Europa Editions

From prize-winning author Su Bristow comes a fascinating coming-of-age novel about magic and the choices that define future generations.

It’s 1959. To eight-year-old Felicity—who lives on a dying farm in England—the fairies in the woods have much more to offer than the people in her everyday life. As she becomes more rooted in their world, she learns that their magic is far from safe. Their queen, Elfrida, offers Felicity a gift. But fairy bargains are never what they seem.

As an adult, Felicity leaves for university. Unfortunately, books are not her only company at school: Elfrida and Hobb—the queen’s constant companions—wield the ability to appear at any time, causing havoc in her new friendships and love life. Desperate, Felicity finally begins to explore the true nature of the Fair Folk and their magic. Her ally, the folklorist Professor Edgerley, asks, “What do they want from you?” The answer lies in the distant past, and in the secrets of her own family.

As the consequences of the “gift” play out, Felicity must draw on her courage to confront Elfrida, and make the right choice. Interwoven with traditional stories and striking characters, The Fair Folk poses questions about how we care for our children, our land, and our love-hate relationship with what we desire most.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.  

IN THIS VOLUME: Paolo Macry on Naples’ “monarch mayors”・Francesco Abazia on the influence of the US Army’s presence on Neapolitan popular music・Cristina Napolitano on the Neapolitan diaspora, and what it means to come back・Gianni Montieri on the city’s passion for football・Alessandra Coppola on the cult of the young victims of the Camorra, or the police, and much more… 

In recent years, Naples has been the subject of countless books, films and TV series, making it even more difficult to imagine a Neapolitan normality, if it exists at all.  As Naples becomes the most filmed city in Italy, where to look for the ordinary, the average? Maybe we need to "go up" to Vomero, a neighborhood considered almost alien to the city, middle class, homogeneous, peaceful? A reality in sharp contrast with the over-the-top life of the historic centre, crossed as it is by a thousand stratifications - architectural, historical and social. And yet even there we find an alternative reading: the city as a model of coexistence between ancient and modern.    

While some areas have been waiting for decades for much promised redevelopment, others have benefited from cutting-edge projects with far-reaching positive impact, representing a Naples that attracts talent, exports models, and colonizes instead of being colonized.  

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Lovestruck in Barcelona by Enrique Vila-Matas • Supermanza 503 by Gabi Martinez • The Great Barcelona Novel by Miqui Otero • plus: the complex legacy of the Olympics; the future of Catalonia; the radical left and the once best in the world soccer team; an endless subway line, and much more…

Thirty years after the 1992 Olympics, which redefined the city’s contemporary identity and changed its destiny, The Passenger travels to Barcelona to understand the history and future of one of the cradles of political, cultural, and urban change in Europe.

From the debate about the impact of mass tourism to the search of new and sustainable models of economic and social development; from the eternal rivalry with Madrid to the rediscovery of the city’s rich tradition of political activism: this volume of The Passenger offers a panoramic view of a city striving to trace a new path forward out of the current crisis, and find a way of life centered on the well-being of its citizens.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: The mass is ended by Catherine Dunne and Caelainn Hogan・ The Way Back by Colum McCann・A Trip to Westeros by Mark O’Connell・plus: life on the margins of two unions and right in the middle of Brexit, making war on each other for 30 years while playing on the same national rugby team, emigrating to the great enemy or transforming the country one referendum at a time, digging peat bogs and building cottages, talking of the sea in Gaelic, and much more….. 

The Passenger sets off to discover a land full of charm and conflict, a country that in just a few decades has gone from being a poor, semi-theocratic society to a thriving economy free from the influence of the Catholic Church. 

With the 1998 peace agreements, the conflict between nationalists and unionists seemed, if not resolved, at least dormant.  But Brexit—with the ambiguous position it leaves Northern Ireland in—caused old tensions to resurface. The Passenger explores their ramifications in politics, society, culture, and sport.   

Meanwhile, south of the border, epochal transformation has seen a deeply patriarchal, conservative society give space to diversity, the only country in the world to enshrine gay marriage in law through a referendum.  And there’s a whole other Ireland abroad, an Irish diaspora that looks to the old country with new-found pride but doesn’t forget the ugliness it fled from.   

Memory and identity intertwine with the transformations—from globalisation to climate change—that are remodelling the Irish landscape, from the coastal communities under threat of disappearing together with the Irish language fishermen use to talk about the sea, while inland the peat bogs, until recently important sources of energy and jobs, are being abandoned. From Catherine Dunne to Colum McCann, Mark O’Connell and Sara Baume, Irish (but not only) writers and journalists tell of a country striving to stay a step ahead of time. 

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: When the Circus Came to Town: The Resurrection of Potsdamer Platz by Peter Schneider・Berlin Suite by Cees Nooteboom・Tempelhof: A Field of Dreams by Vincenzo Latronico・plus: the controversial reconstruction of a Prussian castle, Berlin’s most transgressive sex club and its disappearing traditional pubs, a green urban oasis, suburban neo-Nazis, North Vietnamese in the East, South Vietnamese in the West, techno everywhere and much more...

“Berlin is too big for Berlin” is the curious title of a book by the flaneur Hanns Zischler, who joked about the low population density of a city so spread-out and polycentric—one of the reasons why it still inspires feelings of freedom and space. But the phrase also carries a symbolic, broader meaning: how can a single city encompass and sustain such a weighty mythology as that of contemporary Berlin, “the capital of cool”?

In order to find out, it is necessary to travel to the 1990s, the origins of today’s Berlin, when time seemed to have stopped. The scars of a century of war were still visible everywhere: coal stoves, crumbling buildings, desolate minimarts, not a working buzzer or elevator. To visit the city then was a hallucinatory experience, a simultaneous journey into the past and into the future. The city’s youth seemed to have appropriated—and turned into a positive—the famous phrase pronounced by Karl Scheffler at the beginning of the 20th century: “Berlin is a place doomed to always become, never be.”

The abandoned ruins, the hidden gems found at the flea market, the illegal basement raves are a thing of the past. The era of Berlin as a site of urban archeology is over. Almost all the damaged buildings have been repaired, squatters have been removed, the shops selling East German furniture have closed down. Without its wounds, the landscape of the city is perhaps less striking but more solid, stronger. Even the city’s inhabitants have lost some of their melancholia, their romantic and self-destructive streak: today you can even find people who come to Berlin to actually work, not just to “create” or idle their days away. Yet, Berlin remains a youthful city that doesn’t cling to its “poor but sexy” past, whose only sacrosanct principles are an uncompromising multiculturalism and the belief that its future is yet to be written. To quote someone who knows the city well, Berlin is and always will be “pure potential.”

A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Order and Progress? by Jon Lee Anderson・Funk, Pride and Prejudice by Alberto Riva・On the River, I Was King by Eliane Brum・Also: the road that dissects the Amazon; the TV tycoon who shaped Brazilian history; the neo-Pentecostal community that is winning the hearts (and wallets) of Brazilians; politicised samba dancers, idealist gangsters and much more ...

In the second half of the 20th century Brazil made extraordinary contributions to music, sport, architecture. From “bossa nova,” to acrobatic soccer, to the daring architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa, the country seemed to embody a new, original vision of modernity, at once “fluid, agile, and complex.”

Seen from abroad, the victory of the far right in the 2018 elections was a rude awakening that suddenly turned the Brazilian dream into a nightmare. For locals, however, illusions had started fading long ago, amid paralyzing corruption, environmental degradation, racial discrimination, and escalating violence. Luckily Brazilians have not lost their desire to fight, minorities are still determined to assert their rights and, now that the glorious past is dead and buried, a desire to rebuild for the future is emerging. Today the challenge of telling the story of this extraordinary country consists in finding its enduring vitality amid the apparent melancholy.

“How can we define the indefinable? Is it possible to pin a single label on a country so multi-faceted that it appears almost schizophrenic?”―From “In Defense Of Fragmentation,” Michel Laub

From France’s leading Jewish intellectual, an intimate yet universal meditation on October 7, its legacy, and the way forward  

Devastated by the massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Delphine Horvilleur sees her world shatter. As a rabbi dedicated to supporting and alleviating the suffering of others, she suddenly finds herself in a state of shock, feeling powerless and voiceless. 

In this fevered state, she pens this small yet powerful treatise on survival, a slice of self-analysis that reconnects her with her existential foundations. The text unfolds through ten real or imagined conversations: with her pain, her grandparents, Jewish paranoia, her children, Israel, and more. 

Horvilleur seamlessly moves between the intimate and the universal, intertwining exegesis of sacred texts with societal analysis. She skillfully balances acknowledging the gravity of her subject with defying it through humor. The result is a book that charts a path from trauma and distress to healing and recovery; from anxiety and doubt to reassurance and wisdom. 

The remarkable (and occasionally ridiculous) stories of 48 nations that fell off the map.

“Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They’re all equally implausible once you get up close.”

Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. This is an atlas of 48 nations that fell off the map. Their causes of death range from the implausible (jerky prices) to the unfortunate (too evil) to the downright bizarre (the flip of a coin). The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so ridiculous that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff.

 ★ “This book is a sparkling gem.”—Booklist (Starred Review)

“Perfect for fans of Atlas Obscura.”—Publishers Weekly

Amazon Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book of 2018

One of Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best YA Books of 2018

One of Publishers Weekly's Best YA Book of the Year

A National Indie Bestseller

Longlisted for Irish YA prize Great Reads Award

Lose yourself in the fantastic world of the arks and in the company of unforgettable characters in this French runaway hit, Christelle Dabos’ The Mirror Visitor quartet.

Plain-spoken, headstrong Ophelia cares little about appearances. Her ability to read the past of objects is unmatched in all of Anima and, what’s more, she possesses the ability to travel through mirrors, a skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her idyllic life is disrupted, however, when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn and influential member of a distant clan. Ophelia must leave all she knows behind and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the capital of a cold, icy ark known as the Pole, where danger lurks around every corner and nobody can be trusted. There, in the presence of her inscrutable future husband, Ophelia slowly realizes that she is a pawn in a political game that will have far-reaching ramifications not only for her but for her entire world.

The World of the Arks

Long ago, following a cataclysm called the Rupture, the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands, now known as arks. Over each, the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor abides. The inhabitants of these arks each possess a unique power. Ophelia, with her ability to read the pasts of objects, must navigate this fantastic, disjointed, perilous world using her trademark tenacity and quiet strength.

An unforgettable heroine, a rich and bountiful universe, intrigue and suspense: A Winter’s Promise is perfect for readers of Margaret Rogerson’s An Enchantment of Ravens, Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood, V.E. Schwab’s “Shades of Magic” series, Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, Kenneth Oppel’s “Airborne” series, and N.K. Jemisin “Broken Earth” series.

Extract:

I think we could have all lived happily, in a way, God, me and the others, if it weren’t for that accursed book. It disgusted me. I knew what bound me to it in the most sickening of ways, but the horror of that particular knowledge came later, much later. I didn’t understand straight away, I was too ignorant.

A powerful, unflinching portrait of a generation fighting for change in Iran, Afghanistan, and Ukraine 

In The Fire, acclaimed journalist Cecilia Sala takes readers on a gripping journey through some of the world’s most volatile regions, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Through the eyes of young people like Kateryna, a Ukrainian soldier; Assim, an Iranian student at the forefront of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests; Nabila, a Muslim kickboxing champion and lesbian; and Zarifa, a political activist in Afghanistan, Sala offers an intimate portrayal of lives caught amidst turmoil and fighting for a better life.

By immersing herself in their worlds—in their daily lives and political battles—Sala crafts a poignant narrative that captures the human dimension of some of the world’s most intense conflicts. The Fire is a testament to the courage and hunger for freedom of a generation at the forefront of global change.

★ “The Golden Age is pretty much perfect.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Frank Gold’s Jewish Hungarian family have fled Europe and the looming threat of Nazi Germany for the safety of Australia. Not long after their arrival, however, thirteen-year-old Frank is diagnosed with polio and is sent to a sprawling children’s hospital called the Golden Age. There he meets Elsa, the most beautiful and radiant girl he has ever seen.

Frank and Elsa’s love fuels their rehabilitation, allows them to face the perils of their illness with humor and bravery, and scandalizes the prudish staff of the Golden Age. Meanwhile, their parents are coping with challenges of their own. Frank and his family are isolated newcomers in a country they do not love and that does not seem to love them. His mother, a renowned pianist in Hungary, refuses to let the empty western deserts of Australia become her home. While Elsa’s mother must reconcile her big dreams with the new realities of her daughter’s sickness.

The Golden Age is a deeply moving, inspiring, and prize-winning novel about resilience, youth, and the will to live life to the fullest, whatever the odds.

