Other Words Books

Other Words Books New and used fiction in translation. Based in Galloway, Southwest Scotland.

02/04/2026

I honestly think Melchiorre and his translator Antonella Lettieri have been robbed. Just enjoy this passage as our narrator and a mysterious stranger investigate a long-abandoned cottage on the mountainside…

"Not wanting to climb into a dying house through a forced window, I said to her that I already knew what we would find inside: the wretched, indecipherable crowd of things left behind and the lifeless objects which, having become the rulers of the places in which they stand, take on a living semblance, scary and alarming. Maria told me to stop it as she climbed through the window wildly exalted. Then, despite myself, I followed her in.
…
Beds. Chairs. Chests of drawers and bedside tables. Pillows foul with mould. Wardrobes. Tables. A holy family framed above the bed. We also saw an enamel jug containing the hardened carcass of a lizard which had trespassed into that smooth-walled abyss, unaware that it was doomed to meet certain death within, at the bottom of its own curiosity."

"I persisted in this stubbornness of mine until after the mid-April moon when, one morning, I glanced at the view over V...
01/04/2026

"I persisted in this stubbornness of mine until after the mid-April moon when, one morning, I glanced at the view over Val Fonda and the Mountain and realised that the astonishing moment had finally arrived. Let me explain. Over previous springs I had had the chance to observe how, having moved almost imperceptibly and at the slowest pace for weeks, vegetation would give a sudden jolt. Today, the trees are hardly more than bare wooden frames, heavy with buds and just a scattering of the tiniest leaves, and tomorrow their crowns are already swollen and turned into extravagantly expanded masses.

This silent donning seems to happen overnight, once some secret immemorial signal has been received, and every year it catches me off guard. It surprises me. It preempts me. And so it happened that morning too, when I discovered that everything was green, bombastic and overflowing."

An extract from The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated by Antonella Lettieri.

Longlisted for International Booker Prize 2026, although sadly has not made it to the shortlist announced today.

Highly recommended by Other Words Books.

Listening to recent reports from Cuba has reminded me of this novel, set during the Cuban economic crisis of 1993. Charc...
20/03/2026

Listening to recent reports from Cuba has reminded me of this novel, set during the Cuban economic crisis of 1993.

Charco Press specialises in contemporary literature from Latin America, showcasing many female authors and translators. Karla Suárez is a prize-winning Cuban novelist, born in 1969. She is also a classical guitarist and has a degree in electrical engineering.

£8 + p&p

Any Chalet School fans out there? Came across these on my travels today, a biography of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer and a histo...
11/03/2026

Any Chalet School fans out there? Came across these on my travels today, a biography of Elinor M. Brent-Dyer and a historical novel set in the Cromwell era. Message me for prices. These are hard to come by!

Sold today. These Fitzcarraldo editions are so caché, especially when signed by the Nobel and Booker prize-winning autho...
02/02/2026

Sold today. These Fitzcarraldo editions are so caché, especially when signed by the Nobel and Booker prize-winning author and a first edition!

Currently listing my stock on eBay to make myself a bit more visible! It seems to be working, with various titles flying...
12/01/2026

Currently listing my stock on eBay to make myself a bit more visible! It seems to be working, with various titles flying off the shelf this week!

It’s feedback like this that makes me think I offer something just that little bit less faceless. Full catalogue on the website www.otherwordsbooks.co.uk but ultimately the two will be as synchronised as possible!

https://ebay.us/m/L7vRB5

Revisiting a classic. Silone was writing in exile in 1936, in the wake of Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. It all sound...
23/08/2025

Revisiting a classic. Silone was writing in exile in 1936, in the wake of Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. It all sounds very familiar…

From the introduction to the Everyman edition by Isabel Quigly:

'Like Orwell in Britain, Silone was mistrusted by the left and his warnings went unheeded; while at the same time the orthodox continued to think him a dangerous subversive, and he was in fact refused entry into Britain.

"If you win…we subjects will merely exchange one tyranny for another…a totalitarian orthodoxy that will use every possible means, from the cinema to terrorism, to crush heresy and terrorise over individual thought. The present black inquisition will be succeeded by a red inquisition, the present censorship by a red censorship." '

Bread and Wine is part of Silone's trilogy of novels, all written in the 1930s but remaining unpublished in Italy for many years. It is preceded by Fontamara (available in the shop, see link below), and followed by The Seed Beneath the Snow.

My rather battered English translation of Bread and Wine isn’t really fit for sale, but I am happy to pass it on to anyone who might be interested in getting to know one of Silone's most important and prescient works.

https://otherwordsbooks.co.uk/review/fontamara/

Today we have another author who has been highly recommended to me by a customer. Vigdis Hjorth is an award-winning Nor...
13/08/2025



Today we have another author who has been highly recommended to me by a customer. Vigdis Hjorth is an award-winning Norwegian novelist, who writes about familial estrangement and obsession. She has been described as 'an unparalleled chronicler of the fault lines in intimate relationships'. (4 Columns)

Unsettling, raw, and claustrophobic.

On translation she has this to say: "…I know that translation has so much to say in the sound and the tempo, and also…speed. In some of my novels, at least, I want them to have a kind of speed. And if you don’t have that in the translation, you will miss something." LA Review of Books.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/more-norwegian-family-scandal-a-conversation-with-vigdis-hjorth/

Translated by Charlotte Barslund, both books are available in the shop at £10 each, or buy them both for £18.50.

https://otherwordsbooks.co.uk/reviews/authors/vigdis-hjorth/

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