READERS, START HERE

If you are lost in the homepage and wondering where to begin, try these random topics—

 

 

Great contemporary (and late modern) novels and short story collections—

Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (Russia) | Boredom by Alberto Moravia (Italy) | Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor (India/US) | The Door by Madga Szabó (Hungary) | The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (UK) | The Vegetarian by Han Kang (South Korea) | For Two Thousand Years by Mihai Sebastian (Romania) | Trysting by Emmanuelle Pagano (France) | Judas by Amos Oz (Israel) | The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig (Germany) | The High Priestess Never Marries by Sharanya Manivannan (India) | Carnival by Rawi Hage (Canada) | Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh (US) | Playthings by Alex Pheby (UK) | Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Italy) | Naked Voices by Manto (India/Pakistan) | Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Nigeria)

Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (Russia) | Houses by Borislav Pekić (Serbia) | The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon (Thailand) | The Traitor’s Niche by Ismail Kadare (Albania) | The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq by Hassan Blasim (Iraq/Finland) | Death in the Museum of Modern Art by Alma Lazarevska (Bosnia) | Ties by Domenico Starnone (Italy) | Monstress by Lysley Tenoria (The Philippines/US) | Beauty is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan (Indonesia) | The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Australia) | The Four Books by Yan Lianke (China) | Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (Congo/France) | The House with the Stained-Glass Window by Żanna Słoniowska (Poland/Ukraine) | A Cup of Rage and Ancient Tillage by Raduan Nassar (Brazil) | The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories by Mavis Gallant (Canada/France) | Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (Palestine/US)

 

Wonderful memoirs and essay collections—

Birth of a Dream Weaver: A Writer’s Awakening by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Kenya/US) | The Sorrows of Mexico: An Indictment of their Country’s Failings by Lydia Cacho and Others (Mexico) | The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson (US) | Traveling With Ghosts by Shannon Leone Fowler (UK) | My Lovely Wife: A Memoir of Madness and Hope by Mark Lukach (US) | Ugly by Robert Hoge (Australia) | Jo Cox: More in Common by Brendan Cox (UK)

 

Classics (ancient, medieval and modern)—

Confessions by Saint Augustine | Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān by Ibn Tufayl | Book of the Marvels of the World by Marco Polo and Rustichello de Pisa | Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma | The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition: A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World  by Al-Nuwayrī | Il Canzoniere by Petrarch | Writings from Ancient Egypt edited by Toby Wilkinson | Tales of the German Imagination edited by Peter Wortsman | Comic Sagas and Tales from Iceland edited by Viðar Hreinsson

 

Books on the history of art and the history of aesthetics that I feel you must possess—

 

Publishers I recommend—

For visual culture: Thames & Hudson | Phaidon

For literature: New York Review Books | Deep Vellum | Titled Axis Press | New Directions | And Other Stories | MacLehose Press | Two Lines Press | Graywolf Press | Milkweed Editions | Portobello Books | House of Anansi | Allen & Unwin | Istros Books | Dedalus Books | Aleph Book Company | Soho Press | Oneworld Publications | Serpent’s Tail | Penguin Classics and Modern Classics Series | Harvill Secker | Canongate Books | Vintage | Salt Publishing | Europa Editions | Salmon Poetry | Picador | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Galley Beggar Press | Yoda Press