Photo: Maria Starus via AdobeStock We’re coming to the end of 2024. It’s been quite a year. But it’s good to know that people are still reading. And reading widely, judging by the lists you sent me. As always, we have a rich and varied collection. The longest part of this list is the one …
Tag: book-review
Cahokia Jazz: Francis Spufford
Review by Kristine GouldingPublished by Faber & Faber, 2023, 496 pages. Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz is an exceptional alternate history that transports readers to a reimagined 1920s America. In this version of the past, Cahokia—a thriving city built around the real-life Cahokia Mounds near a village called St. Louis—has replaced New York as the cultural …
No One Prayed Over Their Graves: Khaled Khalifa
Translated from Arabic by Leri Price.Published by Faber, 2023, 404 pages. Original version published in 2019. January 1907. A flood wipes out the village of Hosh Hanna, near Aleppo, leaving only two survivors. At the time, Hanna Gregoros—who had built this village—is away with his friend Zakariya Bayazidi. They return home to total devastation: Hanna’s …
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On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: Ocean Vuong
Published by Jonathan Cape / Vintage / Penguin, 2019, 242 pages. “In a previous draft of this letter, one I’ve since deleted, I told you how I came to be a writer. How I, the first in our family to go to college, squandered it on a degree in English. … But none of that …
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The Travelling Cat Chronicles: Hiro Arikawa
Translated from Japanese by Philip GabrielPublished by Doubleday, 2017, 247 pages. Original version published in 2012. Nana is a cat. He was once a stray cat with no name, sleeping on the bonnet of a silver van, made “warm and toasty” by the sun. But when Nana is hit by a car, the owner of …
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The Fifth Season: N. K. Jemisin
Published by Orbit, 2015, 468 pages. “This is what you must remember: the ending of one story is just the beginning of another. This has happened before, after all. People die. Old orders pass. New societies are born. When we say ‘the world has ended,’ it’s usually a lie, because the planet is just fine."But …
Star 111: Lutz Seiler
Translated from German by Tess LewisPublished by And Other Stories, 2023, 495 pages. Original version published in 2020. East Germany, November 1989. The Berlin Wall has fallen. Carl Bischoff, a student, is heading home, summoned by a telegram from his parents saying, “we need help please do come immediately your parents”. When Carl gets home, …
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