Books That Travel 2023

Grime is the dazzling multi-voice story of four teenagers haphazardly brought together by individual tragedy and a collective love of...

Grime is the dazzling multi-voice story of four teenagers haphazardly brought together by individual tragedy and a collective love of grime, the music genre that replaced punk as the sound of the angry and the dispossessed. The first English translation of iconic Swiss-German novelist Sibylle Berg—a ruthless indictment of contemporary society and a strikingly creative manifesto for rebellion.

A novel that offers a timely and important reflection on experiences of immigration and on defying the temptation to assimilate...

A novel that offers a timely and important reflection on experiences of immigration and on defying the temptation to assimilate in a host country.

The year is 1944 and Veit Kolbe, a young German soldier, injured fighting in Russia, is recovering at Mondsee, a...

The year is 1944 and Veit Kolbe, a young German soldier, injured fighting in Russia, is recovering at Mondsee, a village and a lake below Drachenwand mountain, close to Salzburg in Austria. Here he meets Margot and Margarete, two young women who share his hope that sometime, sooner or later, life will begin again.

My Soul Twin is an intense love story about forbidden desire, the ties that bind us, and whether we can...

My Soul Twin is an intense love story about forbidden desire, the ties that bind us, and whether we can ever truly forget what we leave behind. A modern-day Wuthering Heights from the author of international bestseller The Eighth Life.

 

Scribe, 320pp, 978-1-913348-42-7

A woman takes a holiday in the Austrian mountains, spending a few days with her cousin and his wife in...

A woman takes a holiday in the Austrian mountains, spending a few days with her cousin and his wife in their hunting lodge. When the couple fails to return from a walk, the woman sets off to look for them. But her journey reaches a sinister and inexplicable dead end. She discovers only a transparent wall behind which there seems to be no life. Trapped alone behind the mysterious wall she begins the arduous work of survival.

 

Penguin Vintage Classics, 256pp, 978-1-78487-803-0

Based on the internationally bestselling and award-winning Austrian novelist Monika Helfer's own family history, Last House Before the Mountain is...

Based on the internationally bestselling and award-winning Austrian novelist Monika Helfer's own family history, Last House Before the Mountain is a propulsive, haunting, multi-layered saga about love, family, and the hidden wages of war.

 

Bloomsbury Publishing, 192pp, 978-1-5266-5713-8

It’s 2011 and the Arab Spring is in full bloom when the discovery of two bodies in Beirut sows the...

It’s 2011 and the Arab Spring is in full bloom when the discovery of two bodies in Beirut sows the first seeds of unrest in Lebanon. With houses already burning, Amin sets out to write down his memories of the country. In this novel full of mystery and suspense, friendship and loss, searches and secrets, Jarawan skillfully interweaves a deeply personal story with the tumultuous history of the Middle East.

 

World Editions, 472pp, 978-1-912987-29-0

Reinhard Jirgl’s strikingly individual novel The Fire Above, the Mountain Below demonstrates that he is not only unorthodox in his...

Reinhard Jirgl’s strikingly individual novel The Fire Above, the Mountain Below demonstrates that he is not only unorthodox in his approach to language, but also difficult to pin down in terms of any genre. Weaving together elements of crime story, Cold War espionage, family tragedy, and a dystopian future, he creates a tapestry of fragile humanity and menacing inhumanity.

 

Seagull, 312pp, 978-0-85742-779-3

In May and September 1976, two severe earthquakes shake a landscape and its population in north-eastern Italy. Around a thousand...

In May and September 1976, two severe earthquakes shake a landscape and its population in north-eastern Italy. Around a thousand people die under the rubble, tens of thousands are left without shelter, many will leave their homes forever. Seven inhabitants of a remote mountain village tell of their lives, in which the earthquake has left deep traces that they are slowly learning to name.

The book tells the story of an entire epoch: a drama of betrayal and self-delusion spanning the years 1905 to...

