Roland Glasser, tr. Deep Vellum. 2015.Tram 83 (2015) is a lively, frenetic novel filled with a motley cast of characters lustful for pleasure, prosperity, and power. It’s based…
In Every Issue
Photo by Stephen MurphyNew Zealand is, relatively speaking, a tiny country with a population half the size of New York City and in a location so remote, a commercial flight from Los Angeles takes over…
Amjad Ali Khan and Rahim AlHajThe sarod is an instrument used in North Indian classical music whose origin is shrouded in mystery and no small amount of controversy. What is not in dispute is Amjad Al…
In Among the Bieresch, the young narrator, Hans, is sent to his father’s ancestral village in the easternmost province of the “Empire” (a surreal postwar Austria). His uncle…
Untrustworthy narrators twist and turn throughout literature. There are myriad reasons for their lack of reliability. Some are inherently withholding, while others carry on with thei…
Kolkata. Photo by Matthew Winterburn/FlickrKolkata has much to offer any traveler, whether history buff, literary aficionado, culture seeker, or wandering flâneur. In several places around the city, a…
Jim Hinks, Masashi Matsuie & Michael Emmerich, eds. Manchester. Comma Press. 2015. ISBN 9781905583577.This new collection of short stories by Japanese wri…
From the opening ascending arpeggio of “Taquito Militar,” the thoughtful interplay between guitarist Berta Rojas and Argentina’s most beloved chamber group, Camerata Bariloche, takes center stage on…
In the past decade, especially, much has been written about Iranian memoirs and particularly the nonfiction of Iranian females of the diaspora. Within that, many Iranian American fiction writers (such…
Photo by Tanya TraboulsiIf ever an album has been created to invite the uninitiated to dip a toe into the deep water of contemporary Arab music, it is Alif’s debut release, Aynama-Rtama,…
The Mountain and the WallBy Alisa GanievaDeep Vellum The Vienna MelodyBy Ernst LotharEuropa Editions Alisa Ganieva’s The Mountain and the Wal…
While the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been going on for fourteen years, much of American literature from these conflicts is only now emerging. I appreciate the veterans who’ve woven the s…
Photo by Christian Holzinger/UnsplashThe editors of WLT have each selected three books they’re looking forward to reading this summer. Peruse our selections to get ideas for your own summer r…
Summer is here, and that means one thing: vacation! Whether you’re on a grand exploration or simply relaxing with a staycation, WLT is here to provide a getaway that you can hold in your…
If a written, spoken language is one of the characteristics that distinguishes humans from other animals, what would happen if the ability to speak—to even comprehend the spoken word—suddenly vanished…
A still from Shelley Niro’s Honey Moccasin. We are all painfully aware of the dominant cinematic representations of Native women—the princess, the sexualized maiden, the work…
Bridging Enigma: Cubans on CubaEdited by Ambrosio FornetThis special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (vol. 96, no. 1, Winter 1997) presents Cuban reality as seen by sixtee…
Happy Are the HappyYasmina Reza John Cullen, tr. A short advance excerpt from Yasmina Reza’s new novel fairly crackles with electric wit and precise comedic timing. Her award-winning talent…
Graywolf Press, 2014How much of a poet’s biography can be read into (or behind) a book of poems? In the case of Fanny Howe’s latest collection, Second Childhood, the temptation to project a l…
Iceland enjoys a powerful literary tradition, underpinned by the old Icelandic sagas and Eddaic poems and also by the Icelanders’ struggle for emotional and spiritual survival during centuries of pove…
Still writing “on this earthquake fault” in San Francisco, feminist Beat poet Diane di Prima continues to create her revolutionary verse. At eighty, aged out of the thirty-under-thirty and forty-under…
A Ukrainian writer looks outside the country for three books that help illuminate what threatens modern Ukraine. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North KoreaBarbara Demick …
It’s the holiday season once again, and whether you’re shopping for Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Christmas, WLT has a new book for every reader on your list. For the BeatnikDia…
The spectacular sounds and exoticism of Mongolian music often attract audiences outside the Mongolian cultural area—the rough, unreal human voice of khöömii (throat singing), the wide range a…
With a dose of wit and self-deprecation, Aaliya is a narrator who doesn’t fail to entertain. Rabih Alameddine invites the reader into Aaliya’s late-life crisis where—after a few glasses of red wine—sh…