Babel’s remarkable ability to portray self-preservation stands out. Born in Odessa and known for his tragicomic, often violent collages of Jewish characters, Isaac Babel is honored in "The Essential Fictions", a generous volume of... Read More

Eun’s fiction contrasts familial or societal obligations with an undertow of erratic impulse or emotion. Nobody Checks the Time When They’re Happy, a collection of short stories by Heekyung Eun, peers into the lives of various South... Read More

Pugliese deftly turns the dark clouds of imagination into a life-affirming ode. Nicola Pugliese’s unusual "Malacqua" was first published in 1977 by Italo Calvino. Never reprinted until after Pugliese’s death, it appears for the first... Read More

"Beyond the Rice Fields" demonstrates with omniscient sadness mankind’s ability to commit horrific acts. Naivo’s "Beyond the Rice Fields" follows the tumultuous history of nineteenth-century Madagascar and, more closely, the fated... Read More

Boltanski’s intimate tale walks a tightwire between darkness and light, melancholy and joy. When French journalist Christophe Boltanski decided, at the age of thirteen, to live with his grandparents, he entered a world apart. His "The... Read More

This newly translated novel explores timeless themes of acceptance and struggle with power, grace, and insight. "For Two Thousand Years" is a profoundly moving novel that brilliantly captures the complex tensions of Eastern Europe prior... Read More

A quietly luminous narrative follows five displaced children and reimagines the notion of family. In Gaute Heivoll’s "Across the China Sea", a son returns to his childhood home in rural Norway, prepared to clean out the house following... Read More