THE MAN FROM SAIGON
Marti Leimbach
I was a child during the American war in Vietnam. I can still conjure images of the time: horrifying photos in Life magazine, correspondents on the nightly news reporting over the sound of mortar fire, while in the background medics bearing stretchers ran, crouching, toward waiting helicopters.
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Reviewed by Maggie Oldendorf
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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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SYMPHONY IN WHITE
Adriana Lisboa
Translated from the Portuguese by Sarah White
Symphony in White is a tale of two sisters. Clarice and Maria Inês, daughters of Afonso and Octacilia Olimpio, came of age in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s during the period of military dictatorship. Lisboa does not directly comment upon the political situation in Brazil during that time, but the political repression is mirrored in the stifling atmosphere of the Olimpio family and the secrets they keep.
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Reviewed by Jane Anderson Jones
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HOTEL IRIS
Yoko Ogawa
Translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder
Hotel Iris was published in Japan in 1996 and only now, 14 years later, is it finally available in English. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Stephen Snyder, it is worth waiting for.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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AUNT RÉSIA AND THE SPIRITS: AND OTHER STORIES
Yanick Lahens
Translated from the French by Betty Wilson
It's always good to be reminded of the diversity of talent from places that the rest of the world focuses on only in the most troubled times. Even before this year's terrible earthquake, Haiti was a by-word for poverty and violence. This anthology of short stories by Yanick Lahens, a first English translation for one of Haiti's foremost short story writers, is a timely reminder that the country has so much more to offer the world.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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TO MERVAS
Elisabeth Rynell
Translated from the Swedish by Victoria Häggblom
It came as no surprise to discover that Elisabeth Rynell is a poet as well as a novelist; as I read To Mervas I had the sense that every single word had been carefully chosen to paint a particular picture, that no other word would do, and that they were all equally important.
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Reviewed by Rachel Hayes
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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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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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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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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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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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DARK HEART OF THE NIGHT
Léonora Miano
Translated from the French by Tamsin Black
Few English translations can have had such an awkward birth as that of Léonora Miano's slim novel, written in 2005 in French as L'intérieur de la Nuit. The University of Nebraska Press made the laudable decision to publish an English translation of this work by one of the most promising young francophone African writers around; however….
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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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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THINGS SEEN
Annie Ernaux
Translated from the French by Jonathan Kaplansky
The literal translation of the book's title, "Exterior Life" or "The Life Outside", fits nicely with its content, as it is a series of brief observations and random thoughts about people and events that exist outside of the life of the narrator….
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Reviewed by Darryl Morris
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MARTYRDOM STREET
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Martyrdom Street is the first foray into fiction for Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet. Born and raised in Iran, she has been an outspoken advocate of political and cultural change in her home country, and is the author of several works of non-fiction about Iran.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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