Rafael Chirbes: Paris-Austerlitz
The latest addition to my website is Rafael Chirbes' Paris-Austerlitz. Chirbes had started this book in 1996, put it aside and then returned to it later, only finishing it last…
The latest addition to my website is Rafael Chirbes' Paris-Austerlitz. Chirbes had started this book in 1996, put it aside and then returned to it later, only finishing it last…
This blog and the associated website are called Modern Novel for a very good and obvious reason: they are about the modern novel. Nearly all reviews are reviews of literary…
The latest addition to my website is Jorge Ibargüengoitia's Los relámpagos de agosto (The Lightning of August), a very funny novel whcih ruthlessly satirises the memoirs of Mexican Civil War…
The latest addition to my website is Mario Vargas Llosa's Cinco Esquinas [Five Corners]. Sadly this book confirms what we have known for a while, namely that Vargas Llosa's talents…
Those of you of a certain age and, probably, British, may remember a song by the Vapors called Turning Japanese, with the chorus I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning…
The latest addition to my website is Risa Wataya's 勝手にふるえてろ [Tremble All You Want]. This is the first-person story of the twenty-six year old Yoshika Etô, virgin, loner, and deeply…
The latest addition to my website is Kaori Ekuni's きらきらひかる (Twinkle Twinkle). This is another quirky novel about a quirky relationship. In this case Shoko, an emotionally unstable woman, who…
The latest addition to my website is Hiromi Kawakami's 先生の鞄 (US: The Briefcase; UK: Strange Weather in Tokyo)/ This is the quirky tale of the relationship between a thirty-seven year…
The latest addition to my website is Fumio Niwa's 菩提樹 (The Buddha Tree). This is a long novel, set in a Buddhist temple, with a detailed description of the temple…
The latest addition to my website is Saiichi Maruya's 笹まくら (Grass for My Pillow). This is an excellent novel about a somewhat taboo subject in Japan: draft desertion. Shokichi Hamada…