Staff Picks by Tag

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Winter in Sokcho By Elisa Shua Dusapin, Aneesa Abbas Higgins (Translator) Cover Image
$14.95
ISBN: 9781948830416
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Open Letter - April 27th, 2021

This book is simultaneously uncomfortable and endearing, remaining in an amorphous zone of being content and discontent and constantly questioning what it means to see and to be seen. Dusapin writes of the acquaintance between a young receptionist at a tourist hotel on the border between North and South Korea and a visiting French graphic novelist. As they explore the area and grow close, the distance between them remains. It is slow, uneventful, and absolutely gorgeous. Dusapin's words and Higgins's ensnaring translation will leave you grasping for more until the very last sentence.


Review by Sofia B.

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Diary of a Void: A Novel By Emi Yagi, David Boyd (Translated by), Lucy North (Translated by) Cover Image
By Emi Yagi, David Boyd (Translated by), Lucy North (Translated by)
$23.00
ISBN: 9780143136873
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Viking - August 9th, 2022

This is one of the wackiest, most elusive, and most bizarre books I've encountered in a while. The protagonist, whose first name remains unknown, pretends to be pregnant at work to be relieved of the mindless tasks her male coworkers blatantly assume she'll do: making coffee, distributing snacks, cleaning, etc. Committing to the ruse, she gains a new sense of identity, tracking her body's changes, eating for the baby, going to aerobics for the baby...but what baby??? You'll be confused and delighted until the very last week of the pregnancy and the very last page of this book.


Review by Sofia B.

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The Hole: A Novel By Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell (Translated by) Cover Image
By Hye-young Pyun, Sora Kim-Russell (Translated by)
$16.99
ISBN: 9781628729917
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Arcade - October 23rd, 2018

The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun is utterly devastating and tragic. Oghi, a professor and PhD student had everything–until he has nothing. After waking up from a coma, we witness Oghi’s introspection of his life. This book is all about the terrifying what-ifs of living in the fragile state that is humankind. Although this story is painful in many ways, it allows us to see the beauty in the everyday and reminds us not to take our bright moments for granted. This book is not for the faint of heart.


Review by Lauren

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No Longer Human By Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene (Translated by) Cover Image
By Osamu Dazai, Donald Keene (Translated by)
$14.95
ISBN: 9780811204811
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: New Directions - January 17th, 1973

Some call Osamu Dazai the Japanese Thomas Bernhard—a masterful writer of estranged narrators, the relentlessly dour, and timeless cruelties. Originally published in 1948, and translated into English by Donald Keene in 1958, this extraordinary book recently found new life on TikTok, where it's introduced thousands of young readers to literature in translation.

 


Review by Spencer R.

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Linea Nigra: An Essay on Pregnancy and Earthquakes By Jazmina Barrera, Christina Macsweeney (Translator) Cover Image
$21.95
ISBN: 9781949641301
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Two Lines Press - May 3rd, 2022

Nestled within the nucleus of motherhood literature comes Linea Nigra, written in aphorism and anecdote that intersect over and over again in beautiful orbits. Barrera writes about childbirth, breastfeeding, and care through her mother’s artwork and her grandmother’s experience as a doula, as well as the author’s own extensive reading notes and frustrations with healthcare. Barrera’s seriousness and intelligence is punctuated by expressions of delight in parenthood.

 


Review by Spencer R.

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Time Shelter: A Novel By Georgi Gospodinov, Angela Rodel (Translated by) Cover Image
By Georgi Gospodinov, Angela Rodel (Translated by)
$27.00
Unavailable at this time.
ISBN: 9781324090953
Published: Liveright - May 10th, 2022

I’ll be a mess if I can find a better novel this year than Gospodinov’s Time Shelter. Gaustine, a geriatric ward clinician, opens a clinic for Alzheimer’s patients that reproduces decades of the past in perfect detail. The treatment is wildly effective, and within the comfort of past eras, patients inhabit their former selves. Angela Rodel somehow manages an encyclopedia’s worth of obscure cultural references from across the globe, rending them with clarity and beauty. Gospodinov is a keen observer of both the melancholy of time’s passing and the slippery joy of nostalgia.


Review by Spencer R.

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The Employees: A workplace novel of the 22nd century By Olga Ravn, Martin Aitken (Translated by) Cover Image
By Olga Ravn, Martin Aitken (Translated by)
$19.95
Unavailable at this time.
ISBN: 9780811231350
Published: New Directions - February 1st, 2022

If 2001: A Space Odyssey was also about chilling, unnameable workplace minutiae... well, here you go. In the far future, a spaceship orbits a planet littered with strange objects, and the ship's crew—janitors, captains, all—become obsessed with these mysterious mementos. A story of dread and survival, both existential and physical, to be read in a morning, quaking over your coffee. You won't forget it.


Review by Spencer R.

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Kaya Days By Carl de Souza, Jeffrey Zuckerman (Translator) Cover Image
By Carl de Souza, Jeffrey Zuckerman (Translator)
$14.95
ISBN: 9781949641196
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Two Lines Press - September 14th, 2021

I'm hard-pressed to find something similar to Carl de Souza anywhere in American fiction—his haunted stylings, his wanderings, his dense depictions of violence that feel both immediate and unreal.


Review by Spencer R.

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The Love Parade By Sergio Pitol, George Henson (Translator) Cover Image
By Sergio Pitol, George Henson (Translator)
$15.95
ISBN: 9781646051137
Availability: On our shelves now at one or more of our stores
Published: Deep Vellum Publishing - January 11th, 2022

The Love Parade stands out as a fascinating addition to Pitol's unsolveable mysteries and glassy realism. Complete with a cantankerous bookseller, an array of monologue-sick characters (like Dante's dead), and a futile search for answers (or is it?), George Henson's new translation is sure to delight.


Review by Spencer R.