Books Reviewed:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Pitch Dark by Renata Adler
Speedboat by Renata Adler
Ghosts by César Aira (tr. by Chris Andrews)
Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
Topkapi – The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
You Were Never Really Here by Jonathan Ames
The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon (tr. by the author)
Don’t Look at Me Like That by Diana Athill
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Eve’s Hollywood by Eve Babitz
Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz
An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge
The Incident Report by Martha Baillie
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy (tr. by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Bánffy-Jelen) + an additional post on the politics
Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani (tr. by William Weaver)
Fair Stood the Wind for France by H. E. Bates
Grand Hotel by Vicki Baum (tr. by Basil Creighton)
The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán (tr. by Paul O’Prey & Lucia Graves)
Rendezvous in Venice by Philippe Beaussant (tr. by Paul Buck and Catherine Petit)
A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
Who Among Us? by Mario Benedetti (tr. by Nick Caistor)
Insomnia by Marina Benjamin
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Sing Me Who You Are by Elizabeth Berridge
The Story of Stanley Brent by Elizabeth Berridge
Lie With Me by Philippe Besson (tr. by Molly Ringwald)
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares (tr. by Ruth L.C. Simms)
Where There’s Love, There’s Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo (tr. by Suzanne Jill Levine and Jessica Ernst Powell)
The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim (tr. by Jonathan Wright)
Drowned by Therese Bohman (tr. by Marlaine Delargy)
Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac (tr. by Geoffrey Sainsbury)
Wave Me Goodbye, Stories of the Second World War, part 1 – edited by Anne Boston; stories by Rose Macaulay, Mollie Panter-Downes, Jean Rhys, Margery Sharp, Elizabeth Taylor
Wave Me Goodbye, Stories of the Second World War, part 2 – edited by Anne Boston; stories by Beryl Bainbridge, Elizabeth Bowen, Olivia Manning, Barbara Pym, Sylvia Townsend Warner
A Nail, A Rose by Madeleine Bourdouxhe
La Femme de Gilles by Madeleine Bourdouxhe (tr. by Faith Evans)
Marie by Madeleine Bourdouxhe (tr. by Faith Evans)
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
The Hotel by Elizabeth Bowen
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
The Springs of Affection by Maeve Brennan
A Start in Life by Anita Brookner
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
Look at Me by Anita Brookner
Providence by Anita Brookner
Flesh by Brigid Brophy
The King of a Rainy Country by Brigid Brophy
The Snow Ball by Brigid Brophy
Death in White Pyjamas and Death Knows No Calendar by John Bude
Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton
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Liveforever by Andrés Caicedo (tr. by Frank Wynne)
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Summer Crossing by Truman Capote
The Complete Stories by Truman Capote
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup by J. L. Carr
The Harpole Report by J. L. Carr
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
The Long Good-bye by Raymond Chandler
Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze
In the Twilight by Anton Chekhov (tr. by Hugh Aplin)
A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie
Parfums by Philippe Claudel (tr. by Euan Cameron)
Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe
What a Carve Up! / The Winshaw Legacy by Jonathan Coe
The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate
Chéri by Colette (tr. by Roger Senhouse)
Mr Fox by Barbara Comyns
Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
The Skin Chairs by Barbara Comyns
Zenith Hotel by Oscar Coop-Phane (tr. by Ros Schwartz)
Academy Street by Mary Costello
The River Capture by Mary Costello
The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan
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Bird in a Cage by Frédéric Dard (tr. by David Bellos)
The Executioner Weeps by Frédéric Dard (tr. by David Coward)
West by Carys Davies
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield
Nothing Holds Back the Night by Delphine de Vigan (tr. by George Miller)
Les Belles Amours by Louise de Vilmorin (tr. by Francis Wyndham)
Madame de ___ by Louise de Vilmorin (tr. by Duff Cooper)
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Run River by Joan Didion
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
The White Album by Joan Didion
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The Copenhagen Trilogy – Childhood, Youth and Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen (tr, Tiina Nunnally, Michael Favela Goldman)
The Breaking Point by Daphne du Maurier
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
The Inspector Barlach Mysteries by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (tr. by Joel Agee)
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin (tr. by Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
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The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (tr. by Susan Bernofsky)
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The Waitress Was New by Dominique Fabre (tr. by Jordan Stump)
Nagasaki by Éric Faye (tr. by Emily Boyce)
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (tr. by Ann Goldstein)
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (tr. by Ann Goldstein)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (tr. by Ann Goldstein)
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante (tr. by Ann Goldstein)
How to Cook a Wolf by M. F. K. Fisher
At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Golden Child by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Means of Escape by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
The Widow’s Children by Paula Fox
Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
Back to Back by Julia Franck (tr. by Anthea Bell)
House of Glass by Hadley Freeman
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Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
Football in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano (tr. by Mark Fried)
The Cost of Living by Mavis Gallant
Thieves and Rascals by Mavis Gallant
Moon in a Dead Eye by Pascal Garnier (tr. by Emily Boyce)
