Book type: fiction (3663)
71.
A Perfect Waiter by Alain Claude Sulzer EN
Country: Europe / 
Switzerland
Switzerland
Description:
It is 1966. Erneste works in a grand hotel in Switzerland. He is the 'perfect waiter', a model of order in every way. But inwardly this polite, withdrawn man has been caught in the grip of an overwhelming passion that began in the summer of 1935. Going down to the lakeside back then to meet new staff members off the boat, Erneste sees a tall young man, Jakob, and falls hopelessly in love. For Jakob the affair is just a fling, but for Erneste it is true love. When the great German writer Julius Klinger arrives at the hotel, seeking sanctuary from Hitler's Germany, his gaze, too, lights on Jakob... continue
72.
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oe EN
JapanDescription:
First pub. 1964. Author's most dramatic work, won him the prestigious Shincho Literary Prize. In the novel the narrator tells how he responds to the birth and problems posed by his handicapped child. Recipient of the 1994 Nobel prize.
73.
A Practical Guide to Levitation : Stories by Jose Eduardo Agualusa EN
AngolaDescription:
A luminous collection of dryly humorous stories that revel in the surreal and fantastic, from the pen of José Eduardo Agualusa, winner of the International Dublin Literary Award Perfect for readers of Haruki Murakami, Julio Cortázar, and Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift Vividly translated into English for the first time by long-time Agualusa collaborator Daniel Hahn, the jewel-like tales gathered in this collection are an exuberant celebration of story-telling in all its various forms. On the sands of Itamaracá, an old fisherman dreams of fish: shad in the morning, when the water’s smooth and s... continue
74.
ChinaDescription:
From one of China's most celebrated contemporary novelists comes this riveting tale of a young woman's emotional and sexual awakening. Set in the turbulent decades of the Cultural Revolution and the Tian'anmen Square incident, A Private Life exposes the complex and fantastical inner life of a young woman growing up during a time of intense social and political upheaval. At the age of twenty-six, Ni Niuniu has come to accept pain and loss. She has suffered the death of her mother and a close friend and neighbor, Mrs. Ho. She has long been estranged from her tyrannical father, while her boyfrien... continue
75.
A Question of Power by Bessie Head EN
Country: Africa / 
South Africa
South Africa
Description:
"When Elizabeth learns the devastating truth about her mother, locked away for defying Apartheid, she flees South Africa and begins a new life in Botswana, at Motabeng, the village of the rain-wind. But Elizabeth is tormented by two men, Dan and Sello, who represent for her a private vision of hell into which she sinks deeper and deeper. This novel interweaves one woman's terrifying experience of insanity with the madness and cruelty of life in a divided society. A Question of Power is the unforgettable study of an individual - and a race - whose identity has been annihilated, and their result... continue
76.
A Remarkable Rotuman Woman by Jacinta Tonga EN
FijiDescription:
Petera Veu was born out of wedlock and into a time when girls lived lives of quiet, domestic servitude. But Petera Veu had other ideas. Like the Fijian island of Rotuma in which she was raised, Petera didn't quite fit in with her surroundings. She picked fights, stole food, rebuked priests and generally spoke her mind whenever possible. Determined, independent and, at times, downright intractable, Petera Veu lived life on her own terms. A Remarkable Rotuman Woman is Jacinta Tonga's memoir of her late grandmother, the indomitable Petera Veu, and speaks of traditional life in the South Pacific, ... continue
Ukraine78.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka EN
GermanyDescription:
When their recently widowed father announces he plans to remarry, sisters Vera and Nadezhda realise they must put aside a lifetime of feuding in order to save him. His new love is a voluptuous gold-digger from the Ukraine half his age, with a proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, who stops at nothing in her single minded pursuit of the luxury Western lifestyle she dreams of. But the old man, too, is pursuing his eccentric dreams - and writing a history of tractors in Ukrainian. A wise, tender and deeply funny novel about families, the healing of old wounds, the tria... continue
79.
A Silent Fury : The El Bordo Mine Fire by Yuri Herrera EN
Country: North America / 
Mexico
Mexico
Description:
Mine fire industrial disaster nonfiction: from the author of Signs Preceding The End of The World
80.
A Sky So Close to Us : A novel by Shahla Ujayli EN
SyriaDescription:
A multigenerational tale of love, loss, exile, and rebirth, shortlisted for the 2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. As children sleeping on the rooftop of their ancestral family home in Raqqa on warm summer nights, Joumane and her sisters imagine the sky is so close they can almost touch it. Years later, Joumane lives as an expatriate in Jordan, working for a humanitarian agency, while her sisters remain trapped in war-torn Syria. Living alone as she fights her own battle with cancer, she contemplates the closeness of the same sky, despite the sharply delineated borders that now separ... continue