That was the monththat was October 2021

1. The last children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
2. Kafka’s Prague by Jiri Kolar
3. The lying life of adults by Elena Ferrante
4. Too loud a solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
5. Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka
6. Beard’s Roman Woman by Anthony Burgess
7. Special needs by Lada Vuckic

The Journey this month –

Well, I started with a sci-fi novel set in Tokyo where people aren’t living long except those that are already old as the world they live in has shrunk. Then an art book that saw Kafka quotes tied with the crumbled photos of Prague a wonderful mix of art and writing. Then a coming of age book that ses a young girl discovers her Aunt and a family she hadn’t known was there. Then a man spends his time-saving texts as he crushes them for his job. Then a train trip on the Bullet train has a load of assassins on the train as we see the story unfold and the connections between their assignments.  Then a thinly veiled Anthony Burgess lives in Rome and as he falls in love and is haunted by his past. Then a mute boy tells his story and how he views the world . The journey this month saw us visit five countries no new publishers

Book of the month

I loved all ther books but I am a huge fan of Burgess this isn’t his best work but in a lot of ways is autobiographical as a lot of events and even the life of the main character matched a lot of Anthony Burgess own life story timeline in the east a loss of his first wife living in Rome writing scripts.  and until this reissue came out unavailable and the first as it was intended with the photos taken at the time but not printed in color at the time it came out.

Non book events

We saw the Knife Angel in chesterfield this month which given events this month with the death of an MP stabbed to death whilst it was in chesterfield a touching work when you see it made up of hand in knives. We had time in peaks middle of the month but last week or so I have had a shock with illness in the family hopefully it isn’t as bad as it seemed a week ago.

The month ahead

For me, November has and will always be in my mind be German Lit month I have three books read ready I hope to get them and a couple more reviewed this month. I also have a couple of review books to get too. I hoped to get to 100 books reviewed I am 23 short so may make it. What are your plans for next month?

Jacob’s room is full of books by Susan Hill

 

 

Jacob’s room is full of books ( a year of reading) by Susan Hill

Lit memoir

Source – personnel copy

I think I saw a picture of this book on facebook a few weeks ago and was reminded how much I had loved her first Lit memoir Howard’s end is on the landing. Which I reviewed when it came out, a few years ago.So when I saw this followed a year of Susan’s reading. She is also a  reader that has previously Judge on the Booker prize. Susan Hill won the Somerset Maugham prize and is best known for Woman in Black and her crime series Simon Serrailler.

The hound of the Baskervilles is the best of all Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Other people might pick other stories, and it is surprising, given their lasting and worldwide popularity, how few of these there actually are, though Conan Doyle wrote plenty of other things .

Sherlock Holmes has become not just a Victorian detective in a series of short novels and stories ,he has become one of those iconic literary figures who take on a life of their own, out of context of their books.

I agree with this , i love the lines about the Lord running and his heart bursting in Hound !!

Now like the earlier book we see a year of what Susan Hill reads, I found this an interesting insight into a reader’s life. But also I discovered a reader that like me at times can go off at a tangent like reading one spy novel then three more straight after that. Also the insight into how writers drift in and out of fashion, she mentions reading C P Snow a writer who I have been collecting his strange and brother series of novels, which have dropped out of fashion. There is also insights into books like Stoner those books that grow by word of mouth. Great, she mentioned Embers an old book that was also a huge word of mouth and a bonus a translation. She also rereads a number of book. Where she shows how books change over time and we view them different every time we read them.

During the Last Man Boooker prize I judged, we had heated arguments, and the Late Ion Trewin, most loved of bookmen, had almost to wade in and separate one or two of us.But when we had decided on the shortlist, we then asked him to tell us how many novels by woman we had selected and to give us the break down on which publishers had books on the shortlist. We genuinely had no idea about either because neither had been relevant.

The  last line got me they matter of sex of the writer not being relevant is spot on it is the words .

