Reading and Watching the World: Books, Film and Art
There's a whole world out there! I'm an experienced, UK-based editor and aesthetic dilettante doing an off-duty project to review at least two books, a film and an artist from every country in the world, plus music and TV where possible. Reviews are SPOILER FREE. New posts every week. See Reviews by country for my recommendations and to track my progress.
NORTH AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST, CENTRAL ASIA AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS Translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden First published in Russian in 2015, Three Apples fell from the Sky is a whimsical and fable-like book by the Armenian writer Narine Abgaryan. It features a huge cast of characters living in the isolated mountain village …
Continue reading “Review no 126: Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan (Armenia)”
Classic 1930s novella of drifting and hard-drinking in Paris
Exceptional, highly influential writing from New Zealand
Translated by Jenny McPhee EUROPE “Even though the story is real, I think one should read it as if it were a novel, and therefore not demand of it any more or less than a novel can offer … memory is ephemeral, and … books based on reality are often only faint glimpses and fragments …
Continue reading “Review no 101: Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg (Italy)”
Biting wit in this short novel about a dysfunctional Latin American family
A brilliant memoir of a woman’s research into her father’s incredible story of bravery and survival
An intriguing collection of short stories from one of Thailiand’s pre-eminent writers
Thought-provoking and moving examination of poverty and parental ambition, which unspools with page-turning intensity
a quick and deceptively unchallenging read that reminded me of a Japanese Eleanor Oliphant
Dahlia feels trapped in her life in cosmopolitan Kuwait, with her well-meaning family who nevertheless refuse to acknowledge the trauma of her teen years
