Guzel Yakhina’s spellbinding, fabulistic novel "A Volga Tale" views the Russian Revolution from within a small agrarian settlement. In the pastoral time before the Revolution, Jacob is a schoolteacher who lives alone in Gnadenthal... Read More

Jean-Philippe Blondel’s delicate and delightful novel "Café Unfiltered" dips into the musings of several people who have gathered in a French café over the course of one day. In France, the COVID-19 lockdown has just been lifted. Le... Read More

Based in truth, Edith Bruck’s historical novel "Lost Bread" zeroes in on the psychological and physical trauma that complicated post-war reentry for those who survived the Holocaust. Drawing on Bruck’s own experiences, this brutal... Read More

In Jenny Lund Madsen’s novel "Thirty Days of Darkness", a misanthropic author is embroiled in a murder mystery. Hannah’s books are cerebral, acclaimed by critics—and read by almost no one. After making a rash, very public promise... Read More

In Jente Posthuma’s bittersweet novel What I’d Rather Not Think About, a woman who is bereft after her twin brother’s suicide searches to understand his mental illness. The fraternal twins at the center of the story have peculiar... Read More

In Gerda Blees’s novel "We Are Light", a woman’s quiet, bizarre death exposes the tragic gap between ethics and legality. The leader of the Sound & Love Commune, Melodie manipulates loyalty and obedience from her small group of... Read More

A woman returns to her childhood haunts in Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette’s sensual, earthy novel "To the Forest". Decamping their pandemic-shuttered city, a family retreats to a blue cottage in the woods—a place bound by a stream, a... Read More

The fates of a girl who loves the stars, a real estate agent, an envoy for the king, and a taxidermist are plied by the goddess of love in Antoine Laurain’s scintillating, era-crossing romance novel "An Astronomer in Love". Venus does... Read More