| This is an archived issue of Belletrista. If you are looking for the current issue, you can find it here |
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Caitlin Fehir interviews Cristina Rivera-Garza, Winner of the 2009 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize.
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16 Reviews of Classic and Contemporary Latin American & Brazilian Novels!
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Ceri Evans reports from the recent International PEN "Free the Word!" event in London.
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Reviews
Click on 'Reviews' to see the full list of this issue's reviews...
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THE CHALK CIRCLE MAN
Fred Vargas
Translated from the French by Siân Reynolds
Unusual, unorthodox, and uncanny is how I might sum up the detective we are introduced to in Fred Vargas's first "Commissaire Adamsberg" mystery. And if you are a seasoned reader of detective fiction, this novel—this detective—may cause you to question the very reasons you read in this genre.
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Reviewed by Kate Morgan
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FROM WŎNSO POND
Kang Kyŏng-ae
Translated from the Korean by Samuel Perry
What a journey this book has taken! In order to fully appreciate this treasure of Korean literature, you will need some background information before you start to read. From Wŏnso Pond first appeared in serialised form in a daily newspaper in Korea. Although published as a novel in 1940, the book did not pick up a wide readership in Korea until 1953. It was another fifty-six years before it would be translated into English.
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Reviewed by Amanda Meale
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WILDLIVES
Monique Proulx
Translated from the French by David Homel and Fred A. Reed
Monique Proulx's narrative is saturated with a gorgeous combination of words and images making up foliage as dense as a Canadian forest. Ants and mosquitoes bite at her prose while wild mushrooms tempt the reader's emotions, but not without their hidden poisons.
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Reviewed by C. Lariviere
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COME SUNDAY
Isla Morley
Prospective readers may not choose to read a novel reviewed as harrowing, sometimes depressing, difficult to read (without a box of tissues to wipe away tears), with a protagonist who is at times drawn unsympathetically. However, for readers who are willing to cast this aside, Come Sunday is a rewarding and beautifully written book.
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Reviewed by Ceri Evans
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TOUCH
Adania Shibli
Translated from the Arabic by Paula Haydar
This lyrical novella invites you into the world of an observant little girl who lives with her parents and eight sisters in current-day Palestine. She is the littlest one in the family, and one gets the sense that she is loved, but is a tad neglected. Everyone is always busy, so she escapes into a private space where she observes the things that make up her everyday world: colors, silence, movement, and language.
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood
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Closing Escape Hatches and Emerging Humor
Jean Hughes Raber looks at post-millennium dystopian novels by women.
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Trio: Clarice Lispector
Rachel Hayes reviews three books by the internationally acclaimed Brazilian author.
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Listening to Nawal el Saadawi
Coming from the International PEN "Free the Word!" festival, Charlotte Simpson introduces us to Egyptian
writer, psychiatrist and political activist Nawal el Saadawi.
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Awards & Nominations
Looking for a great book to read? Here we present some of the recent award-winning or award-nominated books
by women writers from around the world.
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