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The Abyss by Fernando Callejo (translated from Spanish by Yvette Siegert) $40
A memorably caustic autobiographical novel about the demise of a crumbling house in Medellín, Colombia. Fernando, a writer, visits his brother Darío, who is dying of AIDS. Recounting their wild philandering and trying to come to terms with his beloved brother's inevitable death, Fernando rants against the political forces that cause so much suffering. Vallejo is the heir to Céline, Thomas Paine, and Machado de Assis. He hurls vitriolic, savagely funny insults at his country and at his mother who has given birth to him and his many siblings. Within this firestorm of pain, Fernando manages to get across much beauty and truth: that all love is painful and washed in pure sorrow. He loves his sick brother and the family's Santa Anita farm (the lost paradise of his childhood where azaleas bloomed); and he even loves his country, now torn to shreds. Always, in this savage novel about loss — as if in the eye of Vallejo's hurricane of talent — we are in the curiously comforting workings of memory and of the writing process itself, as, recollecting time, it offers immortality. [Paperback]
"Proof that people in Colombia don't read is that Vallejo hasn't been shot yet." —Juan Gabriel Vasquez
"Vallejo inserts the violence battering his country into the very language of his text where words are no mere reflection, they are the violence that startles and overwhelms the reader." —Juan Goytisolo
"Vallejo's novel is about how to care for oneself and others, human and nonhuman beings, when everything seems doomed." —Bruno Franco, Full Stop
The Seers by Sulaiman Addonia $36
The Seers follows the first weeks of a homeless Eritrean refugee in London. Set around a foster home in Kilburn and in the squares of Bloomsbury, where its protagonist Hannah sleeps, the novel grapples with how agency is given to the sexual lives of refugees, presenting gender-fluid, trans and androgynous African immigrants, and insisting that the erotic and intimate side of life is as much a part of someone’s story as ‘land and nations’ are. Hannah arrives in London with her mother’s diary, containing a disturbing sexual story taking place in Keren, Eritrea, where the Allies defeated the Italians in the Second World War. In a gripping, continuous paragraph, The Seers moves between the present day and the past to explore intergenerational histories, colonial trauma, and the realities of the UK asylum system and its impact on young refugees. Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. He spent his early life in a refugee camp in Sudan, and his early teens in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He arrived in London as an underage unaccompanied refugee without a word of English and went on to earn an MA in Development Studies from SOAS and a BSc in Economics from UCL. [Paperback]
”The Seers is an incandescent howl of anti-colonial rage and insatiable desire; a powerful and taboo-breaking love letter to a London made of stories, and a scathing indictment of the UK asylum system’s ability to break hearts and bodies to pieces again and again.” —Preti Taneja
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes) $40
Anna and Tom, an expat couple, have fashioned a dream life for themselves in Berlin. They are young digital "creatives" exploring the excitements of the city, freelancers without too many constraints, who spend their free time cultivating house plants and their images online. At first, they reasonably deduce that they've turned their passion for aesthetics into a viable, even enviable career, but the years go by, and Anna and Tom grow bored. As their friends move back home or move on, so their own work and sex life — and the life of Berlin itself — begin to lose their luster. An attempt to put their politics into action fizzles in embarrassed self-doubt. Edging closer to forty, they try living as digital nomads only to discover that, wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same." Perfection is a scathing novel about contemporary existence, a tale of two people gradually waking up to find themselves in various traps, wondering how it all came to be. Was it a lack of foresight, or were they just born too late? [Paperback]
Short-listed for the 2025 International Booker Prize.
