Book type: fiction (6003)
5071.
The Sad Part was by Prāpdā Yun EN
ThailandDescription:
Winner of a PEN Translates! grant. Selected as a 'book to look out for in 2017' by The Guardian and BuzzFeed Books. In these witty, postmodern stories, Yoon riffs on pop culture, experiments with punctuation, flirts with sci-fi and, in a metafictional twist, mocks his own position as omnipotent author. Highly literary, his narratives offer an oblique reflection of contemporary Bangkok life, exploring the bewildering disjunct and oft-hilarious contradictions of a modernity that is at odds with many traditional Thai ideas on relationships, family, school and work. Praise for The Sad Part Was 'Ev... continue
5072.
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden EN
Country: Europe / 
Netherlands
Netherlands
Description:
"It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother's country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be, led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel's doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. Eva is Isabel's antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn't. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when thing... continue
5073.
The Saga of Gosta Berling by Selma Lagerlof EN
SwedenDescription:
The first new English translation in more than one hundred years of the Swedish Gone with the Wind A Penguin Classic In 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Saga of Gösta Berling is her first and best-loved novel—and the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo into stardom. A defrocked minister, Gösta Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate that also houses and assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. His defiant and poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under hi... continue
5074.
The Saga of the People of Laxardal and Bolli Bollason's Tale by Anonymous EN
IcelandDescription:
The Penguin Classics list of medieval sagas grows ever more impressive with these two thrilling Norse sagas One of the best-loved works of Icelandic literature, this stirring tale of war and romance follows three generations of strong women, wise leaders, and hotheaded warriors. The only saga rumored to have been written by a woman, it tells of the centuries predating 1245, when magic rites and sorcery clashed with the spread of Christianity throughout a rapidly changing Viking world. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speak... continue
5075.
The Saga of the Volsungs by author unknown, Jesse L. Byock (translator) EN
Description:
One of the great books of world literature--an unforgettable tale of jealousy, unrequited love, greed, and vengeance. Based on Viking Age poems and composed in thirteenth-century Iceland, The Saga of the Volsungs combines mythology, legend, and sheer human drama in telling of the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer, who acquires runic knowledge from one of Odin's Valkyries. Yet the saga is set in a very human world, incorporating oral memories of the fourth and fifth centuries, when Attila the Hun and other warriors fought on the northern frontiers of the Roman empire. In his illuminating... continue
5076.
The Sailor from Gibraltar by Marguerite Duras EN
VietnamDescription:
Disaffected, bored with his career at the French Colonial Ministry (where he has copied out birth and death certificates for eight years), and disgusted by a mistress whose vapid optimism arouses his most violent misogyny, the narrator finds himself at the point of complete breakdown while vacationing in Florence. After leaving his mistress and the Ministry behind forever, he joins the crew of The Gibraltar, a yacht captained by Anna, a beautiful American in perpetual search of her sometime lover, a young man known only as the Sailor from Gibraltar.''
5077.
The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima EN
JapanDescription:
A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
5078.
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw EN
MalaysiaDescription:
From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a dark and deliciously twisted mermaid tale. After murdering her husband and burning his kingdom to cinders, a mermaid joins a strange doctor on a journey through the eerie taiga. Deep in the woods, the pair stumble upon a village, full of seemingly ageless children and the three surgeons who oversee them—called only “the saints.” After discovering the villagers’ taste for a sinister blood sport, the mermaid and her companion must embrace the darkest parts of their true nature, if they hope to survive.
5079.
The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne EN
Sri LankaDescription:
They thought this was just another salvage job. They thought wrong. An AI overseer and a human crew arrive on a distant planet to salvage an ancient UN starship. The overseer is unhappy. The crew, well, they're certainly no A-team. Not even a C-team on the best of days. And worse? Urmahon Beta, the planet, is at the ass-end of nowhere. Everybody expects this to be a long, ugly, and thankless job. Then it all goes disastrously wrong. What they thought was an uninhabited backwater turns out to be anything but empty. Megafauna roam the land, a rival crew with some terrifyingly high-powered gear h... continue
5080.
The Samurai by Shusaku Endo EN
Description:
Winner of the 1980 Noma Literary Prize - a darkly absorbing portrayal of the first ever Japanese voyage to cross the Pacific Ocean by the author of Silence In 17th-century Japan, a diplomatic mission sets sail for the West. Among those facing the combined perils of the sea and foreign courts are ambitious Spanish missionary Pedro Velasco, and Hasekura Rokuemon, a disregarded samurai determined to recover his family's standing. They travel to Mexico City, Rome and back - but Japan's new rulers are persecuting Christians, and if the men survive the journey, they may not survive their homecoming.... continue