International fiction
Baumgartner by Paul Auster
The opening chapter of this book is a beautifully modulated introduction to the life of philosophy professor and 71-year-old widower Sy Baumgartner. Sy roams the rooms of his brownstone, burning his hand on a saucepan that he boiled dry, wondering…
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward’s new novel, Let Us Descend, has been eagerly anticipated since it was announced, and comes six years after her last. Ward has won the National Book Award twice – for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the…
I Hear You're Rich: Stories by Diane Williams
Diane Williams, the ‘godmother of flash fiction’, returns with a stunning collection of stories that beguile and unsettle you with their realistic charms and tragedies.
In the first story ‘Oriel?’, a soon-to-be mother feels anxiety over what to name her…
The Postcard by Anne Berest & Tina Kover (trans.)
A postcard arrives in the Berest family’s mail in 2003, containing only four handwritten words, each the given name of a relative who died in the Holocaust. ‘Who could have written this terrible thing?’ wonders Lélia, the granddaughter and niece…
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Dolly Alderton has done it again. Whether you’re a regular fan, or this is your first experience of a Dolly Alderton book, you won’t be disappointed.
In Good Material, we follow 35-year-old Andy, who has just been dumped by…
The Future by Naomi Alderman
The author of the brilliant dystopian novel The Power, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2017, has given us another fable about the near future, this time skewering the digital tech titans and their escape plans for…
Held by Anne Michaels
Fellow fans of Anne Michaels’ novels will have learnt the art of patience: Michaels’ prize-winning debut, Fugitive Pieces (a key touchstone in my personal reading autobiography, as it will be for many people) was written in 1997, and was followed…
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
A woman drives out to a Best Western motel in the desert alone. A Best Western connoisseur, she is looking to find comfort and to remedy the overwhelming emptiness she feels. Her father is on life support in hospital, and…
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum & Shanna Tan (trans.)
As a reader, you’ve probably been asked numerous times by non-readers in your life, ‘Why do you like to read so much?’ And if you’re like me, your first thought might be, ‘How can I possibly explain this to you?’…
The Premonition by Banana Yoshimoto & Asa Yoneda (trans.)
‘I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide as the sun went down, ending up far, far away from where I started.’
Although Yayoi lives a happy life with her quintessentially…
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