Teetering somewhere between uncanny and debaucherous, Audrée Wilhelmy’s eerie novel "The Body of the Beasts" focuses on a lighthouse-keeping family subsisting at the edge of civilization. In the Borya family, desire is voyeuristic,... Read More

In João Reis’s melancholy yet comic The Translator’s Bride, a nameless translator in a nameless city struggles to interpret his own life, wandering through a frustrating maze of streetcars, chilling rain, and moldy interiors. His... Read More

There’s something a little mysterious at work in Hebe Uhart’s "The Scent of Buenos Aires", but it’s the ordinary mystery of other people. These thirty-eight short stories function like a panopticon, each dipping into one person’s... Read More

“Nietzche was right. It’s upon the death of those one loves that they become for us a shining star,” admits Maya Ombasic in her memoir, "Mostarghia". Ombasic was twenty-seven years old when her father died—the same age he was... Read More

A dark and comic family drama, Ronit Matalon’s "And the Bride Closed the Door" takes place in Tel Aviv and begins with Margie making a big announcement through her bedroom door: “Not getting married.” The ensuing action takes a few... Read More

Maya Abramovna Klotsvog, a Jewish Ukrainian mathematics teacher born in 1930, comes of age during the Soviet Union’s post-war era of power and becomes an exemplary Russian woman, wife, and mother in every respect. If you believe this,... Read More

Damián Lobo is a fix-it man who’s unable to fix his own life. Middle-aged and just laid off from his dead end janitorial job, he wanders Madrid’s streets alone, imagining himself as an interview subject—and figure of ridicule—on... Read More

Nabarun Bhattacharya’s "Harbart" is a wild ride—a short novel that documents the unexpected rise and precipitous fall of Harbart’s fortunes in vibrant, humorous prose. The novel opens with a scene of debauchery that is followed by... Read More