Title: In Evil Hour (original title: La Mala Hora) Writer: Gabriel García Márquez (translated by Gregory Rabassa) Publishing House: Penguin Date of Publication: 1996 (first published 1961) Rating: 5 stars ‘’He offered an enigma: a man registers at a hotel at ten at night, goes to his room, and the next morning the waiter who brings him his coffee finds…
Month: August 2019
Baba Yaga Laid An Egg
Title: Baba Yaga Laid An Egg (original title: Život je bajka) Writer: Dubravka Ugrešić (translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać, Celia Hawkesworth & Mark Thompson (Translator) Publishing House: Canongate Books Date of Publication: July 1st 2009 (first published 2007) Rating: 2 stars ‘’Sweet little old ladies. At first you don’t see them. And then, there they are, on the tram, at the post…
The Piano Recital
Title: The Piano Recital (original title ピアノはっぴょうかい) Writer: Akiko Miyakoshi (illustrations by Akiko Miyakoshi) Publishing House: Kids Can Press Date of Publication: September 3rd 2019 Rating: 5 stars Our little Momo is dressed in her most beautiful dress, ready for her first piano recital. However, she is extremely nervous, peering through the backstage curtain, watching and waiting for her turn…
The Water Cure
Title: The Water Cure Writer: Sophie Mackintosh Publishing House: Penguin Random House Date of Publication: April 25th 2019 Rating: 5 stars Had this been a fairytale, it would have started like this: There once was a couple who had three daughters and they lived on an isolated island. ‘’King’’ was the father’s name and Grace, Lia and Sky were taught…
On My Aunt’s Shallow Grave White Roses Have Already Bloomed
Title: On My Aunt’s Shallow Grave White Roses Have Already Bloomed (original title: Από Τη Μέση και Κάτω) Writer: Maria Mitsora (translated by Jacob Moe) Publishing House: Yale University Press Date of Publication: September 18th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’My tutor lived in a beautiful pinkstone house, enveloped in bougainvillea vines. I had heard a few things about his life…
Breakfast in Bogotá
Title: Breakfast in Bogotá Writer: Helen Young Publishing House: Unbound Date of Publication:August 8th 2019 Rating: 3 stars ‘’The night was crisp and filled with the sound of a thousand crickets and above this, an indigo sky purpled the horizon. Here, it might be possible to forget the city with its cramped streets and wild order.’’ 1947, Bogotá. Luke…
The Collection
Title: The Collection (original title: Mise en pièces) Writer: Nina Leger (translated by Laura Francis) Publishing House: Granta Books Date of Publication: September 3rd 2019 (first published January 12th 2017) Rating: 4 stars ‘’Gare de Lyon – exit left – pale neon lights. Jeanne stares at the tropical garden caged by glass walls. Dark, mordant greens; droplets of water…
A Nail, A Rose and Other Stories
Title: A Nail, A Rose and Other Stories (original title Sept Nouvelles) Writer: Madeleine Bourdouxhe (translated by Faith Evans) Publishing House: Pushkin Press Date of Publication: October 1st 2019 (first published 1985) Rating: 5 stars ‘’All around them, the earth was black and white. A beautiful winter night-smell rose up from the black and white earth. A…
My Footprints
Title: My Footprints Writer: Bao Phi, illustrated by Basia Tran Publishing House: Capstone Date of Publication: September 1st 2019 Rating: 4 stars ‘’I want to be the biggest and scariest monster,’’ Thuy says, ‘’so that if kids at school make fun of me for having two mums, or tell me to go back where I came from, or call…
#Fairytale Friday: Croatia
Today I chose to depart from the Baltic Sea and return to the Balkan region to visit one of the most beautiful countries in my neighbourhood. Our destination is Croatia, in the company of a tale of wolves, transformations and a son’s love. …
Springtime In a Broken Mirror
Title: Springtime in a Broken Mirror (original title Primavera con una esquina rota) Writer: Mario Benedetti (translated by Nick Caistor) Publishing House: Penguin Books Ltd Date of Publication: April 30th 2019 first published 1982 Rating: 3 stars ‘’Tonight I am alone. […] I can think more clearly. I don’t have to screen myself off to think of you. You’ll say…
Klotsvog
Title: Klotsvog Writer: Margarita Khemlin (translated by Lisa C. Hayden) Publishing House: Columbia University Press Date of Publication:August 27th 2019 (first published 2009) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Though I had nobody to call, I often picked it up and said whatever came into my head, paying no attention to the piercing dial tone inside the receiver. I could dial…
The Turn of the Screw
Title: The Turn of the Screw Writer: Henry James Publishing House: Penguin Popular Classics Date of Publication: 1994 (first published October 1898) Rating: 5 stars “I seemed to float not into clearness, but into a darker obscure, and within a minute there had come to me out of my very pity the appalling alarm of his perhaps being innocent. It…
Why We Took the Car
Title: Why We Took the Car (original title Tschick ) Writer: Wolfgang Herrndorf (translated by Tim Mohr) Publishing House: Scribe Publications Date of Publication: January 4th 2014 (first published September 1st 2010) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Ever since I was a little boy my father had told me that the world was a bad place. The world is bad and…
Tales From A Master’s Notebook: Stories Henry James Never Wrote
Title: Tales From A Master’s Notebook: Stories Henry James Never Wrote Writer: Various ed. by Philip Horne Publishing House: Penguin Random House Date of Publication: April 5th 2018 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was now the end of September and sudden cold winds visited our lonely road and set the Norfolk pines sighing on their tortured stems. One such gust of…
Bellman & Black
Title: Bellman & Black Writer: Diane Setterfield Publishing House: Atria Date of Publication: November 5th 2013 Rating: 5 stars ‘’In the few minutes since the boys had left the place, rooks had come. They circled above the oak, fifteen or twenty of them. More were arriving from all directions. They stretched across the sky, loose skeins of dark marks, converging…
#FairytaleFriday: Lithuania
The Amber Princess Today’s journey brings us to one of the most beautiful countries of our planet: Lithuania. This is a tale of the Baltic Sea and a…
The Children of Jocasta
Title: The Children of Jocasta Writer: Natalie Haynes Publishing House: Mantle Date of Publication: May 4th 2017 Rating: 3 stars ‘’When you have grown up as I have, there is no security in not knowing things. In avoiding the ugliest truths because they can’t be faced…Because that is what happened the last time, and that is why my siblings and…
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