Now this is yet another lit Memoir , but I liked ita lot.  For me as a reader these type of books are almost like a palate cleanser between books or a spa break that leaves me refreshed for new challenges and discoveries. Now I do have one little quibble with Susan’s reading that is in a year of reading about a hundred books that only six of them were Translations, it was also noted that she lists a group of writers she hasn’t read Kafka, Pamuk , Knausgaard and Svevo among them she noes a lot aren’t english, but also all were male. I could write a list of female writers I haven’t read but I felt maybe she had lost something by not trying these writers especially Pamuk and Knausgaard both great chroniclers of their times and worlds. I also agree with Lisa who noted that there maybe has been a few to many lit memoirs in recent years. But this is a vibrant look at one readers life and one that has been inside publishing and books for most of her life so know’s what she likes , just love her to try a few more translations.

 

 

Nobel lit 2017 Kazuo Ishiguro

 

Well we have just seen the winner announced live a true shock . The winner is Kazuo Ishiguro. I haven’t  on the blog here is a review and this is a shock. He is best known for remains of the day. Here is him on desert island discs . I have only read two of his books and hadn’t had him in mind for this so don’t know what to say.

International translation day 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Jerome is the patron saint of translation and it is the day we celebrate translation on international translation day. Well, maybe a look back over the eight years of this blog 750 books 90% in translation. Has seen me travel in my armchair with books from Afghanistan to Yemen in books. But also has seen an explosion in people publishing books from Peirene, Istros, tilted axis, honford star and Noir to name a few, have seen books reach us in English that would have not have done when I started the blog. The future is bright with two new prizes in the pipeline for books in translation and Booker behind what was the Independent foreign fiction prize, people seem more willing to try world lit . As for me the blog has grown and still gives me pleasure especially discovering places and writers. I now start to try and improve navigation of the blog as I want to divide  the reviews into a number of sections such as war, village life, experimental, family, cities, crime and short so as to show the common themes we see in literature no matter of place. How do you think translation has moved on in the last eight years ?

Two new shorts and a german seagulls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m off for a night out later so not time to do a review. So I have chosen to show a few recent arrivals at Winstons towers. Sweet Potato. The first is from new publisher Honford Star. The collection from Kim Tongin is an insight into the first fifty years of the 20th century in Korea a time before its rise in power.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pushin press has a new collection of stories by the mast of the short story Chekov in a new translation from Nicolas Pasternak Slater the nephew of Boris Pasternak. There are thirteen stories in the collection including ones such as a day in the country, The lady with the little dog and the kiss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now some purchases first is a collection of short stories from Robert Wasler from a few years ago. I have read one of his books but now how well regarded he is as a writer. The book covers most of his life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then two books by the late Swiss writer Urs Widmer. The first the Blue Soda siphon is an adult fairy tale that follows a man returning to his childhood in the 40s then his younger self, going forward to the 90s and the gulf war. In the congo follows a man that works in a retirement home where his father has just moved in and it follows the discovery his father wasn’t a boring man as he thought he was.The journey takes him to Congo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A trip for a grandfather and grandson to China goes slightly wrong. when then grandfather dies the grandson carries on writing back to family fantastic tales of what they were doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then a second book for the tbr pile from German poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger. Tumult follows his life and the world from 1963 til 1970 as he was a left winger, spend time in the Soviet Union and Cuba. the last four books are all from Seagull books.

Nobel lit 2017 who will follow Dylan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well it is fast approaching the time of year when the betting for the Nobel literature prize opens

Ive look at odd checker and here are the top ten runners-

 

 

 

 

1. Haruki Murakami – Always near the top of the list Not sure it is his year myself review 
2. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o – For me, this may be the year, a review of one of his books
3. Magaret Attwood – Only read one of her books I did like it so maybe
4. Amos Oz – I loved his latest Judas  when we read it for Man Booker my review of it
5. Adunis – always near the top he is another one I feel may win I did have one poem by him
6. Claudio Magris – A writer I love and pleased to see him here my review of blindly 
7. Don Dellio – probably one of the best American writer around  I reviewed him a few years ago
8. Ko Un another poet I did feature one poem a few years ago
9. Javier Marias – he has written one epic trilogy and a number of good books  have reviewed him before .
10. Jon Fosse – could it be a home win I have reviewed him here 

Then I have a few names outside to mention

Laszlo Krasznahorkai – brilliant writer

Antonio Lobo Antunes – another favourite of mine

Ismail Kadare – a solid writer like Pamuk!

