POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

In honor of World Book and Copyright Day, celebrated yesterday, the following books are available for free download 11:59 p.m. Pacific PT:

The selection of titles for this celebration has become an annual event. The books are available for download at https://www.amazon.com/article/read-the-world-2020.

Publishing Perspectives [https://publishingperspectives.com/] has provided the following concise overviews of this year’s selected titles:

One of two new releases, The Girl in the Tree (Turkey), is contemporary fiction by Şebnem İşigüzel, translated by Mark David Wyers. It’s just out today (April 16).

The second of the two new releases is the Hard Rain (South Africa) by Irma Venter in a translation from Afrikaans by Elsa Silke. This book, also just out today (April 16), is the first in Venter’s “Rogue” series. The second book in the series, Man Down, is set to release on Monday (April 20), in a translation by Karin Schimke.

The Man Who Played with Fire (Sweden) is by Jan Stocklassa and translated by Tara F. Chace. Note that as taut as Stocklassa’s text is, this book is nonfiction, true crime. There’s another nonfiction entry on the list, too, Out of the Silence.

Life (China) is by Lu Yao, the pen name of the late Wang Weiguo, who died in 1992, the author of two books. Life is translated by Chloe Estep. The book is very familiar to the readers of our monthly China bestseller lists as one of the contemporary classic mainstays of the charts. In February, Lu Yao’s Life was at No. 22, a jump of eight spots from the previous month, and his Ordinary Word was at No. 24, up from No. 9 in January.

Your Perfect Year (Germany) is by Charlotte Lucas, translated by Alison Layland. It’s the heartwarming entry on the list for readers who enjoy romantic comedy.

The First Mrs. Rothschild (Israel) is by Sara Aharoni and translated by Yardenne Greenspan. It’s a work of biographical fiction set in a German Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt. It’s set at the turn of the 18th century, when banking is behind the rise of this famous power-family.

The Price of Paradise (Spain) is by Susana López Rubio in a translation by Achy Obejas. Set in 1947 Havana, is historical romance that is said to feature “desire that thrums with the mambo beat of the city itself.”

Along the Tapajós (Brazil) is by Fernando Vilela, translated by Daniel Hahn, who’s not only a ubiquitous translator on the UK scene but also the author of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature (2015) and guest editor of this month’s edition of  Words Without Borders, an issue focused on children’s work. Along the Tapajós is for age levels 4 to 8.

Out of the Silence (Argentina) is by Eduardo Strauch in collaboration with Mireya Soriano and translated by Jennie Erikson. This is the story of the Uruguayan rugby team’s 1972 crash in the Andes and the resulting 72-day struggle for survival. In this case, one of those who made it out is the author. You may be familiar with this story from director Frank Marshall’s 1983 film of the John Patrick Shanley screenplay, Alive. That cinematic telling is based on a different book by Piers Paul Read and stars Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, and Josh Hamilton.