Published by Mantle, 2020, 240 pages. This is an intriguing collection of short stories, many of them set in the 1800s. A doctor finds himself blanking out regularly. The seizure is heralded by the smell of chestnuts. When he comes to, he finds that, instead of passing out, he had carried on with what he …
Continue reading A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth: Daniel Mason
Photo: Jonathan Page Taran N. Khan’s book, Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul, won the 2021 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award and the 2020 Tata Literature Live First Book Award for Non-Fiction. The book is about Taran’s trips to Kabul from 2006 to 2013 during which she set out—against all advice—to walk …
Continue reading Walking Kabul: An Interview with Taran N. Khan
Translated from German by Ross BenjaminPublished by riverrun, 2020, 352 pages. Original version published in 2017. The jester or trickster is a ubiquitous figure, popping up in mythologies, literature, street theatre, and in playing cards and tarot. He (it’s almost always a man) is an entertainer, mentally and physically agile, and able to speak truth …
Translated from Korean by Chi-young KimPublished by W&N, 2011, 272 pages. Original version published in 2009.Review by Susanne Karine Gjønnes South Korea has gone through an unprecedented journey from a developing country to one of the world's largest economies in only a few decades. This transformation has led to generations growing up and living completely …
Published by Viking, 2018, 448 pages. “When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple. I wanted a dog. I wanted a house that had stairs in it—two floors for one family. I wanted, for some reason, a four-door station wagon instead of the two-door Buick that was my father’s pride and joy.” Simple beginnings …
Published by Virago / Hachette, 1938, 432 pages. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” That one sentence is so evocative of this book, partly thanks to the 1940 Hitchcock film with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. There is something haunting about Rebecca—both the book and the title character. Rebecca is narrated by …
Published by Random House, 2009, 319 pages. Set in Ghana, this is the first in a series featuring Detective Inspector Darko Dawson. Gladys Mensah is found dead in the forest near Ketanu. Her body, seemingly untouched, is discovered by Efia, a trokosi or a “wife of the gods”. In reality, Efia is one of the …
Translated from Hebrew by Sondra Silverston, Nathan Englander, Jessica Cohen, Miriam Shlesinger and Yardenne GreenspanPublished by Riverhead Books, 2019, 209 pages. Original version published in 2018. A child encourages a man to jump off the top of a building, believing that the man is a superhero and will fly. A man keeps the compacted wreck …
Photo: Lucía Brándulas Kat de Moor is a writer, who has just published her first two books, Anatomía de una entrega (translated into English by Robin Myers as Chronicle of a Longing) and Querido Miércoles (translated by Robin Myers as Dear Wednesday). Kat was born in Belgium where she studied translation and interpretation. Fluent in …
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Published by Ballantine Books, 1992, 415 pages. “Although women have invented since the beginning of time, it seems as if full recognition of their role has been painfully slow.” When you think of inventors, who do you think of? Usually it is men like Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and Giovanni Marconi. Seeing that women …
Continue reading Feminine Ingenuity—How Women Inventors Changed America: Anne L. Macdonald
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