There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura (2015), translated from the Japanese by Polly Barton (2020)

The Surveillance JobI’d left my last job because it sucked up every scrap of energy I had until there was not a shred left, but at the same time, I sensed that hanging around doing nothing forever probably wasn’t the answer either (7 ( Read more... )

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing (A Zofia Turbotynska Mystery) by Maryla Szymiczkowa (2015), translated from Polish by Antonio Lloyd-Jones (2020)

Chapter VThe Turbotyńskis’ apartment was by no means immense, nor was it dripping with luxury, but it did have its own grandeur; for grandeur was what Zofia Glodt had cherished most of all in her youth. On ( Read more... )

Jillian by Halle Butler (2015, 2020)

Part 1
Chapter 3“Work is . . . I spend thirty-two hours a week with a woman who isn’t allowed to cut her hangnails for religious reasons. Vanity or something. We listen to light Christian rock together all day. She forwards me photo threads of baby animals with affirmations at the bottom and she belches all the ( Read more... )

The White City: A Novel by Karolina Ramqvist (2015), translation from Swedish by Saskia Vogel (2017)During her pregnancy, she’d convinced herself that if she worried enough about getting stretch marks, she wouldn’t get any ( Read more... )

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2015), translation by Geoffrey Trousselot (2020)

III - The SistersWater flows from high places to low places. That is the nature of gravity. Emotions also seem to act according to gravity. When in the presence of someone with whom you have a bond, and to whom you have entrusted your feelings, it ( Read more... )

Jillian by Halle Butler (2015)

WHY DO WE do it to each other? All of this girl on girl violence? Well, not really violence in the strict sense, she’d never been in a real fight, but a type of primitive aggression she felt constantly, yes, she really felt it was constant ( Read more... )

The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North (2015)

AllisonMy mother always said good manners were for people who deserved them. This attitude used to get her in a lot of trouble, but it was one of the few things I ever learned from her that I liked (31 ( Read more... )