Bøger udgivet af Dedalus Ltd

Prague 1938 is a coming-of-age novel, or a novel of lost illusions, set in a Czechoslovakia threatened with incorporation into the Third Reich. Centred on the 15 year old Guido Hayek, it traces his infatuation with Leah Meisel, an orphaned Jewish girl several years older than him who, he discovers, is part of a street-gang of con-artists and petty thieves. His initiation into their world occurs when Leah challenges him to steal a ring from a jewellers. Soon he is enmeshed. Guido is aware that Leah's grandfather Ezra Meisel, an antiques dealer, has plans to emigrate to Odessa with her, particularly as the Sudeten Crisis comes to a head. Guido's own crisis comes to a head when he discovers that his father Emil, an art-dealer whom he adores, is bent on cheating old Meisel, and he must choose between aiding the Meisels or helping his own half-sister, the 'degenerate' artist Katya, who also has the 'taint' of Jewish blood, emigrate to the New World. "The streets of Prague take centre stage in this smorgasbord of a novel: coming-of-age, familial upheaval, political unrest, artistic intrigue, rag order existence, the folly of youthful infatuation, the warp and woof of flight to a new world; and all of it played out under the looming shadow of war, of a world approaching the precipice. This is elegant, vibrant and read-on storytelling at its very best." - Alan McMonagle "[Dara Kavanagh] has written a vivid coming-of-age morality tale set in pre-WWII Prague that holds a magic mirror up to our own strange and disrupted times" - Paul Lynch

The life of Kieran Sheridan LeFanu, a young Dublin advertising agency director, is abruptly upended when he is the sole survivor of a gruesome car crash. In the aftermath, he develops a form of Cotard's Syndrome, the belief that he is dead and possibly experiencing the drawn-out delirium of a mind hovering between consciousness and extinction. He meets and loves the enchanting and enigmatic Aoife and struggles to differentiate between memory, fantasy, and reality, with bizarre and inexplicable encounters where he is attacked by strangers, pursued by a vicious stalker and transported to a haunting afterlife dimension. In a final showdown, he faces real and paranormal foes and is given an astounding revelation. LeFanu's Angel is a novel full of excitement, mystery and the unexpected. It is a literary delight set in historic and contemporary Dublin, with its vibrant business and social life, and hidden underworld of vice and crime. 'Keogh does an excellent job of both channelling/mocking the Irish Gothic novel tradition, telling a good story of good (relatively) versus evil, showing the corruption and dark side of modern-day Ireland and keeping us guessing to the end where it is all going to end up.' John Alvey in The Modern Novel 'Most importantly, Keogh tells a good story - both at the level of the individual episodes as well as the larger stories - and tells them well, making for a thoroughly engaging novel and enjoyable read.' M.A. Orthofer in The Complete Review

NGO worker Gwen refuses to leave Afghanistan as the 1990s takeover by the Taliban sets in. Her ideas for protecting and empowering the community she is working with take an opportunistic, opium-related turn. Fifteen years later Gwen is helping migrants in the UK, set to clash with her daughter as her past catches up with her.

"Sylvie Germain's The Medusa Child beautifully translated from the French by Liz Nash, tells a heartbreaking and violent story about sin and redemption in fantastical language; a myth from la France profonde." Books of the Year in The Independent on Sunday 'Germain's language is redolent with decay, rich with religious torment and ecstasy, and filled with the decadence so loved by this publisher.' Time Out 'The Medusa Child is her most accessible novel, and my favourite. A coherent pattern of metaphor depicts an enchanted country childhood. Lucie explores the marshes around her home and studies the stars. But when she is given a room of her own, an ogre starts to pay her nocturnal visits. Helpless and alone, Lucie decides to fight back by turning herself into a monster. This is a superb and compassionate study of damage and resistance.' Michele Roberts in Mslexia

A novel about obsessive love initially published in France in 1898. Has inspired five film adaptations, including Josef von Sternberg's in 1935 and Luis Bunuel's in 1977.

A classic Portuguese novel translated here into English by Margaret Jull Costa. Follows the fortunes of widower Richard Whitestone who regularly re-reads "Tristram Shandy", his wise daughter and romantic son.

Elias's father used to read novels at work to transport himself from his boring duties as a book-keeper until he literally lost himself in a book, or so Elias was told. Elias goes off in search of the father he never knew, across the action-packed plots of many recognisable classics. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa.

A selection of children's stories loved by generations of Portuguese children, with the recurring themes loyalty and friendship.

The identity of Venice, Queen of the Adriatic, is inseparable from the waters of the lagoon by which she is surrounded. Isabella Panfido takes us on an exploration of those waters that since time immemorial have been Venice's refuge and defence, visiting some of its many islands (the names of a few - Fisolo, Sant'Arian, Lio Piccolo, San Secondo - will be unknown even to the most assiduous visitors to the city), and introducing us to their elusive magic and their well-kept secrets. We learn of haunting illusions created by the peculiar geography of the lagoon under certain climatic conditions; of the devastating plague of 1630 that led to the loss of 47,000 Venetian lives over a period of sixteen months; of the destruction by a bitter north wind of baskets full of carefully harvested soft-shelled crabs and their seemingly miraculous rebirth and metamorphosis from one delicacy into another; of thwarted yearnings and ambitions, of jealous rivalries and revenge, of the terrible price of vanity - and much, much more. An expert guide and consummate storyteller, the author draws on a deep and extensive knowledge of her native city past and present, and on her own personal experiences, weaving together myth and legend, imagination and historical fact, to capture the mystique of the phenomenon that is Venice. Venice Noir is the winner of two literary prizes: the Latisana per il Nord-Est Prize and the Gambrinus Giuseppe Mazzotti Prize.

