I Called Him Necktie (14 page)

-san
Suffix attached to a family name to indicate respect.

Senbei
Rice cakes.

Sensei
Teacher.

Yokan
Sweet dish of azuki beans.

C
OCAINE
BY
P
ITIGRILLI

Paris in the 1920s – dizzy and decadent. Where a young man can make a fortune with his wits ... unless he is led into temptation. Cocaine’s dandified hero Tito Arnaudi invents lurid scandals and gruesome deaths, and sells these stories to the newspapers. But his own life becomes even more outrageous when he acquires three demanding mistresses. Elegant, witty and wicked, Pitigrilli’s classic novel was first published in Italian in 1921 and retains its venom even today.

newvesselpress.com/books/cocaine/

T
HE
G
OOD
L
IFE
E
LSEWHERE
BY
V
LADIMIR LORCHENKOV

The very funny - and very sad - story of a group of villagers and their tragicomic efforts to emigrate from Europe’s most impoverished nation to Italy for work. An Orthodox priest is deserted by his wife for an art-dealing atheist; a mechanic redesigns his tractor for travel by air and sea; and thousands of villagers take to the road on a modern-day religious crusade to make it to the Italian Promised Land. A country where 25 percent of its population works abroad, remittances make up nearly 40 percent of GDP, and alcohol consumption per capita is the world’s highest – Moldova surely has its problems. But, as Lorchenkov vividly shows, it’s also a country whose residents don’t give up easily.

newvesselpress.com/books/the-good-life-elsewhere/

F
ANNY VON
A
RNSTEIN
: D
AUGHTER OF THE
E
NLIGHTENMENT
BY
H
ILDE
S
PIEL

In 1776 Fanny von Arnstein, the daughter of the Jewish master of the royal mint in Berlin, came to Vienna as an 18-year-old bride. She married a financier to the Austro-Hungarian imperial court, and hosted an ever more splendid salon which attracted luminaries of the day. Spiel’s elegantly written and carefully researched biography provides a vivid portrait of a passionate woman who advocated for the rights of Jews, and illuminates a central era in European cultural and social history.

newvesselpress.com/books/fanny-von-arnstein-daughter-of-the-enlightenment/

K
ILLING THE
S
ECOND
D
OG
BY
M
AREK
H
LASKO

Two down-and-out Polish con men living in Israel in the 1950s scam an American widow visiting the country. Robert, who masterminds the scheme, and Jacob, who acts it out, are tough, desperate men, exiled from their native land and adrift in the hot, nasty underworld of Tel Aviv. Robert arranges for Jacob to run into the widow who has enough trouble with her young son to keep her occupied all day. What follows is a story of romance, deception, cruelty and shame. Hlasko’s writing combines brutal realism with smoky, hardboiled dia- logue, in a bleak world where violence is the norm and love is often only an act.

newvesselpress.com/books/killing-the-second-dog/

T
HE
M
ISSING
Y
EAR OF
J
UAN
S
ALVATIERRA
BY
P
EDRO
M
AIRAL

At the age of nine, Juan Salvatierra became mute following a horse riding accident. At twenty, he began secretly painting a series of canvases on which he detailed six decades of life in his village on Argentina’s frontier with Uruguay. After his death, his sons return to deal with their inheritance: a shed packed with rolls over two miles long. But an essential roll is missing. A search ensues that illuminates links between art and life, with past family secrets casting their shadows on the present.

newvesselpress.com/books/the-missing-year-of-juan-salvatierra/

S
OME
D
AY
BY
S
HEMI
Z
ARHIN

On the shores of Israel’s Sea of Galilee lies the city of Tiberias, a place bursting with sexuality and longing for love. The air is saturated with smells of cooking and passion. Some Day is a gripping family saga, a sensual and emotional feast that plays out over decades. This is an enchanting tale about tragic fates that disrupt families and break our hearts. Zarhin’s hypnotic writing renders a painfully delicious vision of individual lives behind Israel’s larger national story.

newvesselpress.com/books/some-day/

W
HO IS
M
ARTHA
?
BY
M
ARJANA
G
APONENKO

In this rollicking novel, 96-year-old ornithologist Luka Levadski foregoes treatment for lung cancer and moves from Ukraine to Vienna to make a grand exit in a luxury suite at the Hotel Imperial. He reflects on his past while indulging in Viennese cakes and savoring music in a gilded concert hall. Levadski was born in 1914, the same year that Martha – the last of the now-extinct passenger pigeons – died. Levadski himself has an acute sense of being the last of a species. This gloriously written tale mixes piquant wit with lofty musings about life, friendship, aging and death.

newvesselpress.com/books/martha/

G
UYS
L
IKE
M
E
BY
D
OMINIQUE
F
ABRE

Dominique Fabre, born in Paris and a lifelong resident of the city, exposes the shadowy, anonymous lives of many who inhabit the French capital. In this quiet, subdued tale, a middle-aged office worker, divorced and alienated from his only son, meets up with two childhood friends who are similarly adrift. He’s looking for a second act to his mournful life, seeking the harbor of love and a true connection with his son. Set in palpably real Paris streets that feel miles away from the City of Light, a stirring novel of regret and absence, yet not without a glimmer of hope.