May brings a particularly solid crop of newly translated mysteries, thrillers, and horror fiction; I would also like to point out how nicely the covers match, and also how nice it is to see so many small presses represented in this column.
As gas prices continue to rise, and travel becomes increasingly and prohibitely expensive, stories set across the world and crafted by those whose lived experiences infuse their pages become more essential than ever. Thanks to all the publishers, translators, writers, and readers who still believe in a world without borders, who are actively defying the insidious creep of isolationism, xenophobia, and nationalism. This column is one very, very small way of fighting alongside you.
Mónica Ojeda, Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun
Translated by Sarah Brooker
(Coffee House Press)
If you love to hate Burning Man, this book is for you! I tried to recommend this book to someone at a music festival recently (they may not have heard me), and while no one expects to get a book recommendation at a music festival, this book totally makes sense because it in fact takes place at a festival! In Mónica Ojeda’s latest, two friends escape to a week-long electronic extravaganza and spiritual happening at the foot of a volcano. While one half of the dynamic duo just wants to party, the other can’t help but sense the basic wrongness of the festival, setting aside hedonism in a quixotic attempt to uncover the organizers’ dark designs. Also, to the guy who didn’t seem very into it when I tried to recommend this book to him: are you a cop? You have to tell me. Nothing else justifies your lack of enthusiasm.
Andrey Kurkov, The Lost Soldiers
Translated by Boris Dralyuk
(HarperVia)
Another mordantly funny take on early Soviet Ukraine during the Russian Civil War from an author who has long understood the intersection of suffering and absurdity. The Lost Soldiers, the third entry to Kurkov’s ongoing historical mystery series, involves the disappearance of 28 Soviet soldiers from a bathhouse, leaving their uniforms and effects behind. They can’t have gone far, or at least, not naked, and Kurkov’s accidental investigator Samson shouldn’t need long to find out what happened, given his special talents (and severed ear, which continues to transmit whatever sounds occur in its general vicinity).
Hildur Knútsdóttir, Dead Weight
translated by Mary Robinette Kowal
(Tor Nightfire)
Hildur Knútsdóttir’s new novella is equal parts sweet and bloody, featuring a genuine connection forged by a random encounter, and sealed in blood. In Dead Weight, an isolated office worker finds herself taking care of a cat, her kitten, and the cat’s imperiled owner. Not to worry: she’s always been good under pressure, especially when she has a plan. And she’s had plenty of time to plan, ever since her father’s disappearance all those years ago. Creepy, brutally honest, and strangely heartwarming, this one should only take a couple hours to read but will stay with you for far longer. Especially that bit about the tendons. You’ll know it when you read it.
Xu Zechen, Night Train
Translated by Jeremy Tiang
(Two Lines)
Xu Zechen’s woeful narrator has only ever wanted to escape from his two-bit hometown and the third rate university cementing its provincial status; instead, he tells a shocking untruth to get out of town and finds the consequences of his misbehavior have cemented him in place even further. When everyone already believes you to be either a liar or a killer (for his lie was about a murder), it can be tempting to turn that oh-so-damaging lie into truth.
Choi Jin-Young, Hunger
Translated by Soje
(Europa Editions)
In this instant cult classic from South Korea, a woman loses her lover to sudden death in the street, then begins to slowly consume his body to preserve their connection. The novel alternates perspectives between living and dead, survivor and decedent, as they reach for an unholy reunion through uniting flesh and spirit.
Alessandro Robecchi, Broken Truths
Translated by Gregory Conti
(Other Press)
An aging film star, with only one year left to live, decides to reopen the unsolved murder of a crime fiction pioneer, killed during the peak of Italian fascism, and finds himself at the center of a new investigation when the widow next door is found murdered. The spare prose only heightens the depth of emotion, for a fascinating and haunting drama of quietly epic proportions.
