Natalya

Translated from Portugese to Italian by Francesca Leotta

Written in Portugese by Valério Romão

5 minutes read

Cât de interminabil e începutul

Translated from Dutch to Romanian by Mădălina Balea

Written in Dutch by Corinne Heyrman

9 minutes read

Linguado

Translated from Dutch to Portugese by Lut Caenen

Written in Dutch by Nikki Dekker

8 minutes read

Măi, fetelor (It’s Both Heaven and Hell Here. Moldova: a Century of Lived History)

There are few places across Europe which have had the tumultuous story of Moldova in the 20th and 21st centuries. My greatgrandmother, for instance, spent most of her life in the same village while living in four different countries: she was born in the Russian Empire, went to school in Romania, resisted collectivisation and eventually gave in during the Soviet era, and got retired in the independent Republic of Moldova. I share her story in this book, as well as stories of other people with different backgrounds I interviewed, in an effort to create a polyphonic view of Moldova’s recent history. Chronologically, the book starts with the 1903 infamous Chisinau pogrom and it ends with the 2022 refugee crisis caused by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Geographically, the stories are rooted in Moldova but they cover the whole world thanks to the processes of migration that characterised all of the communities described in this book — Jewish, Roma, Armenian, Moldovan, Ukrainian, Russian etc. — at different points during history.

Written in Romanian by Paula Erizanu

7 minutes read

Bintje

De rijzige appartementsblokken van de provinciestad, jaren negentig. Bintje groeit op in een verscheurd gezin. Haar Congolese vader is een fanatiek religieuze man, een aan lagerwal geraakte schrijver die geen werk vindt en overdag aan zijn memoires werkt. Hoe gedesillusioneerder hij raakt, hoe meer hij naar de fles grijpt en hoe agressiever hij thuis wordt. Desondanks adoreert Bintje haar vader en probeert ze hem op het juiste pad te houden. Als het echter duidelijk wordt dat hij niet te redden valt, verbreekt ze alle contact. Dertig jaar later is Bintje in hetzelfde bedje ziek. Gescheiden en vervreemd van haar zoon, woont ze nog altijd in de intussen verloederde blokken en worstelt ze met haar eigen verslavingen. Haar job als leerkracht biedt enige houvast, tot ze ook op school de controle verliest en wordt gedwongen haar jeugdtrauma’s onder ogen te zien.

Written in Dutch by Tuly Salumu

9 minutes read

Lotosové květy, které se zavírají (když se do nich vstoupí) (Cesta recepčního)

Translated from Serbian to Czech by Věra Böhmová

Written in Serbian by Nikola Lekić

6 minutes read

Comparto el cielo con los pájaros

Translated from Slovenian to Spanish by Xavier Farré

Written in Slovenian by Agata Tomažič

10 minutes read

Apartotel

Translated from Italian to Spanish by Paula Caballero

Written in Italian by Maurizio Amendola

10 minutes read

Prvo dolazi ćutanje

Translated from Romanian to Serbian by Mirela Belada

Written in Romanian by Ioana Maria Stăncescu

8 minutes read

Kalcifikacija

Translated from Dutch to Slovenian by Nika Štrovs

Written in Dutch by Lisa Weeda

7 minutes read

Ook als je er maar één druppel van te zien krijgt

Written in Dutch by Rebekka de Wit

9 minutes read

Als de dieren

In Als de dieren onderzoekt een vrouw wat haar is overkomen na de geboorte van haar eerste kind – een ervaring zo donker dat ze zich tegen taal en betekenis verzet. In het dierenrijk, in oude mythes, in foto’s, e-mails en zelfs boodschappenlijstjes uit haar kraamtijd, zoekt de vrouw naar houvast. Hoe word je, lang nadat je je kind op de wereld hebt gezet, alsnog moeder? En hoe verenig je opnieuw de brokstukken van een mens, nadat die uit elkaar is gevallen?

Written in Dutch by Lieselot Mariën

9 minutes read

Začátek a jeho nekonečnost

Translated from Dutch to Czech by Barbora Genserová

Written in Dutch by Corinne Heyrman

8 minutes read

парченца град (schervenstad)

Translated from Dutch to Bulgarian by Elena Dimitrova

Written in Dutch by Hanan Faour

8 minutes read

Natalya

Translated from Portugese to Spanish by Lara Carrión

Written in Portugese by Valério Romão

5 minutes read

Nie byłam, ale teraz jestem. Wrażliwa na każdą zmianę pogody

Translated from Serbian to Polish by Aleksandra Wojtaszek

Written in Serbian by Marija Pavlović

7 minutes read

Copac monstru copil copac

Translated from Spanish to Romanian by Oana-Dana Balaş

Written in Spanish by Mariana Torres

9 minutes read

Een gelukkig einde

Translated from Serbian to Dutch by Pavle Trkulja

Written in Serbian by Jasna Dimitrijević

10 minutes read

In The End (Koniec)

Metaphysical and blasphemous novel about the tragedy of war that never meets a clean end with a peace treaty. The war goes on, residing within its victims who carry it from one generation to the next. Malwina, an exceptionally sensitive girl, experiences her grandmother’s wartime memories in her dreams. This makes her exist in two parallel realities at once: the 1940s Eastern borderlands and Siberia along the 1990s Poland. Those realities seep and bleed through one another, making Malwina a catcher of her survivor grandmother’s dreams, or perhaps a dybbuk who gives voice to the dead. To Malwina, the war persists, haunting her day and night alike. Poignant and piercing, Koniec is an impressively well-crafted prose.

Written in Polish by Marta Hermanowicz

10 minutes read

Een paar verdwaalde minuten

Translated from Romanian to Dutch by Charlotte van Rooden

Written in Romanian by Cristina Vremes

10 minutes read