The latest addition to my website is Hiromi Ito‘s とげ抜き 新巣鴨地蔵縁起 (The Thorn Puller). She calls it a long poem but we might describe it as an autobiographical novel. On the one hand, she describes the difficult role that society that society imposes on women as a daughter and only child of ageing and ill … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Vassily Aksyonov‘s Апельсины из Марокко [Oranges from Morocco]. This book, Aksyonov’s second novel ,was something of a cult book in the Soviet Union, not least because it mildly (but only mildly) criticised the Soviet Union. It is interesting as it is set in Kamchatka. Not many Russian novels … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nino Haratischwili‘s Mein sanfter Zwilling (My Soul Twin). Stella’s parents divorced when she she was six and she and her sister went to live with her father’s Aunt Tulia, as their mother had gone to the USA with her boyfriend. They were joined by Ivo, son of their … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Marvel Moreno‘s En diciembre llegaban las brisas (December Breeze). Marvel Moreno tells a series of interlinked stories, many of which show the cruelty of men towards women. Colombia is clearly a very patriarchal society and many of the women in this book suffer under it, with the men … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sevgi Soysal‘s Şafak (Dawn). The story, partially based on the author’s own life is set in Adana, where Oya is in internal exile after a spell in prison. The period is during the Turkish military giovernment in 1971, when martial law has been imposed. She is invited to … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Manuel Rivas‘O último día de Terranova (The Last Days of Terranova). In 2014 Vicenzo Fontana is having to close his beloved bookshop in a small Galician town, as the owners will not renew the lease and want to sell the property for development. The book is the ruminations … Read more
The latest addition to my website is László Krasznahorkai‘s Északról hegy, Délről tó, Nyugatról utak, Keletről folyó (A Mountain to the North, a Lake to the South, Paths to the West, a River to the East). This tells the story of the grandson of Prince Genji who seems to live in the present day, in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jonathan Coe‘s Bournville. This might be described as a state of the nation novel, as we follow an extended family from VE Day to the present day and the covid pandemic. The main character is Mary Lamb, based on Coe’s mother as he tells us in the afterword, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Cormac McCarthy‘s The Passenger. Published when he was eighty-nine, it is clear that McCarthy can still write a first-class novel. Our hero is Bobby Western. Two things initially cause him misery – the suicide of his twin sister, whom he was in love with and the fact that … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jon Fosse‘s Det er Ales (Aliss at the Fire). Signe and Asle are a married couple with no children who live in the large house where Asle and his forebears grew up, next to a fjord. In this book they spend much time staring out of the windows … Read more