"Vincenzo Latronico is a writer who sees clearly and conveys it beautifully. In Perfection, he paints a stark picture of the conditions that have created a generation's 'identical struggle for a different life': globalisation, homogenisation, the internet. Though on one level the novel is (pitch-perfectly) 'about' Berlin and the 'creative professional' expatriates who have sought a different life in, and inevitably colonised, the city, the story of Anna and Tom will be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has tried to resist the flattening effects of whatever life is now. I can't recommend it highly enough." —Lauren Oyler
"Perfection gave me the gift of being able to hold a long span of time — in a relationship, in a city — and the experience of being young, and the experience of being not so young — all in my head at once. I could hold it there the way you hold a parable or fable, but with all these tiny details, too. It also functioned like a kind of murder mystery: what killed the magic? Was it their values, was it aging, was it... was it...? It's such a beautiful, thoughtful, impeccably crafted book." —Sheila Heti
"Perfection is a jewel of a novel: precisely cut, intricately faceted, prismatically dazzling at its heart. Vincenzo Latronico is the finest of writers." —Lauren Groff
The Honditsch Cross: A tale from 1813 by Ingeborg Bachmann (translated from German by Tess Lewis) $40
An early novel from the author of the wholly remarkable Malina, translated into English for the first time. In the final days of the Napoleonic occupation of Austria in 1813, a young theology student, returning from Vienna to his family home in Carinthia, finds the invading troops stationed there, led by a despotic officer who has been exploiting and terrorising his family and friends. He is immediately thrown into the centre of the conflict, torn between defending his homeland, the pull of physical desire, and the pursuit of his theological studies. In this work, Bachmann begins to explore themes that will pre-occupy her for the rest of her writing career: complex notions of nationality and patriotism, the roles and rights of women in patriarchal societies, the meaningless destruction of war and its aftermath, and the bitter moments of disillusionment that lead to intellectual maturity. [Paperback]
”A quietly furious work, bitterly conscious of the ideological threads that tie the blithe nationalism of the 19th century to its 20th century apotheosis. Bachmann’s father was a lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, and all her work is astoundingly clear-eyed about ambiguities, ambivalences and nostalgic rationalisations of fascism.” —The Berliner
"Equal to the best of Virginia Woolf and Samuel Beckett." —The New York Times Book Review
"Bachmann's vision is so original that the effect is like having a new letter of the alphabet." —The Guardian
Gilgamesh: A new translation of the ancient epic by Sophus Helle $29
Gilgamesh is a Babylonian story about love between men; loss and grief; the confrontation with death; the destruction of nature; insomnia and restlessness; finding peace in one's community; the voice of women; the folly of gods, heroes, and monsters — and more. Translating directly from the Akkadian, Sophus Helle offers a literary translation that reproduces the original epic's poetic effects, including its succinct clarity and enchanting cadence. Millennia after its composition, Gilgamesh continues to speak to us in myriad ways. [Paperback]
"Looks to be the last word on this Babylonian masterpiece." —Michael Dirda, Washington Post
"Lively, earthy, and scrupulous in its scholarship." —Robert Macfarlane, New York Review of Books
"Sophus Helle's Gilgamesh is woven of earthly, muscular language that breathes an epic of gutsy dreams and ancient knowhow. In Helle's rendition, this scholar truly translates rhythm and movement until Gilgamesh breathes anew." —Yusef Komunyakaa
"The translation is elegant and eloquent. The essays and elucidations are learned, lively, and hugely illuminating. Sophus Helle is a poet, a scholar, and, if truth be told, a genius." —Marshall Brown, University of Washington
"Helle's new translation reminds us just what a miracle it is that Gilgamesh has survived, an emblem of mortality available only in fragments, yet speaking to our mortal loves and fears with undying force." —Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University
Natalja’s Stories by Inger Christensen (translated from Danish by Denise Newman) $36
modeled after Boccaccio's Decameron, takes an usual approach to the theme of migration by focusing on the shifting ground of meaning itself. It is a tale told to the narrator by her grandmother — about her mother, "abducted" by a Russian from Copenhagen: taken to Russia, she tries to flee the Revolution; she dies and her ashes are carried back to Denmark. But the story is told and retold in marvelous ways, digressing playfully (often hilariously), and involving murders and absurd characters, with wonderful repeating motifs and passages. Natalja's Stories springs surprise after surprise and, instead of a conventional heartbreaking story of loss and disaster, the book appears as a tantalising account of a character seizing the moment, leaving the past behind, and becoming someone else — offering, in fact, a deconstruction of the usual take on migrant fate as a tragic narrative. [Paperback]
