Kallifatidis, Theodor (1977), Masters and Peasants, Doubleday [Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal] ISBN 0-385-09916-9 Kallifatidis is a Swedish novelist and poet of Greek descent. That is all I know. He has a large body of work, but very … Continue reading
Menmuir, Wyl (2016), The Many, Salt ISBN 978-1-784630485 So, to get things out of the way, this is a novel about grief, some of it quite affecting. Short books about grief are not uncommon. Max Porter’s debut novel(la) Grief is … Continue reading
Starova, Luan (2012), My Father’s Books, U of Wisconsin P [Translated by Christina E. Kramer] ISBN 978-029928794-8 So I had been looking at the Macedonian language for a little while, which is fascinating with its closeness to my own Russian. … Continue reading
Goetsch, Daniel (2016), Ein Niemand, Klett-Cotta ISBN 978-3-6ß8-98021-9 So you may remember my posts about the Bachmann–Preis earlier this month – I always try to read books by authors involved in it but I don’t always manage. This year I … Continue reading
Tevis, Walter (1962, 2015), The Man Who Fell To Earth, Gollancz ISBN 978-1-473-21311-1 Greene, Graham (1936, 2009), A Gun For Sale, Vintage ISBN 978-0-099-28614-1 I read Walter Tevis’ SF novel on a hot summer afternoon in preparation for a paper … Continue reading
Mazer, Ben (2017), February Poems, Ilora Press ISBN 978-0-9962063-2-7 April may be the cruelest month, but the heartbreak of Ben Mazer’s February Poems seems overwhelming. February doesn’t usually get such a bad rep. Margaret Atwood anticipates spring in her poem … Continue reading
Mina, Denise (2009), Still Midnight, Orion ISBN 978-0-7528-8404-2 This is the second novel by Mina I’ve read (I’ve reviewed Field of Blood here) and it is just as good, probably slightly better than the other one. Denise Mina has a … Continue reading
Schweblin, Samanta (2017), Fever Dream, Oneworld [Translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell] ISBN 978-1-78607-090-6 There is only one other book I know that is like this: it’s Lessing’s The Fifth Child. And it’s not just the nightmare depiction of parenthood … Continue reading
Campbell, Sophie (2017), Shadoweyes, Iron Circus Comics ISBN 978-0989020725 Sophie Campbell is one of my favorite people in comics. She’s been publishing comics for a long time now, sometimes as artist and writer, sometimes “just” as artist. It’s been a … Continue reading
I review a lot of translated literature on this here blog thing. I also advocate for translating German literature. I love translation (I may be of two minds about poetry translation) as I love literature. I also think that ethically, … Continue reading
Villalobos, Juan Pablo (2010), Down The Rabbit Hole, And Other Stories [Translated from Spanish by Rosalind Harvey] ISBN 978-1-908276-00-1 I was emailed an article two days ago about someone or other who was decapitated by the MS-13 gang in Mississippi … Continue reading
Jones, Gwyneth (2017), Proof of Concept, Tor ISBN 978-0-7653-9144-5 So I am biased, I suppose. I love science fiction, and I love every Gwyneth Jones book I have ever read. Regrettably, that’s not a ton, because she hasn’t written that … Continue reading
Elmiger, Dorothee (2010), Einladung an die Waghalsigen, Dumont ISBN 9-783832-161941 [translated into English by Katy Derbyshire: Elmiger, Dorothee (2011), Invitation To The Bold Of Heart, Seagull Press ISBN 978-0-85742-019-0 This is a curious little book. Dorothee Elmiger’s debut novel Einladung … Continue reading
Trondheim, Lewis and Stéphane Oiry: Maggy Garrison: Fais un Sourire, Maggy, Dupuis ISBN 9-782800-160788 “Sometimes, winning just means not losing.” This, said by the protagonist of Lewis Trondheim’s book with Stéphane Oiry, just about sums up the darkly humorous tone … Continue reading
Greg, Wioletta, Swallowing Mercury, Portobello ISBN 978-1-84627-607-1 [Translated from the Polish by Eliza Marciniak] Look, it’s not that I regretted reading this book; it was, after all, fairly short. On the other hand, I’m not particularly elated about the fact … Continue reading
Chessex, Jacques (2009), Un Juif Pour L’exemple, Grasset ISBN 09782253129615-4 [English edition: Chessex, Jacques, A Jew Must Die, Bitter Lemon Press ISBN 9781904738510 translated by W. Donald Wilson] I’ve long meant to write something about the Swiss novelist and poet … Continue reading
