Index of Independent Publishers

The following is a list of reviews for works published by independent publishers. While the majority of works reviewed are published by the major publishing house, a goal of this website is to explore the depth and breadth of titles available from independent publishers. By and large, independent publishers publish works which are interesting, innovative, risky, eccentric, esoteric or a combination of all five. In short, they publish the works most interesting to me at the present time.

From the website:

African Roar is a fiction anthology drawn from the very best stories published from 2007-2009, in the StoryTime weekly literary ezine dedicated to publishing African writers. Between these covers you will find eleven stories that stand as a testament to the upsurge of talented African writers boldly utilising the cutting edge of technology and the writing craft to be read globally.

Sigauke, Emmanuel and Hartmann, Ivor W. (eds.) - African Roar
---Tshuma, Novuyo Rosa - Big Pieces, Little Pieces
---Tubosun, Kola - Behind the Door
---Musodza, Masimba - Yesterday's Dog
---Morocco-Clarke, Ayodele - The Nestbury Tree
---Beaven Tapureta - Cost of Courage
---Hartmann, Ivor W. - Lost Love
---Mlalazi, Christopher - A Cicada in the Shimmer
---Nwokolo Jr., Chuma - Quarterback & Co.
---Sigauke, Emmanuel - A Return to the Moonlight
---Damoah, Nana Awere - Truth Floats
---Attah, Ayesha Harruna - Tamale Blues
Note - The order is identical to the collection's table of contents (ie deliberately not alphabetical)
See Also: The End of the African Roar Series

From the website:

Over the years my hope for the Press was that it would be the "best" literary publisher in the country, even if that honor might be by way of default. Whether it was through reprints or original works, I wanted the Press to define the contemporary period, or at least what I saw as what was most important in the contemporary period. Further, I wanted these books permanently protected, which is why from the start the Press has kept all of its fiction in print, regardless of sales. And as with the Review, I wanted the books to represent what was happening around the world rather than more or less being confined to the United States. Like the Review, Dalkey Archive Press was and is a hopelessly quixotic venture.

The Dalkey Archive Press publishes highly literary works of fiction. It offers works from a wide range of countries, literary movements, and periods.

Titles under review include:

Novels and Full-length Works
Blatnik, Andrej - You Do Understand
Boon, Louis Paul - My Little War
Fosse, Jon - Aliss at the Fire
Konwicki, Tadeusz - The Polish Complex
Simon, Claude - The Invitation
Szewc, Piotr - Annihilation
Toussaint, Jean-Philippe - The Bathroom
Vorpsi, Ornela - The Country Where No One Ever Dies

Best European Fiction 2010
Hemon, Aleksandar (ed.) - Best European Fiction 2010
---Belgium: Toussaint, Jean-Phillipe - Zidane's Melancholy
---Bosnian: Štiks, Igor - At the Sarajevo Market
---Bulgarian: Gospodinov, Georgi - And All Turned Moon
---Croatian: Ušumović, Neven – Vereš
---Danish: Aidt, Naja Marie - Bulbjerg
---Estonian: Viiding, Elo - Foreign Women
---French: Montalbetti, Christine - Hotel Komaba Eminence (With Haruki Murakami)
---Hungarian: Konrád, György - Jeremiah's Terrible Tale
---Icelandic: Bragi, Steinar - The Sky Over Thingvellir
---Italian: Mozzi, Guilio - Carlo Doesn't Know How to Read

