Books published by Pushkin Press

In the autumn of his days, a privy councillor contemplates his past, looking back at the key moments in his life. He remembers sharing a lodging with a professor and his wife and a close friendship is formed. The professor, however harbours a dark secret which changes both men forever.

BURNING SECRET is set in an Austrian sanatorium in the 1920's. A lonely twelve-year-old boy is befriended and becomes infatuated by a suave and mysterious baron who heartlessly brushes him aside to turn his seductive attentions to the boy's mother. Stefan Zweig, the author of Beware of Pity and Confusion provides the reader, in this newly available translation, with a study of childhood on the brink of adolescence and a boy's uncontrollable jealousy and feelings of betrayal.

The best fiction from across the Nordic region, selected and introduced by Sjon - Iceland's internationally renowned writer

Anxious to please his father, Mihaly has joined the family firm in Budapest. Pursued by nostalgia for his bohemian youth, he seeks escape in marriage to Erzsi, not realising that she has chosen him as a means to her own rebellion. On their honeymoon in Italy, Mihaly 'loses' his bride at a provincial station and embarks on a chaotic journey.

The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) is one of the most famous navigators in history-he was the first man to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and led the first voyage to circumnavigate the globe, although he was killed en route in a battle in the Philippines. In this biography, Zweig brings to life the Age of Discovery by telling the tale of one of the era's most daring adventurers, whose astounding feats of navigation heralded the modern age.

Portrait of a City in Two Acts: Lviv, Then and NowLviv, Lwow, Lvov, Lemberg. Known by a variety of names, the City of Lions is now in western Ukraine. Situated in different countries during its history, it is a city located along the fault-lines of Europe's history.City of Lions presents two essays, written more than half a century apart - but united by one city.Jozef Wittlin's sensual and lyrical paean to his Lwow, written in exile, is a deep cry of love and pain for his city, most of whose familiar faces have fled or been killed.Philippe Sands' finely honed exploration of what has been lost and what remains interweaves a lawyer's love of evidence with the emotional heft of a descendant of Lviv.With an illuminating preface by Eva Hoffman and stunning new photographs by Diana Matar, City of Lions is a powerful and melancholy evocation of central Europe in the twentieth century, with a special resonance for today's troubled continent.Jozef Wittlin (b.1896) was a major Polish poet, novelist (Salt of the Earth won him a nomination for the Nobel prize), essayist and translator. He studied in Vienna, where he met Joseph Roth and Rainer Maria Rilke, and he served in the Austro-Hungarian army in the First World War. With the outbreak of WWII, Wittlin was evacuated to New York, where he died in 1976.Philippe Sands is Professor of Law at University College London. Lviv is the heart of his latest book, East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity.Diana Matar is a photographer whose work investigates issues of history, memory and state sponsored violence. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, she has won many prizes and her work has been exhibited in institutions around the world.

A dazzling novel about the life of the groundbreaking artist, Paula Modersohn-Becker - a brilliant early expressionist whose work will be exhibited at the RA's Making Modernism exhibition in November 2022 'A moving and rare, heart-warming take on Paula Modersohn Becker's life' Nicholas Serota Paula Modersohn-Becker was a pioneer of modern art in Europe, but denounced as degenerate by the Nazis after her death. Sue Hubbard draws on the artist's diaries and paintings to bring to life her singular existence, her battle to achieve independence and recognition and her intense relationship with the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.Not only do we discover Paula's vibrant personality and rich legacy of Expressionist paintings, but also come to understand something of the corrupted ideologies of the Third Reich. Written with the eye of a painter and the soul of a poet this moving story is a meditation on love, loss, memory and, ultimately, hope.

Enchanting, fresh translations of the finest stories by Brazil's greatest writer and author of short stories, cited as the greatest black writer in Western literature "Machado de Assis showed the human comedy is the same everywhere, and in conflicts between man and society, society usually wins." --The New Yorker Machado de Assis is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating story writers who ever lived. What appear at first to be stately social satires reveal unanticipated depths through flashes of darkness and winking surrealism. This new selection of his finest work, translated by the prize-winning Daniel Hahn, showcases the many facets of his mercurial genius. A brilliant scientist opens the first asylum in his home town, only to start finding signs of insanity all around him. A young lieutenant basks in praise, but in solitude feels his identity fray into nothing. The reading of a much-loved elder statesman's journals reveals hidden thoughts of merciless cruelty. This beautiful new collection of fresh translations offers the perfect gathering of his most beloved stories: The Fortune-TellerThe Posthumous Portrait GalleryThe LoanThe Tale of the CabrioletThe StickThe Secret CauseThe Canon, or Metaphysics of StyleThe AlienistThe Looking-GlassMidnight Mass

Me, my notebook and my love of the wild and desolate. I wanted to do theopposite of what was expected of me. It's a recurring pattern in my life. Aninstinct.

