An intriguing mix of reportage, memoir, political history and recipe book as Witold Szabłowski interviews the former chefs to a handful of murderous dictators.
Tag Archives: memoir
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 …
Continue reading “Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (USA): Review no 161”
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 …
Continue reading “Review no 101: Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg (Italy)”
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.