WINNER OF THE PRIME MINISTER’S LITERARY AWARD AND THE PATRICK WHITE AWARD
FINALIST FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD

WINNER of the Philip K. Dick Award for BEST Science Fiction

In a near and mildly dystopic future, Francine has finally been freed from years of undiagnosed pain—a recent surgery has provided relief. Her subversive “Theory of Bastards,” which has unseated public figures and past presidents, has proven fruitful for other scientists and rewarded her with a generous grant and a prestigious placement at The Foundation. Now she is spearheading further research on a group of remarkable animals, bonobos. Her steady, significant progress is interrupted when windstorms sweep up out of the abandoned places and her colleagues retreat to safety. Francine and the man she has come to love stay behind to weather the storm, protect their simian research subjects, and continue the work, as a new and better future begins to emerge from the dust.

Audrey Schulman has once again written a spellbinding, original novel that never loses sight of its humanity.

Elena Ferrante’s shattering English-language debut remains an unforgettable reading experience for her die-hard readers and a thorny pleasure still to be discovered for the millions of fans who only know her from My Brilliant Friend. “A masterpiece,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer; “Stunning,” says The New Yorker; “Nothing prepares you for the ferocity of it,” wrote Amy Rowland in The New York Times. Even two decades after its first publication, The Days of Abandonment remains a groundbreaking, propulsive, and cathartic account of a woman’s wrath.

Olga’s husband of fifteen years has announced that he is leaving her. In a “raging, torrential voice” (New York Times) that is nonetheless “intelligent and darkly comic” (Publishers Weekly), Olga recounts her journey from denial to devastating emptiness. When she finds herself trapped within the four walls of her apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own self, and the possibility that life may never return to normal.

A searing story about homecoming and belonging set in contemporary Rome 

Gabriele Bilancini hasn’t been home for four years. Home is the Tuscolano neighborhood in Rome, where he was born and grew up with his parents, sister, and a tight-knit group of friends. Today, he lives in Milan and he’s a world-famous designer. The perfect example of “making it.”   

Back home, nothing has changed. His friends' lives above all: everything is the same, as if no time at all had passed. Ashamed of his origins, but unsatisfied with his present, however successful, Gabriele finds himself enveloped into the sweet, suffocating embrace of the past. An embrace that will force him to confront the deep fracture within himself.   

Mencarelli distills these elements with stunning clarity in a fast-paced novel. He offers us a passionate portrait of a Roman suburban neighborhood that could be any suburb, real or imagined, where the protagonist nurtures a desire to express himself that is never satisfied, and a need to belong that can never be fulfilled.  

An ode to memory, to home, and to the beauty of the natural world 

What remains of the springs, summers, autumns, and winters of a woman’s life? 

Isadora, now an old woman relegated to a hospice, looks back on her life and how intimately intertwined it was with that of the big, sprawling house where she spent almost her entire existence. 

Her memories of childhood and beyond come back to her, season by season: from the games and warmth of Summer and the back-to-school days of Autumn, to the crisp, cold days of Winter — days of loneliness and death — and to Spring’s promise of renewal, and of the return to the house that meant so much to her. 

Told in lyrical, beguiling language, Isadora guides the reader through the maze of her memory by classifying, like a watercolor painter, her recollections by season. 

Both a love letter and a window into the rural places that have shaped many, In a Distant Valley sets the stage for a final act to play out across a deep winter in snowy Maine. 

For a while, Rose Douglas believed life had given her a break. She was enjoying a steady job at the local clinic in Dalton; her two young boys, Adam and Brandon, were doing well in school; and their little family had found an easy friendship with widower Nate Theroux and his daughter, Sophie. The possibility of something deeper even hung between her and Nate—until the day Tommy Merchant, her ex and the father of her sons, showed up without warning on her doorstep. While Rose knows all too well his erratic and abusive nature, he swears he’s clean, and ready to turn over a new leaf. 

Tommy isn’t the only one who’s found his way back to the town that defined him. Lost after a disastrous stint living down south with her father, Angela Muse has returned home to Dalton. There she runs into Greg Fortin, the friend who once saved her life when they were children and finally starts to believe there may be someone who understands her in a world that offers more questions than answers.  

But secrets are the lifeblood of a small town, and everyone in Dalton soon finds themselves part of a chain of events hurtling towards outcomes beyond their control, where more than one future will be decided. Brimming with compassion and heart, In a Distant Valley is the remarkable conclusion to the story readers have been following since Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton. 

A propulsive, irresistibly enigmatic novel that moves fluidly between London, Germany, Belgrade, Cape Town, and Tokyo, Fathers and Fugitives is a formally inventive and emotionally charged book about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance, loss, and belonging.  

Daniel is a worldly and urbane journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meager. He has few relationships outside of sexual ones, and can seem at once callow and, at times, cold to the point of cruel with his lovers. Emotionally distant from his elderly, senile father, Daniel nonetheless returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Shortly after arriving in Cape Town, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man’s will: he will only inherit his half of his father’s estate after he has spent time with Theon, a cousin whom he hasn’t seen since they were boys, and who lives on a sprawling farm in the Free State. The young son of the woman Theon lives with is seriously ill, and, with the conditions bearing on Daniel’s inheritance shifting in real time, Theon and Daniel travel with the boy to Japan for an experimental cure and a voyage that will change their lives forever. 

S. J. Naudé’s masterful novel is many things at once: a literary page page-turner full of vivid, unexpected characters and surprising twists; a loving and at times shockingly raw portrayal of its protagonist’s complex psyche; and a devastatingly subtle look into South Africa’s fraught recent history.  

From the horrors of WWII to the spy games of the Cold War: a haunting tale of survival, vengeance, and the enduring shadows of history 

Shlomo Libowitz and Anton Epstein, two Jewish prisoners subjected to horrific experiments in a Nazi concentration camp, survive the unimaginable. Decades later, their lives converge again as they hunt Hans Lichtblau, the SS officer who tormented them, now operating in the shadowy world of Cold War geopolitics.   

Their pursuit takes them from the ashes of Europe to the jungles of Central America, where justice and revenge blur against the backdrop of CIA conspiracies and a haunting past. But one life may be too short to settle all accounts, and Anton and Shlomo’s belated revenge is also a race against time...  

With vivid characters and a masterful blend of fact and fiction, perfectly balanced between two continents and two eras, A Feel for the Iron confronts the moral ambiguities of vengeance and the inescapable echoes of history.  

From the author of Ties and The House on Via Gemito 

Domenico Starnone’s The Old Man by the Sea is a slim masterpiece of a novel about an 82-year-old Neapolitan man, Nicola, who has spent his entire life telling stories, becoming very, very good at it. In words, with his pen, in the notebook he carries with him everywhere, he records life’s minutiae, its ephemera, those vibrating essences and almost imperceptible atoms of existence that most of us barely notice but that constitute the very stuff of life. Yes, recording the universe in each grain of sand has become second nature to Nicola. But of course, there is always something that escapes. Something unnamable that resists, remaining on the margins, slithering away, a movement intuited rather than identified. And this fact, for Nicola, is a source of deep anxiety and a growing sense of failure.

Now, ensconced in a house on the dunes south of Rome, Nicola spends his mornings writing, watching the waves, and observing Lu, a store clerk in her twenties whose graceful canoeing stirs faint echoes of his mother—a glamorous, headstrong woman who defied convention with her beauty and creativity. As Nicola reflects on the women who shaped him and the passions he has never outgrown, he finds himself drawn into the nefarious intrigues of the small seaside town and its inhabitants. He will end by embarking on an improbable and ill-advised kayak adventure of his own with Lu’s young son, as Starnone himself brings this slim, virtuoso novel about eros and melancholy, memory and reinvention, age and imagination, to an unexpected conclusion.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.  

IN THIS VOLUME: Buddhism, the State, and Superpowers by Pitchaya Sudbanthad • The Country of Spirits by Emma Larkin • Monarchy Under Attack by Claudio Sopranzetti • plus: soft power and the working class, the heart of rural Thailand and the separatism of the southern peninsula, the success of Boy Love, the palm oil scandal, and much more...  

Thailand’s recent history has been marked by political turbulence, with palace coups, intrigue, attempted revolution, restoration, and democratic elections. In this complex democracy, the working class, progressives, and young urban professionals push for reforms, often clashing with landowners and business elites. While Thailand is perceived as permissive and tolerant, it hides a conservative core. Yet, one of its main cultural exports is Boy Love stories, romantic tales featuring male protagonists, whose success epitomises a cultural revolution that is boosting the country’s entertainment industry and soft power. 

Behind Thailand's glittering image, exemplified by Bangkok—the world’s most visited city in 2023—lie rural regions like Isaan, far from typical tourist paths. These areas reflect the country’s diverse and complex identity and reveal that, despite government efforts to impose cultural uniformity, Thailand’s true strength still lies in its ability to embrace diversity and syncretism. 

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. 

IN THIS VOLUME: Hell Joseon by Elisa Shua Dusapin • The View from the North by Lee Hyeonseo • Lessons in Democracy by Jiyoung Choi  • plus: the Samsung Republic and the most militarized border in the world, the real reason why Korean women don’t have children, democracy and K-pop, baseball, esports, and shamanism, and much more… 

From kimchi to TV series, from Oscar-winning films to K-pop, from webtoons to cosmetics, in recent years Korea has captured the global imagination, one viral trend at a time. In this volume, The Passenger sets out in search of the world’s coolest nation. 

Eighty years ago, at the end of a devastating civil war, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world, under constant threat from the Communist regime north of the 38th parallel and completely dependent on the United States for its security and prosperity. Today, it is the world’s tenth-largest economy, a dynamic and innovative country with a per capita GDP similar to that of Western Europe, a lively and participatory democracy that stands up to its larger, more powerful neighbors. And above all, the country is the origin of the hallyu—the Korean wave—which has reached every corner of the world and taken the global entertainment, food, and culture industries by storm. 

This extremely rapid and astonishing transformation has inevitably brought ruptures and contradictions. If the global youth looks to Korea as previous generations looked to Hollywood and New York, young Koreans instead talk about Hell Joseon: a country that is rapidly aging, an economic system dominated by powerful chaebols (family-controlled conglomerates), a fiercely competitive educational system, a generational gap in outlook and behavior and, at the center of it all, the role of women— one of the keys that The Passenger has chosen to try to decipher a complex, fascinating country, central to the dynamics of today’s world, and that is often exoticized and idealized to the same extent. 

From the winner of the MWA Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Mystery, Alan Parks, comes a new, gripping installment in the gritty Glasgow-based Harry McCoy series.

A woman enters a Glasgow police station to report her son missing, but no record can be found of the boy. When Detective Harry McCoy, who is on temporary transfer from a station across town, discovers the family is part of the cultish Church of Christ’s Suffering, he suspects there is more to the boy’s disappearance than meets the eye.

Meanwhile reports arrive of a string of poisonings of down-and-outs across the city. The dead are men who few barely notice, let alone care about—but, as McCoy is painfully aware, among this desperate community is his own father.

Even as McCoy searches for the missing boy, he must conceal from his colleagues the real reason for his presence—to investigate corruption in the station. Some people pray for justice, but Detective Harry McCoy hasn't got time to wait for God’s divine intervention.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: The Sea Between Lands by David Abulalfia; The Liquid Road by Leïla Slimani; The Cold One, the Hot One, the Mad One, and the Angry One by Nick Hunt • plus: the sounds and smells of the Mediterranean; the ceaseless hunt for tuna; the invention of the Mediterranean diet; and much more…

The word “Mediterranean” has always evoked something larger than geography. For millennia, it has designated a distinct cultural and historical space, one where different peoples have met, traded, and—not infrequently—clashed. Starting from its Latin etymology (“in the middle of the Earth”), the Mediterranean is intimately connected with ideas of connection, exchange, and multiplicity.

Today, however, the Mediterranean appears to be in crisis. Neglected by the European Union—which often sees North Africa and the Middle East as a threat, or at best as a source of energy—the Mediterranean is at the center of one of the greatest migrations in history. While every year hundreds of millions of vacationers flock to its shores, as in a distorting mirror hundreds of thousands of people face a dramatic journey in the opposite direction—to escape wars, persecutions, and poverty. The liquid road, as Homer called it, is increasingly militarized, trafficked, and polluted—as well as overheated and overfished.

This volume of The Passenger dives deep into the complex issues and contradictions facing the Mediterranean. As the book shows, despite its problems, the Mediterranean remains a source of wonder and fascination—a space not entirely colonized by modernity, where time flows differently, and where multiple cultures and languages are in closer contact and dialogue than elsewhere.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Underground Tenochtitlan by Guadalupe Nettel • Crime and (No) Punishment by Juan Villoro • The Birth of Fridolatry by Valeria Luiselli • plus: the cocaine that washes in from the sea and the pearl of the west, the jungle train and the last stop on the line, femicide and TikTok politics, mole, rice, the Virgin of Guadalupe and much more ...

Once synonymous with escape and freedom, Mexico is now more frequently described as a place plagued by widespread violence, drug trafficking, endemic corruption, and uncontrolled migration. Under the patina of a tourist paradise—with its beaches, its ancient ruins, its tequila—lies a complex, dynamic country trying to carve out a place for itself in the shadow of its powerful neighbor.

