The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: Victor Hugo

Translated from French by Walter J. CobbPublished by Penguin, 1964 (this translation), 501 pages. Original version published in 1831. What makes a monster? Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, is physically deformed: he has a humpback, a protrusion on his chest, and only one eye because the other is covered by a wart. As …

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The Road to the Country: Chigozie Obioma

Published by Hutchinson Heinemann / Penguin, 2024, 358 pages “The story of a war can only be fully and truly told by both the living and the dead.”—Igbo proverb Kunle is nine years old when he sends Tunde, his younger brother, out of the house, so that he can be alone with Nkechi. Tunde runs …

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The Complete Persepolis: Marjane Satrapi

Originally published in four volumes. Volumes 1 and 2 translated from French by Blake Ferris and Mattias Ripa, and Volumes 3 and 4 translated by Anjali Singh.The complete volume published by Pantheon, 2007, 341 pages. The four volumes in the original version published between 2000 and 2003. English versions: Vols. 1 and 2 published as …

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The Po—An Elegy for Italy’s Longest River: Tobias Jones

Published by Head of Zeus, 2022, 276 pages “You need to understand the Po to understand Italy”, wrote the poet Guido Ceronetti. So Tobias Jones sets out to explore the river, going against its current: he starts from where it flows into the Adriatic Sea, tracing it back to its source in the Alps. Compared …

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