Translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle One of 2020’s finest novels in translation, Theatre of War marks a lot of firsts. This is the first Chilean novel published by Charco Press; it’s the first Chilean novel I’ve ever read; and it’s my first experience with translator Frances Riddle. It’s also a masterpiece. Theatre of …
Literature
Translated from the Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway The Pear Field is a novel of juxtapositions. It is full of tragedy, but written with a calm joviality. It has a gothic tone but is populated by lovable characters, rather than ones you love to hate. It shocks and frightens you at one turn while filling you …
The landscape of indie publishing is so rich and diverse right now. Risk of failure might be high, but that hasn’t stopped so many courageous people fighting to forge, and make roaring successes of, some of the best publishing companies in the world right now – all with nothing but their own blood, sweat, and …
Born in Busan, having grown up between South Korea and Canada, and currently residing in Chicago, Emily Jungmin Yoon is poetry editor for The Margins, the journal of the Asian American Writer’s Workshop. Her 2017 chapbook Ordinary Misfortunes won the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize and she published her first full length collection A Cruelty Special to Our Species in 2018. …
The ghosts and demons (yokai) of Japanese folklore represent some of the most imaginative, diverse, and strange supernatural creatures anywhere in the world. Vengeful spirits and man-eating demons; haunted furniture and the ghosts of abandoned children populate the best Japanese ghost stories. Japanese ghost stories are a deep well of fantastical, terrifying wonders. They have …
Where do you start reading an author like Kobo Abe? The post-war Japanese author and playwright has become known, most famously, as Japan’s answer to Franz Kafka. One difference between the two, however, is that Abe was able to finish his works. And of them, which ones are must-read novels? What we have here are …
Visiting Cambodia, like many Southeast Asian countries involves storytelling traditions dating back centuries. However, much of it was rarely written down, passed instead through oral tradition. Most of the literary works written down in Khmer were owned and controlled by the Royal families, or the Buddhist monks. Despite these long literary traditions, the Khmer literature …
Translated from the Japanese by Jocelyne Allen Inio Asano is a mangaka best known for being one of the manga world’s smartest and boldest creators. His series Goodnight Punpun is an oft-touted masterpiece that taps into the tragedy of growing up lost and frightened. It’s a series that represents the literary highs which manga can …
Translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori In 2018, the English translation of Convenience Store Woman, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, was published by Granta. The book had such an intense and profound effect on me, as a reader, that it remains somewhere in my top 5 novels of all time. I wrote an …
Many of us grew up with the Harry Potter franchise — be it the books, the films, or both. In the 90s, Harry Potter hit the world harder than any book series in history, and it’s hard to imagine a series ever making that same splash again. However, some of us (this writer included) no …