Fitzcarraldo Editions

Fitzcarraldo Editions is an independent publisher based in London. Jacques Testard founded it in 2014. He had already co-founded the literary magazine The White Review and had worked at the small press Notting Hill Editions. According to Wikipedia, the press began when he bought English-language rights to Svetlana Alexievich's Second-Hand Time at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The name comes from Werner Herzog's 1982 film Fitzcarraldo. The publisher has no parent company that I could confirm.

The list is contemporary fiction and long-form essays, with poetry and a classics collection alongside. Some titles are translations and some are written in English. The publisher describes its aim as ambitious, imaginative and innovative writing. The books are easy to recognise on a shelf. Ray O'Meara designs them as paperback originals with French flaps, set in a custom serif typeface also called Fitzcarraldo. The press also runs an annual essay prize for unpublished writers.

The catalogue includes four Nobel laureates in literature: Svetlana Alexievich (2015), Olga Tokarczuk (2018), Annie Ernaux (2022) and Jon Fosse (2023). Other titles include Mathias Enard's Compass and Adania Shibli's Minor Detail.

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes, came out in February 2025 and made the International Booker Prize shortlist that year. The Italian original appeared in 2022 as Le perfezioni. The novel follows Anna and Tom, a couple whose carefully curated life leaves them restless. It runs to only 120 pages.

A reader coming from Perfection can expect more of the same range. Books from this house are often short or formally unusual, and many are by writers who are new to English-language readers. Because the covers and typography look alike, it is easy to move from one title to the next and see what else the press has published.