We started off in March with sixteen titles, the cream of the fiction in translation published in the UK last year. After a hard month of reading, thinking, discussion and cursing, the list was cut down to six by the offical panel – which is where we parted ways.
Having chosen four of the same titles as the official panel, the Shadow Panel (Tony, Lisa, Mark, Gary and myself) opted for two others to complete the full half-dozen, and then set about deciding which was to take out the prize…
Our road took us on a long journey through many times and lands. We spent a bizarre time in an ever-shifting, nineteenth-century German town, working on translations and kissing the local girls. We moved onto a dark exploration of Communist-era Hungary (and an even darker examination of human souls…). We went for walks around the rainy city of Barcelona, and then flew off to Dublin for a Bloomsday jaunt. We witnessed an extraordinary dinner party in Albania – and its consequences ten years on. We followed a boy from the Siberian wilds on his trip to Helsinki and watched as he encountered civilisation in all its forms. We fled to Wales (seeking some solitude) and shared a woman’s house – but not her secrets…
Then we came back to earth with a bump. There were discussions, disagreements, grudging acceptance, and then a decision…
Our choice for the winner of the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is:
Congratulations to the writer and translators – Dublinesque is a great book, and it would be a worthy winner of the real prize. So, can it do the double? We’ll find out very soon…
Well tonight sees the 2013 Eurovision competition ,I see this as a good chance to do a Europe wide reading guide suggesting a book I’ve read ,A book I want to read (in some cases just this I ve not read books from all 25 countries ).Our entry is from Bonnie Tyler this year ,some I just remember for a huge hit she had in the 1980′s so shall we start I.
France
Well I ve 25 books under review on the blog from France .I ve chosen is an older review the book is Piano by Jean Echenoz .A very odd book about a man with time running out on his life .
piano jean echenoz
On the radar well there is 2011 Prix Goncourt which I know is being translated into english as we speak .L’art francais de la geurre (the french art of war) contriversal but follows the french in indo china ,I was reminded of the scenes added to apocalypse now with the french in Vietnam .
tonight’s song from france is L’enter et moi sung by Amandine Bourgeis .
Lithuania
I ve unfortunately not read a book from Lithuania .here is an overview of Lithuania literature I found
So on the radar is this book The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature Author/editor : Almantas Samalavicius due out soon to me seems a good place to start .
The song from Lithuania tonight is Something sung by Andrius Pojavis
Moldova
I have yet to read a book from Moldova .so here is the wiki list of writers from Moldova
So it one for on the radar for Moldova is the piece a year of reading read .I m sure in time we will see a couple of Moldova novel appear in english .there are a short piece in each of the best of European fiction collections as well to try
best european fiction 2010
Moldova song is Omie sung by Alioan Moon
Finland
I have at least read Finnish literature there are 7 Finnish books under review on the blog. The human part by Kari Hotakainen ,seems a good choice a women sells her life story and it is rewritten very much one for this modern world .
On my radar this one isn’t hard it is the next Peirene novel .Mr Darwin’s gardener by Kristina Carlson .Its describe as under Milkwood in Kent and at mr Darwin’s house .
The finnish song for tonight is Marry me by Krista Siegfrids
Spain
Well the most recent review on the blog seems a great choice for Eurovision Night Lost luggage by Jordi Punti covers part of Europe as four half brothers from four countries meet for the first time .
On the radar I think the recent Manuel Rivas novel is one that I will be reading soon .All is silence is about three friends growing up .I have previously read Riva’s carpenter’s pencil it is one of 10 books under review on the blog .
Spains song for tonight is Contigo hasta el final sung by ESDM
Belgium
Wellthis is an easy one for me my choice has to be wonder by Hugo Claus one of my all time favourite books a man driven to the edge in post war Belgium by shadowy groups of neo Nazis .one of three books from Belgium under review
On the radar well an old one but one I love George Simenon, that Nyrb books are slowly reissuing his books and many available second-hand he wrote so many not even his own estate knows how many as he used many names to write under ,even once writing a book in a bubble over a couple of days .
Belgium’s song for tonight is Love kills by Robert Bellarosa
Estonia
I ve just one book from Estonia under review but it is a very good one Brecht at night by Mati Unt follows the German writer Brecht as he escapes from Germany to America as he spends time in Estonia and Finland on route .
BRECHT AT NIGHT MATI UNT
On the radar well Dalkey Archive have a couple more books from the late Mati Unt I so enjoyed Brecht at night I will over time be trying those ,this is the next one that appeals to me is the Diary of a blood donor a retelling of the Dracula story .
