The modern German classic that has shaped an entire generation.A mother and her two teenage children sit at the dinner table. In the middle stands a large pot of cooked mussels. Why has the father not returned home? As the evening wears on, we glimpse the issues that are tearing this family apart.'I wrote this book in August 1989, just before the Fall of the Berlin Wall. I wanted to understand how revolutions start. It seemed logical to use the figure of a tyrannical father...

'I can't remember what it was like being born, but from what they used to tell me it seemed almost as if everything had been fine up to that point.'Standing in her family's two-bedroom flat in the Promised Land, a little girl realizes that once again she won't be getting a cat for her birthday. She's been wanting one ever since she was five – all the way back to when they were living in the refugee camp. In the East, her Grandma made cakes and kept rabbits; now ther...

A haunting Russian tale about the environmental legacy of the Cold War. Yerzhan grows up in a remote part of Soviet Kazakhstan where atomic weapons are tested. As a young boy he falls in love with the neighbour's daughter and one evening, to impress her, he dives into a forbidden lake. The radioactive water changes Yerzhan. He will never grow into a man. While the girl he loves becomes a beautiful woman. Why Peirene chose to publish this book: 'Like a Grimm's fairy tale, this story transfo...

A postmodern Victorian novel about faith, knowledge and our inner needs.The late 1870s, the Kentish village of Downe. The villagers gather in church one rainy Sunday. Only Thomas Davies stays away. The eccentric loner, father of two and a grief-stricken widower, works as a gardener for the notorious naturalist, Charles Darwin. He shuns religion. But now Thomas needs answers. What should he believe in? And why should he continue to live?Why Peirene chose to publish this book...

What does it take to survive? This is the question posed by the extraordinary Finnish novella that has taken the Nordic literary scene by storm.1867: a year of devastating famine in Finland. Marja, a farmer's wife from the north, sets off on foot through the snow with her two young children. Their goal: St Petersburg, where people say there is bread. Others are also heading south, just as desperate to survive. Ruuni, a boy she meets, seems trustworthy. But can anyone really help?

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic ...

More than six million copies sold worldwide!A larger-than-life old man with a fondness for vodka goes on an unexpected adventure in this whimsical internationally bestselling novel—perfect for fans of Forrest Gump and A Man Called Ove**.**After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he'...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • MAN BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • A magisterial novel of love and war that traces the life of one man from World War II to the present.Available now on Prime Video: Justin Kurzel’s highly anticipated series based on this Booker Prize–winning novel by Richard Flanagan; starring Jacob Elordi, Ciarán Hinds, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge and Simon Baker."Magnificent." —*The New York Times Book Review"Nothing short of a masterpiece.

One of the greatest modern novels, The Tin Drum is the story of thirty-year-old Oskar Matzerath, who has lived through the long Nazi nightmare and who, as the novel begins, is being held in a mental institution. Matzerath provides a profound yet hilarious perspective on both German history and the human condition in the modern world.In this edition, Breon Mitchell, acclaimed translator and scholar, draws from a wealth of detailed scholarship to produce a tr...

Review Zdenka Fantlová and her story made a lasting impression. She survived six concentration camps, endured horrors the like of which most of us can't begin to comprehend, yet never lost the will to live or her optimism for a better future. During her time in the camps she kept a little tin ring, made for her by her boyfriend. She risked her life to keep this humble object that meant so much to her. --Fiona Bruce, BBC's Antiques Roadshow and BBC News This book is unique in many ways. Not...

"THE HOTTEST NEW BOOK FROM ICELAND IS WOMAN AT 1,000 DEGREES . . . What a story it is, one worth reading to further understand the complexity of World War II—and to enjoy the quick wit of a woman you won't forget." —Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post"I live here alone in a garage, together with a laptop computer and an old hand grenade. It's pretty cozy."Herra Björnsson is at the beginning of the end of her life. Oh, she has two weeks lef...

In Rory MacLean's ground breaking debut, Winston the pig drops onto uncle Peter's head and kills him dead. It is a distressing end to a distinguished Soviet spy. After the funeral aunt Zita, a faded Austrian aristocrat and a vivacious eccentric, refuses to remain at home in East Germany. Instead she hijacks her nephew and, with Winston in tow, sets out on one last ride. The Berlin Wall fell only weeks before and Zita is determined to reach across the reopened borders and rediscover her rem...