The second half of the year always feels like a return: to darker evenings, introspection, and stories that ask bigger questions. It’s also when quieter, stranger novels tend to rise to the surface—books that don’t shout, but quietly haunt. Stories that ask us to reflect. Spanning decades and continents, from postwar Austria to contemporary Haiti and Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, from a haunted research institute in Korea to a Venus statue in Tokyo, each book on this list offers a powerful reframing of what fiction can teach us about the realities that we inhabit.

Sweden

Engagement by Gun-Britt Sundström, translated from Swedish by Kathy Saranpa

Published in Sweden in the 70s and translated into English for the first time this year, Engagement by Gun-Britt Sundström follows Martina, a disenchanted humanities student in her early twenties, living on student aid and frequenting whatever seminar catches her attention. When she meets Gustav, it’s far from a passionate romance; he’s not exactly her type, and she’s not really interested in settling down. Despite this, she finds herself falling into established routines with him, performing the expected rituals of coupledom. Cut from the same cloth but wanting entirely different things out of their relationship, the two endlessly discuss what coupledom actually means, who loves whom more, and what the right way to love really is. In a time of social change and upheaval, Martina endlessly asks herself questions that feel as relevant today as ever.

Austria

Killing Stella by Marlen Haushofer, translated from German by Shaun Whiteside

Told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, Killing Stella—first published in 1958—by Marlen Haushofer (author of newly rediscovered The Wall) is a tense domestic horror novella exploring gender roles, repression, and complicity. Set in post-war Austria, we follow a housewife left to her own devices as her unfaithful husband and two children visit her parents-in-laws for the weekend. With time to herself, the narrator reflects back on past events and, in particular, what happened to Stella—the teenage daughter of a family friend who lived with them briefly before meeting a horrific end. Deceptively quiet and tranquil, Killing Stella is written in the form of a confession, gradually building in tension while ruminating on moral responsibility, silence as a form of both protection and violence, and what happens when things are left unsaid.

Japan

When the Museum Is Closed by Emi Yagi, translated from Japanese by Yuki Tejima

In a surreal take on love, loneliness, and beauty, Emi Yagi, author of Diary of a Void, returns with her second book translated into English. When the Museum is Closed follows Rika Horauchi, a part-time worker splitting her weeks between a frozen-food warehouse and a museum, where her job is to make conversation with the statue of Venus after closing hours. Recommended by her old professor for her proficiency in Latin, Rika begins to visit the statue on Monday evenings and, together with the anthropomorphic goddess, explores new ideas and perspectives, soon finding herself in love. But her newfound life is threatened when the museum curator wants to keep Venus all to himself, forcing Rika to decide what she will do about this strange new connection. Leaning into the same quiet surrealism as in Diary of a Void, When the Museum is Closed is a dreamlike take on desire, loneliness, and the transformative power of being perceived by others.

Brazil

On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan

For fans of I Who Have Never Known Men and Tender is the Flesh, Ana Paula Maia’s latest novel translated into English, On Earth As It Is Beneath is a gruesome account of what can happen when violence is allowed to reign supreme. In a country where people have been enslaved and tortured, a penal colony which only incarcerated men is shutting down. But with the loosening of control, a no less brutal system takes over. On every full moon, the inmates are set free, the warden armed with a rifle, and a hunt begins. Planning their escapes but never knowing who is a friend and who is an enemy, the men can’t tell what direction the threat is coming from—or indeed if life beyond the walls will provide them with better prospects. Like in her previous novel, Of Cattle and Men, Maia demands that her readers bear witness to the violence we are capable of when pushed to the extreme, or when power is left unchecked.

South Korea

The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran, translated from Korean by Gene Png

Part crime novel, part queer vampire love story, The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ran—author of A Thousand Blues and winner of the 4th Korea Sci-fi Literature Award—follows detective Su-yeon, who takes it upon herself to investigate a string of deaths at a local hospital. Her colleagues all rule the deaths of the deceased—four elderly patients who seemingly all jumped out of a 6th floor window—as suicides caused by loneliness, but Su-yeon, whose grandmother is also a patient on the same floor, is scared something will happen to her next. As she starts investigating, a mysterious woman named Violet steps forward, claiming to be a vampire hunter. She is searching for her ex-lover, Lily, and insists a vampire is behind the mysterious deaths. Diving into the fantastical, The Midnight Shift is a fast-paced commentary on loneliness, isolation, and grief.

Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur

National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize shortlisted author Bora Chung returns with Midnight Timetable: a novel-in-ghost-stories. Set in a mysterious research center which houses cursed objects, where footsteps echo in empty hallways, doorways disappear behind you, and cats can talk, a night shift employee soon discovers why few employees last long at the Institute. Through her trademark bizarre and uncanny motifs, this literary horror novel is an exploration of power, corruption, and late-stage capitalism. From animal testing to conversion therapy and domestic abuse, Midnight Timetable is as steeped in the fantastical and whimsical as it is in the horrors of everyday life.

Mexico

Restoration by Ave Barrera, translated from Spanish by Ellen Jones & Robin Myers

In the vein of Juan Rulfo, Angela Carter, and Mariana Enriquez, Restoration by Ave Barrera is a ghost story of sorts, exploring the male gaze, obsession, and ill-fated love. The novel follows Jasmina, who has been commissioned to restore the dilapidated family home of her current situationship. The house, once the home of famous artists, has become an abandoned time capsule, full of holes and cracks in the foundation. As Jasmina starts her repairs, the house comes alive, telling her its stories of previous residents and the women who walked its halls before her. Soon, these stories begin to overlap with her own, causing her to wonder where the boundary between self and these forgotten women lies, and ultimately asking the reader to consider where the line between novel and reality is drawn.

Portugal

Grace Period by by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

First published in 1973, Grace Period by Maria Judite de Carvalho is a story about a man at a crossroads and about how to move forward with life when you have one foot stuck in the past. After 25 years away, Matea Silva returns to sell his childhood home in order to send his dying girlfriend on her dream trip to the Acropolis. In a rush to make it happen before she passes, he sells the house to the first bidder: a former friend whose wife, Graça, was Matea’s first love. Struggling to reconcile the woman he sees now with the beauty in his past, and the events that ultimately tore them apart, he feels unable to change direction in a life that seems out of his control. Set on the cusp of the Carnation Revolution that would come to overthrow a four decades’ long dictatorship and told in Maria Judite de Carvalho’s unsentimental and precise prose, Grace Period stands as a parallel to a country on the eve of change.

Argentina

The Event by Juan José Saer, translated from Spanish by Helen Lane

Winner of the 1987 Nadal Prize and penned by an author lauded as “the most important Argentinian writer since Borges,” The Event by Juan José Saer follows Blanco the Magician. Performing his feats of telepathic marvel and tricks of the mind all across Europe, he is suddenly forced to emigrate to a remote corner of Argentina when he is exposed as a fraud. Together with the enigmatic Gina, he hides away in obscurity and tries to rebuild his sense of self, only to be drawn into a series of events that challenge the laws of logic. Stretching from Europe to Argentina, The Event explores themes of deception, exile, and identity—all while blurring the line between illusion and reality.

Haiti

Cécé by Emmelie Propheté, translated from French by Aidan Rooney

Set in the Cité of Divine Power, a neighborhood in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Cécé by Emmelie Propheté throws the reader into a world marred by gang violence and territorial disputes. After witnessing the deaths of her mother and grandmother, the eponymous Cécé lives with her bedridden uncle Frédo, accompanied by the soundtrack of street vendors, children playing, radios at full blast, and gunfire. In an attempt to make a better life for herself, she buys a smartphone and quickly gains a large online following under the online persona Cécé La Flamme. Documenting her reality while people watch on in horrified rapture from the safety of their own homes, Cécé is an account of a young woman trying to reclaim her own story, asking what it means to bear witness to violence—a violence that is increasingly commodified for entertainment. But, beyond the violence also lies a tender tale about community and survival, and the importance of human connection.

