Translated from the Danish by Gaye Kynoch (Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books, 2018) Early in The Endless Summer, the narrator comments that life is a dream, a dream from which you never wake up but which one day is nonetheless … Continued
Translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith (Rochester, NY: Open Letter, 2012) One day recently I was out hiking with my husband in the woods by our new house, and we came upon a stranger. At first he pointed in … Continued
Translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush (Rochester, NY: Open Letter, 2012) Quim Monzó’s a thousand morons is a flat book, and this can be either a good or a bad thing depending on which of its stories you’re reading. … Continued
Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith (Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books, 2016) Reading Bae Suah’s novel, A Greater Music, is much like the experience of listening to the concertos of Beethoven. I listened to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, … Continued
Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (Rochester, NY: Open Letter, 2016) Clocking in at only 121 pages, Georgi Tenev’s taut novel Party Headquarters is at once a tragedy, a comedy, a love story and thriller, with echoes of A … Continued
Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel (Rochester, NY: Open Letter, 2015) The unnamed narrator of Georgi Gospodinov’s inventive, ambitious novel The Physics of Sorrow suffers from “pathological empathy or obsessive empathetic-somatic syndrome,” most acutely in his childhood. “Over the years … Continued
Translated from the Spanish by Margaret B. Carson (Rochester, NY: Open Letter Books, 2011) Everyone knows that a good walk through the park is an enriching, calming experience perfect for airing some of that figurative dirty laundry. It’s a way … Continued