Julia Sherwood Book order (chronological)

A controversial, raw, and stark yet poetic text mapping a six-year period of an unequal relationship between twelve-year-old Tereza and fifty-year-old Ivan, an art class instructor. Tereza is unaware that she is trapped in an illegal relationship with a manipulator; with Ivan, she finally feels beautiful and admired. As she matures, she begins to reassess the situation, striving to escape the toxic cycle and gradually detaching from Ivan. But is it possible? The short, impactful chapters shock with their openness, resonating long after the reading is done.

It's 1954 and nine-year-old Mira's life is about to change forever. After a typhoid outbreak rages through her town, robbing her of her parents and siblings, the orphaned child is forced to live with her mysterious, depressive Aunt Hana, a figure both frightening and fragile. Gradually, Mira uncovers the secrets of their troubled family history and begins to understand why her aunt is so incapable of trusting herself and the world around her. Deftly weaving two separate timelines, the harrowing reasons behind Hana's reclusive way of life, the guilt she wears as palpably as a cloak, and the tattoo on her wrist, are revealed to Mira. Alena Mornstajnová's gripping novel, which is based on real events, has won numerous awards and been translated into over a dozen languages across the world.

Though Into the Spotlight is drawn from the work of writers from one of Europe's smallest countries, this source reveals itself to be something like a magic lamp out of which comes a multitude of subjects, themes, and styles well out of proportion to its size. Like the best writers, this anthology brilliantly balances the specific and the universal. There are stories that could have taken place anywhere-of love and hate, beauty and ugliness, illness and music-stories distinctly and intriguingly Slovak-of a devout Slovak's imprisonment in the Russian Gulag, the rough and tumble world of the country's Roma-stories from other countries and continents, and stories that seem to come from other worlds entirely-of real or imaginary doubles and surreal nocturnal circuses. -Michael Stein, Literalab, editor at BOD V

'Freshta' is a deeply moving story that will make you laugh and cry at the same time, a universal tale of husbands and wives, lovers and friends, who all seek happiness and acceptance against the backdrop of the unexpected events playing around them.