The latest addition to my website is Bakhtiyar Ali‘s Henarî Dunya (The Last Pomegranate Tree In The World). This is another superb novel from Bakhtiyar Ali telling the story of Muzafar-i Subhdam who had been captured while fighting Saddam Hussein and kept imprisoned in a remote desert prison for 21 years, unaware that Saddam has … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Almudena Sánchez‘ s Fármaco (Pharmakon). This is about Almudena Sánchez’s struggle with depression, which hit her in her early thirties. Unlike other novels/memoirs on depression, this is not a realist account of the depression. Rather it is a writer writing about her depression rather than a depressive giving … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Angelos Terzakis‘ Ταξίδι με τον Έσπερο [Travelling with Hesperus]. It tells the story of Glaukos, a sixteen year old rGreek boy who has lost both his parents and lives with an aunt in Belgium. The pair are visiting the family estate in Greece. Initially Glaukos goes for walks … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Daniele Mencarelli‘s Tutto chiede salvezza (Everything Calls For Salvation). This is an autobiographical novel about seven days Mencarelli spent in a mental institution in 1994.He was bipolar and had a breakdown, smashing his house up and causing his father to collapse. We follow his seven days and that … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sergei Lebedev‘s Год кометы (The Year of the Comet). Our unnamed hero is born in the later days of the Soviet Union and the book is essentially about what it was like during that period. The first part looks more backwards, particularly as his grandmothers dote on him … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ahmed Taibaoui‘s اختفاء السيد لا أحد The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody). Set in Algeria, the novel is divided into two linked parts. In the first apart, we meet the eponymous Mr Nobody. He had almost been executed as a teenager during the Algerian Civil War but had been … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jon Fosse‘s Morgon og kveld (Morning and Evening) . We first meet Johannes as he is being born, the second child of Marta and Olai. When we next see him, he is old and aching. His beloved wife, Erna, is long since dead as is his best friend … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Luca Rastello‘s Piove all’insù (The Rain’s Falling Up. The book is primarily set in the 1970s-80s in Turin, though told from the perspective of a later date, in the 2000s. It is narrated by Pietro Miasco. We first meet him as a young boy but, as he grows … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jon Fosse‘s Naustet (Boathouse). This is an early Fosse novel but still recognisable as part of his exploration of the dark Norwegian soul. Baard is in his thirties but still lives with his mother and has no job except occasionally playing guitar at weddings and dances. One day … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Cormac McCarthy‘s Stella Maris. As he is ninety, this may well be his last novel and he definitely goes out with a grim tale. The main character in this book – Alicia Western – had appeared in The Passenger, McCarthy’s previous book, published earlier this year. This novel … Read more