Strout, Elizabeth (2016), My Name is Lucy Barton, Random House ISBN 978-0-8129-7952-7 I’ve actually read this novel twice. Twice! And I am still not sure what to think about it. It appears to be written and conceived so clearly in … Continue reading
This has been a fairly good year for books (albeit not for literature as a whole, which is no longer allowed at the cool table, apparently), but not necessarily for me. Many books published this year – among them novels … Continue reading
Jiles, Paulette (2016), News of the World, William Morrow ISBN 978-0-06-240920-1 “Some people were born unsupplied with a human conscience and those people needed killing.” – If you think this is a great sentence, many of my criticisms of Paulette … Continue reading
Tsushima, Yuko (1983 [1978]), Child of Fortune, Kodansha [Translated from Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt] ISBN 4-7700-1524-0 Sometimes accidents have interesting results: the only reason I heard from Yuko Tsushima in the first place is Jake Waalk’s essay on this blog. … Continue reading
Liu, Marjorie and Sana Takeda (2016), Monstress, Vol. 1, Image Comics ISBN 978-1632157096 Gibson, Claire, Sloane Leong and Marian Churchland (2016), From Under Mountains, Vol. 1, Image Comics ISBN 978-1632159441 Marjorie Liu is slowly but surely growing into one of … Continue reading
Evenon, Brian (2016), The Warren, Tor ISBN 978-0-7653-9315-9 The Warren is a short book – and one of the best books I read all year. In it, Evenson condenses a science fiction story about what it means to be a … Continue reading
Gardi, Tomer (2016), Broken German, Droschl ISBN 978-3-85420-979-9 This novel is German – its author is not. This helps, I think, explain why its author is one of the most vital German literary voices to emerge in 2016. Like Sharon … Continue reading
Wilson, Kai Ashante (2015), The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, Tor ISBN 978-0-7653-8524-6 This book is very good. Very good. Unbelievably so, for a debut. An exceptional novel. Now, somewhere to the left or right of this paragraph will be a … Continue reading
Atwood, Margaret; Johnnie Christmas, Tamra Bonvillain (2016), Angel Catbird, Dark Horse ISBN 978-1-50670-063-2 I wrote the first sentence of this review before reading the book. Angel Catbird arrived here this afternoon, and I immediately noted down this sentence: “This is … Continue reading
Forney, Ellen (2012), Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo + Me, Robinson ISBN 978-1-4721-0689-6 You know how when you feel a bit unwell and you go on WebMD and suddenly, you feel as though you were dying of a terminal illness because … Continue reading
Ștefănescu, Cecilia (2013), Sun Alley, Istros Books [Translated from Romanian by Alexandra Coliban and Andreea Höfer] ISBN 9781908236067 At this point in the year, this is the worst book I have read all year or at least the worst book … Continue reading
Hoven, Line (2008), Liebe schaut weg, Reprodukt ISBN 978-3-938511-66-4 [Translated into English as Love Looks Away (2014) Blank Slate Books ISBN: 978-1-906653-18-7] The great medievalist Jacques Le Goff, in discussing memory, posits that what we call memory is really an … Continue reading
Laroui, Fouad (2016), The Curious Case of Dassoukine’s Trousers, Deep Vellum Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan ISBN 978-1-941920-26-8 Maybe the particular quality of Fouad Laroui’s humorous fiction is best described with a phrase from his 2010 novel Une … Continue reading
Otoo, Sharon Dodua (2015), Synchronicity, Edition Assemblage With Illustrations by Sita Ngoumou ISBN 978-3-942885-95-9 Otoo, Sharon Dodua (2012), The Things I am Thinking While Smiling Politely, Edition Assemblage ISBN 978-3-942885-22-5 Is this German literature? Sharon Otoo is not a German … Continue reading
Reid, Iain (2016), I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Text Publishing ISBN 9-781911-231042 So this is a weird book. Not weird as in weird fiction, or weird as in unusual. Iain Reid’s novel is a fairly straightforward psychological (horror) thriller. If … Continue reading
LaMarche, Phil (2007), American Youth, Sceptre ISBN 978-0-340-93803-4 I went into this book knowing nothing about it or the author. Someone recommended it to me and I decided on a whim to read it. Not knowing anything about it, I … Continue reading
Vera, Yvonne (2000), Butterfly Burning, Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 0-374-29186-1 So here is another example of me being awfully badly read. The late Yvonne Vera was a leading/important novelist from Zimbabwe, winner of multiple literary awards. And this is … Continue reading
