Published on 4 June 2026 by Moth Books, this is the second of Iris Wolff’s books to appear in English, and was shortlisted for the 2024 German Book Prize. It tells of the deep, almost lifelong friendship between Lev and Kato, who are in their late thirties when we first meet them. Their story is told in reverse, as Wolff takes us back through their lives to their childhood in a village in the north of Romania, gradually revealing what has made them the people they are today.

BUY THE BOOK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/clearing/iris-wolff/ruth-martin/9781917593045

‘A wonderful novel’ Die Zeit Book of the Month

‘A magnificently contemporary book’ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

‘Iris Wolff proves to be a superlative storyteller.’ The Times Literary Supplement

Ruth Martin has been translating fiction and nonfiction books since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth to Angela Merkel. Together with Charlotte Collins and Nino Haratischwili, she won the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, for Nino’s epic novel The Eighth Life. Her translation of Shida Bazyar’s The Nights are Quiet in Tehran was shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize.

Iris Wolff, born behind the iron curtain in the medieval town of Sibiu, Transylvania in 1977, is a writer whose work carries the reader deep into her former homeland. The fate of those who stay and those who choose to migrate is the constant and powerful theme weaving through her novels. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the 2025 Uwe-Johnson Prize for outstanding literary works, last awarded to Jenny Erpenbeck in 2022 for her novel, Kairos.

One of a great many poems which will be in my book from Arc Publications. Brecht wrote about 3,000 poems, but priority always went to his plays.

Translator bio
Timothy Adès, rhyming translator-poet with eleven books from French, Spanish, German and four awards, also rewrote Shakespeare's 154 Sonnets without using letter E. He runs a bookstall of translated poetry, his own works and many others. He is a trustee of Agenda magazine, and is on Facebook and YouTube.


Author bio
Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956, the great playwright, was also a very great poet. Son of a pastor, an exile from Nazism in Scandinavia, he crossed Russia, reached Hollywood and eventually returned to East Berlin, running the Berliner Ensemble.


Forthcoming poetry book from Arc Publications: https://www.arcpublications.co.uk/writers/timothy-ades

A part of the series 'Reading the City', the anthology Book of Bratislava: A City in Short Fiction, co-edited by Radoslav Passia and Julia Sherwood, features ten stories by ten different authors set in the Slovak capital in the period from the end of World War II to the present day, translated by ten different translators. The stories i reflect the Slovak capital’s many changing incarnations: from a hopeful city newly liberated from the Nazis; to an outpost of communist Czechoslovakia crawling with informants; to the capital of a new, democratic independent state. Bratislava may be a city still shaping its identity, but it is one where creativity blooms, despite – or perhaps because of – its complex and intricate history. From the dive bars of the infamous Petržalka estate, to the lush tree-lined banks of the Danube, the past and present are in continual conversation with each other, striving to recapture what’s lost, while adjusting to the fast pace of change.

"We are presented with a tapestry of the city no less intricate or impressive than the ones on display in Bratislava’s Primacial Palace" - Sophie Benbelaid, Asymptote blog

"These 10 stories immerse the reader into Bratislava’s everyday and would really serve any traveller to the city well, before, during or after a trip." - Tripfiction.com

'This anthology’s translators are among the best in the game... Comma Press’s criteria result in a volume that... captures the various facets and critical essence of Slovakia’s capital.' - Asymptote Journal

Four of the anthology's translators read from their translations of works by Ján Rozner, Lucia Piussi, Alta Vášová and Richard Pupala.

John Minahane was born in Ireland and has lived and worked in Slovakia since 1996, working as an English language teacher while pursuing his own literary and translation projects

Janet Livingstone is a translator and life coach who spent 16 years living in Slovakia and is now based in Seattle, where she leads her own leadership and learning consultancy

Magdalena Mullek is a literary translator and scholar. She holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Indiana University and is currently based in Slovakia

Jonathan Gresty is a freelance teacher, translator, and novelist who has been living in Slovakia since 1992


BUY THE ANTHOLOGY: https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-book-of-bratislava