Estonia’s song for tonight is Et uus saaks alguse by Brigit
Belarus
Belarus is another country I am yet to read a book from .
On the radar is this collection from Dalkey Archive called Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich .This collection follows the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster
The song from Belarus is Solayoh sung by Alyona Lanaskay
Malta
Malta is another place I ve yet to read a book from.
A year of reading read the book happy weekend by Immanuel Mifsud here is her review
Malta song for tonight is Tomorrow song by Gianluca
Russia
Well back to places I’ve read books from ,although I do view russia as a bit of an Achilles heel for me in Europe but of recent books I read from Russia it is this one I remember best .The new Moscow Philosophy by Vyacheslav Pyetsukh set over a weekend end a flat become vacant as an old women dies set in today this book has its routes in classic Russian literature .
On the radar well there is one writer I have on my radar big time I ve read one book so far the Light and the dark by Mikhail Shishkin a love affair told in letters over time and distance .Also have his other book Madienhair on my tbr pile .
Russia’s song for tonigh is What if sung by Dina Garipova
Germany
I’ve 21 books under review from Germany .The most recent seems apt for tonight ,The Mussel feast sees a Germany family sit down for an evening meal ,but this is also just as the new unified Germany is beginning .just as the title for this yearts Eurovision is” we are one “
On the radar is the comic German novel currently being translated Er ist wieder da ,a satire that imagine what happened if Hitler returned to modern Germany .
Germany’s song for tonight is Glorious sung by Cascada
Armenia
I ve not read any books from Armenia
so on the radar I found this book Armenian Golgotha by Grigoris Balakian a book about the Armenian genocide .
The Aremnia song for tonight is Lonely planets sung by Dorians
Netherlands
Well I have read quite a few Dutch books .My recent favourite has been Amsterdam stories by Nescio ,a collection of short stories in and around Amsterdam a businessman imagines what his life might have been had he chosen different paths .this is one of eleven books under review here .
On the radar is the book mention in an interview as it is one I hope to see in English and this is J. J. Voskuil,’s Het bureau ,the office a seven novel cycle following thirty years in an office .
The Dutch song for this year is Birds sung by Anouk
Romania
Well I do have a Romanian writer but Herta muller is more often counted as german ,but her books are set Romania ,of the few books by her I’ve read I suggest starting with Nadirs her short story collection it is short and isn’t maybe as intense as her novels tend to be .
One book that is one my radar by a writer still in Romania is The Fifth Impossibility: Essays on Exile and Language (Margellos World Republic of Letters) by Norman Manea ,he was expelled from Romania in the sixties ,a collection of essays following his life .
The Romanian song for tonight is Its my life sung by Cezar
United Kingdom
Well to us, as Bonnie Tyler is Welsh I ve decide to choose a Welsh novel that just happens to be a translation .The life of Rebecca Jones By Angharad Price .Follows a family in a valley ,we meet Rebecca and her three blind brothers .
Well I m not doing a on the radar for the UK as there are lots of blogs dealing with English fiction that know a lot better than be what to read from the UK .
Our song is Believe in me by Bonnie Tyler
Sweden
I’ve read four books from Sweden of those I m going suggest a Non-fiction Title Stieg Larsson my friend by Kurdo Baski ,a fellow journalist a good friend of the later thriller writer ,lifts the lid on his crusading Journalism ,he was a fierce anti fascist as well as a great thriller writer .
Next up for me from Sweden I think will be the new Roslund and Hellstrom called Two soldiers it is about the gang culture in Sweden and stars Ewert Grens that was a character in the earlier book by them I read Three seconds .
The Swedish song for tonight is You sung by Robin Stjernberg
Hungary
Well I ve mention Satantango a lot so I will pick the epic Parallel stories by Peter Nadas , here as my choice it starts with a dead body and takes you through life in Communist Hungary .One of the most extraordinary books in translation of recent years and showing how wonderful Hungarian fiction is .
On my radar is one I ll be reading this week in fact be reading it on Monday on my train journey down to London ,The book is Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi a book that follows a young girl in 1900 Hungary .
Hungarys song for tonight is Kedvesem sung by Byealex
Denmark
Not much Choice on the blog Denmark I have only read one title from there and that is The Murder of Halland ,the longlistee for the Independent foreign fiction Prize this year .Follows a wife as she copes with the her husbands death .A interesting new angle on the crime novel .
On my radar well this is a hard on I must admit I know very little about Danish fiction but have had Peter Hoeg the woman and the ape on my tbr pile for a long time .A story following the connection of a wife of a scientist and a 300lb ape .
