I spent over 20 years on the independent music scene and am proud to be published by an independent press. Not everyone is familiar with these vibrant nurseries of creative life, so here's a non-exhaustive mega thread with some suggested reading. Please feel free to add to it.
Ironopolis by @Glen_J_Brown is a modern masterpiece about the lives of those leftover when society gets broken. Set on Teeside it was rightly nominated for the Orwell prize. @parthianbooks 
One of the best books I've ever read. This warm and funny novel about the now-disappeared Litvaks, Lithuanian Jews, leading up to WWII. Grigory Kanovich is a Nobel standard writer. Translated by Yisrael Elliot Cohen, and published by @PressNoir
@Lynn_Buckle has written a searing debut with The Groundsmen, published by @Epoque_Press The story of a family disintegrating from the aftershocks of abuse, woven with Greek myth and MRI levels of psychological insight.
Am always looking for a book I haven't read before, which is what Croatian writer Daša Drndić provides in this darkly original novel of two stories, translated by SD Curtis/Cecilia Hawkesworth and published by @Istros_books a publisher much beloved of the late Eileen Battersby.
Solar Bones by Mike McCormack is without doubt a modern classic. Decorated with awards it was championed by @TrampPress who brought it to its deserved International fame. It's the best depiction of fatherhood and of the life of a public servant I have ever read.
I'll Go On by Hwang Jungeun and translated by Emily Yae Won left me tearful, which almost never happens. Published by @TiltedAxisPress it's a story of the hard won wonky independence of children left to raise themselves. It spoke to me deeply.
For some reason the long overdue diversity in Ireland hasn't yet broken through to a significant degree in writing, but This Hostel Life by Melatu Uche Okorie published by @SkeinPress impressed everybody. It's an uncompromising depiction of how Ireland treats asylum seekers.
I read this gem on a Ryanair flight and learned so much from it. Thirteen Months of Sunrise by Sudanese writer Rania Mamoun and translated by Elisabeth Jaquette is the book I recommend over and over. Published by @commapress
FFS I keep recommending this book to you and you still haven't read it. Just do it. It's my favourite New York novel. EVERY SENTENCE IS INTERESTING.
Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space by Nora Chassler.
Write it out a hundred times.
Grandmother Divided by Monkey Equals Outer Space by Nora Chassler.
Write it out a hundred times.
Soviet Milk by Latvian writer Nora Ikstena, translated by Margita Gailitis and pub by @PeirenePress was nominated for several awards and offers an interesting angle on motherhood and the place of the individual who transitions from the Soviet era.
@GalleyBeggars have a habit of publishing award-magnet big books. How about this artistic knockout We That Are Young by @PretiTaneja which recasts King Lear in the vulgarity of modern day capitalism in India. If you're ever tempted to water down your debut, just read this.
I'm working my way through this funny wish-it-was-true Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure by @cdrose_writer on @melvillehouse It makes my feel deep affection for writers and sympathy for the the ways they are written about. The scholarly cover is perfectly judged.
Nawal El Saadawi is a renowned writer, feminist and activist and Live in he Kingdom of Oil is a skilful takedown of patriarchal hypocrisy in Egypt. Translated by Basil Hatim and Malcom Williams, published by @SaqiBooks
A Modern Family by Helga Flatland and translated by @rosie_hedger published by @OrendaBooks was one of the discoveries of the summer for me. A deep dive into a family for and against itself, it appealed addictively to my inner eavesdropper.
My tip for this year's international Booker, The Wind That Lays Waste by Selva Almada and tr Chris Andrew's is a perfect, hot sticky novel. A slice of time and a perfect, theatre-like setting of unlikely characters kissing off each other's lives in weird tangents. @CharcoPress
Beauty in language, flow, thought, character and heart, this should have dangling award medals all around, but it's up to you to make the discovery of this marvellous Welsh poem of a novel. Written by @BookwormVaught and published by @PatricianCom
This summer hit has a real classic feel. In the heatwave of 1976 a remote village is the setting for this superb debut by @LMcKnightHardy Atmospheric, beautifully paced and spooky with a capital OK. Great stuff from @DeadInkBooks
Mathias Enard is a genius whose books will still be read in a hundred years time. Compass is translated by @avecsesdoigts and published by @FitzcarraldoEds it is a deep and erudite study of the mind, the longing of the heart as well as a masters course in Europe to the east.
Karate Chop by danish writer Dorthe Nors is a varied and entertaining collection of stories. Translated by Martin Aitken and published by @PushkinPress who has brought forward beautiful looking and superbly translated books by so many great International writers.
Sweet Home by @WednesdayErskin is funny, inventive, perceptive and written with the sort of perfect weight that you have to give up wondering how these stories are done. Published by expert literary prospectors @stingingfly it has even won over my wife's Auntie Josephine.
How can I possibly pick just one book from my dear pals at @Ofmooseandmen I'll have to do a Bluemoose thread another time. Perhaps my fellow mousketeers will forgive me for picking Raising Sparks by @ArielKahn2 a beautiful, soulful novel set in Israel about magic, youth and life.
Okay. Apologies to all the many books, writers and publishers I omitted. Please add your own thoughts. This thread is meant as a start not a last word.
Now I have to go put my kids to bed: they're killing each other up there.
Now I have to go put my kids to bed: they're killing each other up there.
Ps. Published by @valleypress
