Published by Wordcraft of Oregon, 2007, 192 pages. The title of this book is borrowed from a story by Balzac about betrayal and mistrust, two threads running through the book. The third is love, with all its inadequacies and flaws. Fred Twomey is a creative writing professor, married with two sons. He has a reasonably …
Author: suroor alikhan
I have always been an avid reader. I read across genres and try and find books by writers from countries around the world. One of the things I love is talking to fellow readers about books!
My Father’s Zoo: Esther David
Published by Rupa Publications, 2007, 100 pages.Review by Sadhana Ramchander How many people you know grew up in a zoo? How many people you know have a father who started a zoo? This is the stuff of my own childhood dreams (before zoos became bad places), and I became very excited when I saw this …
50 Must-Read Books in Translation
When we started the reading challenge two years ago, we planned to read, between us, a book from every country in the world. Books written originally in English didn't take us very far, so we either read in other languages (French, Spanish, German) or looked for literature in translation. Fortunately, translations into English are growing, …
Crow Country: A Meditation on Birds, Landscape and Nature—Mark Cocker
Published by Vintage Press, 2008, 224 pages. There is something primeval about crows and ravens, which is probably why they often get a bad rap in fiction. They are often portrayed as the harbingers of bad tidings and connected in some way to evil. And when we are not seeing them as some sort of …
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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: Susanna Clarke
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004, 782 pages. England, early 1800s. The country is at war with France under Napolean. Magic—the practical kind, anyway—has not been seen in the land for hundreds of years. The only magicians left are theoreticians, men who had never caused a “leaf to tremble upon a tree or made one mote …
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The World’s Oldest Library Reopens: The Guardian
Khizanat al-Qarawiyyin, located in the old medina of Fez, is widely believed to be the oldest library in the world, dating back to the ninth century. It was founded by the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Once it is restored, it will be open to the public. "'It was like healing wounds,' says Aziza Chaouni, …
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The Guardian’s Interview with a Bookstore: Parnassus Books
The Guardian publishes interviews with people who run bookstores. This one is publisher Karin Hayes and writer Ann Pratchett, who opened Parnassus Book in Nashville, Tennessee, because Pratchett decided she could not live in a city without a bookstore. They even have their dogs on the staff! When asked about what the biggest surprise was …
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The Yacoubian Building: Alaa Al Aswamy
Translated from Arabic by Humphrey T. DaviesPublished by HarperCollins, 2004, 272 pages. Original version published in 2002. Peel away the outer layer of an apartment building and you’ll find a microcosm of life: people living in within a small space with their joys, sorrows, triumphs and despair, just a few feet away from each other. …
The Guardian Lists Top 10 Memorable Meals in Literature
This list combines two of my favourite things: literature and food, from Diana Secker Tesdell, who compiled an anthology called Stories from the Kitchen. She finds that the most memorable were those that were not just about the food. "In literature, meals are often an occasion for transcendence. While researching my anthology, Stories from the …
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Child 44: Tom Rob Smith
Published by Simon & Schuster UK / Grand Central Publishing, 2008, 484 pages. Child 44 is set in the USSR towards the end of Stalin’s regime, a Utopia where crime—and therefore criminals—no longer exist. Or at least that’s what the state wants people to believe. What this actually means is that murders cannot be reported, …
Talking About Books 