The most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, Mexico is also home to 89 indigenous peoples and languages: one of the many contradictory legacies of the country’s colonial past, which still permeates its politics, society, religion, food, and culture. With a fifth of the population identifying as indigenous, the issue of rediscovering and revaluing the country’s pre-Columbian roots is at the center of the public debate. The controversial Mayan train project, which would connect Mexico’s Caribbean resorts with the South’s archaeological sites, crossing (and endangering) communities and forests, is a perfect example of the opposition between the two souls of the country.

The attempts to resolve this contradiction, or better still to learn to live with it, will define the Mexico of the future. Only by recognizing equal status to ethnic and linguistic minorities will the country be able to reconcile its fractured identity.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Still Becoming by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie・A Nation called Ineba by A. Igoni Barrett・The Niger Delta by Noo Saro-Wiwa・plus: independent cinema and the do-it-yourself society; indiscriminate abductions and discrimination against women; the discrete charm of repair shops and the irresistible fascination with Afrobeat, and much more…

Since gaining independence Nigeria has been in a state of permanent crisis. Even the arrival of democracy in the 1990s failed to bring much improvement. It’s estimated that over 100 million Nigerians, half of the country’s population, live below the poverty line.

Violence is widespread: from the Boko Haram terrorists to the new armed secessionist movements and the growing scourge of kidnappings. How to live in a country where the state is, at best, absent? With regular power cuts, virtually non-existent health care and education, and where the army, present in every one of the 36 states of the federation, is not able to control the violence?

In these circumstances, the only possible society is a do-it-yourself one that blossoms wherever and however it can. 

At the first glimmer of opportunity, Nigerians bring out all their dynamism, entrepreneurial skills, and inventiveness. They develop apps to get around the inaccessibility of the banking system, use solar power to render themselves independent from the unreliable public energy grid, sometimes even resorting to artisanal (but deeply polluting) methods to refine oil/petrol, embrace e-commerce and social media to sell their goods, while films produced on shoestring budgets, books and music find success all over the world.

Nigeria’s energy is unlike that of any other African country. As the generation of generals who won the civil war and governed the country for 60 years dies out, and younger citizens refuse to ignore injustice and violence, the hope is born that a new, vibrant generation will take the country’s future into their hands. And, as they are accustomed to doing, fix it.

FINALIST FOR THE 2022 MCILVANNEY PRIZE

Detective Harry McCoy returns in the suspenseful, atmospheric fifth instalment in Alan Park’s internationally bestselling thriller series.

Glasgow is a city in mourning. An arson attack on a hairdresser’s has left five dead. Tempers are frayed and sentiments running high.

When three youths are charged the city goes wild. A crowd gathers outside the courthouse but as the police drive the young men to prison, the van is rammed by a truck, and the men are grabbed and bundled into a car. The next day, the body of one of them is dumped in the city centre. A note has been sent to the newspaper: one down, two to go.

Detective Harry McCoy has twenty-four hours to find the kidnapped boys before they all turn up dead, and it is going to mean taking down some of Glasgow’s most powerful people to do it.

“A series that no crime fan should miss: dangerous, thrilling, but with a kind voice to cut through the darkness.”—Scotsman

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Night, Sleep, Death and the Stars by Lauren Groff・The Universe Underground by Paolo Giordano・We All Hated Each Other So Much by Frank Westermann・plus: discovering new planets and destroying satellites; returning to the Moon (this time to stay); the Mars delusion; the hunt for extraterrestrial life, and much more…

In the 1960s, the rivalry between the superpowers brought us into space, adding a whole new dimension to human life. The last frontier was open, the solar system seemed close at hand, Mars was the next step... Then, nothing. Between 1969 and 1972 twelve men (but no women) walked on the moon, but no one has since. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union revealed itself for what it really was: a political and military competition between opposing nationalist narratives.

Space agencies, however, have not been idle since the 1970s—quite the opposite. While funding for space missions has been cut and their objectives have changed, humanity has continued to explore the solar system with probes and robots, less costly than human astronauts, and has observed celestial bodies more closely than ever before. Without politics, science has thrived. But the lack of government funding has also opened space exploration to the forces of capitalism. NASA and other space agencies rely more and more on private companies to build modules and rockets, and a generation of visionary and megalomaniac entrepreneurs has become determined to bring humans back to space, this time to stay. The race has started again, with different rules and different players in an increasingly multipolar world.

But for those of us who remain on Earth, space also offers something else—a spiritual dimension, which science keeps alive by seeking answers to fundamental questions: what is the universe made of? How did the solar system form? What are the origins of life? And while colonizing Mars might not be the solution to humanity’s problems, the promise of space—whether expressed in a tweet by Elon Musk or a photo taken by a NASA rover on Mars—is to finally demonstrate that, when necessary, we are able to work together to build a common future for the whole of humanity.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Growing Uncertainty in the Central Valley by Anna Wiener • How Does It Feel to Be a Solution? by Vanessa Hua • The Burning of Paradise by Mark Arax • plus: direct democracy and unsustainable development, the rise of the ‘land back’ movement, the cultural renaissance of Los Angeles in defiance of rampant gentrification, and much more…

California has stood for more than a century as the brightest symbol of the American dream. In recent years, however, the country’s mainstream media has been declaring with increasing frequency—and thinly veiled schadenfreude—the “end of California as we know it.”

The pessimists point to rising inequality, racial tensions, and the impact of climate change as evidence that the Californian dream has been shattered. Between extreme heat, months-long droughts, devastating wildfires, and rising sea levels, looking at California is like watching the trailer for what awaits the world if we don’t act to reduce global warming. Faced with these pressures, more and more Californians are leaving the state, leading to an unprecedented decline in population that could change the cultural and political balance of power in the country at large. 

That said, demographic decline and climate disasters don’t tell the whole story of one of the most dynamic and diverse states in the Union—one that continues to drive technological and political innovation and define the evolution of work, food, entertainment, and social relations. This volume offers a fascinating picture of California in all its complexity and contradictions; an attempt to understand the laboratory where much of the world’s future continues to be written.

FINALIST FOR THE 2022 MCILVANNEY PRIZE

Set in 1976, seven years after the murders recounted in Liam McIlvanney’s breakout novel, The Quaker, this new Glasgow noir novel is a standalone mystery featuring serial character, Detective Duncan McCormack.

McCormack has returned to Glasgow after a stint with the Metropolitan Police in London. The reason for his return is left a lurking mystery throughout. He is investigating a series of murders that seem at first to be the result of random bouts of violence among Glasgow’s poor and destitute. McCormack, however, has insight into Glasgow’s underground that many of his colleagues don’t. He has a secret of his own that he guards carefully but that takes him places and introduces him to people that prove essential to his investigations.

Mcilvanney’s The Quaker was named the Scottish Crime Fiction Book of the Year and a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. The Guardian called it “a solidly crafted and satisfying detective story.” McIlvanney is known for his well crafted plots, his deep characterization, and his stylish prose. The Heretic is no exception.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Rome doesn’t judge you by Nicola Lagioia・The soul of the city by Matteo Nucci・39 memos for a book about Rome by Francesco Piccolo・Plus: a guide to the sounds of Rome by Letizia Muratori; the feigned unrest and real malaise of the suburbs; the influence of the Vatican; the excessive power of real estate speculators and the rule of gangs; disillusioned trappers; football fans of every age, and much more...

If you believe what’s currently being said about Rome—in the media and by its residents—the city is on the verge of collapse. Each year, it slips further down the ranking of the world’s most liveable cities. To the problems faced by all large capitals—hit-and-run tourism, traffic, the divide between elegant, Airbnb-dominated city centers and run-down suburbs—in recent years Rome seems to have added a list of calamities of its own: a string of failing administrations, widespread corruption, the resurgence of fascist movements, rampant crime. A seemingly hopeless situation, perfectly symbolized by the fact that Rome currently leads the world in the number of self-combusting public buses.

If we look closer, however, this narrative is contradicted by just as many signs that point in the opposite direction. Above all, the lack of the mass migration one would be except in these circumstances: the vast majority of Romans don’t think for a second of “betraying” their hometown, and the many newcomers who have populated it in recent decades are often indistinguishable from the natives in the profound love that binds them to the city.

Rome is a place of contradictions and opposites: an “incredibly deceptive city”, always different from what it appears to be. It is thought to be large but it is actually immense, the largest metropolis in Europe. Most important, contrary to the most common and least accurate stereotype about it, Rome is a profoundly modern city. While the city itself was founded almost three millennia ago, 92 per cent of its buildings have been built after 1945. The bottom line is that, in order to understand Rome and fix its problems, we should start considering it a normal city, “not unlike Chicago or Manchester.” Only, incomparably more beautiful.

WINNER of the 2022 British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year

In this scorching prequel, New York Times best-selling author Ian Rankin and Scottish crime-writing legend William McIlvanney join forces for the first ever case of DC Jack Laidlaw, Glasgow’s original gritty detective.

Lawyer Bobby Carter did a lot of work for the wrong kind of people. When his body is found in an alley behind a pub that is known to be under the protective wing of a local crime boss, the fragile equilibrium that has been keeping Glasgow relatively safe for months is shattered. Besides a distraught family and any number of powerful friends, Carter has left behind his fair share of enemies. So who is responsible for his death?

DC Jack Laidlaw’s reputation precedes him. He’s not a team player, but he’s got a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets. His boss chalks Carter’s death up to the usual rivalries, but Laidlaw knows it can’t be that simple. As two Glasgow gangs go to war, he needs to find Carter’s killer before the whole city explodes.

William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw books changed the face of crime fiction. When he died in 2015, he left half a handwritten manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case. Ian Rankin has finished what McIlvanney started. Here, in The Dark Remains, these two iconic authors bring to life the criminal world of 1970s Glasgow, and Laidlaw’s relentless quest for truth.

“Fantastic—like witnessing Scottish noir’s Big Bang creation in the company of its greatest living exponent... Like Maradona and Messi playing in the same team.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers

The tenth Commissario Ricciardi Neapolitan mystery is “endlessly surprising… a delicate balancing act between love and pain, horror and beauty.”—ThrillerNord

Christmas has just passed and the city is preparing to celebrate New Year when, on the stage of a variety show, famous actor Michelangelo Gelmi fires a gun at his wife,  Fedora Marra.

The shooting itself would be nothing strange: it is repeated every evening as part of their performance. But this time, someone replaced one of the blanks with a real bullet. Gelmi swears his innocence, but few believe him. Approaching old age and with a career in decline, the actor has become increasingly dependent on his wife, much younger than him and at the height of her fame. However, rumor has it that she had fallen in love with another man and was preparing to leave Gelmi. A straightforward case of infidelity and marital jealousy? Commissario Ricciardi has more than one doubt.

A mystery made darker by the sudden fog that envelops an almost gothic Naples, Commissario Riccardi’s latest adventure will enrapture readers until its final, dramatic act.

The Bastards of Pizzofalcone Series

In the fifth installment in Maurizio de Giovanni’s bestselling series, the Bastards of Pizzofalcone face their hardest challenge yet: will they emerge stronger or will they succumb to Naples’s darkest forces?

Sometimes it takes facing a formidable adversary to truly know one’s worth. The Bastards of Pizzofalcone may have found just that: when the brutal murder of a baker rattles the city, they are ready to investigate. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to prove themselves to their community. But this time the police are divided: for the special anti-mob branch, the local mafia is doubtlessly responsible for the crime, but the Bastards are not so sure. 

De Giovanni is one of Europe’s most renowned and versatile mystery writers. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all of which take place in Naples, engage readers in gripping tales of Europe’s most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Out of the Shadows by Tash Aw・Against the Stars by Tommaso Melilli・Afraid of Being Free by Samar Yazbek・plus: the Champs-Elysées between luxury and riots, the French Republic between antisemitism and islamophobia, the most elegant Congolese dandies of all time, one Parisian woman you will not encounter, the city’s legendary football team that is not the PSG, and much more...

Nothing is what it seems in this city, starting with its size: small if you look only at its core of the twenty arrondissements but the second-largest in Europe if you consider the whole Île-de-France. The radiance of the “city of lights” can be blinding even for tourists: the clash with the real city, so different from the one depicted in films and books, results in some of them developing the so-called “Paris syndrome.” That said, the cracks in the postcard image of the city seem to multiply: the November 2015 terrorist attacks, the demonstrations of the yellow vests, the riots in the suburbs, Notre-Dame in flames, record heatwaves and the coronavirus. Meanwhile, soaring living costs are forcing many Parisians to leave the city.

Yet these are not just a series of unfortunate events. They are phenomena—from increasing population density to climate change, from immigration to the repercussions of globalization and geopolitics— that all metropolises in the world must face. And in Paris, today, the mood is not one of defeat but of renewal: from the city’s ongoing environmental and urbanistic transformation to the fight by a new generation of chefs against the traditionalism of starred restaurants; from the children of immigrants who take to the streets for the right to feel French to the women determined to break the sexism and stereotypes that dominate the fashion industry. Is there anyone who seriously thinks they can teach Parisians how to make a revolution?

When an American sailor from the Holy Loch Base goes missing, Harry McCoy is determined to find him. But as he investigates, a wave of bombings hits Glasgow. Soon McCoy realises that the sailor may be part of a shadowy organization led by a dangerous fanatic and committed to a very different kind of Scotland. A Scotland its members are prepared to kill for.

