The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies
This Frank O’Connor Award–winning collection introduced readers to a writer who has gone on, in novels like The Mission House and Clear, to write tiny, hard-cut gems that are now celebrated around the world. The stories in this collection—one a single, brutal page—shows that this book is the equal of anything that has followed it.
Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
This novel narrated by six-year-old Frankie—who likes cheese, numbers, and the sea when it is pink and “smooth like counting”—charmed everyone when it first came over the threshold in its exploration of grief, the intelligence of children, and the opacity of the adults around them, and it can do so again.
Alphabet by Kathy Page
Simon Austen has the names people have called him tattooed over his body: Bastard. A Threat to Women. Murderer. Serving life in prison, Simon embarks on a terrifying process of self-reconstruction. Alphabet is a harrowing exploration of one man’s uncertain journey towards rehabilitation.
Malarky by Anakana Schofield
Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, this story of a teapot-wielding mother and farm-wife turned sexual outlaw is brilliant in its moving comedy, and launched one of the most original voices literature has seen in the last quarter-century.
Dead Heat by Benedek Totth, translated by Ildiko Noemi Nagy
In Hungary, Benedek Totth is the translator of William S. Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, Stephen King, and Cormac McCarthy, and these influences are evident in his only work to date available in English. Dead Heat is a shock to the system, a novel of reckless violence in a totalitarian world, a harrowing story of young men coming of age in an abandoned generation.
Good Morning Comrades by Ondjaki, translated by Stephen Henighan
Ondjaki wrote this bittersweet portrait of a childhood in Cuban-occupied Luanda, Angola, when he was in his early twenties. Now, more than twenty years since the original in Portuguese, the novel’s narrator, Ndalu, still charms with his sweet, imaginative naiveté as he invents games with friends and dodges criminal gangs. This is moving, heartfelt autofiction, incorporating both serious political commentary and moments of slapstick comedy.
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Thanks to Biblioasis for sharing this list of backlist beauties. You can order any of these books through All Lit Up, or click the “Shop Local” button on the book listings to discover them at your local indie bookstore.
