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The first Czech astronaut navigates the peril of deep space in this intergalactic odyssey of love, ambition, and self-discovery. Orphaned as a boy, raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Prochv°zka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first...

Satantango, the novel that inspired Béla Tarr’s classic film, is proof that the devil has all the good times. Set in an isolated hamlet, the novel unfolds over the course of a few rain-soaked days. Only a dozen inhabitants remain in the bleak village, rank with the stench of failed schemes, betrayals, failure, infidelity, sudden hopes, and aborted dreams. “Their world,” in the words of the translator George Szirtes is “rough and ready, lost somewhere between the cosmic and tragic, in one small insignificant corner of the cosmos. Theirs is the dance of death.”

No wonder Elias Canetti described it as "one of the few great and perfect works of the poetic imagination written". The Metamorphosis remains one of the best works of fiction in history. It is the story of a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up to find himself being transformed to an insect-like creature. The story unfolds into one of the greatest short fiction stories ever written.

Damned If I Do is a set of brilliantly postmodern short stories from the twice Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Trees, James and Erasure. An artist, a cop, a cowboy, several fly fishermen and even a reluctant romance novelist inhabit these revealing and often hilarious stories. An old man...

Im Krematorium von Juschno-Sachalinsk kommt es während einer Verabschiedungszeremonie des Künstlers Sergejewitsch Prygun zu einer Reihe sonderbarer Szenen, die teilweise unabhängig voneinander stattfinden, jedoch trotzdem ihren gemeinsamen Ursprung im energiegeladenen Umfeld des Verblichenen zu haben scheinen. Ein verschlagener Galerist spielt hierin eine besondere Rolle, aber auch ein fröhlich singendes und tanzendes Damentrio, welches gegen das Gebot der schweren Stunde leichte Unterhaltung bietet.

Während der Erzähler melancholisch in einem Kochbuch blättert, flattert durchs offene Fenster seiner Stadtwohnung ein Rabe in den Raum. Nachdem dieser zwanglos auf der Rückenlehne eines Sessels gelandet war, schüttelte er sein Gefieder und sagte: „Hallo!" Wer glaubt, dass dies nicht schon genug verdreht wäre, wird bald darauf eines Besseren belehrt, denn nach einem kurzen, aber einigermaßen tiefsinnigen Monolog des Besuchers kommt auch noch ein schüchterner Bussard nach, der das illustrierte Selbstgespräch des Raben durch weitere mystische Erläuterungen ergänzt.

In einem Wiener Spital, das er wegen einer Gallenoperation aufgesucht hatte, gerät der ansonsten unbenannte Ich-Erzähler zwischen die sonderbare Front seines vulgär selbstsicheren Bettnachbarn Herrn Körber und seiner eigenen, aufwühlenden Gedanken, die er sich über diese unklare Begegnung notgedrungen macht, und deren Entfaltung sich unbeirrt Schritt für Schritt vor seinen hilflosen Augen zu einem beängstigenden Gesamtbild formt.

Mitty Woodlawn is a local cook at the Joy Annex. He helps his pupils master several dishes and includes kind words with their meals. Mitty’s accommodating nature is captivating to all sorts of residents. His friends Buford and Scarlett, help Mitty navigate through a tough time in his life. Not only have they been there from the jump, but they adore him in every way. Mitty’s harmonious time in Cherishville changes when an odd woman enrolls in his class. He decides to entertain her kooky demeanor and ends up in an unforeseen adventure. His professionalism, freedom and livelihood will be tested.

What if, one ordinary morning, humanity discovered that animals could suddenly understand us… and talk back? In The Cats Have Notes, Sam Peterson and his wife Sally wake to a world forever changed when their three household cats begin carrying on perfectly understandable conversations. Morgana, the self-important Maine Coon mix; Melisandre, the sardonic black cat with a Goth streak; and Grizabella, the sharp-tongued young tabby, suddenly have opinions about everything—from food and litter boxes to television, politics, personal privacy, and the baffling habits of humans.

When a devastating EMP attack wipes out the electrical grid across the United States, the people of Clinton, Iowa suddenly find themselves cut off from the modern world—no phones, no internet, no refrigeration, no idea whether the federal government still exists, and only three days’ worth of patience remaining. Mayor Frank Ramey is trying to keep the city functioning with lanterns, rationed gasoline, and whatever remains of Midwestern common sense.

Imagine a noir thriller that turns completely sideways. A man confronting the darkest reflections of his own obsessions and delusions, and discovers that killing the mirror only deepens the fracture. A SUITABLE CASE FOR TREATMENT is a darkly comic psychological noir in which a mild-mannered man's life descends into chaos when he confronts Andor Vescov, a charming and unhinged figure from his past; a fever-dream of absurdity, horror, and dark comedy, blending psychological tension, cult rituals, and a protagonist whose only crime is surviving his own madness.

Cementing her mastery across genres, Catherine Lacey returns with a new collection of visceral and absurdist short fiction. Across the nine stories in My Stalkers, Catherine Lacey’s second collection of short fiction, women are constantly confronted with the thrill, banality, and horror of...

Already an international sensation, this darkly funny and provocatively visceral novel introduces one of contemporary fiction's most unforgettable heroines: a gifted butcher whose greatest longing is to become a mother. To Esther, meat is beautiful. It is how she understands the world. Raised in...

A Lynchian, absurdist debut novel for fans of Joy Williams and Emma Cline about two disaffected young women and the local homeless man they become obsessed with The Bowl is a strange place: Surrounded by abandoned almond orchards filled with feral children and neighboring towns that keep burning...

"Il fu Mattia Pascal", il romanzo più famoso e amato di Pirandello, scritto nel 1903, ruota attorno al tema dell'individualità e dell'introspezione. Il bibliotecario Mattia Pascal fugge da un matrimonio infelice a Montecarlo, dove riesce a vincere una discreta somma. Tornando a casa scopre dal giornale di essere morto. Subito si inventa un'altra identità, convinto di poter cambiare vita, ma inesorabilmente si ritroverà prigioniero delle convenzioni e delle regole cui ha tentato di sottrarsi.

The Kappa is a creature from Japanese folklore known for dragging unwary toddlers to their deaths in rivers: a scaly, child-sized creature, looking something like a frog, but with a sharp, pointed beak and an oval-shaped saucer on top of its head, which hardens with age. Akutagawa’s Kappa is narrated by Patient No. 23, a madman in a lunatic asylum: he recounts how, while out hiking in Kamikochi, he spots a Kappa.

There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of 'Jane Eyre'. In this world there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel...

This is the story of Evan Evanescent, a quality assessor, who becomes mired in a surrealistic web of corporate psychology, metaphysical guilt, and the suffocating nature of internalised standards. He develops an obsession with an enigmatic poem which leads him to perceive a silent, invisible...

The gentle giant Florian Herscht has a problem: having faithfully attended Herr Köhler’s adult education classes in physics, he is convinced that disaster is imminent. And so, he embarks upon a one-sided correspondence with Chancellor Angela Merkel, to convince her of the danger of the complete destruction of all physical matter. Otherwise, he works for the Boss (the head of a local neo-Nazi gang), who has taken him under his wing and gotten him work as a graffiti cleaner and also a one-room apartment in the small eastern German town of Kana.

Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamitiesis a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories. In this bold debut collection, Senaa Ahmad pushes the boundaries of history and its figures, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In...