The book tells the story of an entire epoch: a drama of betrayal and self-delusion spanning the years 1905 to 1975, taking us from Riga to Moscow, Berlin and Munich all the way to Tel Aviv.

 

Picador, 736pp, 978-1-5098-7908-3

In her perceptive and affecting new novel, Daniela Krien explores a marriage where everything hangs in the balance. How can...

In her perceptive and affecting new novel, Daniela Krien explores a marriage where everything hangs in the balance. How can two lovers find a way back to each other, when the pain of the past stands between them?

 

Quercus Publishing, 272pp, 978-1-5294-2138-5

A woman approaching the ‘invisible years’ of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in...

A woman approaching the ‘invisible years’ of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in the East Berlin suburb of Marzahn, once the GDR’s largest prefabricated housing estate. From her intimate vantage point at the foot of the clinic chair, she observes her clients and co-workers, listening to their stories with empathy and curiosity.

Ada’s Realm is a fascinating and highly unusual novel that keeps the reader entertained with a gripping, varied plot that...

Ada’s Realm is a fascinating and highly unusual novel that keeps the reader entertained with a gripping, varied plot that spans centuries. It is set in Ghana, England and Germany and features strong female characters and topical themes including emancipation, resistance and freedom.

‘You’ll live out your lives in a foreign country,’ Gül is warned. But the whole world is foreign when you’re...

‘You’ll live out your lives in a foreign country,’ Gül is warned. But the whole world is foreign when you’re far from your loved ones. The train ride to Germany ushers in the days of long-awaited letters, night-time telephone calls and blissful summers back home. The years of hard work will flow like water before her house in Turkey is built and she can return.

V&Q Books, 280pp, 978-3-86391-328-1

What is it like to be young and broken in a country that is on the brink of collapse? This...

What is it like to be young and broken in a country that is on the brink of collapse? This is what acclaimed poet and sound artist Ulrike Almut Sandig shows us in her debut novel, through the story of old friends Ruth and Viktor in the last days of Communist East Germany.

Seagull Books, 172pp, 978-0-85742-983-4

A darkly comedic tour de force, Identitti showcases the outsized power of social media in the current debates about identity...

A darkly comedic tour de force, Identitti showcases the outsized power of social media in the current debates about identity politics and the power of claiming your own voice.

Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, Punishment masterfully treads the line between fiction and...

Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, Punishment masterfully treads the line between fiction and truth, each meticulously crafted story crackling with white-knuckle suspense and vivid characters who stay with you long after the final page.

Baskerville, 224pp, 978-1-5293-4568-1

Kalmann is a remarkable portrayal of a remote Icelandic community and the devastating impact of the decline of the herring...

Kalmann is a remarkable portrayal of a remote Icelandic community and the devastating impact of the decline of the herring and fishing industries. The tensions between this rural community and the latte-drinking townies of Reykjavík are sensitively depicted, as well as hostility and racism towards the Eastern European migrant workers. Joachim B. Schmidt – who lives in Reykjavík – has produced a suspenseful thriller with a diverse cast of well-drawn characters whose lives are subject to the conditions of the savagely beautiful Icelandic landscape.

Bitter Lemon Press, 338pp, 978-1-913394-68-4

 

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of young German poets and thinkers coursed to the town...

Around the turn of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of young German poets and thinkers coursed to the town of Jena to make history. Jena became the place for the young and intellectually curious, the site of a new departure, of philosophical disruption. With wit and elegance, Peter Neumann brings this remarkable circle of friends and rivals to life in Jena 1800, a work of intellectual history that is colorful and passionate, informative and intimate—as fresh and full of surprises as its subjects.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 256pp, 978-0-374-17869-7

Impeccably researched and incredibly moving, Alice's Book sheds light on an untold chapter in the history of Nazi crimes against...

Impeccably researched and incredibly moving, Alice's Book sheds light on an untold chapter in the history of Nazi crimes against Jewish authors.

MacLehose Press, 368pp, 978-1-5294-1630-5