fall 20 21 winter 2022 @restlessbooks restlessbooks.org bit.ly/RestlessNewsletter Contents MISSION SUPPORT US Restless Books is an independent, nonprofit publisher As a nonprofit organization, Restless Books relies on devoted to championing essential voices from the generosity of our readers and partners to achieve around the world whose stories speak to us across our mission. Your support enables us to discover linguistic and cultural borders. We seek extraordinary and promote extraordinary authors from around international literature for adults and young the world, to champion perspectives from outside readers that feeds our restlessness: our hunger for the confines of the familiar, and to take risks in our Letter from the Publisher 4 new perspectives, passion for other cultures and editorial choices, always emphasizing literary value languages, and eagerness to explore beyond the over the concerns of the market. confines of the familiar. Adult Trade Through cultural programming, we aim to Please contribute at celebrate immigrant writing and bring literature to restlessbooks.org/donate Death Fugue 5 underserved communities. We believe that immigrant The Memory Monster 6 stories are a vital component of our cultural consciousness; they help to ensure awareness of our Life Sciences 7 communities, build empathy for our neighbors, and Restless Books gratefully acknowledges the strengthen our democracy. support of the following organizations for our Mud Sweeter than Honey 10 2021 titles: BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Murders of Moisés Ville 13 Amazon Literary Partnership, FACE Foundation, Annette Hochstein, Chair FILI: Finnish Literature Exchange, Italian Ministry of Alison Gore, Secretary Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Japan Yonder Alison Sparks, Treasurer Foundation, Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture Devin Brooks and Sport Rat Rule 79 14 Neal Cohen It's OK, Slow Lizard 16 Jodie Corngold Shaul Hochstein Steven G. Kellman Recently Published 18 Ilan Stavans Forthcoming 19 ADVISORY BOARD Yonder Highlights 20 Stephanie Anderson, Assistant Director of Selection Restless Classics Highlights 21 for BookOps (NYPL & BPL) Jeff Deutsch, Director of Seminary Co-op Bookstore Rights Highlights 22 Cristina García, Author Galit Hasan-Rokem, Author Programs 24 David Bruce Smith, Author † Norton Juster, Architect, Author, and Professor Cover illustration © Jian Kim, from It's OK, Slow Lizard Ordering Information 25 Mitchell Kaplan, Owner of Books & Books and Author photo credits: Co-Founder of The Miami Book Fair Sheng Keyi (page 3) © Mark King Mario Vargas Llosa, Author Margo Rejmer (page 10) © Katarzyna Lasoń Javier Sinay (page 13) © Veronica Martinez Ruth Ozeki, Author Rivka Galchen (page 14) © Sandy Tait David L. Ulin, Author † We mourn the loss of Norton Juster, who passed away in March 2021. AUGUST Letter from the Publisher Death Fugue Sheng Keyi As the pandemic recedes and surges in turns around the world, it’s time to commit ourselves Translated from the Chinese by Shelly Bryant to seeing through a global lens. Restless Books is ready. After all, our core mission is to use the highest-quality literature to bridge cultures and attune ourselves to voices outside of the Banned in China for its taboo allusions to the American mainstream. Our upcoming lineup is exemplary: an assortment of breathtaking books Tiananmen Square massacre, Death Fugue from four continents. is a lyrical and explosive dystopian satire of Sheng Keyi’s no-holds-barred novel Death Fugue, which was banned in China, is an incisive manufactured existence, the erasure of personal meditation on the authoritarian future with echoes of Franz Kafka and George Orwell. Joy freedom, and the perils of governmental control. Sorman’s Life Sciences, from France, is an inventive coming-of-age novel about a young woman's “A stomach-churning, exuberantly written allegory . recalls quest for self-determination despite a centuries-old matrilineal family curse. Margo Rejmer’s Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.” —The New York Times magnificent Mud Sweeter than Honey, an example of journalism of the highest caliber, reflects on the legacy of Enver Hoxha, Albania’s Communist tyrant, by arranging a chorus of survivors’ “Anyone remotely interested in an insider’s untrammeled, voices, in the tradition of Studs Terkel and Svetlana Alexeievich. Also a masterful investigative Paperback List Price: US $19.00 authoritative vision of what’s going on in China will jump into this mosaic, Javier Sinay’s autobiographical The Murders of Moisés Ville looks at the tension that ISBN: 9781632062925 fascinating cauldron of a novel, at risk of being boiled alive.” Publication: Aug 3, 2021 underscored Jewish immigration to Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century