Gripping and thought-provoking prison memoir
Tag Archives: memoir
Istanbul: Memories of a City by Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
A fascinating reflection on the childhood of a Nobel-prize winning author and on the cultural history of Istanbul
How to Feed a Dictator by Witold Szablowski (Poland)
An intriguing mix of reportage, memoir, political history and recipe book as Witold Szabłowski interviews the former chefs to a handful of murderous dictators.
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (USA): Review no 161
#20booksofsummer, book 4 Priestdaddy is an acclaimed memoir by US writer Patricia Lockwood, who is currently on the Women’s Prize shortlist for her first novel, No-one Is Talking About This, and whose tweets come imbued with the aura of legend. This, her first book, was published in 2017, and has a particularly random cover in …
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Deborah Levy’s “Real Estate”
Deborah Levy’s wonderful work of almost-memoir, ‘Real Estate’
Review no 107: On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason (Iceland)
Uncomfortable read on climate change in Iceland and the likelihood of impending environmental disaster
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 …
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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
Reading and Watching the World: Books, Film and Art 