Karlsson, Kolbeinn (2010), The Troll King, Top Shelf ISBN 978-1-60309-061-2 I have never read a graphic novel by a Swedish creator before, but if The Troll King is any indication, Swedes like their comic books like they like their rock … Continue reading
Hiraide, Takashi (2014), The Guest Cat, Picador [Translated by Eric Selland] ISBN 978-1-4472-7940-2 For my birthday a year and a half ago, my sister brought me a cat, as, I suspect, a therapy animal/companion. I love cats, and my sister … Continue reading
lê thi diem thúy (2003), The gangster we are all looking for, Anchor ISBN 978-0-375-70002-6 Much like the last book I reviewed here, I somehow ended up reading this book by accident, but I don’t regret it – lê thi … Continue reading
Takagi, Akimitsu (1999 [1965]), The Informer, Soho Press ]Trans. Sadako Mizuguchi] ISBN 1-56947-243-2 When I started this book I was not aware that The Informer is a very traditional crime novel. I somehow ended up reading it on a recommendation … Continue reading
Dillon, Glyn (2012), The Nao of Brown, Selfmadehero ISBN 978-1-906838-42-3 So this is some odd coincidence. Fresh on the heels of reviewing a book that is artfully crafted but does not, ultimately, feel like a success, I have just read … Continue reading
Haruf, Kent (2015), Our Souls at Night, Knopf ISBN 978-1-101-87589-6 I have not read any reviews of Kent Haruf’s novel Our Souls At Night but I suspect that whatever books I can pull as reference and context for it might … Continue reading
Kang, Han (2015 [2007]), The Vegetarian, Portobello [Translated by Deborah Smith] ISBN 978-1-84627-562-3 I have read and reread The Vegetarian twice in the past two months (first time was in December). It is very good. The translation fits the text perfectly … Continue reading
Ross, Fran (2015 [1974]), Oreo, New Directions ISBN 978-0-8112-2322-5 Let me apologize in advance if this review is a bit odd, I have not had sleep in quite a while. On the other hand, this likely leads to a shorter … Continue reading
Russell, Ray (2015 [1962]), The Case Against Satan, Penguin ISBN 978-0-14-31727-9 In a study of French Romantic poetry, John Porter Houston declared in 1969 that “[Baudelaire’s] diabolical Catholicism is […] a mode of sensibility which neither shocks nor has morbid … Continue reading
Ebershoff, David (2000), The Danish Girl, Penguin ISBN 9-780143-108399 Usually, the advantage of a novel dealing with a real life character vis-à-vis a nonfiction work, say a biography or a historical study, is the ability to gain vividness, color, excitement. … Continue reading
Luiselli, Valeria (2011), Faces in the Crowd, Granta [Translated from the Spanish by Christine MacSweeney] ISBN 978-1-84708-507-8 It’s entirely accidental that my last review of 2015 and my first review of 2016 are both of novels by Mexican authors. Both … Continue reading
So after posting 10 reviews in 2014 I exceeded that number by quite a bit this year and ended up with 26 reviews. An alphabetical list of the books under review this year are below, with short commentary (a chronological … Continue reading
Herrera, Yuri (2015), Signs Preceding The End of The World, And Other Stories [Translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman] ISBN 978-1-908276-42-1 This is very likely my last review of the year but I just couldn’t let the year on my … Continue reading
Chapman, Maile (2010), Your Presence is Required at Suvanto, Jonathan Cape ISBN 978-0-224-09042-1 Intentionally or not, several of my recently reviewed books on this blog have had this in common: they were well constructed intellectually and sometimes lacking in narrative … Continue reading
Deconnick, Kelly Sue and Valentine de Landron (2015), Bitch Planet: Extraordinary Machine, Image Comics ISBN 9-781632-153661 I don’t usually review comics after reading only one trade paperback because the first trade tends to be a mere introduction to story and … Continue reading
De Luca, Erri (2002), God’s Mountain, Riverhead [Translated from the Italian by Michael Moore] ISBN 978-1573229609 First things first: despite the title of this post and the bibliographic info at the top, I didn’t actually read this book in English. … Continue reading
Hobhouse, Janet (1993, 2004), The Furies, NYRB Classics ISBN 1-59017-085-7 I’ve been reading two books on mothers and daughters this year and this is the one I finished first. And what an excellent book it is. A posthumous autobiographical novel … Continue reading
