Revenge, murder, and gender-based hypocrisy in communist China drive the unsentimental narrative of Fang Fang’s short novel "The Running Flame". Yingzhi lives in a small village in the Chinese countryside. Desiring more than what her... Read More

Eavesdrop on the quiet chaos of a Viennese apartment building through Dominik Barta’s provocative novel Overheard, wherein the lives of its tenants converge to reveal tender truths. Kurt, a gay German and English teacher, settles into... Read More

Abused in her childhood and taught to believe that she doesn’t deserve love, a woman seeks independence in Sarah Jollien-Fardel’s heartbreaking novel "My Favorite". After a village doctor ignored the truth about her injuries, Jeanne... Read More

Sylvian Trudel’s novel "The Harmattan Winds" is an unusual coming-of-age tale imbued with undercurrents of magic, mystery, and tragedy. Hugues is an adopted orphan of unknown ethnic origins who falls under the spell of Hakébé, an... Read More

Set in a postapocalyptic world, Ingvild Bjerkeland’s chilling novel "Beasts" is about children who hope to reunite with their father. Thirteen-year-old Abdi is the guardian of his five-year-old sister, Alva, since a beast killed their... Read More

In Gianni Rodari’s madcap allegorical fairy tale "Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto", an Italian nonagenarian’s villa is besieged by unwelcome guests. Baron Lamberto is plagued by twenty-four sicknesses, including arteriosclerosis and... Read More

A kindred relationship is severed by a winter storm in Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel "Heaven and Hell", about grave losses and lucent beginnings. In a place “built of cod bones,” Bárður and an orphaned boy are outliers among... Read More

In Nanae Aoyama’s droll novella "A Perfect Day to Be Alone", an indecisive girl cohabitates with a woman who challenges her preconceptions and directionlessness. Twenty-year-old Chizu is ill-employed and hard to impress. She wants to... Read More