The latest addition to my website is Javier Cercas‘ El monarca de las sombras (Lord of All Dead). This is another non-fiction novel from Cercas, as he sets out to find the true story about his great-uncle, Manuel Mena, who fought for the wrong side, i.e. Franco, in the Spanish Civil War. Most of those … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Zakhar Prilepin‘s Обитель (The Monastery). This novel tells the story of Artiom Gorianov who is a prisoner in the 1920s in the remote Solovki prison camp. Initially we do not know why he is there but we later learn that he is not a political prisoner but has … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sigrid Undset‘s Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken (The Axe (Part 1) The Snake Pit (Part 2); later: Olav Audunssøn. 1. Vows). This a new translation of the classic 1925 novel by the Nobel Prize winner, set in the late thirteenth century. Olav Audunssøn is fostered to a family when … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yan Ge‘s 异兽志 (Strange Beasts of China). The novel is narrated by a woman novelist and is set in Yong’an. The narrator is a writer and she writes about the strange and imaginary beasts that live in the city. These beasts generally look like humans and share many … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sonia Nimr‘s الاتمرتبة الأولى في جائزة الاتصالات (Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands). Our narrator/heroine is Qamar. Her father lived in a remote Palestinian village. When he was thirteen, he was allowed to visit the city with his father, He discovered a book – Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Volter Kilpi‘s Gulliverin matka Fantomimian mantereelle (Gulliver’s Voyage to Phantomimia). This is the first Kilpi novel to be translated into English but was not completed as Kilpi died before he could finish it. It tells of the fifth voyage of Lemuel Gulliver, including a ship getting trapped in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ismail Kadare‘s Kukulla (The Doll). This novel is very different from his usual historical novels, it is an autobiographical novel, focussing on his life but, in particular, on the eponymous doll, who is his fragile mother. We follow her life as she arrives as a seventeen-year old bride, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Antonio Moresco‘s Canti del caos [Songs of Chaos]. This is the second book in his monumental trilogy. The book weighs in at well over a thousand pages and has not been translated into any other language. We follow the publisher of this book struggling with writing the preface … Read more
The latest addition to my website is João Gilberto Noll‘s Harmada (Harmada). This is another strange novel from the Brazilian writer. We follow an unnamed man, a former actor, as he drags himself round an unnamed country, capital Harmada, with a few strange, unexplained adventures. He will end up in a homeless shelter, where he … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Wolf Wondratschek:‘s Selbstbild mit russischem Klavier (Self-Portrait with Russian Piano). The unnamed Austrian narrator meets Suvorin, a retired Russian classical pianist in a café and they become friends, meeting regularly in a Italian restaurant. Much of the novel is Suvorin recounting his life, his views on various matters, … Read more