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DREAM OF REASON
Rosa Chacel
Translated from the Spanish by Carol Maier
Dream of Reason is an astounding philosophical novel in the tradition of Sartre and Proust, writers to whom Chacel does not suffer by comparison.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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WOMAN ON THE OTHER SHORE
Mitsuyo Kakuto
Translated from the Japanese by Wayne P. Lammers
Recently translated into English, this acclaimed Japanese novel focuses on two 35-year-old women who meet and form an unlikely friendship. They are the classic polar opposites: the unmarried career woman and the homemaker ...
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
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WHERE THE LINE BLEEDS
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward's debut novel is set in the world she herself grew up in – small-town Mississippi, right on the Gulf of Mexico. It's not an area of the world I knew much about...
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Reviewed by Rachel Hayes
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THE LIEUTENANT
Kate Grenville
The Lieutenant is an historical novel set mainly in the early years of the first British colony which was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove, Australia.
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Reviewed by Meg Merrylees
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BRIXTON BEACH
Roma Tearne
Visual artist and writer Roma Tearne is back with her third novel, Brixton Beach and once again, her evocative language shimmers and quivers on the page as she beautifully transfers her artistic visualizations to the written word.
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Reviewed by Joyce Nickel
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DEPARTING AT DAWN
Gloria Lisé
Translated from the Spanish by Alice Weldon
Although Departing at Dawn is about a horrible, brutal period, it is not a book about horror and brutality. In the opening sentence, Berta watches as her lover...
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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BOOK OF CLOUDS
Chloe Aridjis
Over its brief span, Book of Clouds explores "the phenomenology of space", the accommodation of the past by the present, and the uneasy relationship between nature and the built environment.
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Reviewed by F. T. Huffkin
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ADVENTURE DIVAS: SEARCHING THE GLOBE FOR WOMEN WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD
Holly Morris
While many travelogues recount the author's own stories and experiences, including some interactions with people met on the road, Morris uses her book specifically as a vehicle for telling the stories of the women she met.
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Reviewed by Carianne Carleo-Evangelist
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ZUBAIDA'S WINDOW: A NOVEL OF IRAQI EXILE
Iqbal Al-Qazwini
Translated from the Arabic by Azza El-Kholy and Amira Nowaira
In her sitting room in Berlin, Zubaida watches in horror as her homeland is ravaged publicly on the TV screen during the 2003 invasion of Iraq...
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood
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THE SECRET HISTORY OF MOSCOW
Ekaterina Sedia
The Secret History of Moscow is an urban fantasy set — as the title might lead you to suspect — in, and under, Moscow.
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Reviewed by Tim Jones
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THE BRIDGE OF THE GOLDEN HORN
Emine Sevgi Ozdamar
Translated from the German by Martin Chalmers and John Berger
The Bridge of the Golden Horn is the story of Turkey and ultimately the story of every struggle, oppression and revolution.
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Reviewed by Andrew Stancek
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THE VIRTUOSO
Sonia Orchard
Aficionados will find the music references interesting and familiar, while the uninitiated will find something new and enthralling.
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Reviewed by Amanda Meale
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MY SOUL TO TAKE
Yrsa Sigurdardóttir
Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates
In the starkly beautiful countryside of Iceland's west coast, a woman's body is found, badly beaten and with common sewing pins stuck in the bottom of her feet...
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Reviewed by Kate Morgan
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FOR GRACE RECEIVED
Valeria Parrella
Translated from the Italian by Anthony Shugaar
Forget everything you think about Italy. Forget restored 15th century farmhouses, forget hunting for truffles in autumn, and forget friendly neighbours dropping by with bottles of Chianti and olive oil...
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Reviewed by Joyce Nickel
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MY MEN
Malika Mokeddem
Translated from the French by Laura Rice and Karim Hamdy
Dr. Malika Mokeddem (1949-), an Algerian kidney specialist and award-winning novelist, has a fascinating and inspiring story to tell, and in My Men she does so obliquely but effectively.
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Reviewed by Darryl Morris
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WESTERN
Christine Montalbetti
Translated from the French by Betsy Wing
Montalbetti has written a whole novel about those tiny details which never usually get told; in fact this is a new take on the action-based Western genre...without much action.
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Reviewed by Rachel Hayes
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SOME DREAM FOR FOOLS
Faiza Guene
Translated from the French by Jenna Johnson
This mostly-optimistic young lady is not your typical youth. She is a streetwise tomboy who has learned to take care of herself...
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood
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HOW TO PAINT A DEAD MAN
Sarah Hall
Imagine yourself leaping into a painting. Something Impressionistic, perhaps: rich with color so thick you skid through its juicy impasto...
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
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THE BOY NEXT DOOR
Irene Sabatini
Friendship between such opposite people is improbable, even discouraged. Yet somehow, these two characters are drawn to each other...
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Reviewed by Cait Fehir
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KICK THE TIN
Doris Kartinyeri
Doris Kartinyeri is a member of the Stolen Generation; in 1945 she was taken from her family by the Australian authorities when she was less than a month old ...
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Reviewed by Charlotte Simpson
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