World Books Review: The Early Doom and Gloom of a Spanish Genius

In this story collection mostly made up of tales written early in his career, Spain’s greatest living author, Javier Marías, wears his influences, particularly Jorge Luis Borges, on his sleeve.

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World Books Review: Mao and the Chess Master

In one of the novellas in this fine, powerful collection, acclaimed Chinese writer Ah Cheng probes chess much as the best of Western writers have. What’s more, these stories, which first appeared in the mid-1980s, changed the course of his country’s literature by challenging Maoist conformity.

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World Books Interview: Homage to “The Halfway House”

An interview with Cuban writer José Manuel Prieto about the English translation of the late Guillermo Rosales’s “The Halfway House,” a powerful novel about exile, revolution, and mental illness.

World Books Review: Of Violence and Beauty

Colombian author Evelio Rosero has been writing about the miseries of his homeland for three decades now. His novels, many of which take on the internecine wars, kidnappings, murders, and political upheavals of his country, have won numerous awards (including, humorously enough, the National Literature Prize from the Colombian Ministry of Culture). His work is notorious for being brutally realistic, even hyperrealistic, and “The Armies,” which won 2009 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, is no exception.

World Books Review: Start Making Sense

The prolific Yoko Tawada has a considerable reputation in Europe: her writing — novels, plays, poems, essays, and short stories — has garnered a number of awards, including the Akutagawa Prize and the Goethe Medal.