Three normal students. Or so we seemed.At school, as with everything in life, Luigi was a tagalong; I got by, sticking somewhere in the middle; and Luciano was the classic brainiac, with no topic he hadn’t explored or book he hadn’t read.Three good boys, and not because we pretended to be; we had always been … Continue reading Crime Fiction Excerpt: Black Souls by Gioacchino Criaco (Italy)
“High above the forest lives the wolf. An icy cry. Crazy eyes. We know to move our butts when the wolf comes down to eat.” What a start for a children’s book! And this one is excellent, a sly, societal commentary cleverly disguised as a book for children. In this hybrid picture book/graphic novel for … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Wolf in Underpants
For more than twenty years, Soho Crime has been publishing atmospheric crime fiction set all over the world. Some of Soho’s most popular stories will whisk you away to France, China, England, Laos, Northern Ireland, Thailand, Australia, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Italy, Denmark, India, Cuba, and Palestine, to name but a few. Soho Crime’s list run the … Continue reading Crime Publisher Spotlight – Soho Crime
If only she would be quiet! Her pullover was already quite damp from the excitement and the screaming, and her face was so dark red that it looked almost violet. His own shirt was wet and sticky at the shoulder from her saliva. He knew his way around children, with infants too. He actually knew … Continue reading Crime Excerpt: First There Was Silence by Leonie Haubrich (Germany)
In 1939, the Saint Louis sails from Hamburg into Havana’s port with hundreds of Jewish refugees seeking asylum from the Nazi regime. From the docks, nine-year-old Daniel Kaminsky watches as the passengers, including his parents, become embroiled in a fiasco of Cuban corruption. But the Kaminskys have a treasure that they hope will save them: a Rembrandt … Continue reading Crime Fiction Pick: Heretics by Leonardo Padura (Cuba)
Sure. Walking down Presidente Vargas Avenue, the city’s main shopping street, taking a left into Ô de Almeida and then a right onto the First of May, as the author does in the first chapter of BelHell does not seem a very attractive opening, now does it? Damn, you don’t know anything about this city, … Continue reading To Be Translated: BelHell by Edyr Augusto Proença (Brazil)
Romain Slocombe is very at home in Occupied France. Often pictured in a Bogartian fedora, trademark scarf round his neck, he could well be slipping down Avenue Kléber, keeping a wary eye out for the German High Command at the Majestic Hotel, blackmarket supplies tucked discreetly into his overcoat. His knowledge of the period is … Continue reading To Be Translated Recommendation: “L’affaire Léon Sadorski” by Romain Slocombe (France)
A couple of weeks ago, a request popped up in my Twitter feed from none other than Ann Morgan, who read her way around the world: https://twitter.com/A_B_Morgan/status/1277171693463756800 It prompted a flurry of responses from #worldkidlit enthusiasts and inspired me to think about picture books in translation for the very young. While I believe that many … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Picture Books for Infants and Preschoolers
MAYBE ONE DAY PLASTIC BAGS WILL BE BETTER THAN GULLS It’s as if the buildings are breaking over people. One, two, puke: big chunks, everyone dead. A couple of architects on speed wanted to play Tetris against each other, and then everything got out of hand. Brutal boulders in washed concrete and steel stand around … Continue reading Crime Fiction Excerpt: Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz (Germany)
WINNER OF THE FRENCH VOICES PRIZE The Paris Commune’s “bloody week” sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering … Continue reading Translated Crime Title Pick: IN THE SHADOW OF THE FIRE by Herve Le Corre (France)
