A novel about sexual obsession, inspired by “Lolita,” stretches the limits of credulity.
Rupert: A Confession
By Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison, Open Letter, $12.95, 131 pages
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

I consider myself something of an expert in the seldom studied theme of impotence in film and [...]

This ambitious Norwegian novel works overtime to turn conventional notions of cause and effect topsy-turvy.
The Conqueror
By Jan Kjærstad
Translated from the Norwegian by Barbara Haveland. Open Letter, 481 pages, $17.95
Reviewed by Tommy Wallach

Riddle me this: if a man finds out his wife has been cheating on him for years, then kills her, did the first [...]

By Bill Marx

Novelist and critic Dubravka Ugresic
On this week’s World Books podcast I talk to novelist and cultural critic Dubravka Ugresic about her latest volume of trenchant essays and commentaries, “Nobody’s Home” (Translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac). My conversation with Ugresic circles around her contention that, despite European enthusiasm for culture, the [...]

Fiction in translation deserves all the notice it can get, but it doesn’t do anyone any good to patronize writers and readers by duplicating the happy talk that is turning people off of blurb-ridden book reviews in the mainstream media.
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