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 books, films, art, TV, music and food from every country in the world (where feasible). See drop down menus for my progress.
Translated by Christopher Monocrieff I didn’t realise until after I had read it, but the “Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent” was written in the 1920s when Mircea Eliade was just 17, although it was not published in Romania until 1989, three years after the author’s death. The English translation folllowed much later, in 2016. It’s …
Continue reading “Book Review: Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent by Mircea Eliade (Romania)”
“I am a Son of the North, and Everything that I am is but a Fraction of its Population and Wilderness” I visited Dulwich Picture Gallery in South-East London to catch a show collecting the work of respected Estonian modernist painter Konrad Mägi (1878-1925), who is little-known in the UK. Mostly comprising landscapes, this exhibition …
Translated from Finnish by David Hackston Back to Albania for a depressing little book written by Pajtim Statovci, who lives in Finland, but was born in Kosovo. The novel was published in Finnish in 2016 as ‘Tiranan Sydan‘ (‘Heart of Tirana’), and first appeared in English translation in 2019. It’s a beautifully written odyssey though, …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Crossing by Pajtim Statovci (Albania)”
A summary of books read in March, additions to my TBR, and other cultural experiences
Translated by Carol Janet Brown Janeway This 1995 novel, which is book 9 of my 20 books of summer, feels like it should be much older, if only because it seems to been on my radar forever. The book follows some 30 years in the life of a man called Michael Berg, who recalls his sexual …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernard Schlink (Germany)”
What happened to/in November and my plans for December
Joining in with this again, for just the second time, as I’m working my way through a pile of ad hoc classics as well as the 1001 books list. Last spin gave me the momentum to read and enjoy Sebald’s modern classic Austerlitz, so I’m looking forward to finding out what comes up this time. …
Miriam Makeba by Miriam Makeba (1960) I couldn’t spend a month ‘in’ South Africa without listening to some South African music, and this album by Miriam Makeba (who to this point I only knew for ‘Pata Pata’) features in the 1001 albums list, which describes it thus: “traditional Xhosa wedding songs swing into airy African …
Continue reading “Music review: South African late 20th century classics”
Moral uncertainties abound in this excellent novel by Booker-winning South African author Damon Galgut
The picture at the top of this post isn’t of my home, sadly, but it’s something to aspire to! As I mentioned in my first post of the year yesterday I’m going back to deep-diving into books and other areas of culture from individual countries, month by month. I didn’t keep this up very well …