Weir, Andy (2013), The Martian, Gollancz ISBN 9781101905005 So I have become a bit of a science fiction fan in the past decade. I mean, I’ve always liked it, but it’s only fairly recently that I started reading more of … Continue reading
Young-Ha Kim (2007), I have the right to destroy myself, Harcourt [Translated by Chi-Young Kim] ISBN 978-0-15-603080-9 So, as you’ll notice in this review, I am so extremely under-read in Korean literature that all my frames of reference for this … Continue reading
So as you can maybe tell, looking at my reviews this year I decided to just review a ton of things, just to write some non-academic things here and there, and sometimes I have no poems to write, nothing to … Continue reading
Porter, Max (2015), Grief is the thing with feathers, Faber and Faber ISBN 978-0-571-32376-0 When you don’t have a lot of time to read for entertainment, you can get the impression that you can’t really be surprised anymore. At least … Continue reading
So originally I planned on mostly just reposting my old 2014 picks (because I, uh, picked wrong, as always), but I did end up modifying them. I mean, look, I have become very impatient with the insistence of the Academy to … Continue reading
Duchovny, David (2015), Holy Cow, Headline ISBN978-1-4722-2588-7 This year I have stepped up the frequency of reviews a bit (here’s a list), and have reviewed some short/genre books. Still, I admit, this book is maybe an odd choice to pick … Continue reading
Condé, Maryse (2010), En Attendant La Montée Des Eaux, JCLattès ISBN 978-2-7096-3321-5 So, this feels a bit odd. En Attendant La Montée Des Eaux is the first novel I have read by Maryse Condé. Condé is, incidentally, nominated for the … Continue reading
Sciascia, Leonardo (2000, 1966), To Each His Own, NYRB [Translated from the Italian by Adrienne Foulke] ISBN 978-0-940322-52-3 How is this for coincidence. After finishing To Each His Own, the first and (so far) only novel by the famous Italian … Continue reading
Darnielle, John (2014), Wolf in White Van, Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 978-0-374-29208-9 I feel as if upwards of 50% of review intros that I post these days are disclaimers somehow tied to my personal bias towards an author, or … Continue reading
[So I asked a friend and frightfully brilliant writer and reader Jake Waalk to write a post on Murakami. I cannot read him in Japanese, and while I have some opinions of his work (none charitable), they are all based … Continue reading
Tyler, Anne (2015), A Spool of Blue Thread, Ballantine Books ISBN 978-0-8129-9928-0 In my review of John Irving’s In One Person, I pointed out that I (we all?) have problems with certain writers in figuring out whether my enjoyment of … Continue reading
Scalzi, John (2014), Lock In, Tor ISBN 978-0-7653-8132-3 [A note: this review has somehow turned out very digressive, so here’s a quick tl,dr summary of my opinion: Lock In is an intelligent, fun, exciting science fiction novel built around a … Continue reading
Forester, C.S. (2006 [1935]), The African Queen, Phoenix ISBN 978-0-7538-2079-7 In my review of Cop Hater I mentioned being puzzled and intrigued by that book’s inclusion on a list of indispensable or classic books. One other book on the list … Continue reading
Bagieu, Penelope (2011), Cadavre Exquis, Folio BD ISBN 978-2070444953 I’m currently kinda, sorta on holiday and yet here we are. Another (very) short review. This one is of a book I picked up in this lovely little French bookshop in … Continue reading
Sharma, Akhil (2014), Family Life, Faber and Faber ISBN 978-0-571-31426-3 I have an endless fascination for immigrant narratives. It’s probably easily one of my favorite genres – because on the one hand I can relate, and on the other hand, … Continue reading
McBain, Ed (1956, 2003), Cop Hater, Orion ISBN 978-0752857916 So this is another brief review, like this one – and for similar reasons. There’s really only one reason I read this book in the first place: I was familiar with … Continue reading
Grjasnowa, Olga (2012), Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt, Hanser ISBN 978-3-446-23854-1 [English translation: Grjasnowa, Olga (2014), All Russians Love Birch Trees, Other Press Translated by Eva Bacon ISBN 978-1-590-51584-6] In reading and reviewing books I have certain recurring … Continue reading
