Nominated for the 2006 Prix de Découvreurs and 2005 Prix Helikon, Alparegho, Pareil-à-rien by Hélène Sanguinetti (Editions Comp’Act, 2005) is a seven-part, 93-page poem. Drawing on her native Provence’s troubadour tradition, the poet weaves a surprisingly contemporary tale about Alparegho, a mysterious creature with a flute, on a journey to find his identity. A cast of cats, snails and bears—as well as a central fable—pay homage to La Fontaine. The nimble layering creates what Jean-Marie Perret calls—after Bartok—an “imaginary folklore.”

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[Alparegho is] “more chanted than inspired”[ and its characters] “seem to emerge from some primordial tribe or the imagination of a little girl dreaming of an ogre at night.” -- Yves di Manno, Vient de paraître, September 2005

“[Alparegho’s] impulsive and astonishing writing … launches in bursts, through musical effect and shape of language, rockets of meaning,” -- Jean-Marie Perret, Blue de Paille, August 2005

“We have no desire to be anywhere else, if not in Hélène Sanguinetti’s elusive musical movements.” -- Gaspard Hons, Le Mensuel Littéraire et Poétique (Brussels), October 2005

About the translator:

Ann Cefola’s translations of Sanguinetti have appeared as Alparegho, Like-nothing-else (Beautiful Days Press, 2025), The Hero (Chax Press, 2018), and Hence, this cradle (Seismicity Editions, 2007). She is the recipient of an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, a Witter Bynner Translation Residency, and the Robert Penn Warren Award for Poetry selected by John Ashbery. Her most recent book, Séquence Long Island (L’Harmattan), co-authored with French poet Jean-Luc Pouliquen, recently made its debut in France, and Once, Poïena is forthcoming from Chax Press in 2027.

About the author:

A contemporary French poet who lives in Arles, Hélène Sanguinetti has also published Do not cross / ne pas franchir (Lurlure, 2026), Jadis, Poïena (Flammarion, 2025), Cargo Bleu Sur Fond Rouge (Lanskine, 2025), Et voici la chanson (Lurlure, 2021), reprinted from L'Amandier, 2012; Le Héros (Flammarion, 2008), Alparegho, Pareil-à-rien (Comp’Act, 2005 ; second edition L’Amandier, 2015), D'ici, de ce berceau (Flammarion, 2003), and De la main gauche, exploratrice (Flammarion, 1999).

Tania is a young Bengali living in Calcutta in the 1980s. Hated by her mother and shunned by her peers, she seeks solace within the pages of Russian books she reads in her mother tongue, Bengali. In a bookshop, she stumbles upon a Russian book published in the USSR in the 1920s by Raduga, a once-prestigious publishing house that was closed in 1930 on Lenin’s orders. Intrigued by the mysterious publisher behind the book, Tania perseveres through numerous frustrating detours until she finally tracks down Adel, the publisher's octogenarian daughter residing in a St. Petersburg nursing home, and corresponds with her. Through this connection, she ultimately uncovers the tumultuous destiny of Raduga’s founder, a Jewish journalist named Lev Moisevitch Kliatchko, who narrowly escaped execution under Stalin thanks to the intervention of Maxim Gorky and who died in 1933 from tuberculosis, shortly before the Moscow Trials.

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'Shumona Sinha’s singular voice takes us into the nauseating world of bureaucracy, without heroes or pure-hearted victims. She does not condemn anyone, or perhaps she condemns everyone. Welcome to the real world.’ – Grazia, for Down with the Poor! ‘Indian poet Shumona Sinha has transformed Baudelaire’s poetic provocation into a strange and blazing reflection on violence.’ – Marianne, for Down with the Poor! ‘A seasoned novelist, Shumona Sinha travels between past and present, public unrest and private histories.’ – L’ Express, for Calcutta

About the translator:

Subhashree Beeman is a US-based literary translator. Winner of the 2024 PEN/Heim Translation Grant for the translation of an excerpt from Le Testament Russe by Shumona Sinha and 2024 SALT/ALTA Emerging Literary Translation Mentorship for Saigon Puducherry by Nagarathinam Krishna, she is currently translating Bain de Lune by Yanick Lahens into Tamil. She was the 2026 Laureate of Villa Swagatam, a 2-month French literary translation residency granted by the French Institute of India to translate Maylis de Kerangal's novel into Tamil. Her works have been supported by French Institute of India, Bangalore Science Gallery, Words Without Borders, The White Review, USAWA literary magazine, Weavers Literary Review, oneating.in, Kalachuvadu Magazine, etc.

About the author:

Shumona Sinha is the author of novels and anthologies of French and Bengali poetry, including Assommons les pauvres, Prix Eugène Dabit du roman populiste, Prix Valéry-Larbaud, Internationaler Literaturpreis in Berlin, adapted into plays in Germany and Austria, and Calcutta, Prix du rayonnement de la langue française de l’Académie Française, Grand Prix du Roman de la SGDL. Shumona Sinha’s books have also been the subject of various academic studies in France, Germany, and the United States.

A Song Slumbers Deep in the Tigris (In der Tiefe des Tigris schläft ein Lied) tells the story of Iraqi Jews during the 20th century through the eyes of Gadi, an Israeli professor living in Switzerland. When Gadi’s estranged father, Zakai, dies, he leaves him with the task of scattering half his ashes in the River Tigris in Baghdad, where he spent his childhood before emigrating to Israel (but to which Iraq forbade him from ever returning). The book follows this journey, interspersing it with excerpts from Gadi’s father’s writings, which recount the history preceding the Jews’ expulsion from Iraq – history which implicates both Nazi Germany and Britain – and give an insight into why Zakai never stopped feeling like Baghdad was his home.

““A Song Slumbers Deep in the Tigris” is a novel with a poetic title, but which takes an unembellished look at the violent history of the 20th century and the after-effects thereof, which are still happening today” – Daniel Graf, Republik

About the translator:
Talei Lakeland translates from German, Arabic and French into English. She is originally from the UK and has lived and worked in Germany for more than a decade.

About the author:
Usama Al Shahmani, born in Baghdad in 1971 and raised in Nasiriya, studied Arabic language and modern Arabic literature. He had to leave Iraq because a play ha had written was banned by the regime. He has lived in Switzerland since 2002. His novels have won several awards and have been translated into Italian, French and Croatian. In der Tiefe des Tigris schläft ein Lied is his fourth novel.

Find Talei Lakeland on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/talei-lakeland-33298660/ and Instagram at @thehumantranslator.