In Cécile Desprairies’s disquieting historical novel "The Propagandist", a woman reflects on her mother’s experiences as a World War II collaborator. Coline, Lucie’s youngest daughter, contrasts her mother’s duplicitous past... Read More

Misogyny and religious conviction are vicious bedfellows in Eduardo Sangarcía’s horrifying, humbling literary novel "The Trial of Anna Thalberg", based on the Würzburg witch trials that tore through poor populations with their... Read More

A fairy tale with an edge, Stefanie vor Schulte’s "Boy with a Black Rooster" explores a vast land afflicted by cruelty and ill fortune. Martin is a kindhearted orphan whose father went insane and killed the rest of his family. Looked... Read More

In Vigdis Hjorth’s powerful novel "If Only", a playwright develops an obsession with an older professor that spirals into an all-consuming love affair. At thirty years old, Ida is married with two children. She has a successful career... Read More

Young lovers run up against the limits of their abilities to control their own destinies in Johannes Anyuru’s melancholy novel "Ixelles". Ruth should know a lie when she hears one: she lies for a living, helping brands and politicians... Read More

Tragedy strikes a dysfunctional Turkish German family in Fatma Aydemir’s searing novel "Djinns". Hüseyin worked hard his entire life so he could bring his family back to his homeland in style. He dies only a week after accomplishing... Read More

A troubled prosecutor reconsiders her definition of justice in Simone Buchholz’s thriller "The Kitchen". During a sweltering Hamburg summer, garbage bags filled with body parts keep turning up in the bay. Riley, the public prosecutor,... Read More

The first tome in an epic series set to cover the span of human history, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s riveting novel "Paradises Lost" introduces an immortal who’s grown weary of human foibles, but who still recognizes the wondrous... Read More