A bereaved composer keeps the memory of his late wife alive by unusual means in Anne Sénès’s mesmerizing novel "Double Room". In the late 1990s, Stan receives an offer to compose music for a theatrical production. He travels from... Read More

An unsolved disappearance and Croatia’s independence overlap in Jurica Pavičić’s expansive novel "Red Water". In 1989, Silva disappears near Split, then part of Yugoslavia. A lengthy hunt ensues, continuing decades after the... Read More

An inestimable novel of ideas, Michael Lentz’s monumental book "Schattenfroh" follows the consciousness of a trapped man as he thinks through his existence, his relationship to his father, and centuries of German culture. “One calls... Read More

In Maya Arad’s epistolary novel "Happy New Years", an Israeli immigrant writes annual Rosh Hashanah letters to her friends back home, masking the reality of her life in the US. From 1966 to 2016, Leah writes to women from her... Read More

A boy is turned into a deer in Simon Bournel-Bosson’s surreal graphic novel "Trumpets of Death". Amid his parents’ marital troubles, Antoine is sent to stay with his paternal grandparents. His grandfather Gilbert is an imposing,... Read More

In Giulia Caminito’s mesmerizing novel The Lake’s Water is Never Sweet, an Italian girl navigates private treacheries and injustices. Gaia grows up in poverty, learning to be tough in a house whose concrete courtyard is her only... Read More

Generations of women face the consequences of their dark bargains in Irene Solà’s wickedly sumptuous novel "I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness". In a prewar period of privation, Joana decides not to die hungry and alone.... Read More

Amnesia and the complications of rebuilding a marriage inspire Anjet Daanje’s pensive historical novel "The Remembered Soldier", in which a Belgian veteran of the Great War grapples with fragile versions of the truth. After years... Read More