How do we define narrative? Traditional narratives as we typically think of them involve an entirely fictional story laid out with familiar beats: chapters, dialogue, and paragraphing; a beginning, middle, and end; exposition, themes, and motifs. But experimental forms of narrative, the kinds that have existed for centuries but are recently and rightfully in vogue …
Autumn is a season to look forward to. One of curling up by the fireside as the nights draw in, the wind chills, and the books pile up beside your comfy chair. It’s a season of ghost stories and comforting tales. There are a lot of wonderful Autumn books arriving this 2019 season, so let’s …
These women in translation hail from every corner of the globe, from Sweden to Argentina to Japan via the Middle East and Central Europe. They have grown up, and written literature about, countries where women are not given equal opportunities. They are feminists, powerful people, genius writers and world-builders. And here are some of the …
In around one hundred pages, this whip-crack of a novel has the eerie feel of a biblical parable, but one with depths that can be plunged to your heart’s content. With The Wind That Lays Waste, Selva Almada has crafted a story of heroes and villains, with a setting and pace reminiscent of Waiting for …
Summer 2019 is a wonderful time to expand your horizons and enjoy more translated literature. If you’re heading to a far-flung place on holiday, bring along a book from that place and enjoy it in your downtime. If you’re not going anywhere, read books from places you wish you could see this summer. Seeing a …
The feeling of restlessness comes hand-in-hand with the sorrow of parting ways with a place or a person. In All My Goodbyes, Mariana Dimópulos distils these feelings and all their ravaging effects on us into 130 gripping pages. In a single afternoon reading All My Goodbyes, readers will pass through a handful of different countries …
Translated by Megan McDowell There are many ways to approach creating a book of short stories: you can focus on a theme and explore it from different angles, you can write about a single location – a city or a country, or you can simply write what comes to mind. Wait for those stories that …
There is a wave that is steadily gaining momentum in the world today, and that wave is being ridden by a steadily increasing number of young authors – Chloe Aridjis, with her novel Sea Monsters, is one of them. That wave is one of millennial existentialism. As children, we grew up witnessing our parents’ mid-life …