What I'm Reading for International Translation Day: Madness Treads Lightly by Polina Dashkova + a Giveaway

I just learned that today is International Translation Day and so I wanted to share my current read in case you were interested in looking for a translated work to read today as well.

I quite love translated works. Books by people from other places about cultures that are different from our own. Plus, it means a whole new subset of titles to add to my TBR, and that's never a bad thing.

Inevitably, I am drawn to foreign genre fiction: horror, sci fi, and crime fiction like Polina Dashkova's Madness Treads Lightly, which released this month from Amazon Crossing. I haven't finished the book yet, so I'll share a bit about it from Goodreads and the publicist:

Celebrated as the “Russian crime queen,” Polina Dashkova is Russia’s most successful author of crime novels. She has sold fifty million copies of her books and has thrilled readers in countries across Europe and Asia.

Now, for the first time ever, Dashkova’s work has been translated into English—through collaboration with award-winning translator Marian Schwartz. English-language readers can now join Dashkova’s millions of fans across the globe on a thrilling journey deep into Siberia and into the mind of a killer in her novel Madness Treads Lightly...

Only three people can connect a present-day murderer to a serial killer who, fourteen years ago, terrorized a small Siberian town. And one of them is already dead.

As a working mother, Lena Polyanskaya has her hands full. She’s busy caring for her two-year-old daughter, editing a successful magazine, and supporting her husband, a high-ranking colonel in counterintelligence. She doesn’t have time to play amateur detective. But when a close friend’s suspicious death is labeled a suicide, she’s determined to prove he wouldn’t have taken his own life.

As Lena digs in to her investigation, all clues point to murder—and its connection to a string of grisly cold-case homicides that stretches back to the Soviet era. When another person in her circle falls victim, Lena fears she and her family may be next. She’s determined to do whatever it takes to protect them. But will learning the truth unmask a killer…or put her and her family in even more danger?

Madness Treads Lightly was originally released sixteen years ago and is, as mentioned above, Dashkova's first title to be translated into English. Amazon Crossing has been killing it lately with intriguing releases (I've got two Chinese titles from them in my TBR right now too, Jia Pingwa's Happy Dreams and Zhou HaoHui's Valley of Terror, both of which I'm dying to dive into). And this one is even more intriguing because it's based on true events. 

I am really loving this so far, it's dark and packed with suspense. It's also a doorstopper clocking in at over 500 pages. But the story is a compelling one and the details about Russian life and culture are fascinating. 

Madness Treads Lightly is out now and I am offering up one copy to one of you lucky readers. To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, October 16. Open US only. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway