Between 1976 and 1983, Phillip Roth's series Writers From the Other Europe published a total of 17 books. A selected collection was released as a box set of paperbacks in 1980. Almost all of them had been published previously, at least in their native language of Hungarian or Polish, some had even been previously translated into Spanish or French, a many even into English. Some even were made into films. More here and here.
But what Roth did with Penguin was to made them accessible to the Western audience. Small volumes, printed in cheap paperback, writers from the other side of the coldwar could now be read by anyone. To some extent Milan Kundera was the most successful author of the series. But even more obscure works like Vaculik's The Guinea Pigs remain in print. The most obscure of the bunch was probably Geza Csath. I've added publication dates where available.
| YEAR | YEAR (ENG) | AUTHOR | TITLE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 1962 | Jerzy Andrzejewski | Ashes and Diamonds |
| 1946 | 1959 | Tadeusz Borowski |
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen |
| - |
1983 | Geza Csath |
Opium and Other Stories |
| 1937 |
1961 |
Witold Gombrowicz |
Ferdydurke |
| - |
1965 | Bohumil Hrabal | Closely Watched Trains |
| 1976 |
1978 |
Danilo Kis |
A Tomb for Boris Davidovich |
| 1969 |
1975 |
Gyorgy Konrad |
The Case Worker |
| - |
1977 |
Gyorgy Konrad | The City Builder |
| - |
1976 |
Konwicki Tadeusz |
A Dreambook for Our Time |
| 1977 |
1977 |
Konwicki Tadeusz | The Polish Complex |
| 1969 | 1974 |
Milan Kundera | Laughable Loves |
| 1979 | 1980 |
Milan Kundera | The Book of Laughter and Forgetting |
| 1972 |
1976 |
Milan Kundera | The Farewell Party |
| 1967 | 1969 |
Milan Kundera | The Joke |
| 1937 |
1978 |
Bruno Schultz |
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass |
| 1934 |
1963 |
Bruno Schultz | The Street of Crocodiles |
| 1970 |
1977 |
Ludvik Vaculik | The Guinea Pigs |
| - | 1980 | Various |
Writers From the Other Europe (collection) |
