For the summer, we here at The New Press thought we would share some of our favorite fiction titles that we’ve published over the years. This June we wanted to tour some of the world, focusing on literature made here in the Americas or Europe, to highlight the incredible literature that has come from the non-US world. Each month has a theme and each week has its own relevant book that we will be showcasing, so you can relax this summer without sparing a moment without a book in hand!
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Springtime in a Broken Mirror: A Novel by Mario Benedetti, translated by Nick Caistor
In the wake of the CIA-backed military coup that sent Uruguay into over a decade of dictatorship, a man named Santiago endures political violence as a prisoner. He writes letters to his wife, Graciela, who is exiled in Buenos Aires with their young daughter and Santiago’s father. As Santiago’s prison sentence goes on for years and years, his relationship with Graciela weakens, as she begins to question her love for him, and his friend, Rolando, starts trying to seduce her. Mario Benedetti manages to combine the tradition of deep family sagas with the political turmoil of the US’ Operation Condor to create a tender, messy, fractured, and beautiful story that reflects the era perfectly.
Creole Folktales by Patrick Chamoiseau, translated by Linda Coverdale
Patrick Chamoiseau explains that Martinique stories and folktales originate from the time period of slavery and colonialism, and the morals and characters that he shares can only be understood through the people’s struggles of starvation, terrorism, and basic survival. Most famous for his novels Texaco and Slave Old Man, Creole Folktales is a collection of stories Chamoiseau heard as a child, ones that reflect the colonial legacy and history of his Caribbean nation. This can be seen in the first story, “The Rainmaker,” where the island is stricken with drought, where the “reddest flowers had burst into flames with sulfurous sighs,” which is only alleviated by a magical boy. Or in “The Person Who Bled Hearts Dry,” which finds a slave ship plagued by a magical illness that turns their blood into a sugary syrup and turns their hearts into guava.
Pig Tales: A Novel of Lust and Transformation by Marie Darrieussecq, translated by Linda Coverdale
Marie Darrieussecq’s debut novel Pig Tales is an odd, freakish, otherworldly look into gender, sex, and metamorphosis. A young woman manages to get a job at a beauty boutique/”massage” parlor where she looks to make a little money to help her partner Honoré with the rent. As the job begins to lean away from regular work and more towards prostitution, she begins to suspect she is pregnant: ham becomes revolting and causes her to vomit; she accepts a trip out to a client’s vacation home just for some apples; and develops a desire to stick her nose in things. But she eventually realizes that she isn’t pregnant; she is slowly transforming into a literal pig. Darrieussecq’s work combines male obsession with beauty and defilement with magical realism to create an incredible, short treat of feminist fiction.
Her First American: A Novel by Lore Segal
In Lore Segal’s world renowned Her First American, the young woman Ilka Weissnix had just fled fascist Europe for America due to her Jewish heritage when she ran into Carter Bayoux, a middle-aged Black American. They quickly fall in love, fueled by a shared sense of displacement and repression, with Ilka having fled genocide and Carter struggling to find himself amongst a society built upon racism and discrimination. Carter’s hectic life of depression, alcoholism, and a troubled past threaten to drag Ilka from her own desire to see “the real America” in Carter as she tries to save him from his own trauma. This beautiful love story was published over forty years ago and still dazzles today.