Meanwhile Cooper, McCoy’s long-time criminal friend, is released from jail and is convinced he has a traitor in his midst. As allies become enemies, Cooper has to fight to maintain his position as crime kingpin. He needs something done, something illegal, and his old friend McCoy is the only one who can do it.

As word begins to circulate on the streets that another, bigger explosion is being planned for Glasgow, McCoy battles corruption in his ranks in an attempt to save the city for which he is the perfect noir hero.

It’s Always Watching…

A distressed young woman arrives at the police station claiming her friend has been abducted, and that the man threatened to return and “claim her next.” Detectives Carrigan and Miller are drawn into a terrifying new world of cyberstalking—where the threat of online intimidation, hacking, and control is ever-present, and disturbing contemporary themes and dark psychology are explored with Stav Sherez’s customary skill.

Under scrutiny themselves, and with old foes and enmities re-surfacing, how long will Carrigan and Miller have to find out the truth behind what these two women have been subjected to?

An all-too-plausible entry into a terrifying new world just reaching the public mind—in which a computer can turn against its owner with the push of a button—The Intrusions shows how easy it can be to become an unwilling victim to the new generation of stalkers.

Winner of the 2022 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original

The third dark and gripping Harry McCoy thriller from the most exciting new voice in Scottish noir.

July 1973. The Glasgow drug trade is booming and Bobby March, homegrown rock hero, has overdosed in a downtown hotel. Alice Kelly, meanwhile, is thirteen years old, alone, and missing. Harry McCoy is quietly asked to find his boss’s niece, who’s fallen in with a dodgy crowd and hasn’t been seen for days.

McCoy has a hunch that there’s a connection between all three events, but the clock is running, the papers are out for blood, and the department wants results.

Alan Parks worked in the music business for decades and his familiarity with the industry together with his intimate knowledge of the deeply noir 1970s Glasgow—its music scene, hard men, political infighting, class divisions—make this a pitch-perfect installment in the lauded Harry McCoy series.

Shortlisted for the 2022 Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards, Illustrated Travel Book Of The Year

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Caste: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Arundhati Roy・The Invention of Hindu Nationalism by Prem Shankar Jha・No Country for Women by Tishani Doshi・plus: the grand ambitions of the world’s most underrated space program, Bollywood’s obsession with Swiss landscapes, an ode to Bengali food, eagerly awaiting the monsoon, the wrestler tackling stereotypes and much more...

Since its earliest interactions with the West, India has been the object of a gross misinterpretation that has survived to the present day, a vague association with ideas of peace, spiritualism, the magic of the fakirs. Constantly reframed and mythicised by Westerners fleeing their supposedly rationalist societies, India continues to fascinate with its millennia-old history, its shrines on every street corner, its ancient beliefs and rituals, and its unique linguistic and cultural diversity.

Today this picture is mixed with that of a society that is changing at a frenetic pace and is at the forefront of the digital revolution—a “shining India” of dynamic, fast-expanding megalopolises. Yet, these success stories coexist with the daily plight of the large section of India’s population without access to drinking water or a toilet, with a rural economy (still employing the majority of India’s over 1.3 billion inhabitants) that depends on monsoons for irrigation and is threatened by climate change. The greatest democratic experiment ever attempted, India remains plagued by one of the vilest forms of class and racial discrimination, the caste system, which is being exacerbated by the Hindu nationalist regime currently in power.

All things considered, though, it is hard to find a more dynamic and optimistic country or, as Arundhati Roy puts it, “a more irredeemably chaotic people.” This volume aims to depict India’s chaos and its contradictions, its terror and its joy, from the struggle of the Kashmiri people to that of non-believers (hated by all religious sects), from the dances of the hijra in Koovagam to the success of the wrestler Vinesh Phogat, a symbol of the women who seek to free themselves from the oppressive patriarchal mores. Despite the obstacles and steps back, India continues its journey on the long path towards freedom and towards ending poverty for some of the world’s most destitute people.

The Big Dig by Elif Batuman - A Story of Dust and Light by Burhan Sönmez - An Author Recommends by Elif Shafak - plus: the thirty-year coup and the dam that is washing away 12,000 years of history, and more.

The birth of the “New Turkey,” as the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called his own creation, is an exemplary story of the rise of “illiberal democracies” through the erosion of civil liberties, press freedom, and the independence of the judicial system. Turkey was a complex country long before the rise of its new sultan: born out of the ashes of a vast multi- ethnic and multi-religious empire, Turkey has grappled through its relatively short history with the definition of its own identity. Poised between competing ideologies, secularism and piousness, a militaristic nationalism and exceptional openness to foreigners, Turkey defies easy labels and categories. Through the voices of some of its best writers and journalists– many of them in self-imposed exile—The Passenger tries to make sense of this fascinating, maddening country, analyzing how it got to where it is now, and finding the bright spots of hope that allow its always resourceful, often frustrated population to continue living, and thriving.

In the town of Yport, during a run along Europe’s tallest cliff, Jamal notices a red scarf hanging on a fence. Then he sees the woman, her dress torn, her back to the void, her eyes fixed on his own. Jamal holds the scarf out to her like a buoy.

A few seconds later, the stranger’s lifeless body is found lying on the icy pebbles of the empty beach below. Around her neck, the red scarf.

Everyone thinks he pushed her. He only wanted to save her.

That’s Jamal’s version. Do you believe it?

A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Ghosts of the Tsumani by Richard Lloyd Parry・Living in Shimokitazawa by Yoshimoto Banana・Why Japan Is Populist-Free? by Ian Buruma・plus: a Shinto sect in the shadow of power, feeling debts by disappearing into thin air, the decline of sexual desire, the obsession with American blues, the strongest sumo wrestler of all time (who isn’s Japanese), the revenge of the Ainu and much more...

Visitors from the West look with amazement, and sometimes concern, at Japan’s social structures and unique, complex culture industry; the gigantic scale of its tech corporations and the resilience of its traditions; the extraordinary diversity of the subcultures that flourish in its “post-human” megacities. The country nonetheless remains an intricate and complicated jigsaw puzzle, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for stories, reflections, and reportage.

The subjects in this volume range from the Japanese veneration of the dead to the Tokyo music scene, from urban alienation to cinema, from sumo to toxic masculinity. 

Caught between an ageing population and extreme post-modernity, Japan is an ideal observation point from which to understand our age and the one to come.

“Some Japanese stories end violently. Others never end at all, but only cut away, at the moment of extreme crisis, to a butterfly, or the wind, or the moon.”―Brian Phillips

The next installment in Maurizio de Giovanni’s bestselling “Bastards of Pizzofalcone” series unfolds during the crisp beginning of April in contemporary Naples as a new evil spreads throughout the city.

A baby is left abandoned beside a dumpster. A young Ukranian maid fights the torrents of greed and frustration with the world around her. Small animals begin to disappear off the streets. The task of solving these mysteries is entrusted to a team of policemen in which few believe: the Bastards of Pizzofalcone. Complete with stirrings in the city’s criminal underbelly and a fight against a seemingly inhuman evil, this novel is sure to delight fans of de Giovanni’s previous works.

De Giovanni is one of Europe’s most renowned and versatile mystery writers. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all of which take place in Naples, engage readers in gripping tales of Europe’s most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.

IN THIS VOLUME: Once Upon A Time: The Greek Taverna by Petros Markaris・Land of Migration by Matteo Nucci・The Lost Generation by Christos Ikonomou・plus: Yorgos Lanthimos and the “Weird Wave” of Greek cinema, the island where people forget to die, the NBA’s most valuable player, the mayor who balanced the books but enraged the nationalists, abandoned buildings, oligarchs on the rise, the rebellious rhythm of rebetiko and much more...

Few countries have received more media attention in recent years and even fewer have been represented in such vastly divergent ways. There’s a downside to all this attention: everyone seems to have something final to say about Greece. News headlines replace people’s individual stories, impressions substitute facts, characters take the place of people.

In this volume of The Passenger, we chose to set those opinions aside in order to give to the stories, facts, and people of Greece the dignity and centrality they deserve.

“On the Greek island of Ikaria, life is sweet . . . and very, very long. What is the locals’ secret?” from The Island of Long Life by Andrew Anthony

International secret police operations, drug trafficking, prostitution, and identity theft set the stage for the eternal struggle between Good and Evil.

Acclaimed as one of today’s best contemporary noir writers, Massimo Carlotto reaches new heights in the most complex “Alligator” novel to date. Rich with biting humor, humanity, and psychological insight, this is an exemplary noir novel from a crime writer at the top of his game.

Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator, and his partners Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini have fallen into a trap laid by their worst enemy, Giorgio Pellegrini, a wanted man who has no intention of living as a fugitive for the rest of his life and turns state evidence, but something goes wrong. Blackmailed by a high government official, the Alligator and his partners are forced to investigate. But they’ve been framed: even if they discover who’s behind the crime, they’ll rot in prison. To survive, some rules will have to be bent, and others broken.

WINNER 2018 MCILVANNEY PRIZE FOR SCOTTISH CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF 2019

Based on true events, a “Dickensian crime novel” (Mystery Matters) set in 1960s Glasgow

It is 1969 and Glasgow is in the grip of the worst winter in decades yet it is something else that has Glaswegians on edge: a serial killer is at large. The brutality of The Quaker‘s latest murder— a young woman snatched from a nightclub, her body dumped like trash in the back of a cold-water tenement—has left the city trembling with fear. The assassin leaves no clues and the police investigation seems to be going nowhere.

Duncan McCormick, a talented young detective from the Highlands, is brought into the investigation to identify where, exactly, it’s gone wrong. An outsider with troubling secrets of his own, DI McCormack has few friends in his adopted city and a lot to prove. His arrival is met with anger and distrust by cops who are desperate to nail a suspect. When they identify a petty thief as the man seen leaving the building where the Quaker’s last victim was found, they decide they’ve found their serial killer. But McCormack isn’t convinced.

From ruined backstreets, to deserted public parks, and down into the dark heart of Glasgow, McCormack follows a trail of secrets that will change the city—and his life—forever.

“Razor-sharp political thriller set in Berlusconi’s Rome.”—The New Statesman

Things are changing in Rome. The new Pope, determined to bring radical reform to the Vatican, proclaims an extraordinary Jubilee year, one “of Mercy.” A new center-left government replaces its disgraced predecessor. And with crime lynchpin Samurai in jail, his protégé Sebastiano Laurenti attempts to establish himself as the designated successor. But he must reckon not only with a new generation of enterprising gangsters and racketeers—out to carve for themselves a slice of the profits and opportunities offered by the major public works planned for the Jubilee—but also with ambitious newly elected politician, Chiara Visone.

Betrayals, ambushes and infighting will inevitably alter the fragile political balance in the Eternal City. As the sharks circle, some tenuous hope endures in the unlikely alliance of an incorruptible politician of the old left and a young bishop who refuses to play the Vatican’s power games. But it remains to be seen whether, in the long night of Rome, there is room for redemption.

Sharp, dark and taut, The Night of Rome is fiction that sails dangerously close to the wind of current events.

From the author of the “wonderfully ingenious” (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review) novel After The Crash comes a brilliant work of deception that dives deep into the psyche of a child and cruel game of manipulating a person’s memory.

Four-year-old Malone Moulin is haunted by nightmares of being handed over to a complete stranger and begins claiming his mother is not his real mother. His teachers at school say that it is all in his imagination as his mother has a birth certificate, photos of him as a child and even the pediatrician confirms Malone is her son. The school psychologist, Vasily, believes otherwise as the child vividly describes an exchange between two women. Vasily begins recording their conversations and reinterprets the creatures Malone uses in the childish tales he recounts to his stuffed toy to piece the story together as much as he can.

Convinced that Malone is telling the truth, Vasile approaches police commander Marianne Augresse with the case, who has been searching for a gang of thieves that robbed a luxury store and left a couple dead in the neighboring town of Deauville to no avail. Not knowing why a child would lie and with perhaps her own own maternal and protective instinct kicking in, Marianne takes Vasile’s plead for help seriously.

Marianne and her team soon discern that Malone’s memory is in the hands of those around him; the cold members of the Moulin family and the people that they associate themselves with. With Malone’s recollection of the past quickly fading to give way to pirates, animals and other more innocent thoughts children have at his age, Marianne is desperate to find a through line.

Well-crafted and showcasing the fragility of a child’s cognition, The Double Mother is a riveting investigation to follow.

Book 3 in de Giovanni’s bestselling “Bastards of Pizzofalcone” series is set in contemporary Naples during season of cold winds, political hijinks, and murder.

A heinous, double murder in a squalid apartment on the wrong side of town pits Inspector Lojacono, Di Nardo and the rest of the motley collection of cops known as the “bastards” of the Pizzofalcone precinct against their superiors, the press, and the local political hierarchy. Only by bringing the killer to justice can they save their reputations and the department.

