A couple of days ago, I posted a review of a book called The Mad Patagonian by an unknown Cuban author called Javier Pedro Zabala. The book was 1200+ pages long and while it certainly was not a bad book, it was not a great book. I did, however, enjoy reading it. For various reasons … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sam Coll‘s The Abode of Fancy. This is a first novel by an Irishman, who certainly mines Irish literary traditions. It tells the story of various supernatural creatures, in particular the Mad Monk, formerly deceased but now back to life, his deceased brother and dog, and his affair … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hariton Pushwagner‘s Soft City. This is the first graphic novel on my website, the only graphic novel by Norwegian artist, Hariton Pushwagner. With Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina making the Man Booker 2018 Longlst, I thought it time to have a look at a graphic novel and went for something … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Javier Pedro Zabala‘s The Mad Patagonian. This novel was not published in the author’s lifetime and, indeed though it was written in Spanish, it has never been published in Spanish, as the Venezuelan publisher who was to publish it went bankrupt so it only exists in English. It … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mo Yan‘s 红高粱家族 (Red Sorghum). This is a very colourful novel, set in Mo Yan’s home town, from the late 1920s to the late 1940s. Much of the story tells of the various groups fighting the Japanese, led by the narrator’s grandfather. While they do put up a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is David Albahari‘s Kontrolni punkt (Checkpoint). The novel tells about a platoon of soldiers sent to man a barrier on the top of the hill. They have no idea what the barrier is for, where they are – even which country they are in – nor what they are … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Emmanuel Carrère‘s La Moustache (The Moustache). The unnamed hero of this novel decides one day to shave off his moustache to surprise his wife, Agnès. Not only does she not notice, she later insists that he never had a moustache. This previous lack of a moustache is later … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Pat Barker‘s The Silence of the Girls. This is a feminist retelling of the Trojan War, based primarily on The Iliad. It is narrated mainly by Briseis, wife of King Mynes of Lyrnessus, an ally of Troy conquered by the Greeks before they conquer Troy. Briseis is captured … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Wu Ming‘s 54 (54). Wu Ming is an Italian collective (five men) and this novel is as the title tells us, set primarily in 1954. It tells several separate stories, featuring real and fictitious characters, which intersect in unexpected ways at various points. Part of it is based … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yan Lianke‘s 日熄 (The Day the Sun Died). This tells the story of the village of Gaotian, which happens to be the village of the writer Yan Lianke, who has written books whose titles are similar to but not identical with the real Yan Lianke. It is narrated … Read more