Pushkin Classics – serie

'Exactly what you would ask a novel to be' Spectator

In the seaside city of Kamakura, a student is drawn to an enigmatic older man who swims at the same beach. The man becomes his Sensei. Against a backdrop of the rapid modernisation of Japan, their relationship endures - until one day, the young man receives a letter that divulges the full story of his Sensei's past.

One of Japan's most admired and bestselling modern classics, Kokoro is a psychologically rich, delicately drawn meditation on loneliness, desire and duty.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Edwin McClellan.

Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) was one of Japan's most prominent novelists of the Meiji Era. After studying in England on a government scholarship, Soseki began a career at Tokyo University as a scholar of English literature before later devoting himself to his writing. He is best known for his works I Am a Cat, Kusamakura, Botchan and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1,000-yen note.

'Endo is one of the world's greatest novelists' Washington Post

A group of Japanese tourists journey to the sacred River Ganges, each on a secret personal pilgrimage. Widower Isobe mourns for the devoted wife he neglected; gentle children's writer Numanda seeks out the bird he believes saved his life; Kiguchi is haunted by his time as a soldier along the Highway of Death; and Mitsuko reconnects with the classmate she tempted away from the church and cruelly discarded.

At the softly lapping shores of the river - where the faithful come to bathe during their final moments - self-knowledge is sought and memories put to rest. Set against a rich backdrop of 90s India, Deep River is a beautifully moving story showing Endo at the height of his powers as a chronicler of religious experience.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Van C. Gessel.

Shusaku Endo (1923-1996) was one of the greatest novelists of postwar Japan. Baptised as a Roman Catholic as a child, his work explores the relationship between East and West from his unique perspective as a Japanese Christian. Endo won the Akutgawa Prize and the Yomiuri Literary Prize, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, and received an Order of Culture from the Japanese government. His historical fiction novel Silence was adapted into a 2016 film of the same name by the director Martin Scorsese.

Van C. Gessel (b. 1950) is the former Dean of the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University, and the foremost translator into English of the work of Shusaku Endo. He holds a doctorate in Japanese literature from Columbia University, and in 2018 received Japan's Order of the Rising Sun for his contribution as a translator of Japanese literature.

'A subtle distillation of wisdom, stylistic grace and symmetry of form' Sunday Times

'It's hard to think of a more recent novel that has sung so eloquently the joys of being alone' Guardian

An inspirational classic from Nobel Prize-winner Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha is a beautiful tale of self-discovery

Dissatisfied with the ways of life he has experienced, Siddhartha, the handsome son of a Brahmin, leaves his family and his friend, Govinda, in search of a higher state of being. Having experienced the myriad forms of existence, from immense wealth and luxury to the pleasures of sensual and paternal love, Siddhartha finally settles down beside a river, where a humble ferryman teaches him his most valuable lesson yet.

Hermann Hesse's short, elegant novel, echoing the life of the Buddha, has been cherished by readers for decades as an unforgettable spiritual primer. A tender and unforgettable moral allegory, it is an undeniable classic of modern literature.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe

Translated by Hilda Rosner

Hermann Hesse (1877-1963) is counted among the leading novelists and thinkers of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1946 for a body of literature renowned for its humanist, philosophical and spiritual insight. His most famous works include Siddhartha, Journey to the East, Demian, Steppenwolf, and Narcissus and Goldmund.

'One never tires of reading and re-reading his best works. Akutagawa was a born short-story writer' Haruki Murakami

'The quintessential writer of his era' David Peace

These are short stories from an unparalleled icon of modern Japanese literature. Sublimely crafted and shot through with a fantastical sensibility, they offer dazzling glimpses into moments of madness, murder and obsession.

A talented and spiteful painter is given over to depravity in pursuit of artistic brilliance. In the depths of hell, a robber spies a single spider's thread being lowered towards him. When a body is found in an isolated bamboo grove, a kaleidoscopic account of violence and desire begins to unfold.

