| 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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GRANADA
Radwa Ashour
Translated from the Arabic by Wiliam Granara
If there's one time and place I wish I could travel to, it's Moorish Spain; al-Andalus has long had a strange fascination for me, with its extraordinarily developed culture—architecture which continues to amaze us today, some of the greatest thinkers of the time, flourishing literature and music—set against the stunning backdrop of the Spanish landscape.
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Reviewed by Rachel Hayes
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AN ELEGY FOR EASTERLY
Petina Gappah
This debut collection of short stories from Petina Gappah was the winner of the 2009 Guardian First Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, two of the more prestigious literary prizes. Gappah was born in Zimbabwe….
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Reviewed by Darryl Morris
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THE SONG HOUSE
Trezza Azzopardi
The Song House once again revives the theme of past secrets. Maggie Nix turns up at Earl House in a freakish heatwave, interviewing for a job as assistant to the elderly Kenneth Earl. Increasingly aware of the shortcomings of his own memory, Kenneth has decided he needs to create a memoir, constructed around his voluminous library of recordings. Charmed by Maggie, he offers her the job…
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Reviewed by Rachael Beale
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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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FROM THE HILLTOP
Toni Jensen
I'll confess that when I read short stories, I often feel as if I'm having a snack, when what I want is a full meal. Not so with Toni Jensen's dazzling collection, From the Hilltop. In just a few pages, she manages to fill in the past, present and enough of the future to leave a reader satisfied. After I finished these stories, the only thing I was hungry for was more Toni Jensen. She's that good.
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
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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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