Translations from Frayed Edge Press
Ere the Cock Crows by Jens Bjørneboe; translated from the Norwegian by Esther Greenleaf Mürer.
This chilling novel follows the ethical quandaries--or not--of Germans involved in Nazi concentration camps and human medical experiments in World War II. Themes of man's inhumanity to man, the ethics of modern science, and the responsibilities inherent in free will are explored, Includes a re-creation of the original play by the translator. 
Yearning for the Sea by Esther Seligson; translated from the Spanish by Selma Marks.
A feminist retelling of Homer’s Odyssey centers Penelope and her feelings of loss and desire. Yearning for the Sea picks up the story at the point of Ulysses' return to his wife Penelope, twenty years after the destruction of Troy. What did this twenty-year separation mean to this man and this woman? Seligson creates a lyrical, confessional world of the senses, of sexual desire, of love and its absence, of loneliness, and of nostalgia for lost time and lost youth. |
Winter in Bellapalma by Jens Bjørneboe; translated from the Norwegian by Esther Greenleaf Mürer.
This comic novel follows the exploits of a community of expatriates living off-season in a small Italian fishing village. A shorter, lighter read, it nonetheless invokes social commentary with concise portraits of various personality types and the inevitable collision of values in modern life. 
Full Fare (Street Smart Series—No. 1) by Jean-Bernard Pouy; translated from the French by Carolyn Gates, Jean-Philippe Gury, and Robert Helms.
As the temperature drops, Paris authorities make a plan to prevent deaths of the homeless: house them in disused train cars on the outskirts of the city. This unintentionally creates a social and political experiment that leads to a new form of society—and causes the police and authorities to clash with the homeless train dwellers and the anarchists who’ve come to support them. |
Forthcoming Translations
Songs for the Gusle by Prosper Mérimée; translated from the French by Laura Nagle.
First English-language translation of La Guzla, ou Choix de poésies illyriques recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, la Croatie et l'Herzégowine. This early work of French Romantic writer Prosper Mérimée presents a collection of folk literature from the former Illyrian Provinces. Or does it? It contains short pieces drawing from various genres—ersatz scholarly essays, ballad lyrics presented in the form of prose poems, folk tales, a fragment of a stage play—all generously peppered with Mérimée's footnotes explaining the historical and sociological context of these "discoveries."
Blessed Hands: Stories by Frume Halpern; translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub.
First English-language translation of Gebenshte hent: dertseylungen, along with the original foreword by Isaac Elchanan Ronch and an afterword by the translator. This collection contains short stories were that were published over several decades in the left-wing daily newspaper Morgn frayhayt [Morning Freedom] and other Yiddish-language outlets. These psychologically insightful stories present the lives of protagonists who are working-class poor, social outcasts, and those experiencing illness, disability, and racism. Halpern worked as a massage therapist in a hospital and many of her stories are about those who work with their hands: workshop/factory workers, piece workers, a shoemaker, a butcher, and a hairdresser.