"Her luminous prose confirms what was already evident in the poems: that Christensen was one of the eminent visionaries of the 20th century." —Los Angeles Review of Books
"She whispers to me in my own writing, a brilliant, fierce literary mother whom I will read and reread again and again." —Siri Hustvedt
Still Life with Remorse by Maira Kalman $80
Maira Kalman's most autobiographical and intimate work to date, Still Life with Remorse is a beautiful, four-color collection combining deeply personal stories and 50 striking full-color paintings. Tracing her family's story from her grandfather's birth in Belarus and emigration to Tel Aviv — where she was born — Maira considers her unique family history, illuminating the complex relationship between recollection, regret, happiness, and heritage. The vibrant original art accompanying these autobiographical pieces are mostly still lifes and interiors which serve as counterpoints to her powerful words. In addition to vignettes exploring her Jewish roots, Kalman includes short stories about other great artists, writers, and composers, including Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Gustav Mahler, and Robert Schumann. Through these narratives, Kalman uses her signature wit and tenderness to reveal how family history plays an influential role in all of our work, lives, and perspectives. A feat of visual storytelling and vulnerability, Still Life with Remorse explores the profound hidden in the quotidian, and illuminates the powerful universal truths in our most personal family stories. [Hardback]
Landfall 249: Aotearoa New Zealand arts and letters edited by Lynley Edmeades $35
For almost 80 years, Landfall has been a dedicated space for writers, artists and reviewers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Published twice a year, each volume showcases two full-colour art portfolios and brims with vital new fiction, poetry, cultural commentary, reviews and essays. Bringing together a range of voices and perspectives, from established practitioners to emerging talents, Landfall is always an exciting anthology with a finger on the pulse of innovation and creativity in Aotearoa today. Landfall 249: Autumn 2025 also announces the winner of the Landfall Young Writers’ Essay Prize, an annual competition that encourages up-and-coming writers to explore the world around them through words. Landfall 249 will feature the winning essay, alongside the judge’s report from Landfall editor, Lynley Edmeades. [Paperback]
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (translated from Spanish by Sarah Moses) $33
In the House of the Sacred Sisterhood, the unworthy live in fear of the Superior Sister's whip. Seething with resentment, they plot against each other and await who will ascend to the level of the Enlightened - and who will suffer the next exemplary punishment. Risking her life, one of the unworthy keeps a diary in secret. Slowly, memories surface from a time before the world collapsed, before the Sacred Sisterhood became the only refuge. Then Luca arrives. She, too, is unworthy — but she is different. And her arrival brings a single spark of hope to a world of darkness. [Paperback]
”Barbaric, brutal and utterly beautiful. The Unworthy is a searing haunt of a novel that I will never forget.” —Lucy Rose
”Brutal and aching. A perfect fever dream of a book.” —Heather Darwent
”Unflinching, uncompromising, and unforgettable. Agustina Bazterrica shines a light at the end of the brutal and bleak path we are on so that maybe, just maybe, we can turn around and forge a new one.” —Paul Tremblay
Japan: An autobiography by Peter Shaw $50
Peter Shaw first went almost unwillingly to Japan 25 years ago, staying in Tokyo for only two days. Surprised at how little he knew or understood he was, however, smitten. In the following years he returned many times searching for answers about the country’s culture: its art, architecture, food, religion, history and people. Accompanied by many of his own photographs this book conveys a New Zealand writer’s feelings and thoughts about a unique culture. A nicely designed and produced volume with photographs throughout. [Paperback with French flaps]
Carbon: The book of life by Paul Hawken $40
Carbon animates the entirety of the living world. Though it comprises only a tiny fraction of Earth's composition, our planet would be lifeless without it. From the intricate microscopic networks of fungi in the Earth's soils to the tallest trees of the forests to every cell in every animal, the very fabric of life on Earth is shaped by carbon. Though it is much maligned as a driver of climate change, blamed for the possible demise of civilisation, that is only one part of its story. In this stirring, hopeful and deeply humane book, Paul Hawken illuminates the omnipresence of this life-giving element and the possibilities it provides for the future of human endeavour, inviting us to see nature, carbon and ourselves as exquisitely intertwined and inseparably connected. [Paperback]