De Giovanni is one of the most versatile, prolific, and successful Eurpean mystery in Europe. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all set in Naples, offer a brilliant vision of the criminal underworld and the lives of the cops in Europe's most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

Second in the renowned Marseilles trilogy following Total Chaos, “one of the masterpieces of modern noir” (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post).

This second novel in Izzo’s acclaimed Marseilles trilogy is a touching tribute to the author’s beloved city, in all its color and complexity. Fabio Montale is an unwitting hero in this city of melancholy beauty. Montale has left a police force marred by corruption, xenophobia, and greed. But getting out is not going to be so easy. When his cousin’s son goes missing, Montale is dragged back onto the mean streets of a violent, crime-infested Marseilles. To discover the truth about the boy’s disappearance, he infiltrates a dangerous underworld of mobsters, religious fanatics, crooked cops, and ordinary people driven to extremes by desperation.

“Noir at its finest.”—The Times Literary Supplement

“Izzo, who died in 2000, is more than adept at noir conventions—gritty light, sudden switches of scene, the pervasive rot of cynicism, which sullies even the best intentions. But what makes his work haunting is his extraordinary ability to convey the tastes and smells of Marseilles, and the way memory and obligation dog every step his hero takes.”—The New Yorker

“Like the best American practitioners in the genre, Izzo refrains from any sugarcoating of the city he depicts or the broken and imperfect men and women who people it.”—Publishers Weekly

“This hard-hitting series captures all the world-weariness of the contemporary European crime novel, but Izzo mixes it with a hero who is as virile as he is burned out.”—Booklist

Frankie Crowe is not one of the great criminal masterminds. A small time thug, he thinks-to the extent he can-that kidnapping one of Dublin's newly rich businessmen just may be the low-risk fast track to the status and money he knows he deserves. When the local crime boss refuses him permission to make the snatch, he shoots the boss and commences with his plan-such as it is.

After a somewhat haphazard selection, Frankie's crew of casually vicious miscreants kidnaps the wife of a moderately prosperous lawyer rather than the spouse of the wealthy banker Frankie thought he had chosen. From that point forward, no one from Inspector John Grace to that pillar of Dublin gangland Jo-Jo Mackendrick can predict the next twist in a scheme that has gone from wrong to bad to worse.

Like Elmore Leonard's, Kerrigan's writing is propelled by character. His novel is alive to the codes and expectations of the varied sections of modern Irish society. His narrative is taut and harrowing, his dialogue spot-on. The resulting story is everything Frankie Crowe is not: smart, assured and confident-forming an exciting combination of entertainment and art available only in superior crime fiction.

The second thrilling installment in the Harry McCoy series.

“McCoy is so noir he makes most other Scottish cops seem light grey.”—The Times

A man hangs himself in a neighborhood chapel. Bodies of young girls are being found in canals and rivers across the city with high levels of Mandrax in their bloodstream. McCoy is asked to watch over a colleague’s niece, who has left home young and is running with a bad crowd in Glasgow. DS Wattie is attempting to become a sergeant. Drugs in Glasgow have got darker and more dangerous.

Glasgow, its music and its inhabitants all have rough edges in this hard city fought over by gangs, organized crime, the forces of law and order, and ordinary people trying to get by.

From the bestselling author of After the Crash, “a novel so extraordinary it reminded me of reading Stieg Larsson for the first time” (The Sunday Times).

Holidaying in an idyllic resort on the island of Réunion, wealthy Parisians Martial and Liane Bellion are enjoying the perfect family moment with their six-year-old daughter. Turquoise skies, clear water, palm trees, a warm breeze.
Then Liane Bellion disappears from her hotel room. The door to her room is open, the walls and sheets are spotted with blood. A hotel employee swears he saw Martial in the corridor at the time Liane went missing, and he becomes the number one suspect. But then Martial also disappears, along with his daughter. An all-out manhunt is declared across the island.
Could Martial really have killed his wife? For fans of Gone Girl and The Fugitive, Bussi’s fast-paced, atmospheric thriller does not disappoint.

“A nail biter of a manhunt across the spectacular terrain of the Indian Ocean island of Réunion drives this thriller after a tourist goes missing, triggering a police chase and exposing a cannily-constructed mystery with nods to both Agatha Christie and Harlan Coben.”—The Boston Globe

“Suspenseful . . . vengeance proves a common passion on Réunion, as detailed in this twist-filled novel told from several characters’ perspectives.”—The Wall Street Journal

“This novel, a multi-charactered French whodunit, squeezes all its frantic action into the 25 square miles of gorgeous but treacherous Réunion Island.”—Toronto Star

“A top-notch puzzle . . . A wonderfully immersive thriller.”—Booklist

An internationally acclaimed crime novel set in post-WWI Vienna: “A thrilling, deeply satisfying debut” by “the new star of Austrian crime fiction” (Kronen Zeitung).

Vienna, 1919. In the desperate years after World War I, the Habsburg Empire is a fading memory and most of Vienna’s remaining population survives by its wits, living hand to mouth in a city rife with crime, prostitution, and grotesquely wounded beggars. There are shakedowns on every street corner, the black market is the only market, and shortages of vital goods create countless opportunities for unscrupulous operators.
Into this cauldron of vice comes Insp. August Emmerich. A veteran himself, Emmerich is determined to join the Viennese major crimes unit, and he’s more than willing to break the rules in pursuit of his ambition. When a corpse is found in the woods outside the city and immediately labeled a suicide, Emmerich sees a chance to prove his mettle. His investigations into the suspicious death soon reveals an insidious and homicidal urge lurking in the city.
The Second Rider is the “outstanding series launch” of Alex Beer’s international-bestselling novels featuring police agent August Emmerich (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

The ninth Commissario Ricciardi Neapolitan mystery is “noir with a heart, haunting and beautiful . . . A literary thriller of exceptional quality” (NB Magazine).

Years ago, Vinnie Sannino left Naples on a ship bound for America, where he found fame and fortune as a boxer. But his gilded life in the new world came to an abrupt end when, during a fight, with a heavy punch to the head of his opponent, Vinnie killed a man in the ring.
Now, Vinnie’s back in Italy, pining for the woman he left behind. Cettina, however, is now a married woman. She was, at least, until her husband was recently found dead, killed by a single blow to the head. For Commissario Ricciardi, one of the most faceted cops in fiction, and his partner Maione, it is a going to be a long, rainy, week in Naples.

“Deep melancholy infuses the crafty whodunit plot of de Giovanni’s superior ninth mystery set in 1930s Italy . . . Ricciardi, who’s literally haunted by visions of the dead, continues to be one of the most nuanced and intriguing sleuths in contemporary crime fiction.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“De Giovanni is one of the best historical crime writers out there. His Commissario Ricciardi novels, set during the fascist period in Italy, are intelligent and totally engrossing. Nameless Serenade is a perfect addition to the series; a really satisfying murder mystery, an insight into 1930s Naples and a thrilling chapter in the life of the Commissario. Lyrical prose and intriguing rounded characters contribute to making this one of the finest in the Ricciardi chronicles.”—NB Magazine

Introducing Italy’s Commissario Ricciardi. “De Giovanni’s distinct brand of noir . . . will appeal to Agatha Christie and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán fans” (Publishers Weekly).

Commissario Ricciardi has visions. He sees the final seconds in the lives of victims of violent deaths. It is both a gift and a curse. It has helped him become one of the most successful homicide detectives on the Naples police front. But the horror of his visions has hollowed him out emotionally. He drinks too much and sleeps too little. Other than his loyal partner, Brigadier Maione, he has no friends.
Naples, March 1931. A bitter wind stalks the city streets, and murder lies at its cold heart. When the world’s greatest tenor, Maestro Arnaldo Vezzi, is found brutally murdered in his dressing room at Naples’ San Carlo Theatre, the enigmatic and aloof Commissario Ricciardi is called in to investigate.
Arrogant and bad-tempered, Vezzi was adored by millions and hated by hundreds, but with the livelihoods of everyone at the San Carlo opera at stake, who there would have committed such an act? Ricciardi is determined to find out.
Fans of Donna Leon and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán will thrill to this fresh voice in crime fiction. I Will Have Vengeance is the first book in a quartet of masterful crime novels set in fascist Italy.

“A welcome addition to the pantheon of Italian crime fiction . . . Ricciardi is a suitably principled, charismatic yet enigmatic detective.”—Euro Crime

“The combination of an unusual detective, historical setting and Italian opera was impossible to resist.”—Crimetime.co.uk

Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year. “Fans [of The Wire] can find many of the same strengths in Kerrigan’s work” (The New York Times).

Vincent Naylor has just been released from prison and has already begun to plot his next heist—the robbery of an armored car. Det. Sgt. Bob Tidey has been caught perjuring himself to protect fellow officers. He’s also found the link between an unsolved murder case and the recent execution of a corrupt banker in serious financial difficulty. An old acquaintance will change the course of the investigation. A retired nun living on regrets and bad memories notices something deeply suspicious and makes a phone call that sets in motion a series of fateful events.
In The Rage, Gene Kerrigan weaves together astute observations regarding a financial crisis, church abuse, and gangland crime. The writing is, as always with a Kerrigan novel, superb, with an engaging story that has pitch perfect dialogue and characters that come fully alive.
The prize-winning crime fiction is set in contemporary Ireland where nothing is neatly resolved and there are no easy choices. Like life itself.

“A perfect novel . . . beautifully constructed, with sharp and relevant dialogue, and not a superfluous word to be found.” —The Oregonian

“Gritty and compulsively readable.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Tightly plotted . . . the story’s pacing is masterly.”—The New Yorker

“A boundlessly readable portrait of an Ireland in which all the old certainties have vanished. Remarkable for its verve, moral trickiness, and nifty plotting.”—NPR Fresh Air

“Fans of Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes, and Declan Burke won’t want to miss this one.”—Booklist (starred review)

An ex-cop takes on the mafia in the blockbuster novel that kicks off the Marseilles trilogy with what “may be the most lyrical hard-boiled writing yet” (The Nation).

In Jean-Claude Izzo’s “Mediterranean noir” mysteries, the city of Marseilles is explosive, breathtakingly beautiful, and deadly. Total Chaos introduces readers to Fabio Montale, a disenchanted cop who turns his back on a police force marred by corruption and racism and, in the name of friendship, takes the fight against the mafia into his own hands. Ugo, Manu, and Fabio grew up together on the mean streets of Marseilles where friendship means everything. They promised to stay true to one another and swore that nothing would break their bond. But people and circumstances change. Ugo and Manu have been drawn into the criminal underworld of Europe’s toughest and most violent city. When Manu is murdered and Ugo returns from abroad to avenge his friend’s death, only to be killed himself, it is left to the third in this trio, Det. Fabio Montale, to ensure justice is done. Despite warnings from both his colleagues in law enforcement and his acquaintances in the underworld, Montale cannot forget the promise he once made Manu and Ugo. He’s going to find their killer no matter the consequences.

“One of the masterpieces of modern noir.”—The Washington Post

“Like the best noir writers—and make no mistake, he is among the best—Izzo not only has a keen eye for detail . . . but also digs deep into what makes men weep.”—Time Out New York

“The holy grail of noir fiction . . . a fast paced and stylishly told modern tragedy.”—NB Magazine

First in the series starring a South African police detective: “[A] picturesque backdrop, cast of authentic characters, and knotty story line” (Publishers Weekly).

Shortlisted for the International Dagger Award and Winner of the University of Johannesburg Debut PrizeInsp.

Albertus Markus Beeslaar is a traumatized cop who has abandoned tough city policing and a broken relationship in Johannesburg for a backwater post on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. But his dream of rural peace is soon shattered by the repeated attacks of a brutally efficient crime syndicate, as he struggles to train and connect with rookie local cops Ghaap and Pyl, who resent his brusqueness and his old-school ways.
A beautiful and eccentric artist and her four-year-old adopted daughter are murdered on a local farm, and angry white farmers point to her enigmatic Bushman farm manager as a key suspect. Along with Ghaap and Pyl, Beeslaar is plunged into the intrigue and racial tensions of the community, and finds that violence knows no geographical or ethnic boundaries.
Weeping Waters marks the beginning of a great new series with a striking setting, a strong ensemble of characters, and suspenseful storylines.

“Brooding. Riveting. Brilliant.”—Deon Meyer, author of Blood Safari

From the acclaimed author of After the Crash— “Harlan Coben fans will enjoy Bussi’s . . . mystery with its intriguing characters and twisty conclusion” (Library Journal).

A fatal accident in the past, broken lives, family secrets . . . Michel Bussi serves up a gripping thriller, set amid the beautiful scenery of Corsica.
In the summer of 2016, Clotilde is spending her vacation in Corsica with her husband, Franck, and her teenage daughter, Valentine. It is the first time she has been back to the island since the car accident in which her parents and her brother were killed decades earlier. She was in the car too, but miraculously escaped with her life. This return plunges Clotilde back into the deepest recesses of her adolescence. She reacquaints herself with her paternal grandparents, Lisabetta and Cassanu, members of a powerful Corsican family that reigns over the island.
When a mysterious letter, signed “Palma”—Clotilde’s mother—arrives, the truth about her family, her parents’ death, and her childhood is called into question. Time Is a Killer is a voyage into the complexities of Corsican society, a compelling portrait of a woman’s awakening, and a masterfully executed novel of psychological suspense.