Vividly translated by Bryan Karetnyk, this mesmerising collection brings together a series of essential works from the master of the Japanese short story.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Bryan Karetnyk

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was one of Japan's leading literary figures in the Taisho period. Regarded as the father of the Japanese short story, he produced over 150 in his short lifetime. Haunted by the fear that he would inherit his mother's madness, Akutagawa suffered from worsening mental health problems towards the end of his life and committed suicide aged 35 by taking an overdose of barbiturates.

'A masterly performance' Evening Standard

Joseph Roth's dark fable about a man torn between resolve and restlessness in Eastern Europe's borderlands

In the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Anselm Eibenschütz is appointed inspector of weights and measures in a remote border town. There he encounters a shadowy world of gamblers and smugglers - and discovers his wife is pregnant by another man. Right and wrong prove hard to judge, as Eibenschütz is drawn into a destructive affair of his own.

In this late masterpiece, Joseph Roth depicts the slow corruption of a decent man at the lawless edge of a crumbling world.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by David Le Vay.

JOSEPH ROTH (1894-1939) was born into a Jewish family in the small town of Brody in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied first in Lemberg and then in Vienna, and served in the Austrian army during World War I. He later worked as a journalist in Vienna and Berlin, travelling widely, staying in hotels and living out of suitcases, while also becoming a prolific writer of fiction. Roth left Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933 and settled in Paris, where he died just before the outbreak of World War II. As well as his masterpiece The Radetzky March, he was the author of over two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, including On the End of the World, The Coral Merchant and Flight Without End, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press.

DAVID LE VAY (1915-2001) was a consultant surgeon in the NHS for over thirty years. Combining his medical work with a literary career, he authored medical textbooks and biographies of prominent historical surgeons, as well as translating works from French, German, Spanish and Latin.

'Zweig's fictional masterpiece' GUARDIAN

'An intoxicating, morally shaking read... A real reminder of what fiction can do best' ALI SMITH

'It's just a masterpiece. When I read it I thought, how is it that I don't already know about this?' WES ANDERSON

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The only novel written by one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century

In 1913, young second lieutenant Hofmiller discovers the terrible danger of pity. He had no idea the girl was lame when he asked her to dance-so begins a series of visits, motivated by pity, which relieve his guilt but give her a dangerous glimmer of hope.

Stefan Zweig's unforgettable novel is a devastating depiction of the betrayal of both honour and love, amid the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

'Gripping' - Telegraph'Brilliant' - Sunday Times'Riveting' - Guardian

The devastating rediscovered classic written from the horrors of Nazi Germany, as one Jewish man attempts to flee persecution in the wake of Kristallnacht

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 1938. With storm troopers battering against his door, Otto Silbermann must flee out the back of his own home. He emerges onto streets thrumming with violence: it is Kristallnacht, and synagogues are being burnt, Jews rounded up and their businesses destroyed.

Turned away from establishments he had long patronised, betrayed by friends and colleagues, Otto finds his life as a respected businessman has dissolved overnight. Desperately trying to conceal his Jewish identity, he takes train after train across Germany in a race to escape this homeland that is no longer home.

Twenty-three-year-old Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz wrote The Passenger at breakneck speed in 1938, fresh in the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, and his prose flies at the same pace. Shot through with Hitckcockian tension, The Passenger is a blisteringly immediate story of flight and survival in Nazi Germany.

'A scintillating book' TLS

'Her company is a delight' Tatler

'Part memoir, part social history... sumptuous and unsparing' Financial Times

A brilliantly witty memoir telling the story of a young woman's determined struggle for freedom

The Orient Express hurtles towards the promised land, freeing Banine from her past. Escaping her ruined homeland and forced marriage, she aspires to a dazzling future in Paris.

As a chic Parisienne she mingles with émigrés, artists and writers-and even contemplates love. But freedom brings challenges. Swept along by the forces of history, can Banine keep up?