The Danish song for tonight is Only teardrops sung by Emmelie de forest
Iceland
I have one choice for Iceland Sjon and two books I review by him so Ill pick the whispering Muse .The tale of Vladimir a first class bore that runs a magazine about fishing .As he takes a voyage with what may be the reincarnation of one of Jason and the Argonauts crew .
On my radar is a wonderful short story collection from Comma press The stone tree by Gyoir Elfasson a very Icelandic collection of stories .a school boy goes to a chess competition ,sister reading a book .
Iceland’s entry for Eurovision is Ég á Líf by Eythor Ingi
Azerbaijan
I not read a book from Azerbaiijan
Here is a year of readings post for Azerbaiijan .I hope there is so more books from here soon this one seems very interesting .A love story set against the backdrop of modern Azerbaijan .
There song for Eurovision is Hold me by Farid Mammadov
Greece
I ve read two books from Greece this one seems quite apt set in modern Greece Ashes by Sergios Gakas .an actress , African family and the landlord all drawn in by a fire .lots of tension and a very noir feel .
Well I’ve just finished a great novel from Greece called What lots wife saw by Ioanna Bourazopoulou it won the Athens prize in Greece .Set in a dystopic future a Crossword setter is trying to find out where a addictive salt called purple salt comes from .
The Greek entry for Eurovision tonight is Alcohol is free sung by Koza Mostra feat. Agathon Iakovdis
Ukraine
I ve review two books from Ukraine both written by Andrey Kurkov .I have to pick the classic Death and the penguin ,a man ends up with a penguin and is writing obituries for men that seem to keep dying ,Very dark satire .
I am currently working through another Ukrainian novel The raven by Vasyl Shkliar set in 1921 we follow the Ukraine’s as the try to stop there country being taken over by Russia . Based on Kgb reports of the time Shkliar is one of the most outspoke writers from Ukraine .
The Ukraine entry for tonight is gravity sung by zlata ognevich
Italy
Well I have reviewed 20 books from Italy ,I could choose Italo Calvino or The leopard ,but I decide on the recent collection I reviewed Ten by Andrej Longo .As one of the stories involves a singer .
One on my radar is my next Italian read Italian Outsiders stories is a collection of short stories .that was originally published in Italian newspaper and features the likes of Carlo Lucarelli ,Roberto Saviano and wu ming to name three .
The Italian song for tonight is L’essenziale sung by Marco Mengoni
Norway
Well The book of the moment is the epic My struggle the six part fictionalized autobiography of Karl Ove Kanusgaard This is both my choice and on my Radar I ve read part one death in the family Karl Ove growing up and am not awaiting part two a man in love the story of his early romances from My library .
The Norwegian song for tonight is I feed you my love sung by Magaret Berger
Georgia
I ve not read anything from Georgia
But Dalkey archive have published a book of contemporary Georgian fiction which feature work by Mariam Bekauri, Lasha Bugadze, Zaza Burchuladze, Teona Dolenjashvili, Guram Dochanashvili, Rezo Gabriadze, Kote Jandieri, Irakli Javakhadze, Davit Kartvelishvili, Besik Kharanauli, Mamuka Kherkheulidze, Archil Kikodze, Ana Kordzaia, Zurab Lezhava, Maka Mikeladze, Aka Morchiladze, Zaal Samadashvili, Nugzar Shataidze, Nino Tepnadze, and David Dephy.
The Georgian song for tonight is Waterfall sung by Nodi Tatishvili and Sophie Gelovani
Ireland
Well finally we reach the end and Ireland ,which I never read enough from recent years having read a lot in my youth .I choose a William trevor of the two Irish stories I ve review but Cheating at canasta is maybe how Uk has fely about Eurovision cheated but I don’t it is great fun I hope you have enjoyed this trip through the books and songs off Europe and Eurovisiong 2013 .
I won’t suggest any books as lots of great blogs with Irish lit on I suggest Kim of reading matters .My next read will be next year when I plan to read an review all of joyce over next couple of years .
Jordi Punti is one of the rising voices in Catalan literature ,born in 1967 ,he moved to Barcelona to study philology ,then went to work for a publishing house in Barcelona ,where he has worked translating writers such as Pennac ,Nothomb and Auster .He also writes poetry and in the newspapers regularly as well as novels and short stories .Lost luggage is his first book to be translated to English.
If we’re going to make progress we Christopher’s now need to return to carrer to Napols The first time we four brothers met in Barcelona , incredulous,suspicious and still dumbfounded by the revelations . Cristòfol showed us our fathers Mezzanine flat .
They start on their quest for Gabriel .
