A collection of stories and poems by contemporary writers from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and other countries the United States considers enemies that have been translated into English.

Featuring the work of more than 28 writers from upwards of 20 countries, this collection transports us to the frontiers of twenty-first century literature. In these pages, some of the most accomplished writers in world literature–among them Edwidge Danticat, Ha Jin, Cynthia Ozick, Javier Marias, and Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka, Günter Grass, Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, and Naguib Mahfouz–have stepped forward to introduce us to dazzling literary talents virtually unknown to readers of English. Most of their work–short stories, poems, essays, and excerpts from novels–appears here in English for the first time. The Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman introduces us to a story of extraordinary poise and spiritual intelligence by the Argentinian writer Juan Forn. The Romanian writer Norman Manea shares with us the sexy, sinister, and thrillingly avant garde fiction of his homeland’s leading female novelist. The Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri spotlights the Bengali writer Parashuram, whose hilarious comedy of manners imagines what might have happened if Britain had been colonized by Bengal. And Roberto Calasso writes admiringly of his fellow Italian Giorgio Manganelli, whose piece celebrates the Indian city of Madurai. Every piece here–be it from the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, or the Caribbean–is a discovery, a colorful thread in a global weave of literary exchange. Edited by Samantha Schnee, Alane Salierno Mason, and Dedi Felman

On the night of November 9, 1989, after months of unrest in Europe and East Germany, the checkpoints between East and West Berlin were suddenly openedk, reuniting the two sides of the divided city and bringing together a divided Europe and led to the end of the Cold War. This collection of essays from Words Without Borders is an exciting anthology that features fiction, essays and original documents and trace the path of the revolutionary spirit from its origins to the present day.

The Tiniest House of Time is more than a family saga, ranging across continents and decades seamlessly, from colonial Burma in the 1930s to nationalist Malaysia in the 1990s and beyond, to Hong Kong and Australia. The reader is thrust into the lives of far-flung middle-class Indian communities: immersed in family and local politics and intimate relationships, swept along in the tide of grand historical events. History works in cycles, repeating itself, until we finally understand that everything that has happened, has always already happened. The story is driven by Iyer’s two main characters, both strong women — Susheela Sastri and Sandhya Sastri — who are grandmother and granddaughter, but could have been born of the same atom. Sandhya visits her grandmother's deathbed after having run away from her country, her family, her love, and herself. She remembers her grandmother's stories, of a lost time in Burma, and digs deep to find truth in it. A dying Susheela, impatient with her family's pity, asks Sandhya to read to her. It opens up past events in both their lives, the family dynamics, the forbidden loves, the politics of who can be hated, when, and by whom…And what can they, as women of their times, actually do about it.

This volume celebrates the magnificent achievement of 20th-century Middle Eastern literature that has been neglected in the English-speaking world.

A new approach to the metaphysics, background logic, and semantics of ontological debate, Ontology Without Borders offers new solutions to perennial philosophical puzzles about constitution and the nonexistent. Book jacket.

The English-language debut of a major Latin American writer.