In Caterina, Claudia Durastanti presents us with a Cleopatra for our times - no exotic queen courted by two lovers with the fate of an empire in their hands but a young would-be ballet dancer who now works in as a cleaner in a down-at-heel hotel. This is the Rome of the underclass, of illegal immigrants, gypsies and sex shops where life is a struggle for dysfunctional families and nothing comes easy, except disappointment. Every Thursday Caterina visits her boyfriend Aurelio in Rebibbia prison in Rome, where, following a mysterious tip-off to the police, he is being held in custody under suspicion of pimping the strippers in the nightclub he was running. What would Aurelio say if he knew that she went straight from the prison to meet the policeman who arrested him, and who is now her lover? Caterina's life is difficult and her environment challenging but she is a survivor and takes everything life throws at her without complaint. Caterina is very much a heroine for our times.

Margherita Giacobino's book is a fictionalised biography/autobiography of Patricia Highsmith, taking the form of diary entries supposedly written by her, interspersed with a third-person narrative. It focuses on her psychological and emotional life, with the emphasis on feelings, relationships and aspirations rather than facts, dates and events. A lesbian in an era when to be homosexual was to be reviled and discriminated against, and made to feel guilty and ashamed, Patricia Highsmith struggled with her sexual identity in this social context, and the book fruitfully explores how this might have contributed to her creative output. The title is a reference to Patricia Highsmith's second novel The Price of Salt, a lesbian romance originally published under a pseudonym after it was rejected by the publisher of her first novel. It was not until 1990 that Patricia Highsmith agreed to its reissue under her own name, with the new title Carol.

A story from one of Germany's most popular children's authors. Carlo is determined to see his father, who lives back in Palermo, and therefore sets out without any money to make his way there.

A funny and touching exploration of freedom, friendship and finding yourself. Mo acknowledges her 'inner voice' and sets to work on her memoirs, not letting her bovine nature stop her. Set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

Ohl's homage to nineteenth century English fiction features a Dickensian cast of characters (including Dickens himself), in its depiction of the fallout from a mysterious discovery.

Rural ideals clash with big city ambition in this novel of female empowerment, which is also the first novel by a female author to be published in Cape Verde. Salustio has been awarded the PEN Galicia for lifetime achievement.

Some of Grabinski's best stories, including a watchmaker whose death stops all the town clocks, and a phantom train that always turns up unannounced.

The first English translation of Huysmans' seminal art book, analysing work by a range of key figures including Paul Gauguin, Mary Cassatt and Edouard Manet.

Equal parts crime novel and state-of-the-nation exploration of modern Greece, George Zakiris takes on an offer of work which increasingly challenges him with choices between poverty and collusion in crime.

This is the first English translation of The Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhui, a picaresque novel in which the hero, a magical little boy, goes in search not of his fortune but of knowledge, growing both wiser and possibly sadder in the process. 'In his dedication, Ferlosio describes this exquisite fantasy novel, first published in 1952 and now beautifully translated into English as a 'story full of true lies.' Much honored in his native Spain, Ferlosio is a fabulist comparable to Jorge Borges and Italo Calvino, as well as Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. Cervantes comes to mind. Ferlosio's prose is effortlessly evocative. A chair puts down roots and sprouts 'a few green branches and some cherries, ' while a paint-absorbing tree becomes a 'marvelous botanical harlequin.' Later, Alfanhui sets off on a tour of Castile, meeting his aged grandmother 'who incubated chicks in her lap and had a vine trellis of muscatel grapes and who never died.' This is a haunting adult reverie on life and beauty and as such will appeal to discriminating readers.' Starred review in Publisher's Weekly

First published on the eve of the First World War, Keyserling's masterpiece offers a vivid portrait of a society on the verge of dissolution. A group of German aristocrats gathers at a seaside village on the Baltic Sea for a summer holiday in the early years of the twentieth century. The characters represent a cross-section of the upper classes of imperial Germany: a philandering baron, his jealous wife, a gallant cavalry officer, the elderly widow of a general, a cynical government official, a lady's companion. Their lives, even on holiday, are regulated by rigid protocol and archaic codes of honour. But their quiet, disciplined world is thrown into disarray by the unexpected presence of Doralice, a young countess who has rebelled against social constraints by escaping from an arranged marriage and running away with a bourgeois artist.

The Continuation is Grimmelshausen's 'pilgrim's progress', the concluding chapter in one of the greatest and most acclaimed German novels. It combines fantastic episodes with a realistic narrative style. At the end of his original adventures his hero withdraws from the world to live as a hermit in the Black Forest. Now, after a vivid dream of the Devil and all his minions at work, he decides to become a pilgrim and visit the holy places, making his way, with various encounters, across Switzerland to Italy, where he takes passage on a ship to Egypt. Outside Cairo he is captured by Arab robbers who take him to the Red Sea, exhibiting him as a wild man from the desert. Rescued by European merchants, he embarks on a ship to return home via the Cape of Good Hope, but the ship is wrecked and, 50 years before Robinson Crusoe, he is marooned on a desert island.