Chen, Kevin. Ghost Town. Europa. Oct. 2022. 384p. tr. from Taiwanese by Darryl Sterk. ISBN 9781609457983. $27. F

At once vibrant and tartly observant, Chen’s tour de force—a Taiwan Literature Award winner—reveals how we all hold onto the ghosts of the past. After his release from a Berlin prison for having killed his boyfriend T, Keith Chen returns to his backwater Taiwanese hometown, arriving in time for the all-important Ghost Festival. At first, he sees only the bright flowers, but we know from the expertly unfolded stories that it’s not a happy place. Elder brother Keith was mayor and then imprisoned, sister Beverly sews clothing for Europeans she can’t afford herself, Belinda is married to an abusive news anchor, troubled Barbie hides in her home, and Betty, a household registrar in Taipei, is attacked following accusations that she’s not seeing-eye dog–friendly. The mystery of bodacious sister Plenty’s suicide sums up the family’s pain. “The cruelest people weren’t your homeroom teacher or the police. It was us,” says the ghost of Keith’s father. Driven out for his sexuality, Keith seems to have been happy with handsome blond cellist T, whose death is the question mark driving the narrative. VERDICT A highly recommended story of past, identity, and family.

Pamuk, Orhan. Nights of Plague. Knopf. Oct. 2022. 704p. tr. from Turkish by Ekin Oklap. ISBN 9780525656890. $32.50. F

Set mostly in the early 1900s on the imaginary Ottoman island of Mingheria, this effusively detailed and abundantly readable new work from Nobel Prize winner Pamuk deals with timely issues of plague and quarantine, nationalism and dissolution of empire. Princess Pakize, confined her whole life with her deposed sultan father, is traveling to China with her new husband, Prince Consort Doctor Nuri Bey, as part of an Ottoman delegation. When they stop at Mingheria, quarantine doctor Nuri rushes to help Bonkowski Pasha, the Sultan’s Royal Chemist, when bubonic plague is discovered. With Bonkowski’s murder, Nuri joins Governor Sami Pasha and native Mingherian major Kâmil to enforce countermeasures even as warships from the Western powers circle to keep the pestilence in. While the island’s Greek Orthodox community of mostly wealthy merchants generally accepts quarantine or flees, the Turkish Muslim community has fewer resources and, disastrously, resists the imposed Lysol-and-lime procedures. A murkily motivated attack on the government leads to an unexpected declaration of independence. The entire story is narrated by a descendant of Pakize and Nuri who considers herself Mingherian, but as Pamuk cannily reveals in an extended epilogue, nationalism does not necessarily mean freedom. VERDICT Big reading with contemporary import; highly recommended.

Shevelev, Mikhail. Not Russian. Europa. Oct. 2022. 160p. tr. from Russian by Brian James Baer & Ellen Vayner. ISBN 9781609458119. pap. $17. F

A freelance journalist who no longer collaborates with Russian state or private media, Shevelev offers a blistering critique of his country’s policies and people in his first novel to be translated into English. In 2015, a shriek from his wife alerts journalist Pavel Vladimirovich to something momentous on the news: terrorists have taken hostages at a church near Moscow, and their leader is Vadim Petrovich, whom Pavel had rescued while reporting on the fighting in Chechnya. Pavel soon learns that Vadim has requested him as negotiator, and when he arrives at the church, Vadim reveals his disgust with Russia’s actions in both Chechnya and 2014 Ukraine and how badly Pavel misunderstood the facts of the rescue mission he vaingloriously rushed to cover. Vadim’s demands are tough—Putin must apologize on live TV, or the hostages will be executed—and as Pavel struggles to find a solution, he condemns the Russian government for its mendacity and the Russian people for their passive acceptance in a piece he knows probably can’t be published. When the end comes, it’s both unexpected and the only thing that could have happened. VERDICT An incisive and suspenseful examination of potent issues; names and events may challenge, but the glossary helps.

Further Reading:

Ponce, Gabriela. Blood Red. Restless. Oct. 2022. 192p. tr. from Spanish by Sarah Booker. ISBN 9781632063304. pap. $17. F 

Scego, Igiaba. The Color Line. Other Pr. Oct. 2022. 544p. tr. from Italian by John Cullen & Gregory Conti. ISBN 9781635420869. pap. $19.99. F 

Schweblin, Samanta. Seven Empty Houses. Riverhead. Oct. 2022. 208p. tr. from Spanish by Megan McDowell. ISBN 9780525541394. $25. F