Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1Death and the Penguin (1999)Death and the Penguin (1999)Published Jan 1, 1999An obituary writer in Kyiv comes home to a pet penguin while the people he’s writing about start to die. Come for a crime story with a deadpan sense of humor. Stay for what happens when the quietest presence in Viktor’s life is the one creature he trusts. Translated by George Bird.0
  2. 2Too loud a solitude (1990)Too loud a solitude (1990) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1990Haňťa works a paper press in Prague and rescues books from the waste he’s meant to crush. You can read this short novel quickly, though it’s worth lingering over the way one voice can turn a basement full of paper into a whole life. Translated from Czech by Michael Henry Heim.0
  3. 3The door (1994)The door (1994) 8.9/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1994Emerence runs the household of a writer named Magda with complete authority. At Emerence’s own door, even her closest relations are kept out. Choose this Hungarian novel for a friendship that keeps asking when an act of care becomes an intrusion. Translated by Len Rix.0
  4. 4Válka s mloky (1936)Válka s mloky (1936) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1936In War with the Newts, an intelligent species of giant salamander turns up on an Indonesian island, and humanity sees business opportunities. Choose this Czech satire if you enjoy grand ideas delivered with a straight face. This edition was translated by M. Weatherall and R. Weatherall.0
  5. 5Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych (2009)Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych (2009) 8.3/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2009In Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Janina Duszejko reads horoscopes and pays close attention to the animals around her village in Poland. A string of deaths puts her ideas to a test. Read for a narrator whose peculiar ways of paying attention matter as much as the mystery. Translated…0
  6. 6Time Shelter - a Novel (2022)Time Shelter - a Novel (2022) 7.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2022A clinic in Zurich recreates a different decade on each floor so patients can enter rooms that fit their memories. Start here for an idea that feels kind on the scale of one person’s childhood bedroom and unnerving when nostalgia becomes a public project. Translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel.0
  7. 7Baga Jaga je snijela jaje (2005)Baga Jaga je snijela jaje (2005) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2005In Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, the witch from Slavic folklore becomes a way to look at aging. The book changes form as it goes, moving among a daughter’s account of her mother, a spa adventure, and an annotated guide to the myth. Choose it if you like books that can be affectionate and unruly in the…0
  8. 8Angel Dinner (2026)Angel Dinner (2026)Published Oct 27, 2026Angel hunters and traveling healers turn up in these short stories by the Transylvanian writer Ilka Papp-Zakor. Pick the collection if you like a folktale that can unsettle you in a few pages. The small towns and forests feel recognizable for just long enough that a turn into the fantastic can…0
  9. 9Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu (2015)Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu (2015) 7.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2015In The Man Who Spoke Snakish, a boy in a fantastical medieval Estonia can speak a language that lets him command animals. As more people leave the forest for villages, speaking it becomes an increasingly lonely thing. Start here for a fable with the nerve to make a loss funny, strange, and painful…0
  10. 10Journey by moonlight (2001)Journey by moonlight (2001) 2.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2001A separation at an Italian train station sends Mihály wandering on his honeymoon. Choose this Hungarian novel for the peculiar mood of a person traveling forward through Italy while drifting backward into memories of youth. Translated by Len Rix.0