A-Z Index of Book Reviews (listed by author)

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

The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell 

Who Among Us? by Mario Benedetti (tr. by Nick Caistor)

Insomnia by Marina Benjamin

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin 

Across the Common by Elizabeth Berridge 

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

Family & Friends 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

The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne – Part 1 and Part 2

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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

The Lost Gallows by John Dickson 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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Actress by Anne Enright 

The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (tr. by Susan Bernofsky)

Tea is so Intoxicating by Mary Essex

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The Waitress Was New by Dominique Fabre (tr. by Jordan Stump)

Twelve Nights by Urs Faes (tr. by Jamie Lee Searle

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

Innocence 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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Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill 

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)

Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden 

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

All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison

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

A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith

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

—

Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Road Through the Wall by Shirley Jackson 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 

The Dig by Cynan Jones

—

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)

—

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 Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski 

A Murder of Quality by John le Carré

Call for the Dead by John le Carré 

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

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

Potterism 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)

Nada by Jean-Patrick Manchette

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)

Second Sight by Adam Mars-Jones

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

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan 

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)

Evening Descends Upon the Hills by Anna Maria Ortese (tr. by Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee)

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

Civil to Strangers – the unfinished novels and short stories 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 Sleeping Beauty 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

The True Heart 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

Mrs Eckdorf in O’Neill’s Hotel 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 Ghost Stories of 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

—

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)