GILLESPIE AND I
Jane Harris
Gillespie and I is a book that refuses to be easily categorized. Part psychological thriller, part murder mystery, and part Victorian Gothic, Harris's second novel joins the ranks of…
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Reviewed by Deborah Montouri
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TELL IT TO THE TREES
Anita Rau Badami
Tell it to the Trees opens with the death of Anu, a single woman who rents the "back house" of the Dharma family. It is winter, a deep cold winter in northern British Columbia, and Anu is found frozen…
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Reviewed by Caitlin Fehir
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MY BERLIN CHILD
Anne Wiazemsky
Translated from the French by Alison Anderson
When I saw the beautiful cover of this Europa Edition novel, I immediately stopped and read the flaps. The story sounded like something I would love: a female ambulance driver in WWII, with a minor role in the Résistance, ultimately finds love in post-war Berlin.
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Reviewed by Lisa Sanders
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IN THEIR FATHER'S COUNTRY
Anne-Marie Drosso
'What's a life?' Claire Sahli wondered. The answer seemed obvious to her: 'if you're young, it's the future; not so young, it's the present; old, it's the past; and very old, it's the deaths of all those who mattered in your life.' As she now saw it, that's what a life seemed to be. A succession of deaths, one after the other.
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Reviewed by Jana Herlander
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THE HUNTER
Julia Leigh
The last known thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) was captured in Tasmania in 1933 and spent its final three years in Hobart Zoo before it died of exposure after being locked out of its shelter one very cold night. However, sightings of this incredible creature have been reported …
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Reviewed by Judy Lim
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WILD MULBERRIES
Iman Humaydan Younes
Translated from the Arabic by Michelle Hartman
Set in the 1930s in rural Lebanon, Wild Mulberries is a slim book about a world in transition. A crumbling silkworm farm run by a man who refuses to see a new world knocking at his door serves as the backdrop for …
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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WHO IS ANA MENDIETA?
Christine Redfern
Illustrated by Caro Caron
Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta (1948-85) created beautiful, arresting and often shocking images during her lifetime. Sent to live in exile in America by her parents during childhood, Mendieta believed that her art was "a direct result of… having been torn away from my homeland during my adolescence…
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Reviewed by Charlotte Simpson
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THE SLEEPWALKER
Margarita Karapanou
Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich
As the novel opens God is pondering his creation of mankind and feeling that he has made an error. "For the first time he felt sad, and deeply bored. He saw that his people were small and ridiculous, and he was gripped by an awful rage …
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Reviewed by Amanda Meale
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VERTICAL MOTION
Can Xue
Translated from the Chinese by Karen Gernant and Chen Zeping
Can Xue's stories collected here are expeditions into the literary fantastic: unaccountable states in which the impossible is commonplace, and the reactions of commonplace people are nothing like normal.
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Reviewed by Michael Matthew
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THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN, ÂHKAMÊYIMOWAK
Edited by Priscilla Settee
This book pulls back the curtain on a world that may have been invisible to many readers. The real life voices that speak to us here are those of Canadian Aboriginal women. Priscilla Settee, a leading Saskatchewan educator and activist, has collected these words from women …
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
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FIRE FROM THE ANDES: SHORT FICTION BY WOMEN FROM BOLIVIA, ECUADOR, AND PERU
Susan E. Benner and Kathy S. Leonard
Translated from the Spanish by Susan E. Benner and Kathy S. Leonard
Imagine you knew that Death would come for you on your next birthday, precisely at the time that you were born. Would you try to cheat her out of claiming you?
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood
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THE LAKE
Banana Yoshimoto
Translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich
Banana Yoshimoto is one of those authors who can require one to be in a certain mood. I, personally, want to read her works while sitting at the kitchen table. It should be the middle of the night, with …
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Reviewed by C. Lariviere
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THE DEATH OF LOMOND FRIEL
Sue Peebles
At some point in our teenage years or in early adulthood, most of us will come face to face with the loss of someone close to us, a parent, grandparent, other relative or friend. Loss affects everyone differently; some carry on as if nothing has happened, whilst others …
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Reviewed by Ceri Evans
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THE BOOK OF DOUBT
Tessa de Loo
The Book of Doubt tells the story of a young Dutch man's search for his father, a Moroccan musician his mother had a brief relationship with. Accompanied by his best friend Hassan, the man, Saeed, takes a road trip around Morocco …
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOM
Kyung-Sook Shin
Translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim
One afternoon in 2007, an elderly woman disappears from a Seoul train station. During their attempts to find her, her husband and adult children reflect on what they actually knew about their wife and mother. It turns out, not much.
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Reviewed by Joyce Nickel
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STOLEN LIVES
Jassy Mackenzie
Jassy Mackenzie's sequel to her 2010 Random Violence is simultaneously more engaging and less so than its predecessor. The series' protagonist is Jade de Jong: a young, South African private investigator who has lived as an expatriate for many years following the murder of her famous police inspector father …
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Reviewed by Tad Deffler
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