This May, the psychological thrillers come from all across the globe! Along with two books written in English, both excellent, this list features four novels in translation. While fiction in translation has a heavy bias towards noir and thrillers, these days you can find plenty of thoughtful, literary suspense making its way to American audiences. Enjoy!
Maud Ventura, Make Me Famous
Translated by Gretchen Schmid
(HarperVia)
In this gripping saga of a pop star’s grueling rise to the top, fame is not for the faint-hearted. Maud Ventura blew me away with My Husband (especially that last page!) and Make Me Famous, a Highsmith-esque thriller following a singer’s brutal, callous efforts to become pop star royalty, is just as viciously delightful.
Franziska Gänsler, Eternal Summer
Translated by Imogen Taylor
(Other Press)
Climate change has destroyed the German spa town at the center of this near-future ecothriller, fires encroaching and winters vanishing, and most have fled area as the dangers grow worse and the tourists grow fewer. One hotel remains open, and that hotel is now playing refuge to a mysterious woman and child. Are they fugitives? Whatever they’re fleeing, it can’t be as dangerous as their new home…Evocative, terrifying, slow-burn suspense perfect for the start to summer (as this Texas-based editor languishes under a truly oppressive heat dome).
Christina Li, The Manor of Dreams
(Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster)
Christina Lee’s debut is a lushly crafted haunted house gothic, full of family secrets and forbidden romance and grounded in Hollywood’s long history of racism & patriarchy. When the first Asian-American woman to win an Oscar dies after a lengthy estrangement from her daughters, she leaves her crumbling estate to the child of her former employees. Her own daughters refuse to accept the will’s startling stipulations without a fight, and as the families complete biltong over the manor, supernatural forces work to reveal hidden truths and enact violent revenge for past injustices. Lee has a talent for understanding the human impulses behind villainous destruction—everyone is understood,but none shall be forgiven. Added to this adage is a sincere belief in the power of love, and an emphasis on the need for honesty in bearing the weight of history.
Franck Bouysse, Clay
Translated by Laura Vergnaud
(Other Press)
Franck Bouysse has done it again! By which I mean that Bouysse has written another truly disturbing noir exploration of the depths of human behavior. In Clay, a French farmhouse in the midst of WWI, bereft of its fighting-age men and plow-pulling horses, is the claustrophobic setting for a slow-burn psychological thriller. Bouysse examines the nature of conflict and the weight of history through a limited cast of characters, featuring a struggling mother, her adolescent son, and their resentful neighbor, spared from the draft but not from his own violence, as they grow ever closer to a devastating clash of personalities, ideals, and resentments.
Andrea Bartz, The Last Ferry Out
(Ballantine)
Andrea Bartz is at the top of her game in this moody thriller set on a remote Mexican island full of secretive vacationers. Bartz’s narrator isn’t on vacation, though—she’s there to find out more about her fiancee’s last days, and learn if there’s a wider story behind her partner’s shocking death from food allergens.
Yiğit Karaahmet, Summerhouse
Translated by Nicholas Glastonbury
(Soho)
Yigit Karaahmet’s new novel is many things: a stunning love story, a thrilling mystery, and a luscious ode to a gorgeous landscape. As Summerhouse begins, we encounter an aging queer couple who have achieved the near-impossible: 40 years together, happy and free from persecution. Their private, luxurious home on a remote island is the key to their success as a couple, but when a family moves in next door for the summer with a rebellious, and gorgeous, teenage son in tow, all bets are off and the couple will have to fight harder than ever before to secure their future.
