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…

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…

Waves

Title: Waves (original title: Écumes) Writer: Ingrid Chabbert, illustrated by Carole Maurel, translated by Edward Gauvin. Publishing House: Archaia Publication Date: May 1st 2019 (first published February 15th 2017) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Sometimes we drown drinking in the sea. A sea as red as a heart that’s stopped beating. We look up from an underwater crossroads – return to the…

I Who Have Never Known Men

Title: I Who Have Never Known Men (original title:Moi qui n’ai pas connu les hommes) Writer: Jacqueline Harpman Publishing House: Penguin Random House UK Date of Publication: May 2nd 2019 (first published 1995) Rating: 5 stars ‘’My memory begins with anger.’’ Yes, I found a Dystopian novel I love more than 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale. Forty women live…

Captain Rosalie

Title: Captain Rosalie Writer:  Timothée de Fombelle, illustration by Isabelle Arsenault (tr. by Sam Gordon) Publishing House: Candlewick Press Date of Publication: June 11th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Dogs bark in the distance, out there by the farms. The dead leaves whistle their way across the school yard.’’ 1917, a cold autumn day in France. WWI has darkened Europe….

The Forest of Wool and Steel

Title: The Forest of Wool and Steel   (Original Title:羊と鋼の森) Writer: Natsu Miyashita Publishing House: Penguin Random House UK Date of Publication: April 25th 2019  (first published September 2015) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Inhale the scent of a forest close by. I can smell the earthy fragrance of autumn as night falls, the leaves gently rustling, I can feel the damp air…

Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon

Τitle: Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon Writer: Nicole Brossard (translated by Susanne De Lotbinière- Harwood Publishing House: Coach House Books Date of Publication: 2005 (first published March 19th 2001) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I take the opportunity to lend an ear to ambient life with an eagerness I never suspected. The idea of remaining calm doesn’t displease me. Some days I…

Flights

Title: Flights (original title: Bieguni ) Writer: Olga Tokarczuk (translated by Jennifer Croft) Publishing House: Fitzcarraldo Editions Date of Publication: May 17th 2017 (first published September 2007) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Each of my pilgrimages aims at some other pilgrim. In this case the pilgrim is in pieces, broken down.’’ This might very well be the first time that I have…

Fear and His Servant

Title: Fear and His Servant   (original title: Strah i njegov sluga ) Writer: Mirjana Novaković Publishing House: Peter Owen Publishers (originally published by Beograd:ReVision Publishing) Date of Publication:  April 1st 2018 (first published 1999) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Like everyone else, I want gifts that come from the heart, the gift without a price. I’ve wondered this earth for such a long…

Mars

Title: Mars: Stories Writer: Asja Bakić (translated by Jennifer Zoble) Publishing House: The Feminist Press at CUNY Date of Publication: March 19th 2019 (first published 2015) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Death is typically a European film. The scenes are evocative, the atmosphere and characters charged. But in my case, death took a different form.’’ When you start reading a book and…

Belladonna

Title: Belladonna Writer: Daša Drndić (translated by Celia Hawkesworth) Publishing House: New Directions Date of Publication: October 24th 2017 (first published November 1st 2012) Rating: 5 stars ‘’And the wind brought people who had let their plows rust; solitary people tiling the sky, reaping the harvests of summer nights, the fat grain of early straws, leaving it all unwinnowed. Instead…

Visitation

Title: Visitation (original title Heimsuchung) Writer: Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Susan Bernofsky) Publishing House: New Directions Date of Publication: September 30th 2010 (first published February 2nd 2008) Rating: 5 stars ‘’In a household where a death has taken place, the clock must be stopped at once.’’ It is easy to stop the clocks when Death has arrived in a house. The…

The White Book

Title: The White Book    (original title: 흰) Writer: Han Kang Publishing House: Granta Books Date of Publication: November 2nd 2017 (first published May 25th 2016) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I hold nothing dear. Not the place where I live, not the door I pass through every day, not even, damn it, my life.’’’ In the beautiful, mysterious world of…

Village of Stone

Title: Village of Stone (original title: 我心中的石头镇 ) Writer: Xiaolu Guo Publishing House: Vintage Date of Publication: January 31st 2012  (first published January 1st 2003) Rating: 5 stars ‘’But the Village of Stone- that tiny corner of the sea that, on a map of China, appears as nothing more than a deep blue stain, with no air or shipping routes to…

Ivris

Title: Ivris Writer: Dubravka Lalić Publishing House: IGAM Date of Publication:2010 Rating: 4 stars *All quotes translated by me. Taken from the Greek edition of the original written in Serbian, translated by Nadica Mihailović. * ‘’My soil has been spilled. The soil of my country has been spilled. What will become of my poor flower now? How will it…

Fox

Title: Fox Writer: Dubravka Ugrešić (tr. by Ellen Elias-Bursać and  David Williams Publishing House: Open Letter Date of Publication: April 17th 2018 (first published June 2017) Rating: 5 stars ‘’We are all footnotes, many of us will never have the chance to be read, all of us in an unrelenting and desperate struggle for our lives, for the life of…

Aller Tage Abend (The End of Days)

Title: Aller Tage Abend (The End of Days) Writer: Jenny Erpenbeck (translated by Susan Bernofsky) Publishing House: Knaus / New Directions Date of Publication: November 11th 2014 (first published August 20th 2012) Rating: 5 stars ‘’The Lord gave and the Lord took away, her grandmother said to her at the edge of the grave. But that wasn’t right, because the…

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Title:The Travelling Cat Chronicles Writer: Hiro Arikawa Publishing House: Doubleday Date of Publication:  November 2nd 2017 (first published November 1st 2012) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Human beings are basically huge monkeys that walk upright, but they can be pretty full of themselves.’’ Confession alert: each time I see a cat- and I literally mean EACH time- I shout ‘’Kitty!’’ at…

Medea

Title: Medea Writer: Christa Wolf Publishing House: Nan A. Talese Date of Publication:  October 24th 2012 (first published 1996) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I am Medea, the sorceress, if you all will have it so. The wild woman, the foreigner. You shall not belittle me.’’ I’ve always declared-to the dismay of many- that if I ever had a daughter, I would…

Aetherial Worlds

Title: Aetherial Worlds: Stories  Writer: Tatyana Tolstaya Publishing House: Knopf Publishing Group Date of Publication: March 20th 2018 Rating: 5 stars “It’s dusk, the heavy drapes drawn back. Outside, through the window, there is a crepuscular Saint Petersburg, early evening on snowy streets; a sleigh pulled by a courser silently whooshes by—who’s rushing, and where? To the theater? To a…