Well lost luggage as a title has a double meaning, the first comes from the main figure in the book. Gabriel a truck driver ,he was an orphan and went into trucking with his two friends he knew growing up ,after he left the orphanage .They literally on every trip the took in the truck around Europe, lost luggage a box Would disappear and the three friends divide them up all this was during the reign of Franco in Spain dark days indeed .The second meaning is lost luggage is what Gabriel left behind ,this is how we are introduced to him via his first son Cristòfol the Spanish son and until this point when contact by the police that his father has gone missing ,he hadn’t seen him in 20 years ,he doesn’t know him to well has disappeared .This leads him to met three other men called Christof, Christophe and Christopher ,they are his half brothers his father had whilst trucking .And are from Great Britain , France and Germany .So they meet not til this point,they were unaware of one another’s existence to this point .All the more than they only have slim facts from their respective mothers told them about Gabriel so the go on a quest to find him and learn about him .Along the way they become the Christopher’s like one and did his father ever got to Italy ? all this and more we find out .
Gabriel had learned to pace his relationship with his three equidistant women and three sons and ,like a good plate spinner ,he seemed to keep his cool .Of course ,the rules of the game were in his favour :he had his base camp in Barcelona ,where he lead a bachelor’s existence and ,thanks to removal work ,went to visit his famlies from time to time .
Gabriel described as plate spinner sounds right not easy what he did .
Well this book when it arrived reads like a headline from one of those women magazine” shock horror I discover my three half brothers with the same name “
the sort of thing you think oh no. I don’t want to read that .But no this is not that it is funny ,dark and at heart of this book is about how a moment of discovery can change the course of four lives for ever .We also get to the bottom of what motivate Gabriel to have these four children and why have they all got the same name ?Why did he run away from them ? Under all is the meaning of being lost whether boxes ,sons ,father ,mothers and living under Franco .Not overtly political we sense the wrongs of Franco regime .Punti as a Catalan a language that until after Franco wasn’t taught .This book is hard tom place in the cannon of Spanish fiction I ve read I think I need to read Monzo another Catalan writer to compare him too ,Like one of my favourite Spanish writers the Basque writer Bernardo Atxaga ,Punti shows how different the writing can be in Spain Catalan is language that developed separately to Spanish and one that seems to have a strong voice in its fiction if this book is anything to go out .
Andrej Longo was called Andrej after a character in War and peace ,he studied in Bologna .Before writing he had worked as a lifeguard ,waiter and cook .He published his first book in 1992 ,Ten is his fourth book ,it won the Prize Bagutta in Italy .He has also written plays and for radio and television .
I used to have dark, smouldering eyes and a tenor voice .and when I sang people got cold shivers even if it was forty degrees .At first I sang in church ,during the mass ,or else at christenings ,and at Christmas and Easter .They used to say I was an angel sent from heaven ,nobody in the neighbourhood had ever heard a voice like that before ,with that voice I had to be an angel of God
the opening of the story thou shalt not take the lord thy god in vain ,a singer has high hopes .
Ten is a collection of ten short stories that are based around the Ten commandments and set in the working class underbelly of Naples .The stories all in theme follow the actual commandment the are based on .A singer tries to become more than he is which is a wedding singer release and album but then starts on a slippery slope of decline in his fame and starts using drugs (this one remind me so much of those singers caught up in the reality shows in the uk and how sometimes there dreams turn sour ) this story was used to illustrate the commandment thou shalt have no other god .So we see a man on the run with his son for the commandment thou shalt not Kill .A man in a Ferrari is killed by three men to demonstrate the commandment Thou shalt not covert thy neighbours property .
Tell him now ,I thought .But it wouldn’t come out .
Tell him now.But I didn’t say anthing .
“How old are you ?” He asked.
“Fourteen next month “.
“And what could possibly be upsetting you at the age of fourteen “?
“I….
I took a deep breath .
“I’m three-month pregnant “I blurted out .
The priest sigh
“Who’s the baby’s father ?”
A young daughter has something to tell but who is the dad ?
As you see compelling stuff ,I was reminded of the other great Italian writer of the underbelly of Italian Life Leonard Sciasscia his Scilly is here replaced by Naples ,I read wine dark sea by Sciasscia and was reminded of those stories in these stories,as they are not exactly to do with the Mafia ,but they show the violent undercurrent than can run in so many large Italian cities especially in the poorest parts of these cities. they are t he same people that, crop up in the true life stories of both Petra Reski and Roberto Saviano .These stories also show what great short stories can be and that is a slice of the world, with a bare frame-work of facts and how the characters are ,but we see people lives for the briefest moment .So we meet the parents want a better life for their kids ,the brothers standing up for one another ,a daughter with a huge secret .And through these Naples comes alive in these pages not the one you see on the holiday shows or the umpteen travelogue shows their seems to be on tv these days ,no this is the Jeremy Kyle ,ASBO kids ,chav of italy .We see the real town and yes it is scary and wonderful painted in Longo’s words and yet again a wonderful translation from Italian by Howard Curtis surely one the hardest working translators around .
Have you a favourite Italian novel/ short story collection that displays the underbelly of Italy ?
Original title Los sinsabores del verdadero policía
Translator Natasha Wimmer
Source – Library
Well as all of you that have followed this blog for a time,will know Bolano is one of my favourite writers and this is the fifth book I have under review here and the ninth in all I’ve read by Bolano ,this one comes from the works he was working on when he died that were left on a hard drive .So although I loved this book like I have most of his books I do wonder if it was as he want or just fragments strung together .
According to Padilla ,remembering Amalfitano ,all literature could be classified as heterosexual , homosexual or bisexual .Novels ,in general were heterosexual .Poetry on the other hand , was completely homosexual .Within the vast ocean of poetry he identified various currents .
A controversial argument opens the novel
The “Woes of a true policeman ” has Bolano written all over it ,firstly settings First Spain then Mexico us border .Characters in this book where in earlier works ,they feel at times like Bolano intend this as a stand along read to 2666 maybe even a prelude to that book .The Characters are the Lit professor Oscar Amalfitano ,although in 266 he is described as more gay and is also a professor of philosophy not literature in that book .We also recounted the German writer Benno Von Archimboldo ,where we see his works describe as some works through the books he wrote this is the connection to the first man Oscar because he once long ago translated on of Archimboldo’s books .Add in forged paintings ,some dark situations and a touch of humour you have the makings of what might be a third epic to sit along 2666 and Savage detectives ,because Bolano had spent the best parts of twenty years working on this book .
Works of J.M.G Archimboldi (Carcasanne 1925 )
novels
The enigma of the cyclist of the tour de france – Gallimard ,1956.
Vertummnus – Gallimard ,1958.
Hartmann von aue – Gallimard 1959.
Sam O’Rourkes search – Gallimard,1960 .
Riquer – Gallimard,1961.
Railroad perfection – Gallimard,1964.
The librarian – Gallimard,1966.
The endless rose -Gallimard,1968.
The natives of Fontainebleau -Gallimard,1970.
Racine -Gallimard,1979.
Doctor Dotremont-Gallimard,1988
The list of novels and in the following section we find out about these imagined books .But aren’t the titles just wonderful .
That is the point what came first as you read this book ,This or 2666 one imagines Bolano spent the last twenty years of his life working this book together and at various points used it as a spring-board to other books namely 2666 ,but the section with the Bibliography of Benno Von Archimboldo also remind me of his great book on imagined Nazi writers of Latin america ,Nazi Literatures in america and father daughter relationships are something else I ve read in other books by Bolano .So although at times this books jumps and you can tell or feel it is a little unpolished or is it just Bolano playing with the novel as a form ,in Antwerp the are huge gaps that are left for you as a reader in Nazi literatures in America there isn’t a linear narrative ,so it is hard to say what stage the book was in .I’m sure some of you are going well just look up I could but that would spoil my fun .I wonder what else is on the hard drive is this a bottomless pit like the Pessoa trunk seems to be ? With still a couple of books to read from Bolano I feel his place in Latin American fiction is yet to be decided .He took chunks of fellow writers the dedication at the front is to Manuel Puig and Philip K dick now Puig in his work I have always seen ,but from my reading of two Dick books twenty years ago I can see him as well that uneasy sense of place (I know sci-fi don’t fall back in horror I have also read fantasy in the past ) .As we read more from the next generation the Likes of Neumann ,Pron ,Luiselli ,Enrique and et al will show his lasting legacy .
Translator Christina MacSweeney (Nooteboom intro by Laura Watkinson )
Source review copy
When you see a book in the forthcoming season from a publisher you often cross your fingers and hope you are chosen to review it and that was the case (I know I could ask but not one for this if any PR folk read this and would like me to request books more I will just let me know ),Faces in the crowd by Luiselli was one of my books of last year and one I have mentioned to a number of people as a book to try .So when this dropped through my door I was pleased to be reading her wonderful writing again and also to sample her non fiction style .
Joesph Brodsky(1940-1996)
Searching for a grave is ,to some extent ,like arranging to meet a stranger in a cafe ,the lobby of a hotel or a public square ,in that both activities engender the same way of being they’re looking at a given distance ,every person could be the one waiting for us ,every grave could be the one we are searching for .Finding either involves circulating among people or tombs ;approaching and scrutinizing their retrospective features .
