tmn The latest addition to my website is Michael Ferrier‘s François, portrait d’un absent (François, Portrait Of An Absent Friend). The eponymous absent friend is François Christophe, very much a real person, a film-maker and producer of radio drama, though there is very little about him on the web. He and his daughter had been washed … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mithu Sanyal‘s Identitti (Identitti). The book is narrated by a German-born blogger (Polish mother, Indian father), Nivedita Anand, who talks to Kali (the goddess) in her blog about racism, identity politics and related issues, Her mentor, to whom she is devoted, is Saraswati who teaches and writes about … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Caroline Lamarche‘s La Chienne de Naha [The Bitch of Naha] . The book opens with a tale from the Triqui people (in Mexico) about a bitch (i.e. a female dog) who changes into a woman and is exploited by a man. The book tells of an unnamed narrator … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Kai Aareleid‘s Linnade põletamine (Burning Cities). The book goes from 19141 to 2013 and essentially follows Tiina and those she is in contact with. We meet her mother, Liise, in her wedding dress in the rain, as her husband has hurried off to join up. She is rescued … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mohammed Said Hjiouij‘s وت ماركافكا في طنجةك (Kafka in Tangier) . Jawad, who works as a teacher and supports his family (wife, daughter, parents and sister) is reading Kafka’s Die Verwandlung (Metamorphosis). One night he has a dream about being pursued by a giant insect in a sewer … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Eugene Vodolazkin‘s Оправдание Острова (A History of the Island). This is the history of an imaginary island, told both in a series of sometimes contradictory chronicles as well as with commentary by the 347 (sic) year old former royal couple. The story takes us from the early days … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Shalash‘s شلش العراقيية (Shalash the Iraqi). This is an anonymous blog written in 2005-2006 (i.e. post-Saddam Hussein)which is satirical and, presumably, often fanciful and fictitious, hence the combined blog has been called a novel. Shalash is at times serious but he is mainly witty and satirical, mocking his … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Michal Ajvaz‘s Cesta na jih (Journey to the South). This is an amazing work, starting with a ballet of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and where one of the dancers murders an audience member. Martin who saw the murder and who is writing a thesis on Kant, and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Lyudmila Petrushevskaya‘s Нас украли. История преступлений (Kidnapped). Petrushevskaya is best-known for her weird/dark tales and though this is a novel it takes the form of several tales within tales within tales… We start with a man, Sergei Sertsov, who made his fortune (illegally) after the fall of his … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ellis Sharp‘s Pig Tale. This is a very witty book, damning human foibles, told from the point of view of a five year old boar (i.e. male pig) called Ed. Ed manages to escape from the pig farm and we follow his adventures (which are being recounted to … Read more