The Front Seat Passenger by Pascal Garnier (tr. by Jane Aitken)
Promise at Dawn by Romain Gary (tr. John Markham Beach)
An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov (tr. by Jodi Daynard)
The Large Door by Jonathan Gibbs
Happiness, As Such by Natalia Ginzburg (tr. by Minna Zallman Proctor)
Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg (tr. by D. M. Low)
All the Days and Nights by Niven Govinden
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Schlump by Hans Herbert Grimm (tr. by Jamie Bulloch)
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Sudden Traveller by Sarah Hall
Under the Tripoli Sky by Kamal Ben Hameda (tr. by Adriana Hunter)
Craven House by Patrick Hamilton
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
Monday Morning by Patrick Hamilton
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick
The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley
The Hireling by L. P. Hartley
Benediction by Kent Haruf
The Shapeless Unease by Samantha Harvey
Affections by Rodrigo Hasbún (tr. by Sophie Hughes)
In Love by Alfred Hayes
The End of Me by Alfred Hayes
The Girl on the Via Flaminia by Alfred Hayes
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
This Should be Written in the Present Tense by Helle Helle (tr. by Martin Aitken)
Vain Shadow by Jane Hervey
Carol / The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
The Cry of the Owl by Patricia Highsmith
The Very Dead of Winter by Mary Hocking
Blitz Writing by Inez Holden
Anderby Wold by Winifred Holtby
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby
Maybe This Time by Alois Hotschnig (tr. by Tess Lewis)
After Julius by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Odd Girl Out by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Something in Disguise by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes
Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes
The Blackbirder by Dorothy B. Hughes
The Expendable Man by Dorothy B. Hughes
American Midnight – Tales of the Dark – edited by Laird Hunt (stories by Edith Wharton, Shirley Jackson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and more)
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Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue (tr. by Michael Emmerich)
The Hunting Gun by Yasushi Inoue (tr. by Michael Emmerich)
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov (tr. by Andrew Bromfield)
Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo
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Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Dig by Cynan Jones
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Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata (tr. by Howard S. Hibbert)
The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabta (tr. by Edward G. Seidensticker)
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (tr. by Allison Markin Powell)
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun (tr. Anthea Bell)
The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun (tr. by Kathie von Ankum)
A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard (tr. by Don Bartlett)
A Man in Love (My Struggle: Book 2) by Karl Ove Knausgaard (tr. by Don Bartlett)
Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything by Daniela Krien (tr. by Jamie Bulloch)
The Adventures of Sindbad by Gyula Krúdy (tr. by George Szirtes)
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Nada by Carmen Laforet (tr. by Edith Grossman)
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing
A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin
Jill by Philip Larkin
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre
Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
Mona Lisa by Alexander Lernet-Holenia (tr. by Ignat Avsey)
Three Summers by Margartia Liberaki (tr. by Karen Van Dyck
Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector (tr. by Alison Entrekin)
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
Ten by Andrej Longo (tr. by Howard Curtis)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
Checkmate to Murder by E. C. R. Lorac
Fell Murder by E. C. R. Lorac
Fire in the Thatch by E. C. R. Lorac
Sidewalks by Valeria Luiselli (tr. by Christina MacSweeney)
—
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Drowning Pool (Lew Archer book 2) by Ross Macdonald
The Way Some People Die (Lew Archer book 3) by Ross Macdonald
The Ivory Grin (Lew Archer book 4) by Ross Macdonald
Find a Victim (Lew Archer book 5) by Ross Macdonald
The Barbarous Coast (Lew Archer book 6) by Ross Macdonald
The Doomsters by Ross Macdonald
Bitten by the Tarantula by Julian Maclaran-Ross
Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross
Brief Loves That Live Forever by Andreï Makine (tr. by Geoffrey Strachan)
Game for Five by Marco Malvaldi (tr. by Howard Curtis)
The Art of Killing Well by Marco Malvaldi (tr. by Howard Curtis)
School for Love by Olivia Manning
The Doves of Venus by Olivia Manning
The Great Fortune (Balkan Trilogy, book 1) by Olivia Manning – part 1
The Great Fortune (Balkan Trilogy, book 1) by Olivia Manning – part 2
The Spoilt City (Balkan Trilogy, book 2) by Olivia Manning
Friends and Heroes (Balkan Trilogy, book 3) by Olivia Manning
Escape by Dominique Manotti (tr. by Amanda Hopkinson and Ros Schwartz)
The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
A Heart So White by Javier Marías (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
All Souls by Javier Marías (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
The Infatuations by Javier Marías (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
The Man of Feeling by Javier Marías (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
Your Face Tomorrow by Javier Marías (tr. by Margaret Jull Costa)
Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride
Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers
Tea at Four O’Clock by Janet McNeill
Testing the Current by William McPherson
A Stranger in My Grave by Margaret Millar
The Listening Walls by Margaret Millar
Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar
A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli (tr. by Sam Taylor)
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Villa Triste by Patrick Modiano (tr. by John Cullen)
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
Arturo’s Island by Elsa Morante (tr. by Ann Goldstein)
Agostino by Alberto Moravia (tr. by Michael F. Moore)
Divertimento 1889 by Guido Morselli (tr. by Hugh Shankland)
