Last Name	First Name	Language	Annotation
Qasim	Abd al-Hakim	Arabic	Abd al-Hakim Qasim. Rites of Assent: Two Novellas [Al-Mahdi and Turaf min khabar al-âkhira]. Tr. Peter Theroux. Temple University Press. 1995. 172 pp. Cloth: $39.95; ISBN 1-56639-353-1. Paper: $12.95; ISBN 1-56639-354-X. The power and inventiveness of modern Egyptian writing are manifest in this first English-language translation of two Qasim novellas. "Al-Mahdi" is the story of Awadallah, an impoverished Coptic umbrella maker forced to convert to Islam by members of the local Muslim brotherhood. "Good News from the Afterlife," is a fantastical tale that brilliantly interweaves a young boy's thoughts and the lyrical, sometimes macabre, recollections of a dead man newly lowered into his grave and now being judged by the Islamic angels of death. Theroux has also translated Abdelrahman Munif's Cities of Salt trilogy and is the winner of the Arabic Translation Award from Columbia University's Translation Center.
Qiao	Li	Chinese	Li Qiao. Wintry Night. Tr. Taotao Liu and John Balcom. New York. Columbia University Press. 2001. 320 pp. Cloth: $22.95; ISBN 0-231-12200-4. An epic spanning more than half a century of Taiwan's history, this novel traces the fortunes of the Pengs, a family of Hakka Chinese settlers, across three generations from just before Taiwan was ceded to Japan as a result of the Sino-Japanese war in the 1890s, through World War II. Li Qiao recreates the dramatic world of these pioneers and the colonization of Taiwan itself, exploring the family's relationships with the aboriginal people of Taiwan and their struggle to establish their own ethnic and political identities. The author draws upon his own experiences and family history, as well as oral and written records of the era. This newly translated edition is an abridgement of the original Chinese trilogy and includes an introduction to explain the complex cultural and historical background of the novel for English-speaking readers. One of China's most famous and prolific authors, Li Qiao wrote his saga from 1975 to 1980.
Queirós	Eça de	Portuguese	Eça de Queirós. The Maias. Trs. Patricia McGowan Pinheiro and Ann Stevens. Carcanet. 1993. 633 pp. Cloth: £14.95; ISBN 1-85754-033-6. Carlos is the talented heir to a notable family in fin-de-siècle Lisbon. He aspires to serve his fellow man in his chosen profession of medicine, in the arts, and in politics. But the society he enters has become subject to overwhelming international influences--in commerce from England, in ideas from France--and is infected with a pervasive sense of impotence. Carlos' good intentions amiably decline into dilletantism, and even his impassioned love affair suffers a devastating constraint. The Maias was hailed as a masterpiece of European standing in the Paris of Flaubert and Zola.
Queneau	Raymond	French	Francis Ponge. The Nature of Things [Le parti des choses]. Tr. Lee Fahnestock. Red Dust [Éditions Gallimard, 1942]. 1995. 52 pp. Paper: $6.95; ISBN 0-87376-080-8. Published in 1942 and considered the keystone of Ponge's large body of works, The Nature of Things reveals his preoccupation with nature and its metaphoric transformation through the creative ambiguity of language. The collection includes within its 32 works "Ripe Blackberries," "The Pleasures of a Door," "The Cycle of Seasons," "Fern Rum," "R.C. Seine No," and "The Pebble." Fahnestock has translated Ponge's The Making of the Pré (University of Missouri Press, 1979) and Vegetation (Red Dust, 1988, 1995). She has collaborated with Norman MacAfee on a revision of Hugo's Les Misérables and two volumes of Sartre's letters to de Beauvoir, Witness to My Life and Quiet Moments in a War (ALTA Outstanding Translation Award winner for 1993).
Queneau	Raymond	French	Raymond Queneau. Stories & Remarks [Contes et Propos]. Tr. and intro. Marc Lowenthal. Lincoln. University of Nebraska Press. 2000 [Gallimard, 1981]. Cloth: $45.00; ISBN 0-8032-3801-0. Paper: $15.00; ISBN 0-8032-8852-2. This volume collects the best of Raymond Queneau's shorter prose, including stories, an uncompleted novel, melancholic and absurd essays, the occasionally baffling "Texticles," a pastiche of Alice in Wonderland, and his only play. Talking dogs, boozing horses, and suicides come head-to-head with ruminations on the effects of aerodynamics on addition, rhetorical dreams, and a pioneering example of permutational fiction influenced by computer language. Also included are Michel Leiris's preface from the French edition, an introduction by Marc Lowenthal, and endnotes addressing each piece. Lowenthal has also translated the forthcoming I Am a Beautiful Monster: Selected Writings of Francis Picabia.