India

Andhar Bil by Kalyani Thakur Charal, translated from Bengali by Asit Biswas

In a newly formed country, around a local body of water known as Andhar Bil, a group of Dalits of the Matua Sect settle to rebuild their lives in the wake of partition. The bil, resembling the one they left behind, acts as a central character in its own right, bearing witness to the community of refugees as they attempt to start fresh while honoring long held traditions. Around its shores, children play, marriages are celebrated, and new generations grow up to leave, like generations before them left to explore new land. Told as an episodic, loosely woven narrative, at its heart is a young woman of the community, Kamalini, who will one day do just that: leave for the city. Written by Dalit feminist poet, critic, publisher and editor Kalyani Thakur Charal, Andhar Bil is an ode to the Dalit community, written with tenderness and a deep understanding of the region.

Kurdistan

The Competition of Unfinished Stories by Şener Ozmen, translated from Kurdish by Nicholas Glastonbury

From novelist, poet, and internationally acclaimed visual artist Şener Ozmen comes a bold English-language debut, set in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan. The Competition of Unfinished Stories centers around Sertec, a vehement atheist and aspiring writer who finds himself teaching theology at an Islamic school while attempting to write stories about the larger-than-life characters that comes to him. But Sertec can’t seem to finish any of them, and soon finds himself spiraling into madness as his marriage falls apart and he loses grip on reality. Through Sertec’s schizophrenic tendencies, the novel asks whether imagination is always harmless, or whether it can sometimes be the very thing that paralyzes us.

Italy

The Burning Origin by Daniele Mencarelli, translated from Italian by Octavian MacEwan

After leaving Rome and his working class background behind for a chance to start anew in Milan, Gabriele is now a world-famous designer and someone who has seemingly “made it.” But he hasn’t been home for four years, and when he returns for a family celebration, he finds everything and everyone unchanged. Between the Tuscolano neighborhood of his childhood, his provincial family, and a tight-knit group of former friends, Gabriele can’t help but feel nostalgic yet ashamed of his origins. At the same time, he finds himself deeply unsatisfied with his present and when a rumor threatens to reveal how he really achieved his success, he has to contend with the contradictions between who he was and who he has become. In this fast-paced novel, Mencarelli offers a loving portrait of Rome, exploring the complex emotional consequences of social mobility and self-invention.

Ecuador

Carnaval Fever by Yuliana Ortiz Ruano, translated from Spanish by Madeleine Arenivar

Winner of the 2023 English PEN Translates Award and named one of the 50 best books of 2022 by El País, Carnaval Fever by Yuliana Ortiz Ruano is a celebration of Afro-Ecuadorian identity and female resilience. Ainhoa grows up in her grandmother’s household surrounded by strong women. Between her grandmother’s firm hand and a constellation of aunts, these women teach and protect her, anchoring her through spirituality and a celebration of life—particularly during Carnaval season. But behind this joyful existence lurks poverty, precarity, and male violence. Through it all, it is the power of sisterhood that will ensure the continued existence of the community, as it goes through heartbreaks, migration, and violence.

Poland

House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd Jones

Nobel Prize winner and internationally renowned author Olga Tokarczuk’s latest novel translated into English, House of Day, House of Night, has remained a bestseller in Poland since it was first published in 1998. Set in Nowa Ruda, a small town in the historically contested region of Silesia—an area that has been tugged between Poland, Germany, and the former Czechoslovakia—it is a story about how places can form who we are and who we become. When a woman settles in town, knowing no one, she soon meets the village’s few inhabitants, in particular her enigmatic neighbor, Marta. But beyond the living, the village is overflowing with stories of the dead. Tracing the stories back to the founding of the town and even the saints themselves, the novel acts as a testament to the fact that all places, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem, have their own histories and roots, teeming with life.