The latest addition to my website is Peter Stamm‘s Ungefähre Landschaft (Unformed Landscape). The novel is not set in Stamm’s native Switzerland but in Norway, near the Russian border. Our heroine is Kathrine, a customs officer. She is divorced with a young son. She starts an affair with Thomas, a man seemingly with multiple achievements … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Wu Jianren‘s 新石頭記 The New Story of the Stone). The novel is a continuation of the famous eighteenth century Chinese novel The Story of the Stone, aka The Dream of the Red Chamber . You do not have to read the original to appreciate this work. Jia Baoyu, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Tsering Döndrup‘ s Rlun dmar ’ur ’ur(The Red Wind Howls ). The novel, which was banned in Tibet and cost the author his job tells of the Chinese takeover of Tibet. Though critical of the Chinese, many of the Tibetans are far from saints. Alak Drong was a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Anna Lidia Vega Serova‘s Ánima fatua (Anima fatua). This is an autobiographical novel about a woman born in Leningrad to a Cuban father and Russian mother. They emigrate to Cuba but the parents divorce and mother, daughter and son return to Russia where things do not go well. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yōko Ogawa‘ s 猫を抱いて象と泳 [Swim with an Elephant Holding a Cat]. Our hero is brought up by his grandparents but remains a loner. One day he meets a former bus driver, now massively overweight, who teaches him chess, both how to play and the philosophy behind it. However … Read more
The latest addition to my website is
The latest addition to my website is Maylis de Kerangal‘s Naissance d’un pont (Birth of a Bridge). As the title tells us it is about the building of a bridge, in this case in the fictitious US town of Coca. The project is led by the seasoned Georges Diderot and we follow his story as … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Akram Aylisli‘s Farewell, Aylis. Akram Aylisli is an Azerbaijani writer who has been viciously criticised for showing sympathy to the Armenians, particularly for the second book in this trilogy of novellas, Stone Dreams which tells the story of a famous Azerbaijani actor who is badly beaten for trying … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ali Smith‘s Gliff. This is on Ali Smith’s favourite theme – broken Britain. It is set sometime in the future where UVs (Unverifiables), i.e. undesirables are driven out of their home – a red band is painted round a condemned home – and often sent to labour camps. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Colette‘s L’Ingénue libertine (The Innocent Libertine). This was originally published as two separate books but then combined into one in translation. It tells the story of Minne who, in the first book, is a fourteen tyear old schoolgirl in Paris, daughter of a widow. There has been gang … Read more