The latest addition to my website is Jon Fosse‘s Kvitleik (A Shining). A man who lives alone drives his car into a forest and gets stuck. There has been no sign of human habitation for a while so he does not know what to do. He sees a path into the forest and thinks it … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Stella Gaitano‘s رواح إدو (Edo’s Souls).This is the story of South Sudan, with the background being the upheavals that led to South Sudan breaking away from Sudan, something that affects most of the protagonists. Edo had the misfortune to lose nine of her ten children before their first … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Patrick Modiano‘s La Danseuse [The Dancer]. Modiano’s latest follows the basic plot line of many of his earlier novels. A young man, presumably Modiano’s alter ego, has arrived in Paris and is struggling to make a living. He associates with a group of people, some of whom have … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sara Gallardo‘s Enero (January). The novel is set on an Argentinian farm and we follow the story of the just sixteen Nefer, the youngest of three sisters. The oldest, Porota has recently married and at the wedding, Nefer was so annoyed at Negro, to whom she is attracted, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rupert Thomson‘s Dartmouth Park. Our narrator is Philip Notman, a fifty-something historian. At the beginning of the book he is attending a conference in Bergen, where he meets a fellow and younger academic, Inés. There is a spark but nothing happens. However on the way home he has … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Carmine Abate‘s Il ballo tondo (The Round Dance). Abate comes from the Arbëreshë community, descendants of Albanians who fled the Ottomans between between the 14th and the 18th centuries and settled in Italy. This novel is set in Hora, a small Arbëreshë town in Calabria and for most … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rosemary Tonks‘ The Halt during the Chase. This novel wittily tells the story of a few eccentric characters in the London suburb of Hampstead in 1979. Our heroine/narrator is the thirty-one year old Sophie who has a decidedly ambiguous relationship with both her widowed mother and her not-quite … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Gauz‘s Debout-Payé (Standing Heavy). Gauz, from the Ivory Coast, had worked as a security guard in Paris and this colourful and witty novel recounts the experience of being a security guard. While this might sound less than interesting, it certainly is not. The novel essentially covers two aspects. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Nino Haratischwili‘s Juja (Juja). We follow the stories of several people, mainly women, who seemed ti be connected to Jeanne Saré. Saré, whose story we also follow, lived a lonely life, writing her depressing thoughts in an exercise book, before throwing herself in front of a train. The … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Maica Rafecas‘ El setembre i la nit (September and the Night). The novel tells the story of Anaïs whose family own a vineyard. However, the vineyard does not pay and they are faced with drought and disease. When the local authority decided to compulsorily purchase the vineyards in … Read more