The latest addition to my website is Erhard von Büren‘s Wespenzeit (Wasp Days). This is the second novel I have read by this Swiss author and I must say that I enjoyed it more than his first one. Like that novel, this is the story of an ordinary man, in this case a municipal librarian … Read more
The latest addition to my website is John Williams‘ Augustus. This is a novel of the life of Caesar Augustus, formerly Octavian or Gaius Octavius. We follow his life from when he is a young man, unsure of himself, even though Julius Caesar has adopted him as his son, till his death. Williams tells the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mathias Storch‘s Singnagtugaq (Singnagtugaq. A Greenlander’s Dream). This follows on from my post of Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk: Sanaaq unikkausinnguaq (Sanaaq) three days ago and it is interesting to compare the two. Both tell the story of hunting groups, their problems with the hunt and their not always easy relationship … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Quim Monzó‘s La magnitud de la tragèdia (The Enormity of the Tragedy). Initially, this seems like a sexual parody, as Ramón-Maria, a widower of one year, a trumpet player in a burlesque show and former publisher, living with his teenage stepdaughter, Anna-Francesca, who hates him with a passion, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk‘s Sanaaq unikkausinnguaq (Sanaaq). This is the first Inuit novel on my website and probably the first Inuit novel. It was written by a woman who had been asked to write everyday Inuit terms for a priest who was learning the language but had got bored doing … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Thea Astley‘s Beachmasters. This book is set on the fictitious Pacific island of Kristi but is clearly based on what used to be the New Hebrides and is now Vanuatu. It tells the story of a somewhat ramshackle rebellion against the joint colonial powers, the British and the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Don DeLillo‘s Zero K. DeLillo is a Marmite author. Marmite is a disgusting vegetable paste, used in food flavouring or as a sandwich spread. People either love it or hate it. As a result, the word Marmite has come to be used to describe someone or something that … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Max Aub‘s Campo cerrado (Field of Honour). Aub was born into a French Jewish family but the family moved to Seville when he was eleven and he adopted Spanish as his language. He is best-known for his series of six books called the Magic Labyrinth, set in the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Max Porter‘s Grief is the Thing With Feathers. This is a highly imaginative book about grief. Dad – we never know his name – has just lost his wife. It seems that she fell and hit her head. He is left with two young sons. He is visited … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Espido Freire‘s Soria Moria. This is the story of well-to-do English families living and working in Tenerife as the beginning of the last century, just prior to World War I. The Hamiltons have three daughters. Two are married but we mainly follow the youngest, the fourteen-year old Dolores. … Read more