”Carbon is an enormously hopeful book — hopeful about the creatures we live among and about our innate human capacities.” —Elizabeth Kolbert
”A book you'll find yourself quoting and reading aloud to anyone who will listen. Hawken tells the beautiful story of carbon's role in our world-as our lifeblood, our synthesis with all living things, our planet's protector-with the grace and fluency of a deep, compassionate thinker. A masterful, urgent, powerful book.” —Isabella Tree
The Story of Scandinavia: From the Vikings to social democracy by Stein Ringen $30
1,200 years of drama, economic rise and fall, crises, kings and queens, war, peace, language and culture! Scandinavian history has been one of dramatic discontinuities of collapse and restarts, from the Viking Age to the Age of Perpetual War to the modern age today. For a thousand years, the Scandinavian countries were kingdoms of repression where monarchs played at the game of being European powers, at the expense of their own populations. The brand we now know as ‘Scandinavia’ is a recent invention. During most of its history, Denmark and Sweden, and to some degree Norway, were bloody enemies. These sentiments of enmity have not been fully settled. Under the surface of collaboration remain undercurrents of hatred, envy, contempt and pity. What does it mean today to be Scandinavian? For the author, whose identity is Scandinavian but his life European, this masterly history is a personal exploration as well as a narrative of compelling scope. [Paperback]
The Light of Asia: A history of Western fascination with the East by Christopher Harding $32
From the time of the ancient Greeks onwards the West's relationship with Asia consisted for the most part of outrageous tales of strange beasts and monsters, of silk and spices shipped over vast distances and an uneasy sense of unknowable empires fantastically far away. By the twentieth century much of Asia might have come under Western rule after centuries of warfare, but its intellectual, artistic and spiritual influence was fighting back. The Light of Asia is a history of the many ways in which Asia has shaped European and North American culture over centuries of tangled, dynamic encounters, and the central importance of this vexed, often confused relationship. From Marco Polo onwards Asia has been both a source of genuine fascination and equally genuine failures of comprehension. [Paperback]
The Green Kingdom by Cornelia Funke $21
Caspia's summer is transformed when she discovers a bundle of letters containing ten botanical riddles in this enchanting adventure. Twelve-year-old Caspia hates big cities, especially one as busy as New York. So she isn't thrilled by the news that her parents are taking her to stay in Brooklyn. It's summer-devouring bad luck! But everything changes when Caspia discovers a bundle of letters, hidden in an old chest of drawers. They belonged to two sisters who lived there long ago. Each letter contains a 'green' riddle, with clues leading to a different plant. Caspia sets out to solve the riddles and, as she does, she meets friends she could never have imagined and discovers that anywhere can feel like home, if you are just brave enough to put down new roots. [Paperback]
Looking at Women Looking at War: A war and justice diary by Victoria Amelina $40
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Victoria Amelina was busy writing a novel, taking part in the country's literary scene, and parenting her son. Now she became someone new: a war crimes researcher and the chronicler of extraordinary women like herself who joined the resistance. These heroines include Evgenia, a prominent lawyer turned soldier, Oleksandra, who documented tens of thousands of war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, and Yulia, a librarian who helped uncover the abduction and murder of a children's book author. Everyone in Ukraine knew that Amelina was documenting the war. She photographed the ruins of schools and cultural centers; she recorded the testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses to atrocities. And she slowly turned back into a storyteller, writing what would become this book. On the evening of June 27th, 2023, Amelina and three international writers stopped for dinner in the embattled Donetsk region. When a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant, Amelina suffered grievous head injuries, and lost consciousness. She died on July 1st. She was thirty-seven. She left behind an incredible account of the ravages of war and the cost of resistance. [Paperback]
”Rare, powerful and affecting, a work of principle and courage by a truly brilliant and inspiring writer.” —Philippe Sands
Ten Little Rabbits by Maurice Sendak $21
The magician pulls ten rabbits out of a hat — and then puts them back in! Acounting book up to ten and back again. [Board book]
