Forget Glenn Close and John Malkovich. The best way to appreciate the dastardly scheming of the divinely devious Marquise de…

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First published in 1911, this is an ‘ur-page-turner’, set in Normandy in the 1890s. A student from the Sorbonne, writing…
This is music about how war betrays our honour, and redeems what is human in us, offering a short peace.…
A fascinating reconstruction of the life of a fairly unknown female painter. Recommended by Jennifer Sarha BEING HERE: THE LIFE…
Another novel by Enard that creates a world that you don’t want to leave. A thoughtful interrogation of modern academic…
The most entertaining book I have read in years, and especially hilarious if you know anything about academia and/or 20th-century…
A riveting exploration of Nordic hygge with a hint of something darker. Stories and gossip infiltrate daily life in Guđmundur…
A road forks – one brother becomes a libertine, the other a micro-biologist traveller. Houellebecq explodes our complacency and shapes…
These compassionate stories include boyhood in Russia, exile in France and life on the road. The author finds an inner…
These are superbly drawn tales of growing up in communist Albania. Ironic, humorous and sometimes surreal, they tell the inside…
This trilogy by Estonian poet, children’s literature author and translator Leelo Tungal is based on the author’s own childhood experiences.…
Herr Isakowitz skatt is an account of the author’s road trip across Sweden and Poland, together with his father and…