The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, translated by Polly McLean

This is the third of Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi's novels (all available in Vintage), but the first translated from French. Previously he wrote in Dari, but switched to French for The Patience Stone, a hard-hitting book about how it feels to an Afghan woman, which won him France's prestigious Goncourt Prize. Observer critic Olivia Laing has called the book 'an act of political courage and a beautifully constructed, deeply memorable novella.'