The opening paragraph sums up the search for his grave so well .
A mark of how good this book is ,for even thou it is a short book, it has managed to get a wonderful forward by the great Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom(worth reading especially as Laura has translated it ) .The book is a collection of ten essays mainly on travel .WE move from her home land of Mexico cycling round mexico city ,sharing a smoke with a guard late at night in her current home New York and my favourite wandering a Venice graveyard in search of the grave of Joseph Brodsky .Brodsky and Flaneurism is a sort of thread through this book .The original Mexican title False papers maybe alludes to an earlier Mexican books by the like of Alfonso Reyes .
I, who have rather fruitlessly attempted some of these thing ,now have the joy of being an offical resident of one of the most literary of cities ,though neither through the blessing of a graceful pen nor the fidelity of the muses .And ,worse still not even through the sweat of my brow and fist ,but beacuse of a terrible …..
Valeria talks about how she got where she was in the very last section and her ending up in New York .
The book is similar at times to the her début novel ,The link between past and present she used to such great effect is again in evidence especially when she wanders the grave yard and pass other poets writers and thinkers in search of that great sage of Venice Joseph Brodsky .A sort of surreal Mexican take of the Flaneur instead of a city of the living we wander a city of the dead using the graves as signposts to the writers grave she is seeking out .Strangely in a later essay ,this signpost motif is repeated as obviously wandering a city short vignettes are sparked by the sign post she passes so we see a stop sign connecting Rousseau and Walser,a pedestrian crossing the poet Salvador Novo .A new stopping point on the world-wide journey of the Flaneur and psychogeography as a writing style all the names we associate with this scene are mention Starting with Rousseau through Walter Benjamin (whose epic unfinished arcades project I am just slowly working through my self ) ,Brodsky who watermark itself an ode to Venice has brought Valeria herself to Venice to write and ode to him and the dead of that same city ,through Sebald and in the last piece a mention of herself .
Do you have a favourite book from the Flaneur oeuvre ?
Translator Gallic books (the four main characters stories were translated by three translators )
Source – review copy
Antoine Laurain is a Parisian born writer ,he has won a number of prizes and has written four novels .The president’s hat is his first book to be translated into English .
I am dining next to the president of the republic ,Daniel kept repeating to himself ,trying to convince himself that , irrational as it seem ,it was really happening to him .He barely noticed the taste of his first oyster ,so preoccupied was he by his new neighbours .
Daniel is eating when Mitterrand comes into the Brassiere he is in
Well this is a strange one I had picked this up a week earlier in the bookshop when it came out attracted by the cover and also the story as it was set during the eighties .So when I got chance to review it from Gallic books I jumped at the chance .The book follows a hat ,the hat happens to belong too President Mitterrand .The hat goes on an adventure after being left behind by the president in a Parisian restaurant and being picked up by Daniel Mercier ,this dull officer worker is in two minds to take the hat and when he does the hat seems to have some magic effect on him giving him a new air of confidence ,he subsequently loses the hat it then passes through Fanny ,Pierre and Bernhard all are touched or change when the hat comes into their lives .Meanwhile Daniel is trying to regain the hat and regain its powers as he sees it .What is Mitterrand doing about his lost hat ? why didn’t he go back for it .
The black felt brim acted like a visor ,compressing the space around her and marking out a distinct horizon .In Batigonelles ,a man did a double take as he passed her .What kind of image was she projecting ,walking along in the moonlight in her denim mini-skirt ,high heels ,silver jacket and black hat ?
Fanny finds the hat after Daniel she is a 80′s hip girl in her own words
This book isn’t high French lit ,but it is fun lighter reader .For me its from that part of the French psyche that produces films like Amelie ,which this book really remind me of that fuzzy warmness I got form that film ,That light-hearted Gallic humour of misadventures ,Like the box that Amelie finds the hat is a framing devices and a talisman to all the come in contact with and in some way changes everyone’s life .In the back of the book is an interview with Antoine Laurain where he said he came up with the idea after losing his own hat and imagining after he had returned to the restaurant and their was no sighting that it had fallen into the hands of a beautiful women .Her choose the 1980′s as he want to go back to a simple period of French life ,Nick Lezard in his Guardian review talks of a new sub genre of ” pre mobile phone literature” ,I agree in part but part of me thinks that anyone of a certain age in both UK and France looks back at the 80′s as a golden age in a way the last time before the world started to speed up due to so much information and internet . When people still read papers ,houses still had phones or minitel in Frances case .Even our news seemed different we know who Mitterrand was we saw him on our tv on the news regularly as the world has sped up the last twenty years or viewing of the news has changed so we know less about our French neighbours current leader than we did in the 80′s which is a shame .This book is a fast read I finished it in a little over a night and it was a book that when I put it finally down I was smiling and a little upset that it had finished as I loved the world I had been in between the covers .
