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Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp (translated from German by Jo Heinrich). Delivered December 2021

A woman approaching the ‘invisible years’ of middle age abandons her failing writing career to retrain as a chiropodist in the suburb of Marzahn, once the GDR’s largest prefabricated housing estate, on the outskirts of Berlin. From her intimate vantage point at the foot of the clinic chair, she keenly observes her clients and co-workers, delving into their personal histories.

Each story stands alone as a beautifully crafted vignette, told with humour and poignancy; together they form a nuanced and tender portrait of a community.

‘Katja Oskamp knows how to capture the essence of people beautifully. They really come to life in her portraits. A powerful book.‘ – Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of Germany

Of Saints and Miracles by Manuel Astur (translated from Spanish by Claire Wadie). Delivered April 2022

Marcelino lives alone on his parents’ farm, set deep in the beautiful but impoverished countryside of northern Spain. It’s the place where he grew up, the place where he doted on his beloved baby brother, the place where he protected his mother from their father’s drunken rages. But when Marcelino’s brother tricks him out of his house and land, a moment of anger sparks a chain of events that can’t be reversed. Marcelino flees to the wild peaks of rural Asturias, becoming a cult hero as he evades authorities.

Astur’s poetic language and his seamless blend of folkloric lyricism and the grotesque render this book a breathtaking experience for the reader. Of Saints and Miracles is a sensuous portrayal of an outcast’s struggle to survive in a chaotic world of both tragedy and magical splendour.

‘This literary novel has the seal of determined originality, and is the admirable work of an author worth following.’ – El Cultural

Body Kintsugi by Senka Marić (translated from Bosnian by Celia Hawkesworth). Delivered August 2022

Body Kintsugi is a powerful and poetic autobiographical novel about Senka Marić’s experience of breast cancer. The story switches between two narrative streams: one returning to her memories of childhood and adolescence, and the other detailing her private struggle with her illness as a middle-aged woman.

The result is an intimate and insightful account of Marić’s experience of womanhood through her body, including the difficulties of adolescence, ongoing patriarchal attitudes in Bosnian society, motherhood, and illness.

‘Body Kintsugi is a brave book written about our own experience that offers us much-needed hope in the victory of life over death.’
– Faruk Šehić, Bosnian novelist, poet and short story writer.