The latest addition to my website is Jean Stafford‘s Boston Adventure. Jean Stafford had a strong reputation when this book was released in 1944 but her reputation seems to have faded (this book is currently out of print, though easily obtainable). The book tells the story of Sonia Marburg, twelve years old when the book … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rosario Ferré‘s El Vuelo del Cisne (Flight of the Swan). The story is about a Russian ballet troupe which is in Puerto Rico when the Russian Revolution breaks out, meaning they cannot return to Russia but, as they are stateless, may not be allowed to stay in Puerto … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Teolinda Gersâo‘s A cidade de Ulisses (City of Ulysses). Unusually for Gersâo, this novel is narrated by a man, Paulo Vaz, an artist. Vaz has been asked to contribute to an exhibition on Portugal and, in particular, focus on his view of Lisbon. He is reluctant to accept … Read more
The latest addition to my website is June Allison Gibbons‘ The Pepsi-Cola Addict. The novel was published by a vanity press and is now virtually impossible to obtain. June Allison Gibbons and her identical twin, Jennifer, were born on an RAF base in Aden. Their parents were from Barbados. They grew up in the UK, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jane Bowles‘ Two Serious Ladies. The story mirrors, to a certain degree, Bowles’ own life and the life of her husband, Paul Bowles. It is also her only completed novel, published when she was twenty-five. It is a decidedly strange novel and got very mixed reviews when first … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Elena Poniatowska‘s Leonora (Leonora). This is a feminist biographical novel about Leonora Carrington. Carrington was a Surrealist painter, something quite rare for an English woman. She was the daughter of a textile magnate and, though brought up in wealth, she was very free-spirited, which did not go down … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Eve Gil‘s Tinta violeta: Sho-shan segunda temporada [Violet Ink: Sho-shan second season]. Gil has called this novel, and others she has written, mangic realism, as manga/anime features very much in the story. Eve Gil’s youngest daughter has Asperger’s Syndrome, as does the heroine and part-narrator of this novel … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Claudia Marcucetti Pascoli‘s Heridas de agua [Wounds of Water]. This is a quirky novel about Mexican history and politics, with some of the narration by a mill, where much of the action is set, and a series of ghosts. Gioconda Cattaneo de González Núñez, born in Naples, marries … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Cristina Rivera-Garza‘s Nadie me verá llorar (No One Will See Me Cry). The novel is set at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century and its main but by no means only focus is on Joaquín Buitrago, a man who works as photographer in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Carmen Boullosa‘s De un salto descabalga la reina (Cleopatra Dismounts) . This is another funny, exuberant, post-modern, feminist novel from Carmen Boullosa, telling the story of Cleopatra and, in particular, her relationship with Mark Anthony. It starts and ends with the period just before she commits suicide, about … Read more