Belletrista Issue 2

Belletrista - A site promoting translated women authored literature from around the world


In Praise of Herta Müller: Winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature	Holiday shopping? Let us help you with the readers on your list!	Carolyn Kelly Muses about the Booker, the Frankfurt Book Fair, and the German Book Prize.

Welcome to the second issue of Belletrista! After the heady response to our launch issue, we're thrilled to be back to celebrate more astonishingly diverse works from talented women the world over. In this issue, you'll find alluring reviews of books from Mexico, Iceland, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Russia, and more. Don't miss the informative feature on the Ugandan women writers' association, Femrite, and the enlightening companion article profiling meritorious Ugandan authors. We've also, in our unique way, endeavored to shed some light on the Booker, Nobel and Giller Prizes. Finally, with the holidays in mind, we offer a host of gift suggestions to help you find the best picks for yourself, and the book-loving folk in your life. Happy (armchair) travels!

Reviews
Below are a tantalizingly small selection of this months reviews....

MY SOUL TO TAKE

Yrsa Sigurdardóttir

Translated from the Icelandic by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates

In the starkly beautiful countryside of Iceland's west coast, a woman's body is found, badly beaten and with common sewing pins stuck in the bottom of her feet...
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Reviewed by Kate Morgan

THE LIEUTENANT

Kate Grenville

The Lieutenant is an historical novel set mainly in the early years of the first British colony which was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove, Australia.
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Reviewed by Meg Merrylees

BOOK OF CLOUDS

Chloe Aridjis

Over its brief span, Book of Clouds explores "the phenomenology of space", the accommodation of the past by the present, and the uneasy relationship between nature and the built environment.
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Reviewed by F. T. Huffkin

ADVENTURE DIVAS: SEARCHING THE GLOBE FOR WOMEN WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD

Holly Morris

While many travelogues recount the author's own stories and experiences, including some interactions with people met on the road, Morris uses her book specifically as a vehicle to for telling the stories of the women she met.
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Reviewed by Carianne Carleo-Evangelist

ZUBAIDA'S WINDOW: A NOVEL OF IRAQI EXILE

Iqbal Al-Qazwini

Translated from the Arabic by Azza El-Kholy and Amira Nowaira

In her sitting room in Berlin, Zubaida watches in horror as her homeland is ravaged publicly on the TV screen during the 2003 invasion of Iraq...
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood

FEMRITE and Ugandan Women Writers

A peek into an dynamic organization created to nurture women writers and a deeper look at five of its splendid writers.

Women Writers Dominate the Giller Prize

Photo of Kim Echlin, Annabel Lyon and Alice Munro

An unprecedented ten of the twelve long-listed books were written by women writers. Three remain on the shortlist. Joyce Nickels takes us on a whirlwind tour of the authors and their books...

New Biographies of Women Authors

Photo of actor representing the Alcott family

2009 has been a great year for biographies (and at least one documentary). Check out our list.

New and Notable Books

Our latest collection of intriguing titles for November and December.

Belletrista - Issue 2
November/December 2009

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