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1
The Discomfort of Evening
Ten-year-old Jas lives with her deeply religious family on a dairy farm in the rural Netherlands. Her world is shaped by strict religious beliefs, the rhythms of farm life and the unspoken rules governing her family. When her older brother Matthies dies in an accident, Jas struggles to understand the loss and begins to believe that her childhood prayer may somehow have caused his death. As grief settles over the household, her parents withdraw into their own suffering, leaving Jas and her siblings increasingly isolated. Unable to express her fear and confusion directly, Jas retreats into a disturbing inner world filled with strange fantasies, bodily anxieties and dark imaginings. Through the child’s unsettling perspective, Rijneveld portrays a family gradually disintegrating under the weight of unprocessed grief and religious guilt. The novel’s vivid, often shocking imagery captures the vulnerability of childhood and the desperate search for meaning when familiar structures of belief and family life begin to collapse. Winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize, the novel is a haunting exploration of loss, repression and the limits of understanding.
Netherlands
2020
2
Your Ad Could Go Here: Stories
In Your Ad Could Go Here: Stories, Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko brings together a collection of fiction exploring the intimate connections between personal experience, collective memory, and national identity. Originally published in Ukrainian in 2014, the collection moves between the political upheavals of independent Ukraine and the seemingly ordinary dramas of everyday life, revealing how history shapes even the most private moments.
Through stories involving the Orange Revolution, family rivalries, romantic encounters, and unexpected personal triumphs, Zabuzhko examines the stories people tell themselves to make sense of their lives. Her characters navigate the complicated relationship between truth and illusion, individual desires and collective expectations, and the past and present. Myth, folklore, and fairy-tale elements frequently enter these recognisable settings, unsettling the boundary between what is real and what is imagined.
Lyrical, intellectually playful, and sharply observant, the collection explores how personal narratives become intertwined with cultural memory. Zabuzhko asks how individuals and nations construct their identities—and what happens when the stories that sustain them begin to unravel.
Ukraine
2020
3
Grey Bees
In a deserted village in eastern Ukraine, deep inside the so-called Grey Zone between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists, only two residents remain: Sergey Sergeyich, a retired mine safety inspector and devoted beekeeper, and Pashka, his former schoolmate and longtime rival. With no electricity and the constant threat of shelling, Sergeyich finds comfort in tending to his bees, whose orderly world offers a fragile contrast to the violence surrounding him.
As spring approaches, he decides to transport his beehives to safer pastures, embarking on a journey across a war-torn landscape. Along the way, he encounters soldiers and civilians on opposing sides of the conflict, including Russian occupiers and Crimean Tatars. His encounters reveal the human consequences of political division while challenging the boundaries between enemies and neighbours.
Combining dark humour, quiet compassion, and political insight, Grey Bees is a moving portrait of ordinary life amid extraordinary violence. Through Sergeyich’s devotion to his bees, Kurkov explores the persistence of humanity, the absurdity of war, and the possibility of finding common ground in a fractured world.
Ukraine
2020
4
The Fisherman King
Set in Brunei, The Fisherman King blends folklore, fantasy, and national history into a story about ancestry, destiny, and the search for identity. Lisan, a fisherman raised in a traditional water village, has always believed he is descended from Brunei’s royal family. After leaving his wife, Bhatia, and disappearing for eight years, he returns, claiming that he can finally prove his royal lineage.
As Lisan’s mysterious past begins to unravel, the narrative shifts between his present-day quest and events from six centuries earlier, when a forbidden relationship between two royal children set in motion a chain of events threatening both a king and a god. The two storylines gradually converge, revealing connections between personal ambition, historical memory, and the fate of the kingdom.
Drawing on Bruneian folklore and maritime traditions, Daud creates an atmospheric tale of magic, sacrifice, and buried secrets. Beneath its fantastical elements, the novel explores the desire to understand one’s origins and the consequences of pursuing an inheritance that may come at a profound personal cost.
Brunei
2020
5
Sleep Well, Mommy
Sleep Well, Mommy, also published in English as The Only Child, is a psychological thriller that explores the disturbing connections between childhood, violence, and the origins of evil.
Seonkyeong, a criminal psychologist, receives an unexpected opportunity when Yi Byeongdo, a notorious serial killer who has refused to speak publicly, agrees to be interviewed by her. At the same time, her husband brings his eleven-year-old daughter, Hayeong, to live with them following the mysterious deaths of the grandparents who had been raising her. Seonkyeong initially tries to welcome the girl into their home, but Hayeong’s unsettling behaviour soon begins to trouble her.
As Seonkyeong investigates the pasts of both the killer and her stepdaughter, she discovers disturbing similarities between them. The more she learns, the more she questions what she thought she understood about Hayeong and the circumstances surrounding her family’s deaths.
Blending domestic suspense with criminal psychology, Seo’s novel examines the relationship between childhood trauma, family secrets, and the nature of evil.