“Michel Bussi’s writing always rings true. His crime novel is a bomb.”—Le Parisien

“Michel Bussi’s psychological crime novels are beyond masterful.”—Le Figaro Littéraire

“Bathed in the perfumes and flavors of Corsica . . .Time Is a Killer will be read with bated breath until the final twist!”—Le Magazine des Livres

“Don’t open these books if you have anything more pressing to do.”—Elle (France)

“Gripping noir.”—Publishers Weekly

A Glasgow detective goes up against a wealthy family whose corruption runs deep in this gritty noir series debut set in 1970s Scotland.

Glasgow, 1973. As poverty and crime drag the city deeper into a heroin epidemic, fighting in the streets has become depressingly mundane. But when an eighteen-year-old boy shoots a young woman dead in broad daylight and then commits suicide, Det. Harry McCoy knows it can’t be a simple act of random violence. With a newbie partner in tow, McCoy hunts down leads through the underworld, all of which lead to a secret society run by Glasgow’s wealthiest family, the Dunlops.
Among their inner circle, every nefarious predilection is catered to at the expense of society’s most vulnerable—including McCoy’s best friend from reformatory school, drug-tsar Stevie Cooper, and his on-off girlfriend, a prostitute named Janey. But with McCoy’s boss calling off the hounds, and his boss’ boss unleashing their own, the Dunlops seem to be untouchable. McCoy has other ideas.

“Parks’ debut novel has an in-your-face immediacy that matches its protagonist. Compelling portraits of minor characters tucked into several scenes add texture and interest.”—Kirkus Reviews

Feminist tales from Japan that blend humor, surrealism, and sharp societal critique, by the acclaimed author of Where the Wild Ladies Are 

A collection of fifty-two short stories and pieces of flash fiction, The Woman Dies takes as its impetus the various forms of discrimination entrenched within Japanese society, particularly the long, stubborn roots of sexism.   

Matsuda approaches often-thorny subjects such as the normalizing effect of violence against women on screen, or the aesthetics associated with technology, with an inventiveness and quirky humor that keep the narrative on the cusp between seriousness and levity.    

Wordplay evolves into something much more complex, inanimate objects are endowed with their own point of view, and hard-hitting feminist stances are conveyed with a dry, detached humor that makes them all the more uncompromising.  

Not so much a rollercoaster ride, rather an entire theme park, The Woman Dies is an out-of-the ordinary space readers will step into with feelings of wonder and discombobulation in equal parts.  

In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph.

Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them.

It is Kimiâ herself––punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”––who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.

“A wonder and a pleasure to read.”—Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances

“What begins as a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience.”—The New Yorker

The story of three women tangled up in a family dynamic at turns hilarious and tragic.

When Rosa Achmetowna discovers that her seventeen-year-old daughter Sulfia is pregnant, she tries every bizarre home remedy to thwart the pregnancy. But despite her best efforts, the baby girl is born—and immediately wins Rosa’s heart. Dark-eyed Aminat is a Tartar through and through, just like Rosa, who wastes no time in plotting to steal her away from Sulfia.

When Aminat, now a willful teenager, catches the eye of a sleazy German cookbook writer researching Tartar cuisine, Rosa is quick to broker a deal that will guarantee all three women passage out of the Soviet Union. But as soon as they are settled in the West, the ties that bind mother, daughter, and grandmother begin to fray.

“Alina Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”—Vogue

“A masterpiece of storytelling.”—The Dallas Morning News

Sir Edward Feathers has had a brilliant career, from his early days as a lawyer in Southeast Asia, where he earned the nickname Old Filth (FILTH being an acronym for Failed In London Try Hong Kong) to his final working days as a respected judge at the English bar. Yet through it all he has carried with him the wounds of a difficult childhood. Now an eighty-year-old widower living in comfortable seclusion in Dorset, Feathers is finally free from the regimen of work and the sentimental scaffolding that has sustained him throughout his life. He slips back into the past with ever mounting frequency and intensity, and on the tide of these vivid, lyrical musings, Feathers approaches a reckoning with his own history. Not all the old filth, it seems, can be cleaned away.

“An extraordinary novel—the structure, the characters, the sweep of time.”—Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake

The story of one man’s love for a woman, that woman’s love for her music and her country, and of an entire world’s love for its idols.

A poet and a singer, unrequited love and a troubled national history: these are the subjects of Sélim Nassib’s I Loved You for Your Voice. Inspired by the life and legacy of one of the world’s most beloved singers, the story of Om Kalthoum is told here through the eyes of Ahmad Rami, the poet who wrote her lyrics and loved her in vain all his life. Kalthoum, forced to disguise herself as a boy at the outset of her career, eventually rises to international fame and becomes a living symbol of her country’s rebirth. Spanning five decades, Kalthoum’s story intertwines with the history of Egypt in a novel that is as faithful as it is imaginative.

“A dazzling masterpiece.”—Nigrizia (Italy)

A cast of affecting characters lovingly portrayed by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt animates these eight contemporary fables about people in search of happiness.

One of Europe’s most popular and bestselling authors, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt captivates the reader with his spirited style and enchanting stories that move effortlessly from the everyday to the fantastical. The eight stories in this collection represent his best and most imaginative storylines: from the touching and surprising love story between Balthazar, a wealthy author, and Odette, a shop clerk, to the tale of a barefooted princess; from the moving title story of about a group of female prisoners in a Soviet gulag to the entertaining portrait of a perennially disgruntled perfectionist. Behind each story lies a simple, if elusive, truth: though we may frequently be blind to it, happiness is often right in front of our eyes.

“There is a surprising sweetness to these stories of redemption and reconciliation. They carry a slight pleasant aftertaste, a lingering hint of delight.”—Barbara Fisher, Boston Globe

Maria Sirena tells stories. She does it for money, and for love. But now she will be asked to tell one last story so that eight women can keep hope alive.

Cuba, 1963. Hurricane Flora is bearing down on the island. Seven women have been evacuated from their homes into the former governor’s mansion, where they are watched over by another woman, Ofelia, a young soldier of Castro’s new Cuba. Outside the storm is raging. In a single room on the top floor of the governor’s mansion, Maria Sirena begins to tell the incredible story of her childhood during Cuba’s Third War of Independence. Stories, however, have a way of taking on a life of their own, and Maria Sirena will end up revealing more than she or anyone ever expected.

“The Distant Marvels, like love itself, is both storm and shelter at once.”—Justin Torres, National Book Award-winning author of Blackouts

“A love letter to the novel . . . and a profound exploration of human nature.”—Library Journal

Ivan and Francesca decide to open a bookstore devoted to their love of books. Tucked away in a corner of Paris, the store offers a selection of literary masterpieces chosen by a top-secret committee of literary connoisseurs. To their amazement the little dream store quickly proves a success. And that is precisely when their troubles begin. At first, both owners shrug off the anonymous threats that come their way and the venomous comments circulating on the Internet, but when three members of the supposedly secret committee are attacked, they decide to call the police. As the pieces of this puzzle fall ominously into place, it becomes increasingly evident that Ivan and Francesca’s dreams will be answered with pettiness, envy and violence.

“Charming and compelling and very readable.”—Words Without Borders

At once a bittersweet comedy and a drama of racial identity, this book brings to life the hilarious imbroglios of the modern metropolis.

Piazza Vittorio is home to a polyglot community of immigrants who have come to Rome from all over the world. But when a tenant is murdered in the building’s elevator, the delicate balance is thrown into disarray. With language as colorful as the neighborhood it describes, each character in this choral novel takes their turn “giving evidence,” and the stories that emerge provide an all-access pass into the most fascinating of Roman neighborhoods.

“Do we have an Italian Camus on our hands? Just possibly.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

A moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous.

In an elegant apartment building in the heart of Paris, Renée, the concierge, scrutinizes the vacuous lives of its well-to-do tenants. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: plump, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a sophisticated autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture.

Then there’s Paloma, twelve years old. Convinced of the meaninglessness of life, she’s decided to end her own on her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave, hiding behind the mask of an average pre-teen.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect will not appreciate them. The arrival in the building of a wealthy Japanese tenant changes a delicate and fragile equilibrium.

“This story, like all great tales, will break your heart, but it will also make you realize—or remember—that sometimes the pain is worth it.”—Chicago Sun-Times

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2023 
A SUNDAY TIMES’ BEST HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF 2023 

Isolated from society, Emily Brontë and her siblings spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.  

To the outside world, Emily Brontë appears taciturn and unexceptional, but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment. A violent phenomenon is about to burst forth that will fuse her imaginary world with the landscape of her beloved Yorkshire and change the literary world forever.  

Fifteen Wild Decembers is the dazzling second novel from a writer who has been compared to Shirley Hazzard and Graham Greene, and whose first novel was described as “utterly stunning,” mesmerizing' and hailed as “a masterpiece.” 

WINNER OF THE 2024 STREGA PRIZE 
WINNER OF THE 2024 YOUTH STREGA PRIZE 

Acclaimed Italian author Donatella Di Pietrantonio’s best-selling novel to date, The Brittle Age is a powerful mother and daughter story and a profound exploration of human fragility and the haunting shadows of the past 

In the 1990s, deep in the Maiella mountains of Central Italy, a brutal crime shatters the peace of the local community. Two young women are murdered, a third left for dead. Lucia is twenty years old back, and the only survivor is her best friend.    

Now, Lucia is a physiotherapist, separating from her husband, her daughter Amanda studying in Milan.  When the pandemic forces Amanda to return to the family’s home near Pescara, Lucia’s memories are reawakened, and with them the impact of past trauma.  

Set against the backdrop of the rugged Apennine mountains, this gripping psychological family drama weaves Lucia and Amanda’s personal struggles with the mystery of the tragedy that marked their familial land decades earlier.   

Inspired by true events, The Brittle Age is a tale of individual resilience, and a commentary on the indelible impact of historical events on personal lives and the broader community.    

An unforgettable story about an unlikely friendship and about healing the wounds of a broken past from the million-copy bestselling author of Fresh Water for Flowers 

Justine is 21 years old and has lived with her grandparents and her cousin Jules since the death of her parents. As a nursing assistant at a retirement home, she spends much of her days listening to her residents’ stories.  

After bonding with Hélène, an almost 100-year-old resident, the two women slowly reveal their stories to one another. Whilst Justine helps Hélène to relive her memories of love and war, Hélène encourages Justine to confront the secrets of her own past, and the loss she keeps buried deep within. One day, a mysterious phone detailing a shocking revelation shakes the retirement home to its core. 

At once humorous and melancholic, Valérie Perrin’s novel depicts the consequences of undeclared love and, in her inimitable way, portrays once again how the past is never really past. 

This meticulously researched and brilliantly told historical novel, the first of the Machiavelli trilogy, recounts the enigmatic life of Niccolò Machiavelli, revealing the complex man behind the infamous political strategist.

October 1502. As Cesare Borgia sets out to invade the Florentine Republic, Niccolò Machiavelli is sent to spy on him and to glean details of his nefarious plan. But when Borgia asks Machiavelli to write his life story, their bond gains complexity and nuance: ultimately, they both aspire to everlasting fame and to achieve it, they need each other, for the one’s sword can only rule in eternity via the pen of the other.

Set against the backdrop of the Renaissance, rife with political intrigue and cultural flourishing, Bernini's richly imagined novel masterfully captures a society teetering on the brink of change and revolution, as one man takes his chance at greatness, navigating the treacherous corridors of power with guile and charisma.

The Throne is a captivating reflection on ambition, morality, and the pursuit of power and influence. As elucidating as Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, as gripping and stylish as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and as atmospheric as Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, The Throne reveals one of the most impactful and controversial minds in political history, and questions and asks to what lengths can one justifiably go to achieve greatness.

"Lovers of Europa Editions' other titles My Brilliant Friend and Fresh Water for Flowers will fall hard for this beautiful, heartbreaking, and healing story. Grab a box of tissues!" — Electric Lit

Sisters Emma and Agathe were thick as thieves when they were young but have always been as different as can be. Five years older, Emma was the defender, protector, and worrier for her fiery younger sister until tragedy marred their relationship.

For a long time, Emma has kept her distance from Agathe and her chaos. But when their adored grandmother dies, they must return together to Spain to empty out her house and, in the process, reconcile, remember, and pour out what is hidden inside their hearts.

Alternating between the sisters' childhood and the present day, Grimaldi's delicately wrought prose paints complex portraits of the two women, asking if the scars of the past can ever truly be healed, and what, in the end, is a good life.

Laughter, tears, and the transformative power of love — these are the ingredients that combine to make this uplifting, unputdownable literary novel the summer read of 2024.

