The latest addition to my website is Ivan Vladislavic‘s The Distance. This novel tells the story of two brothers, Branko and Joe, growing up and living as adults in Pretoria. Each tells his version of the story, in alternating sections. They are very different, with Branko as the gregarious, sporty but not very intellectual one … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Gamal al-Ghitani‘s ااب التجليات (The Book of Epiphanies), another recommendation from The Untranslated, though I have had a copy of the book for many years. As did the Untranslated, I read the French translation of the book as the English translation is a substantial abridgement. It has not … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Maik Nwosu‘s Alpha Song. Our hero, a Nigerian who adopts the name Taneba Taneba when he is estranged from his father’s family, never really finds where he fits in and where is going. His uncle gets him a job at the post office (twice) but that does not … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mircea Cărtărescu‘s Orbitor Vol 3, Aripa dreaptă [Blinding – The Right Wing]. This is the third book in his Orbitor (Blinding) trilogy. This one has many of the themes of the first two books – Mircea’s life, from childhood to adulthood, Romanian politics and stunning and highly imaginative … Read more
Could this be the year of Manuel de Pedrolo, the great Catalan science fiction writer? His best-known novel Mecanoscrit del segon origen (Typescript of the Second Origin) is finally being published in English this April. As this article shows (link in Spanish), it is going to be The Year of Manuel de Pedrolo in Spain. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Joanna Scott‘s Careers for Women. This is another first-class novel from one of the United States’ leading novelists, who does not get the attention she deserves. As the title of this one shows, it is about sexism and, in particular sexism in the workplace, though it is also … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Koen Peeters‘ Grote Europese roman [Great European Novel]. This is a tongue-in-cheek novel that may be many things but is not the Great European Novel. Our hero is Robin, working for a Belgian firm n Brussels which makes gadgets (we know no more about it). Robin is in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Victor Pelevin‘s Священная книга оборотня (The Sacred Book of the Werewolf). This is another of his books where the main characters of the book are in fact animals, albeit in human form. A Hu-Li, the main character, is a prostitute working in present-day Moscow but she is also … Read more
There is a bit of a furore going on at the moment following Janet Maslin’s Cool Books for Hot Summer Days, her summer reading recommendations in the New York Times. (I have often wondered why there should be special beach reading lists. Why can’t you just read the same books you read the rest of … Read more
The blog In lieu of a field guide has published a list of Philippine novels in English translation. Always interested in novels in translation from countries which I know little about, I checked the nine novels on the list. Sadly, only the two José Rizal novels showed up on the site of a well-known online … Read more