From the publisher: "Firefly (Cocuyo) is a dream-like evocation of pre-war Cuba, replete with hurricanes, mystical cults and slave-markets."

Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan tells a brutal story of the Qing Dynasty. It skirts on the edges of magical realism and myth but with the emotional immediacy of opera.

This one definitely wins for best title!

Folks are already picking this one for the shortlist. It reads like a fever dream, all frantic, strange imagery with no self-censor.

A woman's obsession with a couple at the local cafe leads her into a metaphysical murder mystery. Another book with a lot of hype and, I believe, the potential to live up to it.

Krasznahorkai won last year, so it's unlikely he'll be picked as a winner again, but he might be a longlister. Japanese goddess Seiobo drifts in and out of mortal lives, the tale following the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence.

Autobiographical work about the author discovering--accidentally--that she was a Nazi collaborator and has no memory of it.

I was sorely disappointed that part 1 did not win the BTBA 2013. He's hoping for 2014!

A young man's story intertwined with that of the author writing the story. Reading this alongside City of Angels should serendipitous illumination.