A RIOT OF GOLDFISH
Kanoko Okamoto
Translated from the Japanese by J. Keith Vincent
The story "A Riot of Goldfish," traces Mataichi, the son of a goldfish breeder, through his lifelong struggles with his unrequited love for the daughter of the family's patron. He loves Masako, but she loves goldfish.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Joyce Nickel
|
HOT CHOCOLATE AT HANSELMANN'S
Rosetta Loy
Translated from the Italian by Gregory Conti
Rosetta Foy's enrapturing Hot Chocolate at Hanselmann's opens in Rome, in the comfortable home of Enrico and Isabella, on the threshold of the Second World War. Arturo is a family friend; he teaches at the university, and just so happens to be Jewish.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Ceri Evans
|
RAJMAHAL
Kamalini Sengupta
The ghosts of Kamalini Sengupta's Rajmahal fret and fume over renovations made to the Calcutta mansion as it is sold and divided into six apartments. Even more disturbing is the motley cross-section of fashionable Calcutta society that moves into those apartments.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Jane A. Jones
|
THE BODY IN THE CLOUDS
Ashley Hay
Just as a good Danish pastry consists of layer upon layer upon layer of rich pastry, so The Body in the Clouds is formed from layers of rich storytelling. In her first novel, shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book, Ashley Hay takes one moment in history and tells three different stories.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Judy Lim
|
FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON
Milena Agus
Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
Every once in a while you come across a small gem of a novel, a novella really, that just captivates you: Rebecca West's The Return of the Soldier comes to mind or Chingiz Aïtmatov's Jamilia. They draw you in, mesmerize you a little and, before you realize it, you're on the last page. Milena Agus' From the Land of the Moon is just such a book.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Tad Deffler
|
A GOOD LAND
Nada Awar Jarrar
Most people would consider Lebanon the last place on earth they want to be; then there are those who yearn to be there and nowhere else in the world. Layla, Margo and Kamal are three such souls, fiercely drawn to the city of Beirut with all its dreams and shadows.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood
|
VISITATION
Jenny Erpenbeck
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
Home—a place where dreams are dreamt, lives are lived, and families grow. Homes are filled with joy, but also house tragedy. They are the places most integral to our existence, and yet …
READ MORE
Reviewed by Caitlin Fehir
|
THE TEA LORDS
Hella S. Haasse
Translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke
The lush verdant landscape of the Gamboeng plantation in Java dominates both the beginning and the ending of this dense family saga of Dutch plantation owners; it is truly the dominant character in Haasse's fine novel. She describes 'a drapery of dense, vivid green covering a gigantic, recumbent body' and speaks of 'the embrace of the jungle' as if it were a living, breathing human.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Chris Mills
|
FAREWELLS TO PLASMA
Natasza Goerke
Translated from the Polish by W. Martin
Twisted Spoon is an English language publisher of Eastern European literature, based in Prague. Their mission, according to their website, includes the translation of 'eclectic and unique' works previously denied to English readers. Enter Natasza Goerke.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Andy Barnes
|
|
|
AN AWKWARD AGE
Anna Starobinets
Translated from the Russian by Hugh Aplin
Having been nominated for Russia's National Bestseller Prize, Anna Starobinets is already being given the title of horror queen within the Russian short fiction genre. With her debut collection, An Awkward Age, she is able to delve into our basic fears with great conviction.
READ MORE
Reviewed by C. Lariviere
|
THE CHARACTER OF RAIN
Amélie Nothomb
Translated from the the French by Timothy Bent
In the beginning was nothing, and this nothing had neither form nor substance—it was nothing other than what it was.
So begins this autobiographical novel of the author's first three years of life, which was originally published as "Métaphysique des Tubes" ("The Metaphysics of Tubes") in 2000, and released in English translation with a far less apt title two years later.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Darryl Morris
|
SAINTS AND SINNERS
Edna O'Brien
Exile can be defined as the enforced or self-imposed departure from your native country for a period of time, maybe forever; think of Romeo's banishment from Verona, or Napoleon's exile to Elba. Edna O'Brien has been in self-imposed exile in London since the 1950s …
READ MORE
Reviewed by Ceri Evans
|
THE CALLIGRAPHER'S NIGHT
Yasmine Ghata
Translated from the French by Andrew Brown
In language at times reminiscent of the intricacy of calligraphic script, The Calligrapher's Night tells the story of Rikkat Kunt, the author's grandmother. Beginning with her death in 1986 and going back to the years of her youth, Rikkat narrates her life through much of Turkey's eventful 20th century history.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Paola Sergi
|
THE DOCTOR'S WIFE
Sawako Ariyoshi
Translated from the Japanese by Wakako Hironaka and Ann Siller Kostant
We all know that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But the cover of this new edition of the 1966 Japanese novella The Doctor's Wife tempted me to do just that. It is bright red, wrapped in forest green, adorned with the soft-focus image of a woman in a simple orange obi, no doubt the doctor's wife herself. Small enough to tuck into the hand, the book's design is both restrained and dramatic, like the story itself.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
|
THE SEINE WAS RED: PARIS, OCTOBER 1961
Leila Sebbar
Translated from the French by Mildred Mortimer
Paris, 17 October 1961: Tens of thousands of French Algerians descended upon Paris to engage in a peaceful protest against a curfew imposed upon them by Maurice Papon, the infamous Prefect of Police. The curfew was a response to a bombing campaign against …
READ MORE
Reviewed by Darryl Morris
|
COUNTING SLEEPING BEAUTIES
Hazel Frankel
Hannah has never known any kind of affection from her mother, Susan. So when Sina joins the Kramer family as a domestic worker, the child instantly latches on to her for love and attention. She also dotes on her grandmother, her Bobba, spending lots of time in the company of the older woman, Leah, combing her hair and listening to stories of her life in the shtetl in Lithuania.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood
|
THE SHAPE OF HIM
Gill Schierhout
Sara Highbury, the manager of a Cape Town, South Africa boarding house, lives her life in the past. She is haunted by a man named Herbert Wakeford, the love of her life who suffered from a degenerative brain condition. One day not long after Herbert's death, another of Sara's lovers, Amin Hafferjee, pays her an unexpected visit, and Sara proceeds to tell him her life's story.
READ MORE
Reviewed by Caitlin Fehir
|
|
|
