The latest addition to my website is Agnieszka Taborska‘s gnieszka Taborska: Niedokończone życie Phoebe Hicks (The Unfinished Life of Phoebe Hicks). Taborska tells the story of the fictitious Phoebe Hicks, who, is made ill by eating clam fritters in mid-19th century Providence, RI, and turns to spiritualism. While we see the traditional features of spiritualism … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Philippe Sollers‘ Femmes (Women). In this novel, Sollers moved away from his short experimental novel to a long everything novel. It is narrated by an American journalist, Will, who is partially based on Sollers, not least because he is writing a novel called Femmes (Women). Will is happily … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Agustina Bessa-Luís‘ Fanny Owen [Fanny Owen]. The book is set in the mid-nineteenth century. A fairly rich landowner José Augusto de Magalhães becomes friend with an impoverished writer, the very real Camilo Castelo Branco. Camilo has problems – financial, health, political. attempted suicide but José Augusto helps him … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hiromi Kawakami‘s 三度目The (Third Love). As is usual with Kawakami, this book is about love and its many complications. Riko falls in love with the older Naa-Chan when she is two and, much later, they will marry. However, Naa-Chan has a series of relationships which naturally upsets her. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yōko Ogawa‘s ホテル・アイリス (Hotel Iris). Mari, a seventeen year old Japanese woman works in her mother’s hotel and has no life of her own. There is an argument between a prostitute and her client in one of the rooms. Later Mari sees the man, a translator from Russian, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Karen Duve‘s Dies ist kein Liebeslied (This is Not a Love Song). The title comes from a song by John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten’s post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd. It is narrated by a German woman, Anne Strelau, who is depressive, frequently overweight and does not fit … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Paulina Chiziane‘s O alegre canto da perdiz (The Joyful Cry of the Partridge). This is a part realist story but one told on a mythical level as Chiziane damns sexism, racism, colonialism, mixed race marriage and polygamy. We start with Maria das Dores, found wandering and naked in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yōko Ogawa‘s 密やかな結晶 (The Memory Police). The novel is set on a remote island in an unnamed country. The narrator is an unnamed female novelist. The basic theme is that gradually things are disappearing. The Memory Police declare that a thing no longer exists – stamps, jewels, rose … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Alison Langley‘s Budapest Noir Ilona Gets a Phone. Ilona is a sixty-one year old Hungarian woman. Communism has fallen and she is finally allowed a phone, previously denied as her husband had been killed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Her son, Emil, had defected to the USA … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Agustina Bessa-Luís‘s A Sibila [The Sibyl]. The novel tells the story of Quina, a Portuguese woman in a male-dominated society. Her father spends his money on women and gets involved in a bitter dispute over water rights which he loses, dying soon after. The cost to the family … Read more