Last week, Once We Are Safe by Alessandra Carati become available in English. Translated from Italian, it follows a Bosnian family fleeing the Bosnian War in 1992. They end up in Milan, Italy, where they must rebuild a life. Still tethered to Bosnia, still hoping to at some point return, they spend decades in their... Continue Reading →
Ever since I met my husband, I've been drawn to reading books set in his home country, Peru. Now that our family is in Lima, I'm increasingly interested in Peruvian literature. This led me to The Year of the Wind by Karina Pacheco Medrano, just released in English. It was first published in 2021; this... Continue Reading →
As a lifelong cat lover and cat owner, I'm always drawn to books about felines. As soon as I saw We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, I had to read it. Already a bestseller in Japan and now available in English for the first time, this book takes the idea of cats as... Continue Reading →
Though I don't often read memoirs unless I'm already familiar with the author, there are two subjects for which I frequently make exceptions: memoirs about people from other countries or cultures, and memoirs that are in some way about music. In the case of Playing for Freedom: The Journey of a Young Afghan Girl, by... Continue Reading →
Early last year, I enjoyed Hiro Arikawa's novel, The Travelling Cat Chronicles, about a snarky cat whose loving owner is trying to find a new home for him. It was a beautiful and heartrending book, so I was excited to learn about the authorโs new collection of short stories, The Goodbye Cat. Two of the... Continue Reading →
Several years ago, I absolutely loved The Time in Between by Spanish author Marรญa Dueรฑas. Her debut novel, it was engrossing and exciting, about a naive young woman, Sira Quiroga, becoming an undercover spy for the English during World War II. So I was excited to learn that, at long last, this stellar novel would... Continue Reading →
I love books and France, so reading about either of those is usually a joy. This drew me to the new Nina George novel, The Little Village of Book Lovers, a companion piece to her bestseller, The Little Paris Bookshop. I havenโt read that earlier book, but this new publication works as a standalone. Special... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, the English translation of The Woman Beyond the Sea by Sarit Yishai-Levi hit shelves. The book was first published in Hebrew in 2019, and the new translation was done by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann. This historical fiction novel, set primarily in Israel, follows a mother and daughter and their difficult relationship, their tumultuous lives, and the... Continue Reading →
Last summer, I was excited to learn that Armando Lucas Correa had a new novel on the horizon, The Night Travelers. A few years ago I had picked up his debut novel, The German Girl, and his latest release returns to the same themes of escaping 1930s Germany on the St. Louis, a ship bound... Continue Reading →
Two years ago, Camilla Lรคckberg released The Golden Cage, a psychological thriller with a feminist plot and a noir vibe. I just got the audiobook this month and decided to listen to it as part of my Northern and Eastern Europe reading challenge. The book was translated from Swedish by Neil Smith, and the audiobook... Continue Reading →
My November reading challenge was to read books set in Northern or Eastern Europe, and one that was high on my list was The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jรณnasson. This nordic noir, set in a remote village in Iceland in the 1980s, combines a haunting ghost story with a realistic thriller mystery. It was... Continue Reading →
I don't often read memoirs, especially by people I'm not already familiar with, but I was immediately drawn to Ousman Umar's North to Paradise. In this short and candid memoir, he describes how he left Ghana to journey for years across Africa and eventually make a home in Spain. Though North to Paradise just came... Continue Reading →
I loved Carlos Ruiz Zafรณn's entire Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, and I was so sad to hear about his passing in 2020. His final publication is The City of Mist, a brief collection of short stories that harkens back to the setting and themes of that series. Highlighting new characters and real historical figures... Continue Reading →
I'm always looking for books by Peruvian authors and set in Peru. My husband is originally from Lima, and I lived with him there for about one year. Peru's most famous author is Mario Vargas Llosa, a Nobel Prize winner with decades of beloved novels to his name. For my first foray into his work,... Continue Reading →
This month's reading challenge has been to read books in translation. High on my list was At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, translated from French by Anna Moschovakis. It's set during World War I, and although I usually avoid war fiction, this drew me for its focus on a Senegalese man's descent... Continue Reading →
A few years ago, my sister took a trip to Bucharest, Romania. She picked up some souvenirs while there, and knowing how much I love books, she decided the perfect gift for me would be a book translated from Romanian. She selected Life Begins on Friday by Ioana Pรขrvulescu, first published in 2009 before its... Continue Reading →
For my 2022 Reading Challenge, my theme for January is books in translation. The first audiobook I chose for that challenge is The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, originally written in Japanese. The English translation for it arrived in the U.S. in October 2018, though I picked it up more recently. As a lifelong... Continue Reading →
This October I've mostly been reading books that are thrilling, mysterious, or supernatural, and it's all culminated in my last (physical) book of spooky season, The Chestnut Man by Sรธren Sveistrup. I picked this novel up earlier this year, but I decided to save it for the days leading up to Halloween. Now I've finished... Continue Reading →
Early in September, I found out about a newly translated book that was just published in English, The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas. Already out in French for two years, the book has even been adapted into a film. The premise of it piqued my interest, and I'm always excited to read translations, so... Continue Reading →
Since my husband is Peruvian, I'm always on the hunt for books set in Peru, written by Peruvian authors, and/or starring Peruvian characters. This led me to Mona by Pola Oloixarac. Although the author is Argentinian, the novel's protagonist is Peruvian. Mona was originally published in Spanish two years ago, while the English translation came... Continue Reading →
It's been nearly a month, but I've finally reached the end of Carlos Ruiz Zafรณn's Cemetery of Forgotten Books series! Following The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel's Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven, the series closes with The Labyrinth of the Spirits. At over 800 pages, this is not only the longest book in... Continue Reading →
For the past few weeks I've been working my way through the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series by the lateย Carlos Ruiz Zafรณn. Followingย The Shadow of the Wind andย The Angelโs Game, the third novel is The Prisoner of Heaven. In contrast to the other books in the series, this one is fairly short, at only 278... Continue Reading →
I'm currently in the midst of reading Carlos Ruiz Zafรณn's Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. Following my reread of his beloved The Shadow of the Wind, I've now just finished the second book in the series, The Angel's Game. While it has much in common with the first book, The Angel's Game is also wholly... Continue Reading →
I first read Carlos Ruiz Zafรณn's The Shadow of the Wind four years ago. At the time, it felt like one of the most magical, immersive stories I'd ever read. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I found out it was the first in a series, and my mom was kind enough... Continue Reading →
Amanda's Book Corner 