Restless Books is an international publisher for a world in motion
We are devoted to championing extraordinary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and young readers’ literature from around the globe.
Featured Titles
Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers
By Hooda Shawa
Translated from the Arabic by Nour Jaljuli and Sawad Hussain
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Two Palestinian teenagers discover secrets that change all they thought they knew about their family histories, and their own futures.
Farida is a talented young painter who recreates European masterpieces under the patronizing eye of a Parisian art dealer. Mazen just arrived in France to hunt for a lost family heirloom. When the two meet during a chance encounter at the Louvre museum, they discover a shared history between their grandmothers, both of whom fled Palestine during the Nakba in 1948. Drawn to one another, Mazen and Farida join forces to unearth their past, but a shadowy ring of art forgers has its sights set on Farida. Can she unravel the mystery before it's too late?
Exploring what it means to live in diaspora, The Necklace of Seven Souls moves from Paris to Haifa, from Aleppo to Tangier, conjuring the jewel tones of the Mediterranean and the bittersweet taste of memory.
By Sofi Stambo
Winner of the 2024 Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature
Longlisted for the 2026 New American Voices Award
With the puckish humor of Fran Lebowitz and the keen inventiveness of Lydia Davis, Sofi Stambo’s debut collection leans into curiosity, family, and the old-world bonds that draw her motley characters together.
A nervous dog takes flight over Manhattan. A woman soothes her neighbors with multilingual telepathy. A purse snatcher inherits her victim’s scribbled lists—and her worries. In these stories, immigrants to New York City work their way through absurd situations into even messier ones, communing with their fellow diners, officemates, and the local cemetery geese, and greeting chaos with a grin.
From Bulgaria to America, People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much pulls at the threads of daily life, unwinding the ordinary into scenes of hilarity, introspection, and surprising connection.
Coming Soon
By Kim Hye-jin
Translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang
Winner of the 2020 Daesan Literary Award
With shades of Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and Choi Jin-young’s Hunger, Employee No. 9 runs a psychological gauntlet of money, power, personal responsibility, and the daily struggle for survival.
No. 9 is in trouble. His son’s college tuition is coming due, his wife needs surgery after taking double shifts at a grocery store, the apartment building they bought as a nest egg is falling apart, and the company he helped build is trying to force him into early retirement. When he refuses, the mid-level IT man is demoted to sales and given increasingly impossible tasks. As his salary dwindles and the humiliations mount, No. 9 must decide where his loyalties lie. If he fights back, how far will the company go to stop him?
With her urgent and timely novel, award-winning Korean author Kim Hye-jin questions how long we can endure a broken system. In a rigged game, is there an alternative to playing out your hand?
Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers | Ages 7–12
By Linda Bondestam
Translated from the Swedish by A. A. Prime
In a fast-paced future where machines have taken many of the jobs once held by people, a little robot may be humanity's best hope.
It’s late on Earth, but mechanical workers are still busy delivering parcels, cutting down trees, and trimming hair. Looking after children. Clearing mines. Collecting eggs at the chicken factory. All rushed by a boss yelling, “Hurry up, chop chop!”
“Chop Chop, that’s me,” chirps one little robot. He works, he delivers, he dashes back and forth. Chop Chop is programmed to do everything, and always does his best. Faster and faster he goes, but it’s never quite enough.
Award-winning author-illustrator Linda Bondestam’s latest picture book combines science fiction, humor, and an adorable robot to pose a question for kids and adults alike: What will happen if the wheels of our world keep rolling at turbo speed?
By Patrick Ness
Matthew and Greaves are made for each other. It's in their stars—if they could only meet in the right timeline.
Matthew is determined to write one last book, and through its pages find his way back to his beloved husband Greaves, who was killed years earlier in a mass shooting. Their story begins in a backcountry bar, swigging Victoria Bitters. Or was it on the moors of Wheatley Manor, or the polished deck of the Celestia? A gruff laugh, wide shoulders, that undefinable scent—details flash and vanish as he reaches for them. Has age dulled his memory, or is something else keeping him subdued? When a familiar voice breaks through with a clear message—"You have to get out"—Matthew makes a bid for freedom that launches both men across time and space in pursuit of one another.
From a near-future dystopia to the trenches of Europe, from the American frontier to a town of teenage ghosts, from an interplanetary ship to the steps of the Sydney Opera House, Meridian is transgressive, mischievous, and miraculous. Ness gets to the crux of the question: who gets to tell our stories? And who gets to write the ending?
By Hillen Cohen
Illustrated by Yana Bukler
Translated from the Hebrew by Haim Watzman
Blending travel writing, reportage, and personal reflection, Hillel Cohen walks throughout East Jerusalem and the West Bank in search of conversations to bridge one of the world’s most enduring conflicts.
In this powerful illustrated memoir, journalist and scholar Hillel Cohen recounts his travels in Israel and Palestine as a youth. Fervent and unafraid, the teenage Cohen wanders through Palestinian villages and homes with confidence because to do so is his birthright—or so he has always been told. But outside the segregated city of Jerusalem and its tightly-knit Jewish community, his certainty begins to waver. Each new shared meal and open-hearted conversation call into question the religious beliefs of his upbringing—as do the hostile clashes he comes to witness along the way.
With candor and humanity, Cohen’s coming-of-age following the Six Day War amid a newly occupied land offers sharp and unflinching reflections on identity, memory, ethics, and nationhood. Featuring vivid illustrations and graphic panels by Yana Bukler, Between the River and the Sea moves beyond political binaries to reveal the human complexity behind a divide that has spanned generations.
By Karim Kattan
Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Longlisted, 2026 National Book Award in Translated Literature
Finalist, 2026 Cercador Prize
In a land forgotten by time, swept by sandstorms, and burdened by occupation, two young Palestinian men fall in love.
In the labyrinthine city of Jerusalem, where poets woo their lovers with tales of jinns, lions, and warriors, Isaac and Gabriel pass in the streets, unaware of one another until biblical Egyptian winds bring enough sand to blot out the heavens. From their first meeting, desire blooms, hesitates, withdraws, and returns in a heady romance recounted by the sky itself, who cranes past rooftops and through windows to glimpse the pair. Defying checkpoints, desert squalls, and blazing heat, Gabriel and Isaac embark on a road trip through Jericho and past the Dead Sea to a storied village in the West Bank—a daring act in a divided country.
Lyrical and languorous, shattering and profound, Eden at Dawn is a feast of love in the midst of war. With this North American debut, lauded author Karim Kattan proves that storytelling is the ultimate act of devotion.
Yonder: Restless Books for Young Readers | Ages 5–8
By Jung-min Kwon
Translated from the Korean by Jamie Chang
When a busy mom turns into a clock, her daughter discovers that even grown-ups need rest. A whimsical story about time, love, and self-care.
“You have ten minutes to get ready! Three minutes until lights out! One more minute to read!” Like children everywhere, one young girl is all too familiar with reminders about time—especially from her mother. When she wishes her mom would stop talking about time altogether, it comes true . . . almost. Her mom turns into a big blue clock.
With her clock-mother ticking beside her, the girl sets off on her scooter to find help. The clock hospital is closed for vacation, but the clock spa—a magical place where worn-out clocks can rest, relax, and be repaired—is open. Thanks to a wise woman and a little respite, time begins to make sense again.
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