This month we're reading fiction translated from: Dutch, French, Italian and Japanese!
The Hairdresser's Son by Gerbrand Bakker
translated from Dutch by David Colmer
Simon never knew his father, Cornelis. When his wife told him she was pregnant, Cornelis packed his bags, and a day later he was dead. Or everyone assumed he was dead; after all, he was on the passenger list of the KLM plane that crashed in Tenerife in 1977.
Simon is a hairdresser, just like his father and grandfather before him, but he is not passionate about cutting and shaving. 'Closed' appears on his shop's front door more often than 'open', because every customer is a person, and people suck the energy from him. But there is one client he regularly interacts with: the writer. The writer is looking for a subject for his next book, and becomes captivated by the story of Simon's father.
The Son of Man by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo
translated from French by Frank Wynne
In the soft morning light, a man, a woman and a child drive to Les Roches, a dilapidated house, where the man grew up with his own ruthless father. After several years of absence, the man has reappeared in the life of his wife and their young son, intent on being a family again. While the mother watches the passing days with apprehension, the son discovers the enchantment of nature.
As the father’s hold over them intensifies, the return to their previous life and home seems increasingly impossible. Haunted by his past and consumed with jealousy, the father slips into a kind of madness that only the son will be able to challenge.
Her Side of the Story by Alba de Cespedes
translated from Italian by Jill Foulston
Looking back over her life, Alessandra Corteggiani recalls her youth during the rise of fascism in 1930s Rome. A sensitive child, she was always alert to the loneliness and dissatisfaction of her mother and the other women in their crowded apartment block. Observing how their lives were weighed down by housework and the longing for romance, she became determined to seek another future for herself. This conviction will lead her to rebel against the expectations of her family, rail against the unjust treatment of women and seek to build a life with an anti-fascist professor. As her independence grows, so too does resistance against it - even from those closest to her.
The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada
translated from Japanese by David Boyd
Due for local release 25th June
When Asa's husband is offered a new job away from the city, the couple end up relocating. And since his new office is very close to his family's home, it makes sense to move in next door to his parents.
Through the long hot summer, Asa does her best to adjust to their new rural lives, to the constant presence of her in-laws, to the emptiness of her existence and the incessant buzz of cicadas. And then one day, while running an errand for her mother-in-law, she comes across a strange creature, follows it to the embankment of a river, and ends up falling into a hole - a hole that seems to have been made specifically for her.
Thus begins a series of bizarre experiences that drive Asa deeper into the mysteries of this rural landscape and the family she has married in to.
