Uncomfortable read on climate change in Iceland and the likelihood of impending environmental disaster
Tag Archives: memoir
Review no 103: stories by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), and My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn (New Zealand)
Exceptional, highly influential writing from New Zealand
Review no 101: Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg (Italy)
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 […]
Review no 98: A World Gone Mad: The War Diaries of Astrid Lindgren, 1939-45 (Sweden)
Engaging and informative diaries record world events interspersed with episodes from family life
Review no 89: When Time Stopped – A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains by Ariana Neumann (Venezuela)
A brilliant memoir of a woman’s research into her father’s incredible story of bravery and survival
Review no 26: Tété-Michel Kpomassie, An African in Greenland (Togo)
“Unbelievable!” he exclaimed. “How can a man fall off a sled? It’s not possible, yet you, you managed to do it. I saw you rolling down like a seal’s bladder, and I couldn’t believe my eyes!”
Review no 20: Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (Iran)
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.
Review no 17: Tove Ditlevsen (1917-78), The Copenhagen Trilogy (Denmark)
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 […]
Review no 6: Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone (Sierra Leone)
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.
