Danilo Kiš, a Balkan Jorge Luis Borges, traded in superstition and arcana.
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Doctor Glas
Hjalmer Söderberg's sinister story is an early and superb example of psychoanalytic literature.
The Heart of a Dog
In 1925, Mikhail Bulgakov riffed off a botched operation to slice into communism.
Messing with time
Rachel Joyce's "Perfect," set in the 1970s, takes two tiny seconds for a troubling ride.
The Flamethrowers
Rachel Kusher's Italy-obsessed novel doesn't pass the verismilitude test.
Red Harvest
"Red Harvest," Dashiell Hammett's first Continental Op novel, is a bloody homage to gangland America.
That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana
In English, "That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana" is an impossible novel — which makes it necessary.
Chess Story
Austrian Stefan Zweig used chess to write a memorable parable about Europe's collapse.
A wordmonger’s return
Paul Harding's second novel, "Enon," burnishes the author's transcendentalist credentials.
In a Shallow Grave
James Purdy's remarkable Vietnam-era novel shivers timbers decades later.
Under the Volcano
It doesn't get bleaker (or better) than this — Malcolm Lowry's Mexican masterpiece.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Capote's famed Holly Golightly is in fact little more than a once-over-lightly.