Filled with vivacious wit and a lust for life, this companion to Days in the Caucasus is a paean to bittersweet dreams and the quest for happiness.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe

Translated by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova

Banine (1905-1992) was born Umm El-Banu Assadullayeva, into a wealthy family in Baku, then part of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution and the subsequent fall of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Banine was forced to flee her home country-first to Istanbul, and then to Paris. In Paris she formed a wide circle of literary acquaintances including Nicos Kazantzakis, André Malraux, Ivan Bunin and Teffi and eventually began writing herself. Parisian Days continues the story that began with Days in the Caucasus, which is also available from Pushkin Press.

'Enchanting... the closest anyone can get to a face-to-face with Coco.' Spectator

The story of Coco Chanel's life, as told by her to Paul Morand

Coco Chanel invited Paul Morand to visit her in St Moritz at the end of the Second World War when he was given the opportunity to write her memoirs; his notes of their conversations were put away in a drawer and only came to light one year after Chanel's death.

Through Morand's transcription of their conversations, Chanel tells us about her friendship with Misia Sert, the men in her life - Boy Capel, the Duke of Westminster, artists such as Diaghilev, her philosophy of fashion and the story behind the legendary Number 5 perfume...

The memories of Chanel told in her own words provide vivid sketches and portray the strength of Coco's character, leaving us with an extraordinary insight into Chanel the woman and the woman who created Chanel.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Euan Cameron.

Paul Morand (1888-1976) was born in Paris. After studying at the École des Sciences Politiques, he joined the diplomatic corps and served in London, Rome, Berne and Bucharest. His first collection of stories, Tender Shoots, was introduced by Marcel Proust. In a long and busy life, he found time to write poetry, novels, short stories and travel books. Morand was made a member of the Académie Française and died in 1976, the same year that The Allure of Chanel was first published in Paris. His books The Man in a Hurry, Hecate and Her Dogs, Tender Shoots and Venices are also published by Pushkin Press.

'A tantalising mystery... a mesmerising work of literature' Antony Beevor

'Truly troubling, a weird meditation on death, war and sex' Paris Review

A superb early postmodern classic by one of Nabokov's fellow émigré writers, rediscovered after more than half a century

A man comes across a short story which recounts in minute detail his killing of a soldier, long ago - from the victim's point of view. It's a story that should not exist, and whose author can only be a dead man.

So begins the strange quest for its elusive writer: 'Alexander Wolf'.

A singular classic, The Spectre of Alexander Wolf is a psychological thriller and existential inquiry into guilt and redemption, coincidence and fate, love and death.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe

Translated by Bryan Karetnyk

Gaito Gazdanov (1903-1971) joined the White Army aged just sixteen and fought in the Russian Civil War. Exiled in Paris from the 1920s onwards, he eventually became a nocturnal taxi-driver and quickly gained prominence on the literary scene as a novelist, essayist, critic and short-story writer, and was greatly acclaimed by Maxim Gorky, among others.

'Antal Szerb is one of the great European writers' Ali Smith

'A novel to love as well as admire, always playful and ironical, full of brilliant descriptions, bon mots and absurd situations' Guardian

A major modern classic: the turbulent story of a businessman torn between middle-class respectability and sensational bohemoia

Mihály and Erzsi are on honeymoon in Italy. Mihály has recently joined the respectable family firm in Budapest, but as his gaze passes over the mysterious back-alleys of Venice, memories of his bohemian past reawaken his old desire to wander.

When bride and groom become separated at a provincial train station, Mihály embarks on a chaotic and bizarre journey that leads him finally to Rome, where he must reckon with both his past and his future. In this intoxicating and satirical masterpiece, Szerb takes us deep into the conflicting desires of marriage and shows how adulthood can reverberate endlessly with the ache of youth.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe

Translated by Len Rix

Antal Szerb was born in Budapest in 1901. Though of Jewish descent, he was baptised at an early age and remained a lifelong Catholic. He rapidly established himself as a formidable scholar, through studies of Ibsen and Blake and histories of English, Hungarian and world literature. He was a prolific essayist and reviewer, ranging across all the major European languages. Debarred by successive Jewish laws from working in a university, he was subjected to increasing persecution, and finally murdered in a forced labour camp in 1945. Pushkin Press publishes his novels The Pendragon Legend, Oliver VII and his masterpiece Journey by Moonlight, as well as the historical study The Queen's Necklace and Love in a Bottle and Other Stories.