★ “Coe’s delectable whodunit combines shadowy right-wing politics and literary intrigue... Coe’s metatextual games are as fun as the caper plot. This is a blast.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Coe is so skilled at delivering big, state-of-the-nation novels while also being wickedly funny.”—Good Housekeeping

“It's very cleverly put together, with seemingly incidental pieces proving to be basic building blocks of the greater whole... Coe is in very fine form here, and The Proof of My Innocence impresses and pleases on multiple levels.”—The Complete Review

“As much a political commentary as a mystery, this satisfyingly complex novel focuses on conservative movements in both the U.S. and Britain. Replete with conscienceless politicians, bloggers, literary critics, would-be authors, a sexagenarian gourmand detective and floundering twenty-somethings looking for meaning in life, this cast of characters takes the reader on a rollercoaster of sinister maneuverings, professional jealousy and murder.”—Eric Boss, Reading the West

“Coe’s subject may be inertia and nostalgia, but The Proof of My Innocence is full of energy. It’s a madcap caper, a sideways memoir, a tricksy jeu d’esprit that is also a quiet defence of fiction in a post-truth age, and enormous fun to read.”—The Guardian

“Coe knows how to write a novel: it is well paced, he makes complex plots look easy, he has a way of marshalling a large cast of characters that never feels contrived, the prose is pleasant and not invasive, and he is—rare for a novelist—funny.”—Financial Times

“Coe has devised a tour de force in which he hops between pastiches of cosy crime, dark academia and autofiction. The result is a mind-bending mash-up about murdered academics, Gen Z sleuths, forgotten novels and shadowy think tanks.”—The Sunday Times

“Wildly enjoyable.”—Sydney Morning Herald

“Probably the best English novelist of his generation.”—Nick Hornby

"Endlessly satisfying... Coe has a gift for taking his material to extremes, so that nothing is ever wasted.”—The Spectator

“The novel is full of humour—the jokes include ones about Liz Truss, a bishop’s privates and greedy antiquarian booksellers—as Coe, one of our finest modern novelists, gently skewers literary fads and the whole writing game.”—The Independent

★ “Beautifully written and full of wisdom, this unusual and fascinating book contains many treats...”—Kirkus Review (starred review) on Mr. Wilder and Me 

“...[a] poignant delineation of tradition and progress.”—Booklist on Bournville 

“A novel not just for movie lovers, but for anyone who favors sharp writing, subtle wit, deeply portrayed characters, and the elegiac.”—The Arts Fuse on Mr. Wilder and Me 

“Coe shows an understanding of this country that goes beyond what most cabinet ministers can muster...he is a master of satire but pokes fun subtly, without ever being cruel, biting or blatant...his light, funny writing makes you feel better.”—Evening Standard (UK) 

“British novelists love to diagnose the state of the nation. Few do it better than Jonathan Coe, who writes with warmth and subversive glee about social change and the comforting mundanities it imperils.”—Spectator (UK) 

A mega best-seller in Sweden, with rights sold to over a dozen countries and a TV adaptation underway, Annika Norlin’s debut novel The Colony is the biggest Swedish literary phenomenon since Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove.

Winner of the Vi Literature Award and Swedish Radio’s Novel Prize, two of Sweden’s biggest literary awards, The Colony is a gripping portrayal of contemporary society and its alternatives.

Burnt-out from a demanding job and a bustling life in the city, Emelie has left town to spend a few days in the country. Once there, in the peaceful, verdant hills, down by the river she encounters a mysterious group of seven people, each with personal stories full of pain, alienation, and the longing to live differently. They are misfits, each in their own way, and all led by the enigmatic and charismatic Sara.

How did they end up there? Are they content with the rigid roles they’ve been assigned? And what happens when an outsider appears and is initially drawn to their alternative lifestyle but cannot help but stir things up?

A masterful blend of humor, emotion, unforgettable characters, and sharp social commentary, The Colony is a magnetic and deeply touching story about love, community, and the unfathomable power we other others and that others have over us.

The English-language debut of one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Brazilian literature, The Tokyo Suite is a gripping exploration of the complexities of modern family dynamics and the tensions hiding just under the surface of ordinary lives. 

It’s a seemingly ordinary morning when Maju, a nanny, boards a bus with Cora, the young girl she’s been caring for, and disappears. The abduction, an act as impulsive as it is extreme, sets off a series of events that will force each character to confront their deepest fears and desires.

Fernanda, Cora's mother, is a successful executive who is so engulfed in her own personal crisis that she initially fails to notice her daughter's disappearance. Her marriage is strained, and she finds solace in an affair, distancing herself further from her family. Meanwhile, her husband, overwhelmed by the complexities of their domestic life, remains emotionally detached. As Maju navigates the streets of São Paulo with Cora, the “white army” of nannies, a term coined by Fernanda, seems to watch her every move, heightening her sense of paranoia and urgency. 

Madalosso’s narrative delves deep into the human psyche, examining themes of maternal guilt, societal expectations, and the search for personal identity. Rich and multi-layered, The Tokyo Suite is a poignant and gripping tale that captures the essence of modern urban life and the lengths to which people will go to reclaim a sense of control and meaning in their lives. 

A brilliant and darkly funny story of a friendship and its unraveling, and a powerful examination on the disruptive impact of social media on our lives

Once an ambitious and promising student at an elite university in Paris, Maia is now 26, living in Milan, and stuck in a dead-end job at a cafe and a dysfunctional relationship with an older man. Until one day her life seems to change: thanks to a friend’s recommendation, and despite not knowing anything about social media, she is hired to work for Gloria, an 18-year-old influencer with millions of followers.

Slowly, Maia understands that her disdain for the world of influencers is precisely why she was chosen for the job: as an outsider, Maia can keep Gloria grounded, tethered to reality—remind her that the image she projects online is only an illusion.

As the two women weave a complex and intense relationship, however, it is Maia’s life that starts to unravel. Exposed to the tricks and hypocrisy of social media, Maia is increasingly unable to avoid confronting the lies she’s been telling herself. The closer she gets to Gloria, the more porous the boundary between their feelings and identities becomes, in a dangerous game of mirrors that threatens Maia’s very sense of self.

Sharp, wry, and absorbing, The Other Profile is a revealing exploration of the light and dark of human relationships in the digital age.

“Gaza has always been rebellious... stubborn, addictive. I’m her daughter, and I look like her.”

Born in Rafah, raised in Gaza, subjected both to Israeli bombs and to Islamist tyranny, and in the face of prison, death threats, abuse, misogyny, violence, and repression, Asmaa al-Ghoul has continued to speak her truth. She has continued to live and to love, to laugh and to protest. In this moving memoir of growing up Gaza with a hunger for freedom and a passionate attachment to the places she calls home, journalist, writer, and activist, al-Ghoul recounts her lifelong resistance to religious fanaticism, state sponsored violence, and all forms of repression and subjugation. Al-Ghoul has been called “too strong minded,” criticized for not covering her hair, derided for ignoring warnings and speaking out against injustice. Her pure, clarion voice is raised wholly in support of dialogue, peace, love, and honesty. 

Nothing, it seems, can stop her.

Offering an intimate look into life, politics, and survival in Gaza in recent years, al-Ghoul’s A Rebel in Gaza offers readers a nuanced and singular perspective on the current conflict.

LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE 

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 

The modest apartment on Via Gemito smells of paint and white spirit. The furniture is pushed up against the wall to create a make-shift studio, and drying canvases must be moved off the beds each night. 

Federí, a railway clerk, is convinced that if he didn’t have a family to feed, he’d be a world-famous painter. Talented, ambitious, and frustrated, his life is marked by bitter disappointment. His long-suffering wife and their four children bear the brunt. Years later, his first-born son will tell the story of a man he spent his whole life trying not to resemble. 

Narrated against the background of a Naples still scarred by WWII, The House on Via Gemito is a sweeping family drama by one of Italy's most acclaimed and beloved novelists. 

“Starnone uses language the way a great painter works with color.”—Jhumpa Lahiri 

A Russian journalist’s first-hand account of the heartbreak and resilience of ordinary Ukrainians faced with Putin’s aggression

Unique among books about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Displaced tells the stories of ordinary and extraordinary civilians whose lives have been upended in the conflict. Russian dissident and journalist Valery Panyushkin gives readers an immersive and humanizing account of what it means to wake up one day and find yourself a refugee, or to feel compelled to devote your life to helping refugees.

Panyushkin’s achievement in this singular book is the proximity he creates between his readers and his subjects. All the small annoyances, the major catastrophes, the special occasions, quiet rewards, challenges, joys, and triumphs that constitute a life—how do these play out when you have been forced to leave your home with only a few possessions and no guarantee you’ll ever be back? What does it mean to be HIV positive, to have a toothache that needs attention, to be midway through gender reassignment therapy, to be pregnant, seeking an abortion, out of work, close to retirement, suffering from addiction, caring for a neighbor’s pets, when you are a refugee? How do you keep up the insurance payments, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, conclude a business deal, stay healthy, find a purpose? Above all, Panyushkin asks, how long will it be before all of us—even those who today feel most shielded from such a fate—know the answers to these questions from direct experience of forced displacement?

In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, Panyushkin brings us directly into the daily lives of people who have been forcibly displaced by war. Ultimately a hopeful book in its appeal to compassion, its portrayal of resilience, and its focus on our shared humanity, Displaced is an unforgettable account of the dramatic effects of Russia’s war.

From the National Book Award Finalist Domenico Starnone comes a new novel about childhood, memory, obsession, and the fictions we live by.

Children can be cruel, and children can love as passionately and obsessively as adults. These two observations combine, igniting the imagination of Italy’s greatest contemporary novelist and producing a seemingly candid novel that belies remarkable psychological depths and infinite degrees of enchantment.

Imagine a child, a daydreamer, one of those boys who is always gazing out windows. His adoring grandmother, busy in the kitchen, keeps an eye on him. The child stares at the building opposite, watching a black-haired girl as she dances recklessly on her balcony. He is in love. And a love like this can push a child to extremes. He can become an explorer or a cabin boy, a cowboy or castaway; he can fight duels to the death, or even master unfamiliar languages. His grandmother has told him about the entrance to the underworld, and he knows the story of Orpheus’s failed rescue mission. He could do better, he thinks; he wouldn’t fail to bring that dark-haired up from the underground if she were dead, and it only he had the chance.

A short, sharp, perfectly styled and unforgettable novel about love, desire, memory, and death by the Strega Prize-winning Italian author of Ties and International Booker Prize-longlisted author of The House on Via Gemito.

From the master of French noir and winner of the French Voices Prize, a gripping mystery about the blossoming of poisonous passions set in the brooding landscapes of Gironde, France

When Franck gets out after five years in jail, he expects to find the brother he protected with his silence—instead, waiting for him is his brother Fabien’s girlfriend. Jessica takes him to the gloomy country house where she lives with her cantankerous, hard-drinking parents, her eight-year old daughter, Rachel—who doesn’t speak, hardly eats, and seems to be carrying a secret much bigger than herself—and a large mastiff dog they all seem to fear.

Time passes, Fabien doesn’t return, and Franck is increasingly mystified by Jessica’s behavior, seductive at times, hostile at others. Nonetheless, Franck follows her around on her crazy nocturnal rounds until he finds himself with a gun pointed at his head. It’s the beginning of a crescendo of retaliation in a gang war in which Franck believes he is participating, only to realize he’s merely a sacrificial pawn.

In the scorching heat of the summer, love and violence, sweetness and blood, will result in an unpredictable ending, one that perhaps only the little girl knew from the start. 

WINNER OF THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION AT THE 2023 OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS

A dazzling portrayal of humanity and the natural world that perfectly balances violence and humor

Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie, and this is where his story might have ended. “If it keeps me awake,” says Marnie’s husband Rob, a farmer, “I’ll have to wring its neck.” But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple’s future. Tama can speak, and his fame is growing. Outside, in the pines, his father warns him of the wickedness wrought by humans. Indoors, Marnie confides in him about her violent marriage. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds—and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them—bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman’s Carnival.

Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama the magpie is the star of this story. Though what he says aloud to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious), the tale he tells us weaves a disturbingly human sense. The Axeman’s Carnival is Catherine Chidgey at her finest—comic, profound, poetic and true.

“A writer of formidable resources, a deft stylist possessed of uncanny imaginative acuity.”—The Guardian

A SEPTEMBER 2024 INDIE NEXT PICK

Return to Dalton as Shannon Bowring draws another stunningly human portrait of small town America. 

It’s been five years since Bridget Theroux’s death shocked the small town of Dalton, Maine, leaving behind husband Nate and daughter Sophie, now a vibrant young child. Nate doesn’t always know how to answer her questions, but he is intent on raising her with joy—and shielding her from her grandmother, Annette, who remains dangerously locked away in her grief.

After his first year away at college, Greg Fortin is back in town for the summer to work at the family store. It’s expected he'll take over the hardware business eventually, but finding the words to tell them no—and the truth about who he is—has become his own Everest. Rose’s abusive ex, Tommy finally disappeared a few years ago, though sometimes his presence in the eyes of her oldest son unnerves her. She and Nate are finding themselves drawn together by their children’s playdates, and into a delicate balance between friendship and the possibility of more. 