Best European Fiction 2011
Hemon, Aleksandar (ed.) - Best European Fiction 2011
---United Kingdom: Welsh: Roberts, Wiliam Owen - The Professionals
---United Kingdom: British: Mantel, Hilary - The Heart Fails Without Warning
---Turkish: Üldes, Ersan - Professional Behaviour
---Swiss: Stefan, Verena - Doe a Deer
---Spanish: Catalan: Ibarz, Mercé - Nela and the Virgins
---Spanish: Castilian: Vila-Matas, Enrique - Far From Here
---Slovenian: Jančar, Drago - The Prophecy
---Serbian: Arsenijević, Vladimir - One Minute: Dumbo's Death
---Russian: Gelasimov, Andre - The Evil Eye
---Romanian: Teodorovici, Lucian Dan - Goose Chase
---Portuguese: Tavares, Gonçalo M. - Six Tales
---Polish: Tokarczuk, Olga - The Ugliest Woman in the World
---Norwegian: Grytten, Frode - Hotel by a Railroad
---Netherlands: Uphoff, Manon - Desire
---Montenegrin: Spahić, Ognjen - Raymond is No Longer with Us – Carver is Dead
---Moldovan: Ciocan, Iulian - Auntie Frosea
---Macedonian: Minevski, Blaže - Academician Sisoye's Inaugural Speech
---Lithuanian: Kalinauskaitė, Danutė - Just Things
---Lichtenstein: Sprenger, Stefan - Dust
---Latvian: Ikstena, Nora - Elza Kuga's Old-Age Dementia
---Italian: Candida, Marco - Dream Diary
---Irish: Barry, Kevin - Doctor Sot
---Irish: Dhuibhne, Éilís Ní - Trespasses
---Hungarian: Krasznahorkai, László - The Bill
---German: Schulze, Ingo - Oranges and Angel

Best European Fiction 2012
Hemon, Aleksandar (ed.) - Best European Fiction 2012
---Love
------Belgium (Flemish): de Martelaere, Patricia - My Hand is Exhausted
------Croatian: Hrgović, Maja - Zlatka
------Spanish (Galician): Fernández Paz, Agustín - This Strange Lucidity
---Desire
------Polish: Rudnicki, Janusz - The Sorrows of Idiot Augustus
------Irish: Rosenstock, Gabriel - “...everything emptying into white”
---Elsewhere
------Hungarian: Bán, Zsófia - When There Were Only Animals
------Swiss (Rhaeto-Romanic and German): Camenisch, Arno - Sez Ner
------Portuguese: Zink, Rui - Tourist Destination
---War
------Georgian: Dephy, David - Before the End
------Irish: Hogan, Desmond - Kennedy
------Russian: Davydov, Danila - The Telescope
---Thought
------Czech: Kratochvil, Jiří - I, Loshaď
------Estonian: Kõomägi, Armin - Logisticians Anonymous
---Art
------Slovak: Gál, Róbert – Agnomia

The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Vol. XXX, #1 Writing From Postcommunist Romania
---Adameşteanu, Gabriela - The Hour Commute
---Blandiana, Ana - The Open Window
---Petrescu, Răzvan - Wedding Photos
---Suceavă, Bogdan - Daddy Wants TV Saturday Night
---Lazarescu, Florin - The Lamp with the Cap

Vol. XXX, #2 Slovak Fiction
---Hochel, Braňo - My Best Story
---Johanides, Ján - Berlin in the Afternoon, at a Quarter to Winter
---Juráňová, Jana - Clips
---Karvaš, Peter - Xerox of a Document about One Half of (the Art of) Life
---Kompaníková, Monika - Slávko
---Kovalyk, Uršuľa - Mrs. Agnes's Bathroom
---Rankov, Pavol - The Period in Which We Live
---Šimko, Dušan - Excursion to Dubrovnik

Geopoetika is a major Serbian publisher. Their recent series, Serbian Prose in Translation, aims to introduce significant Serbian authors to English-speaking audiences.

Titles under review include:
---Basara, Svetislav - The Cyclist Conspiracy
---Novaković, Mirjana - Fear and Servant
---Ognjenović, Vida - Adulterers
---Stanković, Slavoljub – The Box
---Valjarević, Srdjan - Lake Como

Kodansha International is the English arm of Japanese publishing giant, Kodansha.

Titles under review include:

Kakuta, Mitsuyo - The Eighth Day
Miyabe, Miyuki:
---The Devil's Whisper
---The Sleeping Dragon

From the website:

This series includes the greatest recognized masterpieces of all time, from every literature and genre, but also tries to redefine and enrich the classics canon by promoting unjustly neglected works of enduring significance. Most of the titles in the series are provided with an extensive critical apparatus and extra reading material. With an emphasis on the production, editorial and typographical values of a book, Oneworld Classics aspires to revitalize the whole experience of reading the classics.