"The first major book on Vikings by a Scandinavian author to be published in English, The Wolf Age reframes the struggle for a North Sea empire and puts readers in the mindset of Vikings, providing new insight into their goals, values, and what they chose to live and die for. Tore Skeie (Norway's Most Important Young Historian) takes readers on a thrilling journey through the bloody shared history of England and Scandinavia, and on across early medieval Europe, from the wild Norwegian fjords to the wealthy cities of Muslim Andalusia. Warfare, plotting, backstabbing and bribery abound as Skeie skillfully weaves sagas and skaldic poetry with breathless dramatization as he entertainingly brings the world of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons to vivid life. In the eleventh century, the rulers of the lands surrounding the North Sea are all hungry for power. To get power they need soldiers, to get soldiers they need silver, and to get silver there is no better way than war and plunder. This vicious cycle draws all the lands of the north into a brutal struggle for supremacy and survival that will shatter kingdoms and forge an empire..."--

Sharply immediate, evocative diaries from the heart of Occupied Paris by a classic German writer, in English for the first time 'THE GREATEST LITERARY TALENT OF HIS GENERATION' Die WeltThe writer Felix Hartlaub died in obscurity at just 31, vanishing from Berlin in 1945. He left behind a small oeuvre of private writings from the Second World War: fragments and observations of life from the midst of catastrophe that, with their evocative power and precision, would make a permanent place for him in German letters.Posted to Paris in 1940 to conduct archival research, Hartlaub recorded his impressions of the unfamiliar city in notebooks that document with unparalleled immediacy the daily realities of occupation. With a painter's eye for detail, Hartlaub writes of the bustle of civilians and soldiers in cafes, of half-seen trysts during blackout hours and the sublime light of Paris in spring. Appearing in English for the first time, Clouds Over Paris is a unique testament to the persistence of ordinary life through disaster.

'The original bad boy of the New York restaurant/hotel scene... No one has ever surpassed the master' Anthony BourdainAcerbic, colourful and spirited reminiscences from a grand New York hotel in the nineteen twenties - perfect for fans of Evelyn Waugh, Kitchen Confidential or The Grand Budapest HotelWelcome to the grand Hotel Splendide, where hilarity and chaos reign. In the mirror-lined dining halls, the champagne is constantly flowing; in the kitchens downstairs, malcontent waiters incite revolution.In this classic memoir, Ludwig Bemelmans encounters eccentricity on every level of the hotel hierarchy as he works his way up from busboy at the restaurant's most undesirable table, to assistant manager of the magnificent private banquets. There may be Russian ballerinas and Wall Street tycoons to entertain, but there is also Mespoulets, the world's worst waiter, to contend with and a murder plot against Monsieur Victor, the authoritarian matre d'htel, to solve.Accompanied by Bemelmans' own witty illustrations, this account of a bygone era of extravagance is as charming as it is riotously entertaining.

From the CWA-shortlisted author comes a propulsive and gritty sports noir for fans of Fat City, Million Dollar Baby and SA Cosby's Razorblade Tears'It's a riveting story where the drama propels you from page to page... Vercher is a master of interior tension. This book grabs you and doesn't let go.' Crystal Wilkinson, author of Perfect BlackHow do you save yourself when you're the person you trust least of all?Xavier "e;Scarecrow"e; Wallace is a biracial Black MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, who is facing the comeback fight of his life. He is also losing his battle with pugilistic dementia - a struggle he can no longer deny.In the nursing home of his father, a white man suffering from end-stage Alzheimer's, Xavier witnesses shocking episodes that expose ugly truths about his past and his family.And as the big fight draws near, a sparring session with a younger competitor goes horribly wrong, leaving Xavier faced with a dangerous dilemma: throw his match or suffer the deadly consequences.After the Lights Go Out is a propulsive exploration of mixed-race identity, the price that athletes pay to entertain, and one man's battle to reconcile his past - even when he can't hold onto his present.