through the —Sydney Review of Books 5.5" x 8.25" • 384 pages prism of the author’s quest to understand his own Jewish heritage. And from South Korea, the Fiction: China / Politics / Revolution / enchanting picture book It’s OK, Slow Lizard by Yeorim Yoon and Jian Kim is a wise invitation Dystopian / Speculative Fiction “[F]ull of clever observations, energy, wit, imaginativeness, and Rights Held: World English excl. ANZ, to decelerate in order to appreciate life in full. We are also pleased to include two paperback endless lush, colorful landscapes that toe the line between the China, Southeast Asia reissues: Yishai Sarid’s much-discussed post-Holocaust meditation from Israel, The Memory beautiful and the fantastical.” —Words Without Borders eBook ISBN: 9781632062932 Monster; and Rivka Glachen’s razor-sharp middle-grade novel Rat Rule 79, both favorites among • An internationally acclaimed large audiences. One morning, a nine-story tower of excrement inexplicably appears author: Sheng Keyi received The work of a nonprofit publishing house like ours is built on trust. Readers trust us to in the capital of Dayang. The government performs a hasty cover-up, the Chinese People’s Literature canvas the contemporary literary scene to find gems worth rendering into superb English sparking protests that quickly explode in unrest. Mengliu, a young poet, Prize, the Yu Dafu Prize for and his girlfriend Qizi are swept up in the movement—but in the brutal translations. In that sense, our task is to curate as sharp and comprehensive a selection as Fiction, and the Chinese crackdown that follows, Qizi, along with thousands of other protestors, Literature Media Award. possible. We call on a vast number of friends—authors, translators, editors, and agents—around disappears. • A voice that can’t be silenced: the globe to send us eye-opening material. Our responsibility is to be discerning in our diverse Years later, while searching for Qizi, Mengliu washes ashore in Death Fugue is still unpublished tastes. To succeed, we, in turn, depend on the trust of readers. The joy and enlightenment the utopian Swan Valley. Initially seduced by the opulence and order in China because of its the books provide is our reward. We also offer acclaimed literary programs to underserved of Swan Valley, Mengliu soon uncovers the deep, inhumane cost of allegorical depiction of the 1989 communities: reading the classics in prisons, for instance; participating in writing workshops maintaining this perfect society. Lavish, relentless, and occasionally Tiananmen Square massacre and its confrontation with geared toward emerging immigrant writers; and discussing classic world literature via Zoom on unhinged, Death Fugue is a profound dystopian meditation on art and suppression in China. a monthly basis in partnerships with the New York Public Library and other institutions. freedom. • A timely examination of Fulfilling our expanding mission requires all sorts of resources, most crucially from you. protest: Death Fugue grapples Readers who buy our books, spread the word about them, and make small donations enable us SHENG KEYI is the author of ten novels as well with the necessity of protest in as numerous short stories and novellas. Her debut to be the avid grassroots organization that we are. Please spread the goodwill for Restless Books effecting social, political, and novel in English translation, Northern Girls, was cultural change. by encouraging more readers to open our books, or by sending a contribution of whatever longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in size you’re comfortable with. Rest assured that it will go into fresh, startling new literary 2012. She has received numerous literary awards, explorations that will change audiences everywhere. Gracias! including the Chinese People’s Literature Prize, the Yu Dafu Prize for Fiction, and the Chinese —Ilan Stavans Literature Media Award. She lives in New York. fall 2021 winter 2022 | restless books 5 SEPTEMBER OCTOBER The Memory Monster Life Sciences Yishai Sarid Joy Sorman Translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud Introduction by Catherine Lacey A New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books of 2020 Selection—now in paperback “Women are heiresses, inheritors of a thousand demented and limiting ideas of what a woman “[A] slim but powerful novel, rendered beautifully in English by can or should be. Most women know this; many translator Greenspan. A bold, masterful exploration of the resist.” —Catherine Lacey, from the Introduction banality of evil and the nature of revenge, controversial no matter how it is read.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review “The strong and tender prose combined with the stubborn dedication of a teenager battling a matrilineal curse transforms