An epic chess match on a transatlantic liner unearths a story of persecution and obsession. One of the most perfectly gripping novellas from a master of the form, Stefan Zweig.Chess world champion Mirko Czentovic is travelling on an ocean liner to B…
'I am still unable to leave the burnt-out ruins' Akiyuki Nosaka, 2014In 1945, Akiyuki Nosaka watched the Allied firebombing of Kobe kill his adoptive parents, and then witnessed his sister starving to death. The shocking and blisteringly memorable s…
Georg Simmel was a brilliant, groundbreaking thinker, whose wide-ranging lectures held audiences spellbound in turn-of-the-century Berlin and throughout Europe. The theories of this maverick 'wandering-priest', left their mark on a whole generation…
A brave, original allegory of our modern world'It looks impossible to get out,' he says. And also: 'But we'll get out.'Two brothers, Big and Small, are trapped at the bottom of a well. They have no food and little chance of rescue. Only the tempting…
An elegant fable for the modern age, Louise de Vilmorin's novella Madame de is a poignant tale of honour, deception and fate. This is the story of Madame de -'s earrings. It is a story of jewellery, of love, of denial, of pain, of delight, of societ…
An Irish Times Book of the YearA small boy grows up in Amsterdam, making sand pies, playing with his favourite jumping jack toy, visiting his father's office as a treat. He is loved. Then men with guns come in the night to take them away, and the fa…
'I work in an office. I take cards out of a file. Once I have taken them out, I put them back in again. That is it.' Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - finds life absurd and inexplicable. He live…
New translation of the best stories by one of the twentieth century's greatest and most influential writers'A genius' GuardianNo one has captures the modern experience, its wild dreams, strange joys, its neuroses and boredom, better than Franz Kafka…
Old-school publisher meets e-reader: chaos ensuesThere's a lot of good to be said about publishing, mainly about the food. The books, though - Robert Dubois feels as if he's read the books, but still they keep coming back to him, the same old books…
A man searches for the truth about his uncle's love affair, only to find love himselfPierre thought he knew his Uncle Charles well. He had worked with him on a daily basis for fifteen years, assisting the austere art historian in his studies. Yet af…
By the author of the acclaimed novella BullfightA tragedy in three letters: the masterpiece of one of Japan's greatest writersA lover, her daughter and the abandoned wife: three letters by three women tell the story of a love affair's tragic consequ…
First English translation of this novel by the author of The Spectre of Alexander WolfWhile summering on the French Riviera, the young Seryozha secretly becomes the lover of the much older Liza - who is also his father's mistress. As autumn approach…
Dazzling, hallucinatory stories by Sara Gallardo, a rediscovered Argentinian contemporary of Garcia MarquezAn old man wakes up one morning to find that his beloved garden, the envy of all his neighbours, is floating away - with him on board; a bored…
A selection of the finest stories by this female ChekhovTeffi's genius with the short form made her a literary star in pre-revolutionary Russia, beloved by Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin alike. These stories, taken from the whole of her career,…
