Fiction in translation

In 'Time Shelter', an unnamed narrator meets Gaustine, a 'flaneur through time,' who has uncoupled his life from his contemporary reality, reading old news, wearing old clothes, haunting the lost avenues of the twentieth century. Gaustine is the mind behind the first 'clinic for the past,' an ins...

It is 1852, and in Sweden's far north, deep in the Arctic Circle, charismatic preacher and Revivalist Lars Levi Laestadius impassions a poverty-stricken congregation with visions of salvation. But local leaders have reason to resist a shift to temperance over alcohol. Jussi, the young Sami boy La...

In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro,...

An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention - including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman - confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to think...

A young revolutionary plants a bomb in a factory on the outskirts of Algiers during the Algerian War. The bomb is timed to explode after work hours, so no one will be hurt. But the authorities have been watching. He is caught, the bomb is defused, and he is tortured, tried in a day, condemned to ...

Twenty-four-year-old Andreas, a disillusioned German soldier, is travelling on a troop train to the Eastern Front when he has an awful premonition that he will die in exactly five days. As he hurtles towards his death, he reflects on the chaos around him - the naive soldiers, the painfully thin g...

Montalbano opened the door to step out. But Gallo held him back, putting one hand on his arm. What's in there, Chief? If it's what I think, it's something so horrific that it'll haunt your dreams for the rest of your life. When a crazed elderly man and his sister begin firing bullets from their b...

First published in 1925, 'The Trial' is a classic story of totalitarianism, sadism, and hysteria. With a labyrinth of meanings, author Franz Kafka explores the darkness of the terror state.

Thora, August, and Hugo come from different worlds - one an art school dreamer, one a wealthy scion of the old elite, and one an ordinary boy from out of town. But over the course of two sky-blue summers in Stockholm, they are drawn together magnetically. The novel opens years later, when Hugo, l...

When Inji takes a job at Wedding & Life, the popular matchmaking service, she never imagines her role will be with NM, their secretive marriage division that rents out 'field husbands and wives' to their wealthiest clientele for a limited time. Just like a real marriage, Inji's assignments involv...