“Human Matter” by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, translated from Spanish by Eduardo Aparicio, University of Texas, 192 pages, $19.95, June 18
Fourteen summers ago, a series of explosions in Guatemala City led to the discovery of a secret archive “full of papers, files, boxes, and bags of police documents.” Long hidden by the country’s National Police, the archive detailed more than a century of state-sponsored torture, murder and violence. Rey Rosa, a Guatemalan writer often compared to Roberto Bolano, visited the archive “every morning for almost three months” and was inspired to write a meta-novel about his experience and the stories he uncovered. The result, “Human Matter,” reads like the journal of a heartbroken researcher who stumbles on the darkest truths about his native country.
“The Dry Heart” by Natalia Ginzburg, translated from Italian by Frances Frenaye, New Directions, 96 pages, $12.95, June 25
In the years between World War II and her death in 1991, Natalia Ginzburg was as famous in Italy as Elena Ferrante is today. Originally published in 1947, “The Dry Heart” is by far Ginzberg’s strangest work of fiction, a taught psychological thriller laced with horror about a woman who — very matter-of-factly in the first few sentences — murders her husband. “I shot him between the eyes,” the nameless narrator says, then goes out for coffee. Short enough to read in one sitting, it’s a feminist classic that exposes the dark side of marriage in clean, captivating prose.
“Happiness, As Such” by Natalia Ginzburg, translated from Italian by Minna Zallman Proctor, New Directions, 240 pages, $15.95, June 25
For a completely different side of Ginzburg, “Happiness, As Such” is a tragicomedy of manners about an Italian family whose only son flees the country after being persecuted for his political activism. Published in Italy in 1973 and appearing in English for the first time, it’s primarily a series of letters between the estranged son and his friends and family back home. If that sounds uneventful, rest assured it’s just as compelling as “The Dry Heart.” Ginzburg’s sentences are deceptively simple, often no longer than a single clause. “The twins gave me new slippers,” the mother writes. “But I’m fond of my old slippers.”
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“The Remainder” by Alia Trabucco Zeran, translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes, Coffee House, 240 pages, $16.95, Aug. 6
One of six books shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker International Prize, “The Remainder” is a stunning debut novel first published five years ago in Chile. Felipe roams the streets of Santiago, counting corpses in a bizarre attempt to “square the number of dead with the number of graves” — including his father’s — in the wake of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. Felipe’s only friend, Iquela, mourns the loss of her own family. Then comes a stranger, Paloma, whose missing mother’s body prompts a cross-country trip through the Andes for the new threesome — in a borrowed hearse filled with alcohol. A perfect companion book to last year’s “Empty Set,” another sparse and brilliant Latin American novel with an experimental structure from the same publisher.
“The Memory Police” by Yoko Ogawa, translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder, Pantheon, 288 pages, $25.95, Aug. 13
A masterful work of speculative fiction, “The Memory Police” is set on a nameless island where every instance of a plant, animal or object occasionally vanishes without a trace. “Ribbon, bell, emerald, stamp,” the narrator recalls. “The words that came from my mother’s mouth thrilled me, like the names of little girls from distant countries or new species of plants.” If that isn’t creepy enough, there’s also an armed force of “memory police” dedicated to erasing all evidence of whatever has vanished. An unforgettable literary thriller full of atmospheric horror.
“Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Riverhead, 288 pages, $27, Aug. 13
Last year, Olga Tokarczuk won the Man Booker International Prize for “Flights,” a novel told through 116 very short stories. This year she’s a finalist for the same prize, thanks to this brilliant literary murder mystery set in the Polish countryside. Everyone in her village thinks Janina Duszejko is insane, given her affinity for astrology, poetry and solitude. But when her neighbor dies under odd circumstances and more bodies follow, Janina becomes an unlikely amateur detective with a chip on her shoulder.
Adam Morgan is the editor-in-chief of the Chicago Review of Books.