The latest addition to my website is Kaori Lai‘s 白色畫像 (Portraits in White). This consists of three novellas which focus on three different people who lived in Taiwan during the dictatorship. The book aims to show how difficult it was for people at that time before democracy took hold in Taiwan. The first book is … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Lydie Salvayre‘s La Conférence de Cintegabelle (The Lecture). As the title tells us it is indeed a lecture given to the people of his small town, Cintegabelle. The lecture is about the art of conversation and a lecturer, who is not named, believes he is an expert on … Read more
The latest addition to my website isLydie Salvayre‘s La Médaille (The Award). The book consists of speeches given at a ceremony in a French car factory where medals are being handed out to long-serving/exemplary workers. The speeches are given alternately by a management representative and the employee. Management tries to show how much it has … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Anna Lidia Vega Serova‘s Ánima fatua (Anima fatua). This is an autobiographical novel about a woman born in Leningrad to a Cuban father and Russian mother. They emigrate to Cuba but the parents divorce and mother, daughter and son return to Russia where things do not go well. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yōko Ogawa‘ s 猫を抱いて象と泳 [Swim with an Elephant Holding a Cat]. Our hero is brought up by his grandparents but remains a loner. One day he meets a former bus driver, now massively overweight, who teaches him chess, both how to play and the philosophy behind it. However … Read more
The latest addition to my website is
The latest addition to my website is Maylis de Kerangal‘s Naissance d’un pont (Birth of a Bridge). As the title tells us it is about the building of a bridge, in this case in the fictitious US town of Coca. The project is led by the seasoned Georges Diderot and we follow his story as … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ali Smith‘s Gliff. This is on Ali Smith’s favourite theme – broken Britain. It is set sometime in the future where UVs (Unverifiables), i.e. undesirables are driven out of their home – a red band is painted round a condemned home – and often sent to labour camps. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Colette‘s L’Ingénue libertine (The Innocent Libertine). This was originally published as two separate books but then combined into one in translation. It tells the story of Minne who, in the first book, is a fourteen tyear old schoolgirl in Paris, daughter of a widow. There has been gang … Read more
