Thérèse Raquin was first published in magazine form in 1867, then as a full novel and has been adapted many times for film, TV, theatre and opera. When I studied French at university this novel became lodged firmly in my student mind – and is still there: turbulent love and marriage, murder and
You’ll know Nana, you’ll know Germinal, but do you know this gem in Zola’s twenty-strong Rougon-Macquart novel series – the literary-scientific experiment to which he devoted his life? The ‘belly’ is Les Halles – the old food markets in the centre of Paris. Look out for the symbolic ch
Marjane Satrapi transforms the rather complicated and difficult recent history of Iran into a simple, touching, at time oppressive and always very personal story, generously sprinkled with humour. A must read. Recommended by Anna Blasiak THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS Written by Marjane Satrapi Translated
Forget Glenn Close and John Malkovich. The best way to appreciate the dastardly scheming of the divinely devious Marquise de Merteuil and her ex-lover Valmont is to read their letters – and those of their victims. Dangerous Liaisons, written just a few years before the Revolution, exposes the deca
First published in 1911, this is an ‘ur-page-turner’, set in Normandy in the 1890s. A student from the Sorbonne, writing his thesis in a remote Norman chateau, falls in love with a picture of the owners’ daughter, Isabelle. His quest to find out who she is, where she is and why the family neve
If you’re fan of translated fiction and you’re not on Twitter, then you might want to know what book conversations you’re missing out on. Last month, August, saw the phenomenal success of Women in Translation month August (#WITmonth). Launched in 2014, Women in Translation Month was the br
