Belletrista

This is an archived issue of Belletrista. If you are looking for the current issue, you can find it here


TRIO! Ceri Evans discusses three books by Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif.	"Seven Little Rooms" - original fiction by notable Hindi author Mridula Garg.	Who Has the Power? Reading Arab Women in English by M. Lynx Qualey

Welcome, readers, to our sixth issue! Besides our regular review section featuring an array of intriguing books, and the tantalizing previews of new books in our New & Notable section, we have provided you with a compelling mix of fascinating articles this issue. There is a thought-provoking piece on reading the work of Arab Women in translation, one of our "Trios" explores three books by Ahdaf Soueif, and we report back from the splashy Book Expo America. In this issue we are honored to introduce to our readers the eminent Indian author Mridula Garg with two pieces: the first is an original short story translated from the Hindi by the author herself, and a second piece by Sunita Jain on Ms. Garg's place in literature.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful issue and with it we complete our first year of celebrating literature written by women all over the world! Thank you for being a part of our reading community.

Reviews
Click on 'Reviews' to see the full list of this issue's reviews...

PALIMPSEST

Catherynne M. Valente

Think of a novel as an amalgam of its story, its ideas, its people, and its language. Does a particular story demand a particular sort of language? Palimpsest is a fantastical city, sprawling over a vast territory, functioning on magic, eclectic in architecture, infested with clockwork insects, populated by …
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Reviewed by Michael Matthew

DON'T CRY

Mary Gaitskill

A recurrent comment about Mary Gaitskill's work is that she writes like a man. Powerful, relentless, and at times brutal, her stories take readers to an edge over which female writers apparently are not supposed to step.
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Reviewed by Deborah Montuori

THAT MAD ACHE

Françoise Sagan

Translated from the French by Douglas Hofstadter

That Mad Ache takes us to glamorous 1960s Paris, a world of money, parties and passions. Lucile, a restless young woman, lives with her older, rich lover Charles. They enjoy a tranquil relationship, he responding to her frequent whims as one might indulge a child. . .
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Reviewed by Charlotte Simpson

ALL THE LIVING

C. E. Morgan

This debut novel introduces a young author with an extraordinary command of the pen. C. E. Morgan's finely crafted prose draws one into present-day Kentucky with its sweltering, breezeless days, where twenty-year-old Aloma has come to live with her lover, Orren.
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood