August 2026 · 31 books
Global Voices
Books that map the world beyond the Anglo-American canon — voices writing from and about places too often flattened in translation.
The month, day by day.

Sharks in the Time of Saviours
Kawai Strong Washburn
A boy saved by sharks. A family bound by the old gods of Hawaiʻi.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Toshikazu Kawaguchi (tr. Geoffrey Trousselot)
In a Tokyo basement café, one seat lets you travel back in time — until your coffee gets cold.

Empire of Sand
Tasha Suri
She can dance the gods awake — and an empire wants her power.

Ninefox Gambit
Yoon Ha Lee
To retake an impossible fortress, she must share her mind with a dead traitor.

The Gilded Wolves
Roshani Chokshi
Six outsiders. One impossible heist. Paris, 1889 — and magic is power.

The House of Shattered Wings
Aliette de Bodard
She's the last of her kind — bound to a fallen angel who might get her killed.

Trail of Lightning
Rebecca Roanhorse
The world ended. Dinétah survived — and its monsters need killing.

Son of a Trickster
Eden Robinson
Jared's just trying to survive high school. Then the ravens start talking.

The Lesser Blessed
Richard Van Camp
A Tłı̨chǫ teenager, a new kid in town, and one unforgettable northern winter.

Moon of the Crusted Snow
Waubgeshig Rice
When the power dies, an Anishinaabe community rediscovers how to survive winter — and outsiders come knocking.

Salt Houses
Hala Alyan
Four generations of a Palestinian family, scattered by war, held together by memory.

The Moor's Account
Laila Lalami
The first Black explorer of America finally tells his own story.
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Homeland Elegies
Ayad Akhtar
A son, a father, and an America that promised more than it gave.

Crescent
Diana Abu-Jaber
Love simmers in a Lebanese café in Los Angeles — one dish at a time.

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
Fatima Bhutto
One morning. Three brothers. Three different Pakistans.

Mem
Bethany C. Morrow
In 1920s Montreal, memories can be extracted — and one of them refuses to fade.

The Ballad of Black Tom
Victor LaValle
Lovecraft's most racist story, retold — and reclaimed — by a Black hustler in 1920s Harlem.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth
Cassandra Khaw
A wedding party. A haunted Heian mansion. A bride buried in its walls.

The Knights of Breton Court
Maurice Broaddus
King Arthur rises again — on the streets of Indianapolis.

Grace
Natashia Deón
A murdered mother watches over the daughter she never got to raise.

A Tale for the Time Being
Ruth Ozeki
A diary washes ashore in Canada. Inside: a Tokyo schoolgirl's last words?

Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto
One accidental death. Four meddling aunties. The biggest wedding of the year.

The Atlas of Reds and Blues
Devi S. Laskar
As she bleeds on her driveway, a woman replays the thousand cuts that led here.

A Burning
Megha Majumdar
One Facebook post. Three lives. A country on fire.
Enjoying Global Voices?
Next month's collection lands on the 1st. Get it in one email — plus The Starter Shelf, 25 essential reads, free.

The Worst Best Man
Mia Sosa
Her dream contract depends on the best man who helped wreck her wedding.

Ceremony
Leslie Marmon Silko
A Laguna Pueblo veteran comes home from war — healing lies in the old stories.

House Made of Dawn
N. Scott Momaday
The Pulitzer winner that announced Native American literature to the world.

Celestial Bodies
Jokha Alharthi (tr. Marilyn Booth)
Three sisters, one Omani village, and a country transforming beneath their feet.

Tomb of Sand
Geetanjali Shree (tr. Daisy Rockwell)
At eighty, Ma gets out of bed — and walks straight toward the border that split her life.

Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi (tr. Jonathan Wright)
A junk dealer stitches a body from bomb-blast remains. Then it stands up.

The Memory Police
Yoko Ogawa (tr. Stephen Snyder)
On an unnamed island, things disappear — and remembering them is a crime.
Your call
How did this collection land?
Anonymous. One vote per person, please.