The latest addition to my website is >Alki Zei‘s> Η αρραβωνιαστικιά του Αχιλλέα (Achilles’ Fiancée. Eleni, née Daphne is involved in the various left-wing movements opposed to the German occupiers, the British and Americans, the royalists and the Junta. When sixteen she meets one of the leaders, code name Achilles and they become close. As … Read more
The latest addition to my website isAris Alexandrou‘s Το Κιβώτιο (Mission Box). A prisoner is writing down for an absent interrogator his account of an expedition taking a sealed metal box from N to K. This is during the Greek Civil War and our hero is on the side of the Leninist communists. The mission … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nikos Bakolas‘ Η Μεγάλη Πλατεία (Crossroads). This long novel is set primarily in Thessaloniki between the late 1920s and 1949, a turbulent period in Greek history. We initially follow four main characters – a not very successful journalist, a sailor, a refugee who lost her parents when fleeing … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Antonio Soler‘s El sueño del caimán (The Alligator’s Trap). Our unnamed hero is a Spaniard working as a receptionist in a hotel in Toronto. A customer – Luis Bielsa – arrives. Our hero recognises him but he does not recognise our hero. We gradually learn that our hero … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sebastijan Pregelj‘s V Elvisovi sobi (In Elvis’s Room). This is definitely a book of two halves. It starts as a Bildungsroman, telling the story of Jan, initially a young boy in Yugoslavia, living in Ljubljana in the 980s. We follow all the issues of his growing-up but, at … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Stella Gaitano‘s رواح إدو (Edo’s Souls).This is the story of South Sudan, with the background being the upheavals that led to South Sudan breaking away from Sudan, something that affects most of the protagonists. Edo had the misfortune to lose nine of her ten children before their first … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ventura Ametller‘s Summa kaòtica (Summa Kaotica). This is one of the great Catalan novels, which has finally made it into English. It is set in Poel, based on Amettler’s hometown of Pals. It starts both with the birth of the Second Spanish Republic, founded in 1931, as well … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Antonio Soler‘s El nombre que ahora digo (Soldiers in the Fog). The novel is set in the Spanish Civil War and follows the story of Gustavo Sintora. He had fled, like many others, from his hometown of Malaga, as Franco approached and after a few adventures ends up … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Najwa Barakat‘s مستر نون (Mister N). Mister N is a failed Lebanese writer who currently lives in a hotel, rarely leaving it. We gradually learn his story – horrors of the Lebanese Civil War, a mother he hated as she much preferred his older brother, Sa’id, now a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Almudena Grandes‘ El corazón helado (The Frozen Heart). This is a long and complicated novel set mainly in the present but very much looking back to the Spanish Civil War. We follow the stories of two related families, one primarily Francoist and one primarily Republican, and their respective … Read more