Bonfiglioli. Kyril (1973, 2014), Don’t Point That Thing At Me, Penguin ISBN 978-0-241-97025-6 If you ever read one of my reviews and thought – yeah, ok, but why aren’t these a bit shorter? You are in luck! Having recently finished … Continue reading
Kerascoët and Vehlmann, Fabien (2009), Jolies Ténèbres, Dupuis ISBN 978-2-8001-4238-8 [English translation: Kerascoët and Vehlmann, Fabien (2014), Beautiful Darkness, Drawn & Quarterly Translated by Helge Dascher ISBN 978-1770461291] I will admit. Even though I read quite a healthy number of comic … Continue reading
Anderson, W. Paul (2005), Hunger’s Brides, Carroll & Graf. ISBN 9780786715411 Everyone knows Randall Jarrell’s definition of a novel (“…a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it…”), which he wrote in his extraordinary review of Christina … Continue reading
Grigorcea, Dana (2011), Baba Rada: Das Leben ist vergänglich wie die Kopfhaare, KaMeRu Verlag ISBN 978-3-906739-67-0 I will say this. We all have blind spots for texts if they hit our sweet spot very precisely. I mentioned that in my … Continue reading
[given that my computer is still out of order, the other texts from my HD are still on hold. I’ve written small pieces here and there. This is one of them.] Addison, Katherine (2015), The Goblin Emperor, Tor ISBN 978-0-7653-6568-2 … Continue reading
There are very few writers in recent decades that have had such a rapid decline in reputation as German titan of letters Günter Grass who died Monday morning. After his death became public earlier this morning, many of my friends, … Continue reading
Lustiger, Gila (2015), Die Schuld der Anderen, Berlin-Verlag ISBN 978-3-8270-12227-2 Have you ever read a book and wished its author was a better prose writer? By which I don’t mean, have you ever read a bad book and wished you’d … Continue reading
Perkins, Emily (2008), Novel About My Wife, Bloomsbury ISBN 978-0-7475-8422-3 Sometimes I am glad I persevere in reading a book that starts off awfully somehow. Novel About My Wife is one of those cases. New Zealand author Emily Perkins completely inhabits … Continue reading
Modiano, Patrick (1968, édition revue et corrigée 1995), La place de l’étoile, Gallimard. ISBN 978-2-07-036698-9 After Patrick Modiano won the Nobel Prize in Literature this year, French friends of mine expressed their satisfaction on Facebook. Finally! A readable and popular … Continue reading
Aaron, Jason; R.M. Guera et al (2007), Indian Country, Vertigo ISBN 1-4012-1317-0 Aaron, Jason; R.M. Guera et al (2008),Casino Boogie, Vertigo ISBN 1401216544 Aaron, Jason; R.M. Guera et al. (2008), Dead Mothers, Vertigo ISBN 1401219195 Aaron, Jason; R.M. Guera et … Continue reading
Rakoff, Joanna (2014), My Salinger Year, Bloomsbury ISBN 978 1 4088 5550 8. Many of my reviews are positive, sometimes ecstatically so. That’s not just because I have such a sunny temperament. Much of it is due to me having … Continue reading
Siegfried Lenz has just died. The best living German writer of short stories and one of the best novelists has never, regrettably, consistently received the attention abroad that his contemporaries have. Grass and Böll have not only won a Nobel … Continue reading
Irving, John (2012), In One Person, Simon & Schuster ISBN 9781451664126 So in my recent run of reviews I reviewed and discussed some writers I enjoy greatly. Among them perennial favorites. I however like to think that I am good … Continue reading
Williams, Jen (2014), The Copper Promise, Headline ISBN 978-1-4722-1112-5 Wiebe, Kurts J.; Roc Upchurch, Rat Queens: Sass and Sorcery, Image Comics ISBN 9-781607-069454 So through the years I have reviewed quite a few fantasy novels on this blog, but I … Continue reading
Vizzini, Ned (2006), It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Hyperion/Miramax ISBN 978-0-7868-5196-6 So as a matter of fact I tend to read quite a few novels written in the genre commonly referred to as “Young Adult” (YA), but I don’t … Continue reading
Trojanow, Ilija (2011), EisTau, Hanser ISBN 9783446237575 [translated into English by Phillip Boehm as Trojanow, Ilija (2016), The Lamentations of Zeno, Verso Books ISBN 9781784782191] A special subcategory of the writers who write great books and then leave their readers hanging … Continue reading
Norfolk, Lawrence (2012), John Saturnall’s Feast, Grove Press ISBN 978-0-8021-2088-5 So I guess we all have these writers – writers whose every book we read as soon as possible and whose future books we wait for, refresh amazon pages for, … Continue reading
