I posted everyone’s reviews before the list had come out Thursday .Now we have our first review and it is from mark – Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Applefeld
A holocaust novel as his previous works have been he was in a concentration camp during the war ,this theme has cropped up in his other books .
Now I didn’t give my reaction to the longlist the other day ,well on the whole I m happy there were 98 books to choose from and the 15 selected I’d read six and had a six others on my wish list ,a couple including the one mark has just reviewed were new to me but I always say you can’t keep track of every book in translation and I can’t ,hence the I.F.F.P being such a good prize .Ones that I thought may have been there well down rabbit hole or all the lights by the new publisher and other stories I had hope to see on the list .Another book I had hope but due to the writer being dead was ineligible was Purgatory by Tomas Eloy Martinez .Rob pointed out the lack of a book from MachLehose press this is very sad as they publish some great books The foxes in the night by Cees Nooteboom is one that I really enjoyed last year .So I hope to have my first review in a couple of days and keep them coming .
