MacLehose Press, the imprint of Quercus Books within the Hachette Group UK which champions literature in translation from around the world, offers to English-language readers different styles of writing and new perspectives that might otherwise have remained untranslated and unknown. The independent-minded approach of publishers Christopher MacLehose and Katharina Bielenberg has allowed for creative freedom and innovation, fostering cultural exchange and understanding; enriching the literary landscape.
The imprint is known for its high-quality publications, many of which have won prestigious literary awards. The vision and expertise of Christopher MacLehose in identifying and promoting significant literary works have been crucial to the imprint’s success — an obvious example being Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the first book of the Millennium Trilogy. For an imprint to take risks on unconventional or avant-garde works overlooked by the commercially-driven mainstream is becoming a rarity in the ruthless world of British corporate publishing.
Here are five of BookBlast’s best books out with MacLehose Press
Nothing Belongs to You by Nathacha Appanah, translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman, is a strange novel all about Tara whose previous existence as Vijaya gradually emerges as she grieves for her recently deceased husband. Her stepson visits her and tries to help, as she is delirious. He asks questions, wanting to know why the name Vijaya is written on sheets of paper scattered all around, but she stays silent. Tara and Vijaya co-exist in the same person who is snared by the beauty and brutality of her memories. The narrative returns to her childhood marked by violence after the sudden death of her sorceress mother and intellectual political-activist father. Vijaya would dance a traditional South Indian dance at parties in happier days. Now disturbed and deranged, she ends up in an institution for girls where the woman who runs it constantly tells her, “Nothing belongs to you here.” Then the tsunami comes and Vijaya is swept out to sea. Written with a minimum of geographical detail and no dates, this novel is a hypnotic surreal read in which the themes of memory, identity, loss and the search for belonging are intricately woven together in lush, lyrical prose.
“Sometimes I danced for him under the lightbulb’s crackling. Tat tai taam dith tai taam. I was the god and his consort. I was both the faithful and all those cast out, I was the forest and the desert, the flowering bud and the everlasting night. When I spun, there was no need for sari, bells, lipstick, kohl. My splendid nakedness was all the finery I could want.”
Hunter in Huskvarna by Sara Stridsberg, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner, is a collection of stories whose protagonists are caught between childhood
and all passion spent as they review their past; caught between grief and a lust for life; caught between raw reality and fairy-tale fantasy. Both a personal journey and a reflection on the human condition, Stridsberg examines how individuals cope with their inner demons and the external pressures they face, also touching on the struggles of women in a patriarchal society and the effects of mental illness. A child walks through the body of a blue whale . . . there are encounters in bars . . . walks past disused factories . . . towns and families in ruins . . . drowned kittens, water lilies and predators . . . funerals and the desire for revenge . . . practising lifesaving in a swimming pool . . . a secret society . . . This unusual collection of tales by an acclaimed Swedish author, whose second novel was longlisted for the Booker International Prize in 2019, is an impressionistic mosaic of human experience.
“All tragedies end in death, it is said, and all comedies end in marriage, but this is a story without a natural ending. Death wouldn’t take her for some time, and marriage sounded more arduous than going to war . . .”
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris Dralyuk, is the first of a trilogy. A Ukrainian student, Samson Kolechko, is caught up in a conspiracy during the Bolshevik occupation of Ukraine’s capital in 1919 where the new government was struggling to establish itself while civil war raged. His father is slashed at and killed by a Cossack on horseback. Pushed aside by his father as he lay dying, Samson’s right ear is cut off and is subsequently preserved in a tin for sweets. It can still hear and sometimes transmits to him the sounds it picks up, even from a distance. Unexpectedly enlisted in the new police militia, Samson investigates two dodgy Red Army soldiers who invade his home. This investigation leads him to look into the disappearance of a large quantity of silver, an unfinished tweed suit and an elusive tubercular Belgian. He is helped by a young woman, Nadejda with whom he falls in love. The political landscape of Kyiv is rife with danger and instability due to competing factions vying for control of Ukraine.