Mina, Denise (2005), Field of Blood, Little, Brown ISBN 0-316-15458-x So when I said there would be shorter reviews as well as longer ones, I actually had this book in mind. Denise Mina’s crime procedural Field of Blood is a … Continue reading
So as promised in my announcement, here is a new review. Galgut, Damon, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs, Grove Atlantic ISBN 1-84354-462-8 When I read my first novel by Damon Galgut a few years ago, I instantly knew that this writer … Continue reading
Miéville, China; Mateus Santolouco, Riccardo Burchielli et al. (2013), Dial H: Into You, DC Comics ISBN 9-781401-237752 Wood, Dave; Jim Mooney et al. (2010), Showcase Presents: Dial H for Hero, DC Comics ISBN 978-1-4012-2648-0 Pfeifer, Will; Kano et al. (2003), H-E-R-O: … Continue reading
Ullmann, Linn (2005), Grace, Picador Translated by Barbara Haveland ISBN 0-330-43431-4 Levé, Édouard (2009), Suicide, Folio ISBN 978-2070398621 [English translation: Édouard Levé (2011), Suicide, Dalkey Translated by Jan Steyn ISBN 978-1-56478-628-9 This is the second part of a two part … Continue reading
Garner, Helen (2008), The Spare Room, Henry Holt ISBN 978-0-8050-8888-5 There are few topics that are as difficult to write about as death. At the same time, there are equally few topics that get as much exposure as this one … Continue reading
Laurent Binet (2010), HHhH, Livre de Poche ISBN 978-2-253-15734-2 [English translation: Laurent Binet (2012). HHhH. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Translated by Sam Taylor ISBN 978-0374169916 Georges Didi-Huberman (2011), Écorces, Editions de Minuit ISBN 9782707322203 Listen, I don’t think it’s just … Continue reading
Osamu Tezuka (2010), Ayako, Vertical ISBN 978-1934287514 [Translated by Mari Morimoto] So, it turns out just because you like a book very much, that does not necessarily make it particularly easy to talk about. Most recently, for me, this was … Continue reading
I read The Hunger Games last year, when I was in a non-reviewing slump, and so there is no review of the book, and given the insane amount of detail scattered over three medium size novels, I wouldn’t do these … Continue reading
Smith, Jeff (2011). Rasl: Romance at the Speed of Light. Cartoon Books. ISBN 978-1-888963-33-5 This is going to be a short review, because it’s a review of the third volume of a series that you shouldn’t start in the middle. … Continue reading
Attaway, William. Blood on the Forge, NYRB ISBN 9781590171349 Blood on the Forge, originally published in 1941, is an interesting read. Its author, African-American novelist William Attaway, is perhaps best know today as co-writer of Harry Belafonte’s “Bananaboat Song“. His … Continue reading
Peace, David, The Damned United, Faber and Faber ISBN 978-0-571-24955-8 As a reader of American novels, you’ll likely have read at least one excellent novel about baseball or American football by one of America’s best novelists. Among the excellent novelists … Continue reading
Parei, Inka (2011), The Shadow-Boxing Woman, Seagull Books Translated by Katy Derbyshire ISBN 9781906497958 Parei, Inka (2011), Die Schattenboxerin, Fischer ISBN 3-596-14869-3 Last week, at a conference I spoke at, I spent two days with two roomfuls of translators and … Continue reading
Thompson, Hunter S. (2009), Hell’s Angels, Penguin ISBN 978-0-141-04187-2 Hell’s Angels, originally published in 1966, holds up remarkably well these days. It’s a wonderfully readable piece of journalism, exhibiting a singular literary voice finding its bearings and its author, Hunter … Continue reading
McCarthy, Cormac (2005), No Country for Old Men, Picador ISBN 0-330-44030-6 This is just it: a novelist who has produced several incontestable masterpieces, who is generally regarded as being one of the foremost artists of his craft and his generation, … Continue reading
Hustvedt, Siri (2011), The Summer Without Men, Picador ISBN 978-0-312-57060-6 Here is something that is said far too rarely: Siri Hustvedt is undoubtedly one of the best novelists of her generation. In the past decade she has slowly built a … Continue reading
Matsumoto, Taiyo (2007), Tekkonkinkreet, Viz Media [translated into English by Lillian Olsen] ISBN 978-1-4215-1867-1 Taiyo Matsumoto’s graphic novel Tekkonkinkreet, originally published in 1994 as 鉄コン筋クリート in three volumes (after having been published in small increments from 1993 to 1994), is … Continue reading