Queneau	Raymond	French	Raymond Queneau. Children of Clay [Les Enfants du limon]. Tr. Madeleine Velguth. Sun & Moon Classics/Consortium Book Sales [Editions Gallimard, 1938]. 1998. 434 pp. Paper: $14.95; ISBN 1-55713-272-0. Les Enfants has been called the masterpiece of Queneau's pre-war period. He says of the story: "The plot involves three groups of characters: one formed by the grocer Gramigni, devoted to Saint Anthony of Padua, the maid Clemence, who plays the piano, young Bossu, of bitter destiny, and the humble folk of La Ciotat, where the story begins; the second, by the various members of the Claye-Chambernac-Hachamoth family, wealthy industrialists prey to various eccentricities..."; the third, by M. Chambernac and his secretary Purpulan, a 'poor devil.'"
Queneau	Raymond	French	Raymond Queneau. Saint Glinglin. Tr. and intro. James Sallis. Normal, IL. Dalkey Archive Press. 2000 [Editions Gallimard, 1948; 1993]. 169 pp. Cloth: ISBN 1-56478-027-9. Paper: $11.95; ISBN 1-56478-230-1. First paperback edition. French Literature Series. Saint Glinglin is a tragicomic masterpiece, a novel that "can be mentioned without incongruity in the company of Mann's Magic Mountain and Joyce's Ulysses." The book retells the primal Freudian myth of sons killing their father in an array of styles ranging from direct narrative, soliloquy, and interior monologue to quasi-biblical verse. Queneau satirizes anthropology, folklore, philosophy, and epistemology, all the while spinning a story as appealing as a fairy tale. According to the author, his exclusion of the letter x (save in final position) from the text "reveals no particular taste for 'spoken language.'" Queneau leaves it up to the reader to discover the symbolic significance of this linguistic aberration.
Quesada	Roberto	Spanish	Roberto Quesada. The Big Banana. Tr. Walter Krochmal. Arte Público Press. 1999. 248 pp. Paper: $12.95; ISBN 1-55885-255-7. Eduardo Lin loves New York. Where else could an aspiring (if under-employed) Honduran actor possibly want to be? In The Big Banana, we follow the struggles of Eduardo, his gringo boss Charlie, his true love Mirian, and his many Central and South American friends—especially his Chilean friend Casagrande ("musician, singer, mystic, teacher . . . above all, he knew how to live without working")—as they learn to survive in New York City. Beneath their hardscrabble everyday lives, we also perceive their hopes, their nightmares, and their outlandish, Hollywood-inspired fantasies. Some days, it seems those fantasies are all that keep Eduardo going. But even if in winter the cold "reaches deep beyond his bones," and the icy, snow-covered city is "like a bride awaiting her fiancé," he is still determined to woo and win her. Also by Roberto Quesada: El desertor, El humano y la diosa, and The Ships (Los Barcos).
Quing	Dai	Chinese	Dai Quing. Wang Shiwei and "Wild Lilies": Rectification and Purges in the Chinese Communist Party 1942-1944. [Wang shih-wei yü "Yeh pai ho hua"]. Trs. Nancy Liu and Lawrence R. Sullivan. M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 1994. 198 pp. Paper: $24.95; ISBN 1-56324-256-7. After a brief Translator's Note, the Preface summarizes the trial of Wang Shiwei, who lost his head and his appellation "comrade" in China in 1942. The Introduction elaborates on his trial, and the subsequent text is a translation of Wang Shiwei's "Wild Lilies," a collection of comments and criticisms of the Communist Party. Part II of the text contains all the available works written by Wang Shiwei, including essays, articles, and translations. Each document is footnoted with information regarding the original dates and publication sources. Appendix A includes a name list of all persons mentioned in the text. Appendix B contains a full table of contents for the documents and interview transcripts compiled by Song Jinshou in 1986 for the study of Wang Shiwei. M.M.
Quintana	Anton	Dutch	Anton Quintana. The Baboon King [De bavianenkoning]. Tr. John Nieuwenhuizen. New York. Walker and Company. 1999 [Netherlands, 1992; Australia, 1996]. 183 pp. Cloth: $16.95; ISBN 0-8027-8711-8. Morengáru is a strong hunter who can well protect himself, but he wonders if he is really doomed alone in the African wilderness. Slowly he feels himself becoming more like the animals around him, so when he sees an opportunity to belong, he takes it—even though his companions aren't human. What does it take for a man to live as an animal, and can he do so and still hold onto the shreds of his humanity in the face of the Baboon King?