Our Pick of the Best Foreign Fiction & Non-fiction This Month

How can you have a future if you can’t accept your past?

Mel Hannigan doesn’t have it easy. Mourning the death of her firework of a brother, facing the loss of three friendships that used to mean everything to her and struggling to deal with a condition that even her closest friends don’t know about. To protect herself and everyone else, Mel tries to lock away her heart, to live quietly without pain — but also without hope. Until the plight of an old friend, and meeting someone new, shows her that the risk is worth taking, that opening up to life — and who you really are – is what can make everything glorious… And that maybe Mel can discover a tragic kind of wonderful of her very own. A beautiful, captivating story about living with mental illness, and loving — even with a broken heart.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2ryx7RE

Barking Up the Wrong Tree explodes the myths and looks at the science behind what separates the extremely successful from the rest of us. What it reveals is that success is less about being perfect in a particular quality than knowing what you’re best at and being properly aligned with your context. The thing that sets you apart, the habits you tried to banish, the things you were taunted for in school may grant you an unbeatable advantage given the proper context.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2qzG34f

The Color of Our Sky is the story of two friends Mukta and Tara. Mukta is kidnapped from Tara’s family home and disappears. Shortly thereafter, Tara and her father move to America. A new life in Los Angeles awaits them but Tara never recovers from the loss of her best friend, or stops wondering if she was somehow responsible for Mukta’s abduction. Eleven years later, Tara, now an adult, returns to India determined to find Mukta. As her search takes her into the brutal underground world of human trafficking, Tara begins to uncover long-buried secrets in her own family that might explain what happened to Mukta — and why she came to live with Tara’s family in the first place.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2qzYAxy

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live.

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple, happy life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2rxUCuq

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high-school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. Funny, thought-provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2ry29t7

One Minute Mentoring talks about how to find and work with a mentor — and why you’ll benefit from being one. Positive mentoring relationships can change the way we lead and help us succeed. In One Minute Mentoring, legendary management guru Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz, a former Twitter executive and early employee, combine their knowledge to provide a systematic approach to inter-generational mentoring, giving readers great insight into the power and influence of mentoring and encouraging them to pursue their own mentoring relationships.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2rgqUsO

Rising Star is the definitive account of Barack Obama’s life before he became the 44th president of the United States — the formative years, confluence of forces, and influential figures who helped shaped an extraordinary leader and his rise – from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross. In voluminous detail, drawn from more than 1,000 interviews and encyclopedic documentary research, Garrow reveals as never before the ambition, the dreams, and the all-too-human struggles of an iconic president in a sure to be newsmaking biography that will stand as the most authoritative account of Obama’s pre-presidential life for decades to come.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2rdrHbU

Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less — and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined is a ground-breaking approach to succeeding in business and life, using the science of resourcefulness. Stretch shows why everyone—from executives to entrepreneurs, professionals to parents, athletes to artists—performs better with constraints; why seeking too many resources undermines our work and well-being; and why even those with a lot benefit from making the most out of a little.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2qzD0ZZ

A piece of meat; born to breed; past its sell-by-date; one of the herd. Women don’t have to fall into a stereotype.

The Cows is a powerful novel about three women. In all the noise of modern life, each needs to find their own voice. It’s about friendship and being female. It’s bold and brilliant. It’s searingly perceptive. It’s about never following the herd.

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2rgpj6d

‘A gripping and unique “in-the-cockpit’ account of Charles Lindbergh’s extraordinary first transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, by acclaimed aviation historian (Viper Pilot, Lords of the Sky) and former fighter pilot Dan Hampton—”one of the most decorated pilots in Air Force history”.’ —New York Post

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2ry2ko1

Fantastic new psychological drama from the author of The Disappearance

Fifteen years have passed since Stella and George last saw each other. But something makes Stella click ‘yes’ to the invite to her school reunion. There’s still a spark between them, and although their relationship ended badly, they begin an affair.

But once someone gets you back, sometimes they’re never going to let you go again…

Buy it here: http://amzn.to/2ry1NCN

HCI