Title: People In The Room (original title: Personas En La Sala) Writer: Norah Lange Publishing House: And Other Stories Date of Publication: August 9th 2018 (first published 1950) Rating: 5 stars ‘’To me, it always seemed unnecessary to watch a storm. This time, though, I had no chance to be angry because I forgot about…
Category: Literary Fiction
Hamnet
Title: Hamnet Writer: Maggie O’Farrell Publishing House: Knopf Publishing Group Date of Publication: July 21st 2020 (first published March 31st 2020) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Then Judith is in a crowd. It is night- time, cold; the glow of lanterns punctuates the freezing dark. She thinks it is the Candlemas fair. She is in and also…
Τα Φαντάσματα του Γιορκ
Τίτλος: Τα Φαντάσματα του Γιορκ Συγγραφέας: Χριστόφορος Μηλιώνης Εκδοτικός Οίκος: Κέδρος Ημερομηνία Έκδοσης: 1999 Rating: 5 stars ’’Οταν πλησιάζουμε στο Γιορκ, οι ανταύγειες του ουρανού, ωχρές, φωτίζουν ακόμα την πύλη του, τα μεσαιωνικά κάστρα, τα γοτθικά καμπαναριά και τους πύργους. […] Όμως, καθώς διαβαίνω τη γέφυρα, πάνω από το ποτάμι, κι ύστερα τη μεσαιωνική πόλη,…
Reputations
Title: Reputations Writer: Juan Gabriel Vásquez (translated by Anna McLean) Publishing House: Riverhead Books Date of Publication: September 20th 2016 (first published April 2013) Rating: 5 stars “The memory has a marvellous capacity to remember the forgotten, its existence and its stalking, and thus allow us to stay alert when we don’t want to forget and…
The Rain Heron
Title: The Rain Heron Writer: Robbie Arnott Publishing House: Atlantic Books Date of Publication: July 2nd 2020 Rating: 5 stars ”But more curious than this was what they saw next: a huge heron, the colour of rain, suddenly emerging from the flood in a fast, steep flight, leaving not even a ripple on the water…
Things We Say In The Dark
Title: Things We Say In The Dark Writer: Kirsty Logan Publishing House: Harvill Secker Date of Publication: October 3rd 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’A house is family. A house is history. A house is a body. One subject that comes up again and again in horror, both new and classic, is houses. Haunted houses, home…
Summerwater
Title: Summerwater Writer: Sarah Moss Publishing House: Picador Date of Publication: August 20th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Dawn. There’s no sunrise, no birdsong. Light seeps over the water, through the branches. The sky is lying on the loch, filling the trees, heavy in the spaces between the pine needles, settling between blades of grass and…
Mouthful of Birds
Title: Mouthful of Birds (original title Pajaros en la Boca) Writer: Samantha Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell Publishing House: Riverhead Books Date of Publication: September 7th 2010 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Calderón, on the other hand, stands motionless. He can’t bring himself to lift his foot from the one he has killed. He is, perhaps, afraid of recognizing his girl’s…
Blue Ticket
Title: Blue Ticket Writer: Sophie Mackintosh Publishing House: Hamish Hamilton Date of Publication: August 27th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ”We lined up, waiting to pull our tickets from the machine, the way you would take your number at the butcher’s counter. The music popular that year played from speakers on the ceiling. Just gravity enough. Not necessarily such an important…
Μiss Iceland
Title: Miss Iceland (original title: Ungfrú Ísland) Writer: Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (translated by Brian FitzGibbon) Publishing House: Grove Atlantic Date of Publication: June 16th 2020 (first published November 2018) Rating: 5 stars ”If I die Leave the balcony open!” Farewell, Federico Garcia Lorca Hekla is a child of the 60s. A young woman full of talent, wit and kindness,…
The Harpy
Title: The Harpy Writer: Megan Hunter Publishing House: Grove Press Date of Publication: September 17th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ”Three. I’d said it out loud, after he did. It made a kind of neat sense, something religious about its structure. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Peter betrayed Jesus three times. A familiar number, for a good Christian girl like…
The Voice In My Ear
Title: The Voice In My Ear Writer: Frances Leviston Publishing House: Random House UK Date of Publication: March 19th 2020 Rating: 2 stars ”…asking tough questions of schools and other institutions, but you’re not questioning the institution you represent, which is the family, which is mothers and fathers. What role do parents play in a child’s abuse?” Ten stories centered…
Little Nothing
Title: Little Nothing Writer: Marisa Silver Publishing House: Oneworld Publications Date of Publication: March 2nd 2017 (first published September 13th 2016) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Love!’’, the woman exclaims. ‘’All anyone wants to know about is love! My God! Is there nothing more important on earth than that? Why don’t you ask the necessary questions: Will I have food in my…
Pew
Title: Pew Writer: Catherine Lacey Publishing House: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Date of Publication: May 14th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ”These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates. They keep walking across the farmlands of Omelas. Each one goes…
The Nix
Title: The Nix Writer: Nathan Hill Publishing House: Vintage Date of Publication: May 2nd 2017 (first published August 30th 2016) Rating: 5 stars ”Αnd he used the ghost stories his mother told him, all those old Norwegian stories that terrified him. He wrote about a white horse that appeared suddenly, offering a ride, and if the reader decided to mount…
They Say Sarah
Title: They Say Sarah (original title: Ça raconte Sarah) Writer: Pauline Delabroy – Allard (translated by Adriana Hunter) Publishing House: Random House Date of Publication: June 2nd 2020 (first published September 2018) Rating: 2 stars ”On clear night day of dark mists My absent love in my arms here No other part of me persists But what you whispered in…
Elmet
Title: Elmet Writer:Fiona Mozley Publishing House: JM Originals Date of Publication: August 10th 2017 Rating: 3 stars ”I spend an evening laid out on a moor, watching the wind, the crows, the distant vehicles caught in memories of this same land, further south; earlier, another time; then likewise caught in memories of home, of family, of the shifts…
The Painted Bird
Title: The Painted Bird Writer:Jerzy Kosiński Publishing House: Grove Press Date of Publication: December 1st 2007 (first published 1965) Rating: 5 stars ”We are here in the company of death.” Jewish concentration camp inmate A young boy finds himself lost, wandering in the countryside of an unnamed Eastern European country during…
Ms. Ice Sandwich
Title: Ms. Ice Sandwich (original title: ミス・アイスサンドイッチ) Writer: Mieko Kawakami (translated by Louise Heal Kawai) Publishing House: Pushkin Press Date of Publication: May 7th 2020 (first published November 2013) Rating: 5 stars “If video games make you stupid, then what do mobile phones make you?” A young boy buys egg sandwiches every day. The reason? The mysterious young woman behind…
If I Had Your Face
Title:If I Had Your Face Writer: Frances Cha Publishing House: Penguin Books (UK) Date of Publication: April 23rd 2020 Rating: 5 stars ”In the original story, the little mermaid endures unspeakable pain to gain her human legs. The Sea Witch warns her that her new feet will feel as if she is walking on whetter blades, but she will…