Kurkov’s narrative is rich with historical detail and infused with his characteristic dark humour and surreal strands. His deep understanding of Kyiv makes this thriller a compelling read for anyone who relishes historical fiction with a touch of the absurd. “The usually deserted cemetery on Shchekavytsia Hill above the Dnipro was as loud as a busy street corner. Even the croaking of hundreds of crows, who had taken a fancy to the crown of a mighty oak in the section for Old Believers, was unable to drown out the din.”
BUY The Silver Bone Longlisted for the Booker International Prize in 2024
Your Absence is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson, translated by Philip Roughton, is an eerie and intensely beautiful meditation on the human condition, looking at how individuals find meaning and connection in a world that is often unpredictable and unforgiving. An amnesiac wakes up in the graveyard of an old country church far from Reykjavík, and is greeted joyfully by a woman saying she will reunite him with her sister at the hotel she runs. Lost in the fjords in the village where he has stopped, everyone seems to know him. Little by little, he collects the stories of all the people living there who are interconnected one way or another as he continues on his quest to discover his identity. An uneducated farmer’s wife writes an article on the life-saving nature of the earthworm without which we would not survive which is published in an agricultural journal, and strikes up a relationship with its erudite editor, a controversial priest . . . a young couple come to swim in the pool at the end of the world which is alleged to have special powers – when their car blows a tyre they are rescued by a young farmer with mesmerising blue eyes, and she breaks off her engagement to stay . . . a farmer longs to study but is stuck on his family farm, snared by tradition . . . a musician and reckless driver who loves dogs is living a lie . . . Stefánsson employs lyrical prose and vivid imagery to evoke the stark beauty of the Icelandic landscape and the emotional depth of his characters. The narrative has shifting perspectives and timelines, mirroring the fluid nature of memory and the ways in which past and present are intertwined.
“Each person has his own way in life. Some are open, others less so. Some people have a great need for companionship and a social life, others are inclined towards solitude. In whatever direction you lean, it doesn’t necessarily imply anything about your disposition toward your neighbour, those who matter to you.”
The Fire by Daniela Krien, translated by Jamie Bulloch, follows the intricacies of the long-term relationship of Rahel and Peter, a couple in their early fifties facing a critical juncture. Their marriage, once passionate and full of shared dreams, has grown strained and distant. The novel begins with Rahel and Peter agreeing to house sit a secluded farm in countryside where she had spent her childhood summers. Both carry deep emotional scars and unspoken resentments. She is a successful psychologist, yet struggles with the feeling of unfulfillment. He is literary, a scholar, burdened by the weight of unachieved ambitions. She hopes that they can rekindle their relationship during the three weeks they are on holiday, but he becomes engrossed with the various animals they are expected to look after including an entertaining stork who has a healthy appetite for raw fish. Their spoiled daughter comes to stay with her unruly children as her marriage is on breaking point because of her affair with an artist. The narrative alternates between differing perspectives. Through a series of conversations, arguments and reflections, Rahel and Peter navigate the complexities of love, commitment and personal growth. What does it take to sustain a marriage over the decades?
“When she returns he’s still standing in the same spot. There’s something hiding behind his smile and it occurs to Rahel that, particularly in a marriage, the sum of what isn’t said far outweighs the sum of what is.”
Monoglot vs Polyglot Culture
To receive an email some weeks ago now, that due to Hachette UK streamlining its UK imprints, MacLehose Press which is part of Quercus is being integrated into John Murray Press, was a shock. English is used as a common language across the world, narrowing horizons and reducing knowledge to a parochial level. The loss of such a trailblazing corporate imprint as MacLehose Press favours the flattening homogenisation of literature. It is detrimental for both the reading public interested in discovering different kinds of writing, and limits opportunities for translators to get work. Translated literature might not be as consistently profitable as mainstream commercial genre fiction, but to experiment with unconventional and innovative works that push boundaries and introduce new ideas has always been a key feature of book publishing. Semper Invicta.
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