Titles under review include:

Queneau, Raymond - The Flight of Icarus
Robbe-Grillet, Alain - The Erasers

From the Peirene Press website:

Peirene specializes in contemporary European literature in English translation. We only publish books of less than 200 pages ( according to the motto: "Bored watching films? For a fascinating night in: Sink into a two-hour book!"). Peirene's books have a plot to pull the reader along BUT rhythm, structure and language are equally, if not more so, important. Our books are exciting and enhancing. 

Titles under review include:

Barbal, Maria - Stone in a Landslide
Delius, Friedrich Christian - Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman
Olmi, Véronique - Beside the Sea
Politycki, Matthias - Next World Novella

From the Pushkin Press website:

Pushkin Press maintains the constant aim of publishing translations of classic and contemporary European literature that changes the way you look at the world.

Titles under review include:

Szerb, Antal - The Queen's Necklace
Zweig, Stefan - Beware of Pity

From the Twisted Spoon Press website:

Equal emphasis is placed on introducing both new works from contemporary writers and work from an earlier period that has been neglected in translation. We offer an eclectic and unique selection of literature from the region, often illustrated by local artists and always well designed and produced.

Titles under review include:

Brycz, Pavel - I, City
Ficowski, Jerzy - Waiting for the Dog to Sleep
Gál, Róbert - Signs and Symptoms

While not a publisher as such, Project Gutenberg scans books of all types and uploads the text to their servers. There are currently (March 2010) around 31,000 texts available, from everything to literature, cook books, political pamphlets, letters, poems, histories, magazines, newspapers - virtually anything they can get their hands on, and in a wide variety of languages as well.

This website takes advantages of the immense range of literary texts available at the Project Gutenberg website. By and large, these texts are not available in print form any longer, and those that are tend to be printed by vanity presses or equivalent, and vary in quality and price.

Please note that this list does not include works available at the Project Gutenberg website, but were reviewed in actual book form.

Balzac, Honoré de - Colonel Chabert
Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne:
---Absalom's Hair
---A Happy Boy
Chesterton, G. K. - The Crimes of England
Crane, Stephen - Maggie, a Girl of the Streets
Daudet, Alphonse:
---Artists' Wives
---Tartarin de Tarascon
Dolores, Carmen:
---See Goldberg, Isaac - Brazilian Tales
France, Anatole:
---The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
---The Aspirations of Jean Servien
Galdós, Benito Pérez - Dona Perfecta
Goldberg, Isaac - Brazilian Tales
Halévy, Ludovic - Parisian Points of View
Hamsun, Knut:
---Growth of the Soil
---Hunger
---Pan
---Victoria
Hauff, Wilhelm - The Wine-Ghosts of Bremen
Hesse, Hermann - Knulp
Jókai, Mór:
---A Christian But a Roman
---See Also Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Kielland, Alexander:
---Skipper Worse
---Tales of Two Countries
Lemonnier, Camille:
---See Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Lie, Jonas - Weird Tales from Northern Seas
Machado de Assis, Joaquim Maria:
---See Goldberg, Isaac - Brazilian Tales
Maeterlinck, Maurice:
---See Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Mauriac, François - The Desert of Love
Medeiros e Albuquerque, José de:
---See Goldberg, Isaac - Brazilian Tales
Netto, Coehlo:
---See Goldberg, Isaac - Brazilian Tales
Raabe, Wilhelm - German Moonlight
Rolland, Romain:
---Clerambault
---Jean-Christophe Volume I: Dawn
---Jean-Christophe Volume II: Morning
---Jean-Christophe Volume III: Youth
Schnitzler, Arthur:
---Bertha Garlan
---Casanova's Homecoming
Sienkiewicz, Henryk:
---Sielanka
---So Runs the World
---See also Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Sue, Eugène - The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World - A Tale of the Millennium
Vikelas, Demetrios:
---See Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Zola, Émile:
---The Flood
---Thérèse Raquin