South Korea
2020
6
Serenade for Nadia
Serenade for Nadia follows Maya Duran, a single mother working at Istanbul University who is asked to assist an elderly German-born professor, Maximilian Wagner, during his visit to Turkey. Initially puzzled by his unusual behaviour, Maya gradually discovers that his connection to Istanbul reaches back to the Second World War. Through his memories, she learns about a forbidden love story and the fate of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution aboard the ship Struma, which sank in 1942. As the past emerges, Maya confronts painful aspects of Turkish history and the human consequences of political decisions. Livaneli weaves together romance, historical tragedy, and contemporary social tensions, exploring how love can endure across decades while examining the responsibilities of remembering those whose lives were lost through war, prejudice, and indifference.
Türkiye
2020
7
Above Us the Milky Way
Above Us the Milky Way is a story about war, immigration, and the remarkable human capacity to create beauty out of horror. As a young family attempts to reconstruct their lives in a new and peaceful country, they are daily drawn back to the first land through remembrance and longing, by news of the continued suffering and loss of loved ones, and by the war dead, who have immigrated and reside with them, haunting their days and illuminating the small joys and wonders offered them by the new land.
The novel's structure is built around the alphabet, twenty-six pieces written in the first person that sketch a through-line of memory for the lives of the five daughters, mother, and father. Ghost stories and fairytales are woven with old family photographs and medieval-style watercolor illuminations to create an origin story of loss and remembrance.
Afghanistan
2020
8
Well-Behaved Indian Women
Well-Behaved Indian Women follows three generations of Indian women as they navigate the expectations of family, culture, and personal ambition. Simran Mehta, a young Indian American woman living in New York, dreams of becoming a writer, but her aspirations conflict with her family’s hopes that she will pursue a more conventional future. Her mother, Nandini, has spent much of her life meeting the expectations placed upon her as a wife and mother, while her grandmother, Bindu, carries memories of a different India and the sacrifices required of women in her generation. As their stories intersect, long-standing tensions emerge around marriage, independence, and what it means to be a good daughter. Dave explores the complexities of cultural identity and intergenerational relationships, showing how women can honour their heritage while questioning traditions that no longer reflect who they want to become.
India
2020
9
The Henna Artist
Set in Jaipur in the 1950s, The Henna Artist follows Lakshmi, a young woman who escapes an abusive marriage and builds an independent life in the Pink City. Through her exceptional skills as a henna artist and her knowledge of traditional remedies, she becomes a trusted confidante to wealthy women, gaining access to their private lives and secrets. Lakshmi dreams of establishing her own home and achieving financial security, carefully protecting the reputation that sustains her livelihood. However, her carefully constructed world is disrupted when her estranged husband appears with a young girl who turns out to be the sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Forced to reconsider her priorities, Lakshmi must navigate the tension between independence and family responsibility. Joshi explores women’s autonomy, social hierarchy, ambition, and the possibility of creating a new life despite the limitations imposed by society.
India
2020
10
Against the Loveless World
Against the Loveless World follows Nahr, a Palestinian woman whose life is shaped by displacement, political conflict, and the struggle for independence. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents, she dreams of finding love, raising a family, and building a stable future. Instead, a series of betrayals and difficult circumstances leads her through different countries in the Middle East, where she encounters exploitation, prejudice, and political upheaval. As the story unfolds through memories narrated from solitary confinement, Nahr reveals the experiences that shaped her transformation from a vulnerable young woman into someone determined to resist the forces controlling her life. Abulhawa explores the intersection of personal freedom and political oppression, examining how gender, exile, and economic hardship influence women’s choices. The novel is a powerful portrait of survival and the determination to claim dignity in an unjust world.
Palestine
2020
11
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead
Set in a remote Polish village near the Czech border, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead follows Janina Duszejko, an eccentric older woman who lives in isolation, cares for summer houses, studies astrology, and feels a deep connection with animals and the natural world. When several men in the surrounding community die under mysterious circumstances, Janina develops her own theory about the killings, believing that the animals are taking revenge on those who have harmed them. However, the local authorities dismiss her ideas, partly because of her gender, age, and unconventional beliefs. As the investigation unfolds, the novel combines the structure of a murder mystery with philosophical reflections on justice, morality, and humanity’s relationship with other living creatures. Through dark humour and an unsettling narrative, Tokarczuk challenges assumptions about who deserves sympathy and whose suffering matters. The novel questions human dominance over nature and explores the blurred boundaries between justice, vengeance, and madness.
Poland
2020
12
Minor Detail
Minor Detail by Palestinian writer Adania Shibli is a haunting novel that connects a crime committed in the Negev desert in 1949 with a contemporary woman’s search for the truth decades later. The first part recounts the abduction, rape, and murder of a young Bedouin woman by Israeli soldiers shortly after the 1948 war, presenting the events through a detached, almost clinical narrative that emphasizes the brutality of the act and the victim’s anonymity. In the second part, a Palestinian woman in Ramallah becomes obsessed with a seemingly minor detail: the exact date of the crime. Determined to investigate, she travels across checkpoints and restricted territories, confronting the physical and psychological barriers that shape life under occupation. Through spare prose and a carefully controlled structure, Shibli explores violence, historical erasure, memory, and the unequal power to tell stories. The novel asks how forgotten suffering can be recovered and what it means to seek truth in a landscape where history remains deeply contested.
Palestine
2020