An incisive and intimate account of the life and work of the great poet Rilke, exploring the rich interior world he created in his poetry 'Lesley Chamberlain has a rare gift for animating philosophy through intensely human stories' Sunday TelegraphWhen Rilke died in 1926, his reputation as a great poet seemed secure. But as the tide of the critical avant garde turned, he was increasingly dismissed as apolitical, the angels and roses of his poems deemed irrelevant. In Rilke: The Last Inward Man, acclaimed writer Lesley Chamberlain uses this charge as the starting point from which to explore the expansiveness of the inner world Rilke created in his poetry.Weaving together searching insights on Rilke's life, work and reputation, Chamberlain casts the poet's inwardness as a profound response to a world that seemed to be losing its spirituality. In works of dazzling imagination and rich imagery, Rilke sought to restore value to Western materialism, encouraging not narrow introversion but the cultivation of a new sensibility in a secular world after the death of God.

A HUGE BESTSELLER IN CHINA, BAD KIDS IS THE DARK SUSPENSE THRILLER WHERE NO ONE IS INNOCENT______You can't choose your in-laws.One beautiful morning, Zhang Dongsheng pushes his wealthy in-laws off a remote mountain.It's the perfect crime. Or so he thinks.For Zhang did not expect that teenager Chaoyang and his friends would catch him in the act. An opportunity for blackmail presents itself and the kids start down a dark path that will lead to the unravelling of all their lives.Dark, heart-stopping and violent, Bad Kids is the suspense thriller that has taken China by storm, proving that anyone has what it takes to become a killer.______HERE'S WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT BAD KIDS'The twists kept getting darker and darker. Not for the faint of heart. A murderous society where everyone is on the take, and no one's innocent.''A fabulously dark suspense novel. When I initially read the synopsis for this book, I knew I wanted to read it and it did not disappoint... totally different and fresh''It was fast paced, twisty and unpredictable and kept me guessing. Just when I thought it was the best it could be, it got better. Honestly one of the best books I have read.''This was an incredibly suspenseful thriller that I couldn't put down... I would recommend to anyone as the plot, characters and pacing were perfect''The kind of twisty, jet-fuelled thriller that explodes on page one and has you happily abandoning work, sleep, and life as you race to the stunning end''A suspenseful, gripping cat-and-mouse game that never lets the reader go. Unpredictable twists keep coming as the darkness inside various characters spills out more and more with every chapter'

FROM ONE OF INDIA'S MOST RESPECTED AND BESTSELLING WRITERS COMES A SEARING AND POIGNANT NOVEL ABOUT LOVE AND INTOLERANCE IN A SMALL VILLAGETWICE LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD'With tender rage, one of India's most powerful living writers breathes life into an age-old tale of forbidden passion' Nilanjana Roy'Pyre is extraordinary. Rarely does literature reveal so much with so little' Nayomi Munaweera'A major India writer' New York Times______Saroja and Kumaresan are young, in love and in danger. They meet in a small southern Indian town, where Kumaresan works in a soda bottling shop, and quickly marry before returning to Kumaresan's family village. But they are harbouring a dangerous secret: they belong to different castes, and if the villagers find out they will both be in grave peril.Faced with venom from her mother-in-law, and pointed new questions from her new neighbours, Saroja struggles to adjust to a lonely and uncomfortable life. Kumaresan throws himself into building a new soda business, hoping to scrape together enough money for them to start over somewhere new. But as vicious whispers encircle the couple, will their love be enough to keep them safe?______PRAISE FOR PYRE'So tense it leaves you gasping for air' Ellen Barry, New York Times'Pyre glows with power... and adds immeasurable value to contemporary Indian literature... a hard and glittering gem of a story' The Hindu'A haunting story of forbidden love set in Southern India that illustrates the cruel consequences of societal intolerance' Kirkus Reviews, starred review'Piercing detail... The simple, elegant prose of Vasudevan's translation ranges from poetic to suspenseful... Murugan deserves worldwide recognition' Publishers Weekly, starred review