah Boon’s birth is a place of mangroves, mudskippers and the sound of waves receding over sand. His days are shaped by his rivalry with his boisterous older brother, the easy love of his mother…
Greek Lessons by Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith & Emily Yae Won)
Greek Lessons is Han Kang’s latest novel to be translated into English by Deborah Smith and Emily Yae Won. Han Kang is best known for The Vegetarian, the version of which translated by Deborah Smith won the Man Booker…
Brutes by Dizz Tate
Falls Landing, Florida. Under the glittering lights of theme parks, the saccharine scent of caramelised popcorn, and the sticky summer sun, something is rotting. Slithering amidst the falsity of sizzling barbecues and housewives drinking margheritas by the poolside, there is…
Shy by Max Porter
I would not choose to be a teenager again for all the love and wealth in the world. Do you remember how exhausting it is learning to navigate an understanding of humanity? Imagine teenage angst tied up with extreme disadvantage…
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
Benjamin Myers’ new novel profoundly re-imagines a history of England’s North through the enduring influence of seventh century ascetic monk Saint Cuthbert, affectionately nicknamed ‘Cuddy.’ Comprising four novellas in varied literary forms, the legacy of Cuddy describes the ley line…
Browse our reviews by category
