For the admirers of Edgar Allen Poe
Tommaso Landolfi
An Autumn Story
Translation Joachim Neugroshel
Tommaso Landolfi has the reputation of being a “writer’s writer,” most of whose novels and short stories are out of print despite the high…
Chapter One
At the time of this story, the war had driven me far from my usual dwelling places. Two dreadful foreign armies were clashing on our soil, and most of us felt as if the ferocious campaign would rage on forever. Our population, as you can imagine, suffered direct, barbaric harm. And when…
Read the whole sample CloseSo Much More than Fishing
Ota Pavel
How I Came to Know Fish
Translation Robert McDowell
An exceptional collection of stories about a magical childhood during the Nazi occupation. One of Czech literature’s best-loved classics.
We three boys loved to go to the country around Krivoklat castle. Then I didn’t know why, but today I do. Papa understood. Even then he knew that though one day I might see the boulevards of Paris and the skyscrapers of New York, I would never again spend weeks in a cottage where bread browns…
Read the whole sample CloseWhere Conformity Meets Individuality
Miroslav Krleža
On the Edge of Reason
Translation Zora Depolo
On the Edge of Reason reveals the fundamental chasm between conformity and individuality. As folly piles on folly, hypocrisy on hypocrisy, reason itself begins…
1. Human Folly
At night, when I hold conversations with myself, I cannot logically justify my constant preoccupation with human folly.
Whether human folly is the work of God or not, it does not diminish in practice. Centuries often elapse before one human folly gives place to another, but, like the…
Read the whole sample CloseThe World According to Termites
Stefan Themerson
Professor Mmaa's Lecture
“I recommend this book to the reader because it is massive, impressive, and grimly amusing. I cannot promise the reader that at any point he will shake his…
CHAPTER ONE
Wherein Professor Mmaa Begins His Lecture
“I have steadfastly resisted the temptation…” – said Professor Mmaa; and as he spoke it suddenly occurred to him that the world was simple and not complicated.
“It has suddenly occurred to me that the world is simple and not…
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Doomed Grandeur
Miklós Bánffy
The Transylvanian Trilogy
Translation Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Bánffy-Jelen
They Were Counted, the first part of the trilogy, paints an unrivalled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, as seen through the eyes of two…
PART ONE
Chapter One
The radiant afternoon sunlight of early September was so brilliant that it still seemed like summer. Two larks were soaring high into the air, pausing a few seconds and then diving to skim the surface of the fields before rising ever higher into the blue sky.
On the ground…
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