Peopled by colourful characters from the nineteenth-century Parisian underworld; the street children, the prostitutes and the criminals, this novel tells the story of an escaped convict Jean Valjean, and his efforts to reform his ways and care for the little orphan girl he rescues from a life of cruelty.

One morning, Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. His family is understandably perturbed and he finds himself an outsider in his own home. The author explores the confusing nature of human experience with compelling originality.

Translation, and emigration, is the way into a new history of the novel. We assume that we can read novels in translation. We also assume that style does not translate. But the history of the novel is the history of style. This book solves this conundrum.

In a spa town snug in the Alps, at the end of the twentieth century, the 78-year-old Haffner is seeking a cure, redress, more women; and ignoring the will of his wife. He is there to claim her inheritance: a villa on the outskirts of a forgotten spa town. But Haffner never does what he is told.

Tells the story of a father and daughter. This book also tells the story of a menage a trois. It explores crucial domestic problems of sexual etiquette. What should sleeping arrangements be in a menage a trois? Is it polite to read while two people have sex beside you? Is it permissible to be jealous?

Ditie is a hotel waiter who rises to become a millionaire and then loses it all again against the backdrop of events in Prague from the German invasion to the victory of Communism.

A novel peopled by characters from the nineteenth-century Parisian underworld: the street children, the prostitutes and the criminals. It tells the story of an escaped convict, and his efforts to reform his ways and care for the little orphan girl he rescues from a life of cruelty. It draws attention to the plight of the poor and oppressed.

A selection of Stendhal's inspiring letters to his sister.

Travels from Rio de Janeiro to Prague, from Moscow to London, from Trieste to Paris, from Warsaw to New York and on its zigzagging flight, it reinvents our ideas of style, and translation - introducing new theories of jet lag, of the time difference. This novel finds problems with accurate translations, and praises imperfect ones.