Read Around the World

Raymond Roussel is one of the great secrets of 20th century literature, influencing poets (John Ashbery), novelists (Harry Mathews, Raymond Queneau), and artists (Duchamp and Andre Breton) alike. Michel Foucault's first book was a critical study of Roussel's odd and formally constrained writing. This new translation of his masterpiece is as exciting as it gets for those of you who like esoteric and experimental literature.

Parts fiction, essay, and "literary genealogy," Vladislavic's collection of stories he did not--or could not--write is a fine example of using failure creatively. Beautifully packaged and illustrated, The Loss Library is an intriguing work.

Yes, that's Sindbad, a rakish dandy and great lover of women, whose quest for the ideal object of affection--whether a housemaid, lady, or actress--takes him across a ghostly Hungary in this classic work of Central European fiction. Translated by the incomparable George Szirtes.

This wistful and fragmented narrative comes from a man at his writing desk, grappling as much with writing a first sentence as he is with loves and losses both recent and in the distant past. Espedal's writing expertly balances the immediate setting -- the inner struggle to bring pen to paper and begin something after a series of tragic endings -- with frequent dips into the narrator's childhood memories and family lore, gradually becoming an answer to the question "how did we get here?". The result is a novel that professes itself to be about not writing, while subtly, almost secretly, being a novel about living.

Sergio Chejfec's novel is worthy of joining the pantheon of ruminative walking books, harkening back to the work of Robert Walser, W.G. Sebald, and even Jean-Jacques Rousseau.