Peter Handke – maybe to outspoken but has written some great books

Cesar Aira – A writer I’d like to read more of !!

Who do you think will win after Dylan last year ?

A Czech crime trio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier this year I found one of this trio of books written by the Late Czech writer Josef Skvorecky. Around the Sixties, he wrote about Lieutenant Boruvka of the Prague Homicide Bureau. The books reflected the Czech regime of the time and things like LSD arriving there. Last year one of the book was recorded for radio here. It was said in his obituary the four books of Borkuva could be read as an epic work, I have the three books as they are said to convey the everyday life of Prague at the time very well.I hope to read them soon have anyone else read them?

 

Two Japanese classics

I hadn’t been to the local Oxfam (sorry anyone locally it has very little in translation on its shelves as I have them!) for ten day which for me is a long time due to training last week and other things I hadn’t got to town. But I was pleased to find two Japanese classics one had been on my radar a while and the other is by a writer I have tried before and want to try again as my first encounter wasn’t the best but everyone rates him as a writer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First up is Kobo Abe’s Woman in the Dunes, a modern classic that is also a well-known film. It follows seven years in a man’s life as he is trapped by the woman in the dunes. A cat and mouse tale as the two try to escape and the woman uses here female sensuality to keep him there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we have another backlist book from Peter Owen (i do wish they’d make more of the backlist it is one of the best around) this is by Yukio Mishima whose sailor who fell from grace with the sea, I really didn’t get along with since then I have brought a couple of his books to read . Looking back it reminds me it is a year and half since I reviewed a book from Japan so I need to address that missing Tonys Japan in January which is when I would save my Japanese books to read.

What gems have you found recently ?

That was the month that was June 2017

 

1. Maigret and the man on the bench by Georges Simenon
2. Butterfly wings by Mohamed Salmawy
3. Eve out of her ruins by Ananda Devi
4. Our Dead World by Liliana Colanzi
5. The portrait by Antoine Laurain
6. Nevada days by Bernardi Atxaga

Now I always Knew it would be a thin month book-wise in June, I left my current job on the 2nd of this month and had a wedding in Croydon for the first weekend and Seven days in Scotland with Amanda, I had hoped to read more but time and sunny weather cut into my reading time. Then on Monday I started my new job for the NHS and had my first of two weeks training .so the total of books read has risen to 55 still on course for the 100 for the year mark.

Book of June

A selection of the Basque writers experience in the US gives us a glimpse at the country from an outsider’s eye, but also a writer looking back on his life and what is to come. This is what we need publishers to do publish the books from writers that aren’t straight fiction.

None book discovery

MY new job has opened my eyes to what I can maybe do in the future it seems an NHS service keen on promoting staff to learn and move forward.I hope to do when I am settled in my new job.

Next month

More training at the new job and starting the new job may slow my reading down, I am reading a French novel from the US press New vessel at the moment and have a couple from Maclehose waiting on my tbr pile . What are you reading this month

Eight years

 

I got a notification yesterday to tell me it was eight years since I started winstonsdad so i have posted 1400 odd posts which even after eight years is near one every other day , although this last two year I have slowed down due to life more than lack of interest in blogging . 109 countries have been covered in the time of the blog, I have nearly hit 100 french books and 50 german novels .But for me it is the people and place I have been because of the blog , people like Susie , Daniella , David ,Rob , Simon , Nicci , Paul , Frank and so on even last week I met Grant for the first time and had a wonderful chat.Events like the old IFFP and london book fair also a couple of great drinks and meals in london all of this because of this small blog. I have been so lucky that a support worker from derbyshire has managed to stretch a blog that has been seen around the world over the years and I have written about the world . I love to see what the next eight year bring the one thing I am sure now is we will contiune to see more books in translation. I feel it is great to have been blogging through what is a golden time for literature in translation .