Our Bookshelf
Browse our Bookshelves, selected annually by the Exchange as a window to recent Welsh literary works which we recommend for translation.
“A propulsive historical novel that is exquisitely detailed, plumbing the depths of human experience, bringing light and warmth to one of the darkest periods in modern history.”
Menna Elfyn
"Earthly Creatures is remarkable not only for its historical richness, but also for how well it captures the bravery and goodness that ordinary people can summon in the worst of circumstances."
Ella Fox-Martens, The Literary Review
“To read this novel now … is to realise it is not singularly a work of historical fiction, but a work of humanist philosophy too. Its value cannot be overstated.”
Phillipa Holloway, Nation.Cymru
“Davies’s writing sings; it is luxuriant and ruthless, subtle and glorious. This novel is a Hardyesque tribute to a lost rural, landscape, a chilling dissection of fascism, and a compelling fable for our times.”
Kirsti Bohata
“Davies never shies away from peeling back the veneer of social interactions to show how authoritarianism rots us from the inside out. Absolutely essential reading.”
Rebecca Clifford
Earthly Creatures
A riveting, historical epic set in 1940’s Germany from the Booker-nominated author of The Element of Water.
For all her life, idealistic 20-year-old bookworm Magdalena Arber has been split down the middle: veering wildly between fidelity to indoctrinated Nazi beliefs, and her father’s humanist values. Then comes the summons – the Nazi War Labour Service is conscripting her into a teaching position in East Prussia. Magda is elated. It’s a release from the cosy cage of childhood, and a chance to form young minds.
She enters a lush rural world of forests, lakes, and meadows where order prevails. Yet there are monstrous hands out to shape the whole continuum of earthly creatures. The Gestapo are a lurking darkness. There is bombing further East, and news of a moving Russian front. Will Alt Schönbek also burn? Can Magda survive?
Shortlisted for the 2025 Wales Book of the Year fiction prize, Earthly Creatures is an unflinching, perspective-shifting novel from one of Wales’ most celebrated and prolific contemporary authors.
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Honno ()
978-1916821026
372pp
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Honno ()
Translation Rights
Jennifer Custer, A.M. Heath Literary Agents
jennifer.custer@amheath.com
Adolygiadau
“A propulsive historical novel that is exquisitely detailed, plumbing the depths of human experience, bringing light and warmth to one of the darkest periods in modern history.”
Darllenwch fwy o adolygiadauMenna Elfyn