| This is an archived issue of Belletrista. If you are looking for the current issue, you can find it here |
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WE ARE ALL EQUALLY FAR FROM LOVE
Adiania Shibli
Translated from the Arabic by paul Starkey
If we are to believe the narratives and the characters in this set of interlinked short stories, then we all yearn equally for love and, moreover, we are all equally far from love.
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie Dawood
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HOW TO STOP LOVING SOMEONE
Joan Connor
This book of short stories by award-winning author Joan Connor is a bit like an Oreo cookie: there are many parts to enjoy. If the filling is too sweet, chase it with the plainer, more serious biscuit part. If the chocolate biscuit is too dark, then skim the frosting off with your teeth and …
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi
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IRAMIFICATIONS
by Maria Galina
Translated from the Russian by Amanda Love Darragh
As I began to read Maria Galina's Iramifications, I couldn't help but think of the old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby "Road" movies in which two rather hapless adventurers find themselves…
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Reviewed by Jane Anderson Jones
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BITE YOUR TONGUE
Francesca Rendle-Short
Bite Your Tongue is part memoir, part fictionalised memories of Australian writer Francesca Rendle-Short, who is trying to make sense of a childhood lived in the overpowering shadow of her mother Angel. Angel was a Christian moral crusader…
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Reviewed by Charlotte Simpson
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BESIDE THE SEA
Véronique Olmi
Translated from the French by Adriana Hunter
Beside the Sea is a small novel that conforms perfectly to Peirene Press' ambition to publish books that can be read in the same time it takes to watch a film. Despite its brevity, Olmi's book is a powerful examination of the demands of motherhood, and a melancholy look at what it means to love in a frightening world.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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SALVAGE THE BONES
Jesmyn Ward
I reviewed Jesmyn Ward's debut novel, Where the Line Bleeds for Belletrista's issue 2, and ever since then I've been looking forward to reading her second. Salvage the Bones was worth the wait. The good news doesn't stop there …
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Reviewed by Rachel Hayes
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JUDITH'S SISTER
Lisa Tremblay
The nameless narrator (let's call her Miss X) of this engaging rite-of-passage novel is a twelve-year-old Catholic girl growing up in a small rural town in Quebec. Her stoic father works in the timber industry and …
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Reviewed by Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe
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AVAILABLE DARK
Elizabeth Hand
Long ago, Cassandra Neary roamed the streets and rock clubs of the Lower East Side, photographing punk-scene habitués as damaged as herself. After making a small name for herself with a single book of photographs…
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Reviewed by Michael Matthew
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NO ONE IS HERE EXCEPT ALL OF US
Ramona Ausubel
No One is Here Except All of Us is an imaginative novel where villagers try to escape the horrors of World War II by literally creating their world anew. With the power of collective belief, they rewrite their life stories and try to make them reality.
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Reviewed by Lisa Sanders
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THE SCRAPBOOK OF FRANKIE PRATT
Caroline Preston
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt reads like a fairy-tale journey of a young woman who wants to be a writer and embark on a life of adventure. Frankie's travels span a dramatic decade of history…
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Reviewed by Leonie Clark
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STONE IN A LANDSLIDE
Maria Barbal
Translated from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell
Stone in a Landslide is a modern Catalan classic. It was first published in 1985, but is only now available in English translation. Discovering a great novella about how the Spanish Civil War tore apart the Catalan nation is an opportunity that shouldn't be ignored.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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AFTER THE APOCALYPSE
Maureen McHugh
After the Apocalypse, a new short story collection by science fiction/fantasy writer Maureen F. McHugh, caught me off-guard. I curled up with the book in bed one night. At first, I found myself chuckling over the opening story, "The Naturalist," about a man imprisoned on a "zombie preserve" ….
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Reviewed by Kathi Ambrogi
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THREE WEEKS IN DECEMBER
Audrey Schulman
Advocacy fiction can be a tricky business: it's easy for passion to slip into sermon or harangue, obscuring the identity of the work as a story. When that happens, I would argue that it might as well be an essay rather than fiction. Audrey Schulman's latest novel, Three Weeks in December, tackles the genre of advocacy fiction twice, alternating chapters of two stories on the theme of Euro-American involvement with Africa. Happily for the reader, she stays on the safe side of the line between fiction and essay.
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Reviewed by Tad Deffler
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ALWAYS COCA COLA
Alexandra Chreiteh
Translated from the Arabic by Michelle Hartman
My friends and I, all twenty-somethings early into our careers, are typical young women. We gossip about relationships and men, dream big dreams about our futures, and have secure jobs that allow us …
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Reviewed by Caitlin Fehir
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THE WORLD WE FOUND
Thrity Umrigar
In her fifth novel Thrity Umrigar explores the haunting themes of love and loss, idealism and disappointment, commitment and betrayal. The World We Found belongs alongside…
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Reviewed by Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe
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THE BOOK OF CHANGE
Eileen Chang
Eileen Chang's reputation as an author has come full circle. Her writings were beloved in occupied Shanghai during World War II, but she lost her popularity as the Cultural Revolution marginalized writers, like Chang, who created stories without a political subtext. Today she is generally considered to be one of the great Chinese writers of the twentieth century.
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Reviewed by Barbara Steeg
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