I was asked to join the blog tour,very happy as it was one of my favourite reads last year and a book I feel people should get to know bettr ,anyway I thought a few words on some of the food served during the meal would be fun .I did review The dinner last year and Alan from words of mercury kicked of the tour yesterday any way lets look at the food .
The dinner menu
Starter
Crayfish with baby onions dressed in a tarragon vinaigrette
Main course
Fillet of Guinea fowl
wrapped in ultra thin german bacon
on a bed of lettuce
Desert
A parfait of home made chocolate and shaved almonds
and grated walnuts
Topped with our own Blackberries fresh from the garden
*
Starter
Well I look at the crayfish and thought two things about why it might be chosen .One that they are fish that live of clean the water around them and maybe that is a fore warning of what is about to happen in the meal .The other point is there not Lobster smaller and is the maybe a point is this about a small fish in a big world ,one of the brother is a politician and is he maybe a small fish not the big one he thinks he is .
Main course
The main course again has Guinea fowl, which like the crayfish is a smaller version of fowl that one would usually eat and why is the bacon German ? at this point the action round the table is starting to get heat up as the two brothers discuss what their they are there for I do wonder what Dave lamb would say as he saw the four people round the table discussing there sons actions .
Desert
Parfait is a hard dish to make as it takes time and care to master .Strange rather like the decisions the two brothers and the wives are making round the table if one step goes wrong the outcome will be completely wrong .Blackberries from the garden maybe shows that the politician brother needs to get back to the people and maybe have something everyone would eat like Blackberries we’ve picked up ourselves .
Well sure I’m wrong but thought a quick look at the foods the brothers and wives ate during the dinner .
Do you ever wonder about the food mentioned in books you read ?
Fellow blog tour folk
Share your thoughts online: @atlanticbooks #thedinner.
I have read him before Kim from reading matters sent me The private lives of trees a couple of years ago ,I read it but never review it so with Spanish lit month in July I decided to review this now and The private lives of trees .Alejandro Zambra is a Chilean born writer he studied in Chile a degree in Hispanic languages ,and currently teaches in Santiago and contributes to magazines and papers in Chile his first novel was describe stunningly as “The publication of Bonsai … marked a kind of bloodletting in Chilean literature. It was said (or argued) that it represented the end of an era, or the beginning of another, in the nation’s letters” in El Mercurio .
THE NIGHT OF THE EARTHQUAKE I WAS SCARED
But I also, in a way enjoyed what was happening .
In the front yard one of the house ,the adults put up two tents for the children to sleep in ,and at first it was chaos because we all want to sleep in the one that looked like an igloo
As I said halves scared /but enjoyed
SO we get to ways of going home it is one of those short novellas that seem much longer and deeper after you have put it down if you know what I mean .It’s a book of memory and halves .The book is in two section we meet a young boy in the dark days of Pinochet’ s regime ,but our narrator has a fairly normal life as it appears to him in fact if anything slightly boring ,but then there is an earthquake and almost like the Shibbolth artwork (the crack in the floor of the turbine hall of Tate modern Doris Salcedo a fellow Latin american ),out of this crack of the earthquake appears Claudia a slightly older girl than him, we sense our narrators immediate attraction and liking of this girl as he spies on her from afar but getting closer ,they get to know one another and she gets him to look at her uncle to she what he is up to.No as quickly as she appears, no sooner has her and her family disappeared from his life but he never forgets her ,til they meet in adult life ,he is full of remorse for the violence of the Pinochet years and how him and his family didn’t do a lot ,Claudia family did that is why she went ,find out how these two getting together changes our narrators life for ever .Also what really happened during those years though unspoken at times is always lurking in the background .
When I was a child I liked the word Blackout .My mother would come and get us and bring us into the living room.”In the past,people didn’t have electricity “, she would say as she lit the candles .It was hard to imagine a world without lamps , without outlets in the wall .
As an adult remembering the past .
