Books in Translation

Nevada Days – Bernardo Atxaga

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NEVADA DAYS doesn’t match up to plot-driven works of fiction — despite its sub-plot of sexual assault and murder — because that’s not the kind of fiction Atxaga has written.

Toddler Hunting and Other Stories – Taeko Kono

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Though Kono is absorbed with domestic life, she pushes the conventional limits of realism by exposing the ways in which the rules of domesticity are artificial, provisional, or self-imposed.

Sexographies – Gabriela Wiener

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The collection conveys a profound honesty about female sexuality that goes beyond a simple defense of sexual freedom to expose the complexities of desire, the body, and psychology.

The Day The Sun Died – Yan Lianke

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Without revealing too much, one can simply butcher Chekhov by observing that, if you read a story that mentions corpse oil, you can be pretty sure that it will be used, sooner or later.

The Oblique Place – Caterina Pascaul Söderbaum

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Don’t be fooled that this is a story about discovery. It is instead about trying to accommodate what’s been discovered.

A Swarm of Dust – Evald Flisar

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To what extent can we indeed plausibly claim to be focusing our attention on the text itself when the context needed to make the text fully intelligible might be missing?

The Stolen Bicycle – Wu Ming-Yi

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How amazing it is, I thought, while flipping through book after book after book after zine after book, that I am here with THE STOLEN BICYCLE in my backpack, that we are in 2018 and still use paper, ink, and energy to capture, print, and sell random people’s precious moments of the past.

The Hole – José Revueltas

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Although Revueltas was a committed Marxist throughout his life, THE HOLE is not a political novel in the ordinary sense.

An Untouched House – Willem Frederik Hermans

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The square book fits easily into a jacket pocket, but the ninety-nine pages of narrative are so explosive as to make one feel like you’re smuggling a weapon.

Father’s on the Phone with the Flies – Herta Müller

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In Müller’s work, emigration is often accompanied by violence, physical, emotional or intellectual. Texts and language reflect this violence.