Imogen is Reading and Watching the World: On Books, Film, Art & More
I'm a UK-based editor for a major publisher. I'm making it my off-duty duty to experience FIVE books, FIVE films, art, TV, music and food from every country in the world (where feasible). See drop down menus for my progress.
AFRICA Translated from the French by Melanie Mauthner I serendipitously found my copy of this book in a secondhand bookshop in Herne Hill, South London, which I’ve found to be an unexpected and excitingly ripe source of obscure works of fiction in translation. The husband – amusingly but perhaps a bit meanly – suggested that …
Continue reading “Review no 21: Scholastique Mukasonga, Our Lady of the Nile (Rwanda)”
Gripping and informative memoir of growing up during and after Iran’s Islamic Revolution. It’s accessible graphic novel format, and engaging and often very funny narrator make this required reading. Five star brilliance.
EUROPE Translated from the Danish by Tiina Nunally (vols 1&2) and Michael Favala Goldman (vol 3) Penguin Books recently published Tove Divletsen’s autobiographical Copenhagen Trilogy as a beautiful three-volume set, entitled Childhood, Youth and Dependency (in Danish Barndom, Ungdom and Gift). They are gorgeous editions, and a pleasure to own, but it is a little …
Continue reading “Tove Ditlevsen (1917-78), The Copenhagen Trilogy (Denmark)”
Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN This is a short sharp shock of a book, a hallucinatory horror story that builds up a constant hum of excruciating tension over its 150 pages. Published in Spanish as Distancia de rescate (Rescue Distance), the modern gothic, body-swap novella is apparently inspired by …
Continue reading “Review no 16: Samanta Schweblin, Fever Dream (Argentina)”
FAR EAST, SOUTH ASIA AND AUSTRALASIA “It may be argued that stories should not sprawl in this way, that they should be grounded in one place or the other, put down roots in the other or the one and flower in the singular soil; yet so many of today’s stories are and must be of …
Continue reading “Review no 14: Salman Rushdie, Quichotte (India)”
EUROPE Irish writer Edna O’Brien is probably best known for her classic prize-winning novel Country Girls, published in 1960. It dealt with sex and social issues in post-World War 2 Ireland, and was reportedly not only banned there, but set alight and denounced in church. O’Brien’s career has spanned some 60 years, and she has …
Continue reading “Review no 12: Edna O’Brien, The Little Red Chairs (Ireland)”
AFRICA As I’m trying to work my way through books, film and art from across the world, it makes sense to ensure that I’m not spending too much time in one region. I need an even spread of countries from all five of the regions that I’ve divided the world -roughly evenly – into. So …
Continue reading “Review no 10: Oyinkan Braithwaite – My Sister, The Serial Killer (Nigeria)”
MOROCCO / FRANCE : NORTH AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST AND CENTRAL ASIA My daughter told me I had to be honest about how long this book took me to read. I bought it in French in Paris a year ago, and did little more than dip into it until this summer. I studied French at university, …
Continue reading “Review no 8: Leila Slimani, Chanson douce (Lullaby)”
THE AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN It might seem like cheating to discuss a book by an American author so early on in this project, when the whole point is surely to open my eyes to other parts of the world. But after reading this short, devastating and immersive book I felt it had earned a …
Continue reading “Review no 7: Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys (USA)”
A memoir of a boy soldier during civil war in Sierra Leone. Not an easy read, emotionally at least, but an important book, and ultimately optimistic in mapping the capacity for resilience and rehabilitation.
Imogen is Reading and Watching the World: On Books, Film, Art & More 