And Trudy and Bev, always so sure of their love for each other, find themselves rocked when Trudy’s husband Richard suffers a heart attack, bringing into focus all the guilt she has felt about their empty marriage for years.

Shannon Bowring demonstrates once again that she understands exactly where the heart of a story lies. Where the Forest Meets the River is a poignant return to the small town of Dalton, whose inhabitants continue to startle and humble both themselves—and us.

A CRIMEREADS AND WORLD LITERATURE TODAY NOTABLE BOOK OF 2023

A spellbinding, best-selling work of true crime about one of the most shocking murders in recent Italian history and set in a Rome that will be a constant revelation to anyone who knows only the city’s well-worn tourist paths.

In March 2016, in a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, two “ordinary” young men from good families, brutally murdered twenty-three year old Luca Varani. News of the seemingly inexplicable crime sent shockwaves through Rome and beyond. What motivated such extreme violence? Were the killers evil or in the grip of societal evils? Did they know what they were doing? Or were they possessed? And if the latter, possessed by what?

Going beyond anything that has ever been written on the crime, based on months of interviews, court documentation, and correspondence with the killers themselves, The City of the Living not only reads like a fast-paced, revelatory thriller in the style of Lisa Taddeo’s Animal but is also a descent into the dark heart of Rome—a city plagued by corruption, drugs, hidden violence that sometimes erupts.

Nicola Lagioia leads us through a maze of betrayed expectations, sexual confusion, inability to grow up, economic grievances, crises of identity—progressively tightening the focus of the analysis to locate the point after which anything is possible. As hypnotic as Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, an heir to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, The City of the Living is Nicola Lagioia’s most gripping, bestselling, and critically acclaimed book to-date, the story not only of a crime but of a society and the human natures that make such a crime possible.

A cautionary tale for a world in which social media has shattered the boundaries of intimacy.

The first time that Mélanie met Clara, she was stunned by Clara’s sense of authority, and for her part, Clara was struck by Mélanie’s pink, glittery nails, which shimmered in the dark. “She looks like a child,” thought the first. “She looks like a doll,” pondered the second.

These two women, both of the same generation and exposed to the same forms of media throughout their lives, could not be more different in adulthood. Mélanie is a social media superstar, broadcasting her children's daily lives on a family YouTube channel. Clara is a young police officer, assigned to the case after Mélanie’s daughter Kimmy is abducted.

Traversing the Big Brother generation, the social media influencer generation, and right up to the 2030s, Delphine de Vigan offers a bone-chilling exposé of a world where everything is broadcasted and monetized, even family happiness.

A symphony of interconnected lives that offers a compelling reflection on life in modern-day metropolises at the intersection of isolation and intimacy in Yoshida’s English-language debut

Set over several nights, between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., in and around Tokyo, this mind-blowingly constructed book is an elaborate, energetic fresco of human nocturnal existence in all its mystery, an enigmatic literary mix of Agatha Christie, Teju Cole, and Heironymous Bosch.

On this journey through the labyrinthine streets and hidden corners of one of the world’s most fascinating cities, everybody is searching for something, and maybe searching in the wrong places. Elements of the fantastical and the surreal abound, as they tend to do in the early pre-dawn hours of the morning, yet the settings, the human stories, and each character’s search are all as real as can be.

Goodnight Tokyo offers readers a unique and intimate take on Tokyo as seen through the eyes of a large cast of colorful characters. Their lives, as disparate and as far apart as they may seem, are in fact intricately interconnected, and their fates converge against the backdrop of the city’s neon-lit streets and quiet alleyways. In his English-language debut, Yoshida masterfully portrays in captivating and lyrical prose the complexities of human relationships, the mystery of human connection, and the universal quest for meaning.

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BOOK RIOT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 

FROM THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD-LONGLISTED AUTHOR OF THE MOST SECRET MEMORY OF MEN

A polyphonic tale of immigration and community by “the most promising Senegalese writer of his generation” (Le Monde) and winner of the 2021 Prix Goncourt

Seventy-two men arrive in the middle of the Sicilian countryside. They are “immigrants,” “refugees” or “migrants.” But in Altino, they’re called the ragazzi, the “guys” that the Santa Marta Association have taken responsibility for. In this small Sicilian town, their arrival changes life for everybody.

While they wait to know their fate, the ragazzi encounter all kinds of people: a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to ensuring them asylum, a man determined to fight against it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes.

Each character in this moving and important saga is forced to reflect on what it means to encounter people they know nothing about. They watch as a situation unfolds over which they have little control or insight. A story told through a growing symphony of voices that ends only when one final voice brings silence to the choir.

Inspired by a true story, My Father’s House is the extraordinary World War II account of a daring attempt to smuggle thousands of innocents through the Vatican and out of occupied Rome right under the noses of the city’s Nazi occupiers.

September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. SS Commander Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, a neutral, independent state nestled in the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly battle of wits with Hauptmann and his soldiers.

Suspenseful and beautifully written, My Father’s House tells an unforgettable story of love, faith, sacrifice, and courage.

“A literary thriller of the highest order.”—The Guardian

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
TIME Magazine・NPR・Library Journal・The Globe and Mail・Lilith・Forward Magazine・Toronto Star・The New Yorker

“A testament to the power of imagination and an investigation of empathy.”—Vogue

“Stunning.”—Leslie Camhi, The New Yorker

“A can’t-miss novel.”—Chicago Review of Books

“Compelling.”—The Washington Examiner

Anne Berest’s The Postcard is among the most acclaimed and beloved French novels of recent years. It is at once a gripping investigation into family trauma, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life.

January, 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques—all killed at Auschwitz.

Years after the postcard is delivered, the heroine of this novel is moved to discover who sent it and why. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the travails of the twentieth century and partly restored through the power of storytelling.

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

“Outstanding.”—Alex Harvey, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Captivating…A delight.”—Malcolm Forbes, Washington Examiner

“A really warm and wonderful and fun and happy book.”—NPR’s All Sides with Ann Fischer

“Beautifully written and filled with compassion, humor and an abundance of knowledge about old Hollywood, Mr. Wilder and Me sheds light on lives that aren’t perfect but still well lived.”—Bookpage

A naive young woman called Calista finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realization that his star may be on the wane.

In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema’s most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia.

“In its own quiet way, the novel is as odd as the movie it describes: part Hollywood biopic, part Holocaust memoir, part middle-class domestic drama.”—Benjamin Markovits, The New York Times Book Review

“Life-affirming, genuinely affecting, sublime, Mr. Wilder and Me is a joy to read.”—Now Toronto

Based on the true story of an infamous 1960s experiment, The Dolphin House is a meditation on what makes us truly human.

1965: outside a small house on the coast of St. Thomas, four dolphins are circling in a pool. This is where Cora, newly arrived on the island, finds them by accident, as though they’ve been waiting for her. She won’t discover the motives of the scientists working in the house until later, but by then her apparent connection with the animals—aided by her own deafness—has given her every reason to stay.

The house is a research facility led by the obsessive Dr. Blum, a man aiming to teach the dolphins’ human language. To stave off some of Blum’s more insidious experimentations, Cora suggests they build a flooded apartment where she can live and speak with the youngest dolphin around the clock.

The radical research forges ahead, but Blum has other ideas and Cora’s instincts clash with the male-dominated world of science in the sixties. As a terrible scandal threatens to engulf the experiment, Cora’s determination to save the dolphins becomes a battle to save herself.

A genre-breaking novel from a powerful new African voice 

It is 2019, The Year of Return. Ghana is inviting Black diasporans to return and get to know the land of their enslaved ancestors. Elton, Vincent, and Scott arrive from America to explore Ghana’s colonial past, and to experience the country's underground queer scene. Their visit and activities are narrated by two very different Ghanians: the exuberant and rebellious Kobby, who is their guide to Accra’s privileged and queer circles; and Nana, the voice of tradition and religious principle. Neither is very trustworthy and the tense relationship between them sets the tone for what turns into a gripping, energetically told, and often funny tale of murder reminiscent of the novels of Patricia Highsmith, Graham Greene, Chinua Achebe, and Alain Mabanckou.

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE

“Outstanding.”—Alex Harvey, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Captivating…A delight.”—Malcolm Forbes, Washington Examiner

“A really warm and wonderful and fun and happy book.”—NPR’s All Sides with Ann Fischer

“Beautifully written and filled with compassion, humor and an abundance of knowledge about old Hollywood, Mr. Wilder and Me sheds light on lives that aren’t perfect but still well lived.”—Bookpage

A naive young woman called Calista finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realization that his star may be on the wane.

In a novel that is at once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of one of cinema’s most intriguing figures, Jonathan Coe turns his gaze on the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia.

“In its own quiet way, the novel is as odd as the movie it describes: part Hollywood biopic, part Holocaust memoir, part middle-class domestic drama.”—Benjamin Markovits, The New York Times Book Review

“Life-affirming, genuinely affecting, sublime, Mr. Wilder and Me is a joy to read.”—Now Toronto

WINNER OF THE 2020 YOUTH STREGA PRIZE

From one of the most exciting voices in a new generation of Italian writers, a powerful and moving novel that explores both the darkest recesses and the most luminous regions of the human heart

June 1994. Twenty-year-old Daniele wakes up in a hospital room, confused and surrounded by strangers. Slowly, memories of the previous night return to him: a spiral of anxiety and anger, an explosion of violence so intense that it almost inflicted irreparable damage to him and his family… To his horror, Daniele learns from the doctors that he’s been sentenced to a week of mandatory treatment in a psychiatric ward.

Writing with lucid realism and stunning emotional force, and drawing from the author's own personal experience of mental illness, Mencarelli chronicles Daniele’s seven days in the hospital as he struggles to find a way out of the darkness. Daniele finds unexpected companions in his fellow patients—men who, like him, have felt the full brunt of life’s pain. Together they will realize the hidden strength and value of their common fragility and of the boundless empathy they feel towards others.

By focusing on some of the most marginalized people in our society, Mencarelli has written a heartbreaking and unforgettable novel that challenges our notion of normality and celebrates the salvific power of solidarity and vulnerability.

From one of the most important voices in contemporary Hebrew literature, the gripping story of a reunion between two family members that brings back a long-forgotten past and reveals secrets that will change their lives forever.

Micha, an Israeli expat in Los Angeles working as a ghostwriter, receives an unexpected invitation. Adella, married to his beloved uncle, has bought him a ticket to Israel and booked a boutique hotel, so that he can return home and meet with her.

Years before, Micha was the bridesman at Adella’s wedding. He remembers her as a rebellious young woman, and orphan and an outsider, who was mocked by his close-knit family of Persian Jews. Micha is stunned by the Adella of today–poised, confident, with nothing of the uneasy woman he remembers from the past. When finally Adella reveals the true story of her life, powerful memories resurface in Micha, although nothing can prepare him for the surprise she has in store for him…

The Bridesman presents a beguiling cast of characters, whose stories are interwoven into a gripping and moving tale about family, place, and the unceasing power of the past to reshape our lives and identity.

Winner of the 2019 John Fante First Novel Prize

The critically acclaimed novel from the author of Everything Calls for Salvation, adapted into a Netflix Original series, is a powerful coming-of-age story about loss, identity, and rebirth

Daniele is a young poet plagued by an unknown darkness, “an invisible disease of the heart, or of the mind.” He refuses to conform to society’s expectations—finding a job, starting a family—yet he struggles to define a path of his own and find a sense of purpose in life.

In a desperate attempt to pull himself out of a dangerous spiral of emptiness and self-destruction, Daniele accepts a job at a pediatric hospital in Rome, the Bambino Gesù, where he’ll work with sick children, many of them terminally ill. In the “house of gazes,” that is, the hospital, through his interactions with patients and co-workers, and forced to confront pain in some of its most heartbreaking forms, Daniele will slowly start to look at life with new eyes, and learn to accept it in all its brutality and beauty.

Writing with the evocative power and sharp focus of a poet, Mencarelli tells a raw and moving story of self-discovery, renewal, and liberation achieved through solidarity and compassion, a story closely inspired by the events of his own life.

There is a village carved into the rock of the Maremma hinterland in Tuscany and its name is Le Case. A dying country. A provincial trap. A microcosm of characters who are as vivid as they are universal, their days unchanging and at times tedious.

That is, until the small community is shocked by the arrival of Samuele Radi, born and raised in the heart of the old village, but lost long ago to the world beyond. His return home is the trigger for this magnificently sprawling, choral novel by the author of Nives.

Here is a story about destiny and attempts to change it, about dangerous passions, about games that involve love and death. Because in Le Case the human universe is at times unforgiving. A large cast of extraordinary and memorable characters (including Nives herself, from Naspini’s well received English debut), complicated lives, and complex interpersonal relations: all of these overlap, collide, commingle in a story of secrets and lies. Fortunes are lost, revenge is plotted; there are religious conversions, betrayals, theft, joy, and misfortune; there is love and occasional tenderness. The very stuff of life animates Naspini’s picaresque second novel, the book that catapulted him to national fame in his native Italy, and will surely bring many new readers to his distinctive, prize-winning fiction.