'A cyberpunk coming-of-age tale' Japan Times

Two babies are left in a Tokyo station coin locker and survive against the odds, but their lives are forever tainted by this inauspicious start.

Raised amidst the outcasts and misfits of Toxitown, they carve out vastly different paths: one as a bisexual rock star on a desperate search for his mother, the other as an athlete consumed by revenge against the woman who left him behind.

When their twisted journeys start to intertwine, this savage and stunning story plunges headlong into a surrealistic whirl of violence.

'Encapsulates the fin de siècle cultural detonation of Japanese youth' Kirkus

A modern masterpiece, voted the greatest Dutch novel of all time

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'I work in an office. I take cards out of a file. Once I have taken them out, I put them back in again. That is it.'

Twenty-three-year-old Frits - office worker, daydreamer, teller of inappropriate jokes - finds life absurd and inexplicable. He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes he talks to a toy rabbit.

This is the story of ten evenings in Frits's life at the end of December, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city streets and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours and days that stretch before him.

Darkly funny and mesmerising, The Evenings takes the tiny, quotidian triumphs and heartbreaks of our everyday lives and turns them into a work of brilliant wit and profound beauty.

'Serious, theologically-charged fiction of the highest quality: full, bleak, richly particular'Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the 1980 Noma Literary Prize - a darkly absorbing portrayal of the first Japanese voyage across the Pacific, by the author of Silence

In 17th-century Japan, a diplomatic mission sets sail for the West. Among those facing the combined perils of the sea and foreign courts are ambitious Spanish missionary Pedro Velasco, and Hasekura Rokuemon, a disregarded samurai determined to recover his family's standing. They travel to Mexico City, Rome and back - but Japan's new rulers are persecuting Christians, and if the men survive the journey, they may not survive their homecoming.

This true story of courage and endurance is told with Endo's signature power and simplicity.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Van C. Gessel.

SHUSAKU ENDO (1923-1996) was one of the greatest novelists of postwar Japan. Baptised as a Roman Catholic as a child, his work explores the relationship between East and West from his unique perspective as a Japanese Christian. Endo won the Akutagawa Prize and the Yomiuri Literary Prize, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, and received an Order of the Culture from the Japanese government. Among his other novels are Deep River, The Sea and Poison, and his masterpiece Silence, all published by or forthcoming from Pushkin Press.

VAN C. GESSEL (b. 1950) is the former Dean of the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University, and the foremost translator into English of the work of Shusaku Endo. He holds a doctorate in Japanese literature from Columbia University, and in 2018 received Japan's Order of the Rising Sun for his contribution as a translator of Japanese literature.

'Inoue wrote compassionately, but without a hint of sentimentality' TLS

'Inoue writes hand-in-hand with Death, with a finger on the Trigger' Lire

A lover, her daughter and an abandoned wife: three women write letters revealing the tragic aftermath of a forbidden love affair. Saiko is beautiful, sophisticated - and disloyal to her cousin and closest friend. Midori, forsaken by her husband, takes a silent vengeance. And Shoko, Saiko's daughter, is left to make sense of family secrets.

In this masterpiece of mid-century Japanese fiction, Inoue weaves together conflicting perspectives to tell a single story of love, death, truth and longing.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Michael Emmerich.

Yasushi Inoue (1907-1991) worked as a journalist and literary editor for many years, beginning his prolific career as an author in 1949 with the novel Bullfight. He went on to publish fifty novels and 150 short stories, both historical and contemporary, becoming one of Japan's major literary figures. In 1976 Inoue was presented with the Order of Culture, the highest honour granted for artistic merit in Japan.

'The supreme fabulist of modern man's cosmic predicament' John Updike

'The stories are dreamlike, allegorical, ghoulishly detached, exquisitely comic, numinous, and prophetic' New York Times

The essential stories of one of the twentieth century's greatest and most influential writers

No one has captured the modern experience, its wild dreams, strange joys, its neuroses and boredom, better than Franz Kafka. His vision, with its absurdity and twisted humour, has lost none of its force or relevance today. This essential collection, translated and selected by Alexander Starritt, casts fresh light on Kafka's genius.

