A strange and darkly comic novel about a young tennis coach, his pupil, a crumbling castle where towels behave in a sinister manner... This is the first time this modernist-gothic masterpiec... read more
A Finnish picaresque novel, about a man who abandons his conventional life when he pursues an injured hare into the forest. First published in 1975 and now a classic.
Set in Siberia in the 1970s, the adult narrator looks back on his friendship with an Armenian boy. Other slim but lyrically powerful novels by this great Russian/French novelist include Test... read more
A compulsive political thriller that takes us deep into the Kremlin and the psychology of authoritarianism: at its heart is Putin's chief spin-doctor, the still centre of a delirious propaga... read more
Tokyo, an astonishly good cook and multiple murders. This is not a who-dunnit but a why-dunnit - and there is much to savour, both malicious and delicious.
Drawing on the author's own experiences of WW2, the novel's protagonist rebels against the pressures of family and politics in Fascist Italy. First published in 1949. By the author of Forbid... read more
An excellent Catalan novel from the 1970s, about flight and return, in which the Civil War still looms over the tail-end of Franco's era and modernity blooms. A marvellous evocation of Barce... read more
A slim, charming and witty riff on Proustian themes - the shallowness of society, the impossibility of love, the enduring power of art... Life-affirming!