The day is Friday, May 22, 2032. On this day, the day after his ninety-fourth birthday, a man is sitting in a beautiful garden. It is a paradise where he often played during his childhood, and it is here that he is recording the story of his adventur...

With subtle, bemused humor and an unerring eye for human frailty, Michel Layaz writes about the hidden tensions within families, the awkwardness of adolescence, and the drama of intimacy between friends and lovers. His fifth novel, "My Mother's Tears...

It's the mid-to-late 1800s and the British have banished Wajid Ali Shah – the nawab of Awadh in Lucknow – to Calcutta. To the sound of the soulful melody of the sarangi, the mercurial courtesan Laayl-e Aasman is playing a dangerous game of love, loya...

Cees Nooteboom wrote the poems that make up "Monk's Eye" on two islands: he began them on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog and finished them on the Spanish island of Minorca, where he has spent summers for decades. The poems – which can be read in...

One of the greatest ambassadors of Indian cinema on the global stage, Mrinal Sen has always seen his life and work as part of the social and political fabric of his time. Considered the enfant terrible of Indian cinema when he broke on the scene in t...

Clowns are not just the stuff of backyard children's parties anymore. These days, clown doctors see patients – especially children – to introduce humor and imagination into an anxiety-filled and painful experience. The origins of medical clowning can...

This gripping novel brilliantly straddles the divide between thrillers and literature. Moinul Ahsan Saber here tells the story of Kobej Lethel, a ruthless soldier of fortune employed by a corrupt village chief. Lethel has never had a problem with the...

Two men talk in Tokyo. One, a Belgian, is a diplomat. The other, Dutch, is a photographer. What, they wonder, is the real face of Japan? How can they get beyond the European idea of the nation and its people – with its exoticism – and see Japan as it...

This acclaimed novel is set during the Lebanese Civil War and offers a rare depiction of women's experiences amid this sprawling, region-defining conflict. In Alawiya Sobh's hands, the details of everyday life mix with female voices from across class...

Toby Litt is best known for his "hip-lit" fiction, which, in its sharing of characters and themes across numerous stories and novels, has always taken an unusual, hybrid form. In "Mutants", he applies his restless creativity to nonfiction. The book b...