Alongside brutal depictions of violence and justice are jokes and deceptively slight, mysterious fables. These unforgettable pieces reflect the brilliance at the core of Franz Kafka, arguably most fully expressed within his short stories. Together they showcase a writer of unmatched imaginative depth, capable of expressing the most profound reality with a wry smile.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe

Translated by Alexander Starritt

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was born to Jewish parents in Prague and wrote in German. He published only a few story collections and individual stories in literary magazines during his lifetime. The rest of his work was published posthumously. He is now considered one of the most influential authors of the twentieth century.

'A bawdy burlesque' Guardian

A collection of witty, transgressive tales from the great Enlightenment thinker, best known for his inimitable blend of philosophy and scandalous sexuality

The Marquis de Sade's fiction has electrified generations of readers and earned him a scandalous reputation. But Sade was a moralist above all. In these baroque, salacious tales, aristocrats are caught in a web of incestuous misunderstandings, village priests deceive godly parishioners, and modest housewives satisfy immodest appetites. Comic and tragic by turns, all pose a profound challenge to convention.

These maliciously entertaining stories reveal France's infamous libertine as an author whose range and insight can still astonish, centuries after he first shocked polite society.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Margaret Crosland.

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was a French writer and libertine, known for his transgressive yet philosophical works in an astonishing range of genres. Born to great privilege in pre-revolutionary France, he spent much of his life imprisoned for both his scandalous behaviour and his shocking literary output. The acts of depravity he described in works which challenged social convention, such as Justine, Juliette, and The 120 Days of Sodom, gave birth to the word 'sadism', earning him a place among the select group of authors to inspire an adjective.

Margaret Crosland (1920-2017) translated works by the Marquis de Sade, Émile Zola, Colette and Cesare Pavese, among others, as well as writing many biographies and works of literary criticism.

'The classic literal-metaphorical journey' Guardian

A classic meditation on artistic creation and the quest for spiritual transcendence from the Nobel Prize-winning author of Siddhartha

In the aftermath of the Great War, a band of artists embarks on a journey traversing space and time. Each is on a different quest, but all are united in a vow of secrecy. Years later, a writer tries to set down an account of the voyage, thereby breaking his vow - only to find words, memories, and his very sense of self beginning to slip from his grasp.

A kaleidoscopic narrative reeling between despair and elation, Hermann Hesse's novel is a profound meditation on creativity and spiritual transcendence.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Hilda Rosner.

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was born in was born in Württemberg, Germany. He resented his pious and repressive upbringing, and was determined to be 'a writer or nothing else'. His writing was greatly influenced by his travels to Asia and his friendship with psychoanalyst Carl Jung. In 1946 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Several of his novels are available or forthcoming from Pushkin Press Classics, including Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund and Demian.

'A master storyteller' - Elizabeth Strout

The power of money threatens young love in this charming story of romantic misadventure by one of the greatest authors of America's Gilded Age

Nick Lansing and Susy Branch are young and attractive, but penniless. Gracefully moving through New York high society, they have the right connections but none of the wealth. When they inconveniently fall in love, Susy devises a plan. They will marry and spend a year flitting across Europe, staying in the homes of their rich friends and living off honeymoon gifts until either one of them meets a better, richer prospect.

But jealous passions and troubled consciences soon cause their idyll to crumble. Told with Edith Wharton's trademark wit, Glimpses of the Moon is a tartly amusing story of social climbing and romantic misadventure from one of our greatest writers.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

EDITH WHARTON (1862-1937) was born in New York, into a rich and socially prominent family. She began to write at an early age, although it was a habit viewed by her family as unsuitable for a woman of her social class. In 1885 she married Edward "Teddy" Wharton, a Boston banker. They lived a privileged life, but Wharton gradually grew dissatisfied with the roles of wife and society matron. The Whartons moved to Paris in 1907 and divorced in 1913. Edith continued to live in France, her beloved adoptive home, until her death in 1937.