Synopses & Reviews
How transformative can love actually be?
Across the Galician countryside, where there are just as many rain-soaked days as not, villagers face hardships armed with hope and solidarity. Tomás is a successful farmer in this small village, but he’s not happy. His days are busy with work. His nights are a drunken spiral into self-pity and despair. A widower plagued with guilt, his life has been tarnished by tragedy that has pushed him into isolation and loneliness. All of that changes when he sees Suiza.
Warm-hearted and sensual, Suiza lands in the village en route to visit the sea. Her innocently provocative manner disturbs the tranquility of this town. Like all the men who meet her, Tomás is immediately crazy about her. What is initially a simple carnal desire will gradually transform into love and offer the possibility of personal transformation as well.
Review
“Immersive and disturbing... This rough-edged anti–fairy tale is not for the faint of heart.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Moving... a first novel of rare intensity.” RTS (France)
About the Author
Bénédicte Belpois spent her childhood in Algeria, she now lives in Franche-Comté where she works as a midwife. It was during a long stay in Spain that she began to write Suiza, her first novel.
Alison Anderson's translations for Europa Editions include novels by Sélim Nassib, Amélie Nothomb, and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. She has translated all of Muriel Barbery's novels.
Jeremy Garber on PowellsBooks.Blog
Before we say
adios, au revoir, arrivederci, auf wiedersehen, do svidaniya, or
sayonara to 2021, we offer one last roundup of the world’s finest literature in (English) translation, combining releases for both November and December...
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Jeremy Garber on PowellsBooks.Blog
Who knows what awaits in our new year, but, come what may, there’s at least one wonderful thing we can be certain of: hundreds of new works of fiction from around the world. 2022 kicks off with a solid slate of literature in translation...
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Jeremy Garber on PowellsBooks.Blog
This month’s roundup of new literature in translation includes frenetic and ferocious must-read fiction from Argentina, the futuristic Danish novel that "might result if Ursula K. Le Guin and Nell Zink had a baby," a Polish Nobel laureate’s epic masterwork, a Japanese novel from "one of the most important writers of her generation," a Russian cult hit, "a neglected South American masterpiece," a pair of works new and old from a Norwegian master, a Portuguese "Romeo and Juliet–style love story," Moroccan feminist short stories, a multivocal Ecuadorian pop-culture and horror-laden adolescent terror tale....
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Jeremy Garber on PowellsBooks.Blog
Ah, spring — at long last! Of all the simple, delighting joys the season brings, reading outside amidst the blooms and blossoms and lengthening days must rank near the top. This month’s field of new literature in translation includes Ukrainian short stories, Venezuelan metafiction, a "cheerfully dystopian" Japanese novel, a French love story, a Spanish debut about working-class women, a Belgian crime novel, French eco-fiction, the new work from an Austrian Nobel laureate, a Norwegian psychological thriller...
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