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Saturday Lunch with the Brownings by Penelope Mortimer
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
The Offing by Benjamin Myers
—
The Things We Don’t Do by Andrés Neuman (tr. by N Caistor & L Garcia)
—
A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O’Brien
Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara
Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo (tr. by Daniel Balderston)
Revenge by Yoko Ogawa (tr. by Stephen Snyder)
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (tr. by Stephen Snyder)
Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (tr. by Brian FitzGibbon)
White Hunger by Aki Ollikainen (tr. by Emily & Fleur Jeremiah)
Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
Motherwell by Deborah Orr
Love by Hanne Ørstavik (tr. Martin Aitken)
The Blue Room by Hanne Ørstavik (tr. by Deborah Dawkin)
After Claude by Iris Owens
—
Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
One Fine Day by Mollie-Panter-Downes
Broken Greek by Pete Paphides
The Beautiful Summer by Cesare Pavese (tr. by W.J. Strachan)
Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman
More Was Lost by Eleanor Perényi
Lanny by Max Porter
A Question of Upbringing – A Dance to the Music of Time, book 1 by Anthony Powell
A Dance to the Music of Time, books 2-4 by Anthony Powell
A Dance to the Music of Time, books 5-9 by Anthony Powell
A Dance to the Music of Time, books 10-12 by Anthony Powell
Civil to Strangers by Barbara Pym
Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym
No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
—
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (tr. by Brian Murdoch)
Severina by Rodrigo Rey Rosa (tr. by Chris Andrews)
After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
The Left Bank and Other Stories by Jean Rhys
Tigers Are Better-Looking by Jean Rhys
Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys
—
The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato (tr. by Margaret Sayers Peden)
The Secret in Their Eyes by Eduardo Sacheri (tr. by John Cullen)
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
A Certain Smile by Françoise Sagan (tr. by Irene Ash)
Aimez-vous Brahms… by Françoise Sagan (tr. by Peter Wiles)
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (tr. by Heather Lloyd) + additional thoughts on the translation
Improper Stories by Saki
A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
Last Night by James Salter
Equal Danger by Leonardo Sciascia (tr. by Adrienne Foulke)
The Wine-Dark Sea by Leonardo Sciascia (tr. by Avril Bardoni)
Vienna Tales (short story anthology) – Schnitzler, Stifter, Roth, and more (tr. by Deborah Holmes)
Transit by Anna Seghers (tr. by Margo Bettauer Dembo)
Red Lights by Georges Simenon (tr. by Norman Denny)
The Krull House by Georges Simenon (tr. by Howard Curtis)
The Widow by Georges Simenon (tr. by John Petrie)
Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon (tr. by Marc Romano and Lawrence G Blochman
How to be both by Ali Smith
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Gate by Natsume Söseki (tr. by William F. Sibley)
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
Symposium by Muriel Spark
The Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn – part 1, some overall thoughts
The Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn – part 2, the individual books
Trick by Domenico Starnone (tr. by Jhumpa Lahiri)
The Sorrow of Angels by Jón Kalman Stefánsson (tr. by Philip Roughton)
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Love in a Bottle by Antal Szerb (tr. by Len Rix)
—
A Dedicated Man by Elizabeth Taylor
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor
Hester Lilly by Elizabeth Taylor
In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
The Blush by Elizabeth Taylor
The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi (tr. by Robert & Elizabeth Chandler, Rose France and Anne Marie Jackson)
Subtly Worded by Teffi (tr. by Anne Marie Jackson)
High Rising by Angela Thirkell
The Grifters by Jim Thompson
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín (1) – Nora
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín (2) – life in a small town in Ireland
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (tr. by Archibald Colquhoun)
The Professor and the Siren by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (tr. by Stephen Twilley)
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Child of Fortune by Yuko Tsushima (tr. by Geraldine Harcourt)
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima (tr. by Geraldine Harcourt)
Love and Summer by William Trevor
The Boarding-House by William Trevor
The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor
The Love Department by William Trevor
The Old Boys by William Trevor
Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories by Anthony Trollope
—
The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke (tr. by Jamie Bulloch)
Spring Night by Tarjei Vesaas (tr. by Elizabeth Rokkan)
Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas (tr. by Jonathan Dunne)
Never Any End to Paris by Enrique Vila-Matas (tr. by Anne McLean)
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
—
Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
My First Wife by Jakob Wassermann (tr. by Michael Hofmann)
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
Summer by Edith Wharton
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Children by Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton
Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson
Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson
Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
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A Good School by Richard Yates
A Special Providence by Richard Yates
Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates
Liars in Love by Richard Yates
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Young Hearts Crying by Richard Yates
Miss Mole by E. H. Young
—
The Burning of the World by Béla Zombory-Moldován (tr. by Peter Zombory-Moldován)
Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig (tr. by Anthea Bell)
Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig (tr. by Anthea Bell)
What a useful list! What a hammering my local library’s ordering system is going to take . . .
Thank you! And your excellent essays on films are prompting me to revisit the classics…
That’s an impressive list in just a few short months – congratulations!
Cheers, Lisa! I had a bit of a head start with that stack of IFFP guest reviews…