In her novel "Grandmothers", Melara Mvogdobo distills two life stories from different cultures into a literary coup d'état. It would be hard to write about female empowerment more tenderly or brutally

"Cave 72", Fann Attiki's political satire about life and death in Brazzaville is also a disturbing and universally relevant portrait of a society held hostage by populism and dictatorship.

In her coming-of-age novel "The Age of Umbrage", Jessica Zafra creates a gripping portrait of Philippine society under the Marcos regime that is frighteningly contemporary - and also universal

In her historical novel "The Great Divide", Cristina Henríquez weaves a series of smaller stories into a comprehensive picture of the "Panama Canal" project of the last century, which continues to divide the double continent to this day

Finally in German , "I Remain in Darkness" - and an Annie Ernaux who perhaps wants nothing more and literature that can do everything after all

Activism is rarely good for literature: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's emancipation novel "Dream Count" about four women in times of coronavirus is as redundant as it is annoying

Felix K. Nesi's "People from Oetimu" is a literary firework display that places an otherwise barely mentioned region of Indonesia at the heart of astonishing events

Samantha Harvey's Booker Prize winner "Orbital" shows from afar what, up close, we fail to grasp - the fragility of our planet and our solitary lives

In his impressive debut novel "Soleil à coudre" (A Sun to be Sewn), Jean D'Amérique tells, in powerful language, of precarious circumstances, and of a childhood that finds validation not only through this language

"We Do Not Part", the new novel by the recently awarded Nobel Prize winner Han Kang, tells of transgenerational trauma, a tender female friendship and a reunion with a mother. And a kind of hope