Look inside: an extract from Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

Posted 2nd March 2023

About the book Out running an errand, Valeria Cossati gives in to a sudden impulse – she buys a shiny black notebook. She starts keeping a diary in secret, recording her concerns about her daughter, the constant churn of the…

Lucy Raitz: Days of Reading Proust

Posted 18th November 2022

Literary translator and French teacher Lucy Raitz chronicles her relationship to the work of Marcel Proust, from dipping madeleines in tea as a child to setting up a Proust Book Club as an adult. First there was the china-blue Scott Moncrieff set on…

Are you a true Japanese honkaku fan? Take our quiz to find out!

Posted 11th November 2022

As the days get shorter and the nights longer, Japanese honkaku mysteries on a wintry evening feel like the perfect companion. Discover if you are a true fan of classic Japanese crime and get ready for the dark nights ahead:…

An Introduction to Machado de Assis, by one of his contemporaries Tristão da Cunha

Posted 26th October 2022

Machado de Assis, who came to be the finest prose-writer in the Portuguese language, died on September 29th last, in Rio de Janeiro, the city where he was born in 1839, and which he never left. He divided his time…

Look inside: an extract from A Line in the World by Dorthe Nors

Posted 6th October 2022

About the book There is a line that stretches from the northernmost tip of Denmark to where the Wadden Sea meets Holland in the south-west. Dorthe Nors, one of Denmark’s most acclaimed writers, is a descendant of this line; for…

Emma Viskic: My Life of Crime with Caleb Zelic

Posted 17th June 2022

Author of the Caleb Zelic series, Emma Viskic, has been writing the addictive crime thriller series since 2017 and won multiple awards. Here she explores the influences that played a role in the evolution of Caleb Zelic throughout the series.…

Elena Medel: Five Women to Read in Women’s History Month

Posted 9th March 2022 by Elena Medel

In The Wonders, Elena Medel explores the lives of two working-class women, María and Alicia, against the backdrop of over fifty years of feminist struggle in Spain. Here she recommends five female authors to read during Women’s History Month and…

Maxine Mei-Fung Chung’s female-led thriller recommendations for International Women’s Day

Posted 8th March 2022 by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung

by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung It is International Women’s Day and the electric psychoanalytic thriller THE EIGHTH GIRL by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung is now out in paperback. We asked Maxine to recommend her favourite psychological thrillers and suspense by female authors…

An Introduction to Paul Biegel, from his daughter

Posted 9th February 2022 by Leonie Biegel

When I was little my father, Paul Biegel, my mother, my brother and I lived in a canal house in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. My brother and I had a room high up in the attic where in wintertime we…