I said this is a book of memories our narrator rather like my self ,ok I didn’t have a violent dictatorship ,but had a bad divorce of my parents a step father I didn’t get on with and a being clumsy skin and tall was a target for bullying .But now as I look back on my younger years these events thou there are second place to family holidays ,evening spent with friends ,day trips in fact all the best bits .I feel this is our narrators problem his is the reverse as a child to him it all seemed wonderful he almost blanked out the bad parts ,til they reappeared in adulthood .I also said halves well-being young /being old ,being safe /having to run ,being quiet like the narrators parents / speaking out like Claudia’s parents ,moving on /not forgetting.Also the shadow of the dark days of being Chilean in the 80′s looms large in the background .Zambra is a writer of true style in fact that sparse writing style that yet seems fuller ,like Carver did in his short stories the novella has been worked to a delicate lace of words that thou fragile and thin is truly beautiful .
Well as one would expect the chance of the best of British under forty list coming out today from Granta in the new magazine has been eagerly awaited and discussed .So I decide I try to do a list of writers from round the world that have been published or shortly due to be published in English.This is actually quite a task ,because usually you have to be a acclaimed or won a prize to catch the eye of a editor commissioning translations ,this means the writers I consider newish to use in english say Santiago Gamboa ,Christoph Simon or Mickhail Shishkin all fall out side the under forty classification .But in the end I have found some wonderful writers from round the world myself and a few suggested by Tony as well .
Winstonsdad rest of the world best writer under 40
Valeria Luiselli
reviewed he début in English Faces in the crowd and have read a follow-up collection of non fiction pieces sidewalks ,she is my new writer crush for sure she loves wandering round like myself .She is definitely one to watch .An interview with her
Andres Neuman
well short-listed for both the IFFP and BTBA this year with this novel .Is one thing but the other he is actually considered a great short story writer as well ,we have a lot to come from Andres here is my review and Gary’s interview with him.
Patrico Pron
I first mention Pron when he was one of the writers and other stories was working with in the first year .but he was taken up by Faber who are publishing his first novel in English later this year -”my fathers ghost is climbing in the rain “a writer returns home as his father is dying .here is a piece he wrote for paris review .
Matias Nespolo
He is a another talented Argentinian writer ,his book Seven ways to kill a cat was translated by the wonderful Frank Wynne .Here is a piece from Granta about him
Daniel Kehlman
Now this is one that shocked me I have yet to read him but his books been on my radar for a good while and shocked he was eligible ,here is a piece he wrote praising his translator Carol brown Janeway .
Sasa Stansic
Is one of the new breed of German writer to have come to Germany from Eastern Europe in his case Bosnia and start writing in German .Both Rob and Lisa loved this book ,Here is an interview with him from rumpus
Juli Zeh
Juli is another German writer I had on my radar for a while she is among a group of talented female German writers Judith Herrmann and Jenny erphenbeck being other they both just fell outside the under 40 ,here is a review and interview with her tanslator from Lizzie
I think we all admired the style and subject of hate a romance on last year IFFP prize ,Tristan is not just a writer but also a philosopher as this piece shows and here is a review of hate from my blog .
Laurent Binet
Well he missed our IFFP shortlist but this début from him HHhH has set people talking about what makes a novel and also set many heads turning with its stunning cover .here is my review and interview from the new statesman
A lebanese poet and writer I first read about online via arablit via this profile I think ,but n=known for poems and essays on the arab experience I hope to review her soon rather than later .oh and she is just over 40 but want to add a female arabic writer .
Faiza Guene
Another young writer of French Algerian origin she has had two books translated so far to English ,I hope to read her later this year as she has been on wishlist for a good while .she writes about growing up poor in paris her is a piece from the guardian about her
Ali Bader
Another writer I had on radar since I read a piece on the wonderful Arab lit again(if you’re not following this blog you are missing the chance to find the Arab lit world opened up ).two of his books have been translated in to English .The last was published in 2011 .
Risa Watya
IS a female Japanese writer ,she has women the Kenzaburo Oe prize with her most recent book isn’t it a pity ,which will be coming to us in English soon .I ll thank Tony for this one I not to sure but a nice piece from the official j lit site her about her
Hitomi Kanehera
A high school drop out from Japan published her first book age 21 ,best known for Autofiction which I have had from library but never got to ,this is another from Tony .a profile from a few years ago that isn’t behind paywall of ny times .
FFlur Dafydd
A Welsh language writer and singer ,she is best known for a piece for the Seren collection of tales from Mabinogion series from the famous Welsh myth her is a profile of her from Seren .Thanks again to Tony for this one .
Well there you go I given you a few alternatives from Wales to Japan ,from Algeria to Argentina also I link to three list .
Slow morning amanda finished work at eight this morning we spent morning relaxing amanda now asleep I m reading on kindle and sipping coffee 12 minutes ago
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