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The Governesses

Anne Serre

‘For the governesses, moving in with Monsieur and Madame Austeur was like a homecoming.’

The Pine Islands

Marion Poschmann

‘Gilbert Silvester woke up distraught. Mathilda’s black hair lay spread out on the pillow next to him, tentacles of a malevolent pitch-black jellyfish.’

Animalia

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo

An excerpt from Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, translated from the French by Frank Wynne.

The Polyglot Lovers

Lina Wolff

‘When we were sixteen years old, I broke Johnny’s nose with the back of my hand.’

The Main Thing Is to Keep the Front Garden Immaculate

Simone Buchholz

An extract from Beton Rouge by Simone Buchholz, translated from the German by Rachel Ward.

Vintage 1954

Antoine Laurain

An extract from Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, translated from the French by Emily Boyce and Jane Aitken.

At the Edge of Night

Friedo Lampe

An excerpt from Friedo Lampe’s At the Edge of Night, translated from the German by Simon Beattie.

The Most Common State of Matter

Cara Blue Adams

‘She was quietly awed by her own panic.’

The Silk Road

Kathryn Davis

‘The choice of starting point wasn’t important; the important thing was to cycle through the same sequence of edges.’

Borderland

Olga Tokarczuk

New fiction from Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft.

Picking Up Nathan from the Airport

Benjamin Markovits

‘When shit like this happens, people don’t walk out on fifteen-year marriages.’

The Nature of Man

Alan Rossi

‘Viewed from above, the traffic was reflective as water, cars moving in wavelike shimmers over the surface of the freeway.’

Objects in Mirror

Maxim Osipov

‘He runs through the events of the day in his mind. Fairly frightening, really: the sudden request for his file, the question about the government. And the silence.’

Ten Thousand Feet

Ariana Harwicz

‘I go up and watch the avenue through the window. Noise and more noise. An avenue of insects, stray bullets and snipers sprawled on the rooftops.’