Author Archives: Gwendolyn Dawson

Juan José Saer’s ‘Scars’ is a Beautiful, Dark Lesson in Humility

Scars

Scars is a beautifully-structured lesson in humility and perspective, accented with sparkling, if dark, humor.

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Sjón’s ‘From the Mouth of the Whale’ is a Fascinating, Unsettling Experience

sjon's From the Mouth of the Whale

An Icelandic man is sentenced to live out his life on a bleak and uninhabited island after being convicted of sorcery in the new novel from Iceland’s Sjón.

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Ingrid Winterbach’s Novel Leaves You Aching for the Dramatic Denouement

cover-happenstance2

Ingrid Winterbach’s new novel translated from the Afrikaans, The Book of Happenstance, leaves the reading waiting for a resolution or dramatic action that never comes.

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Sparkling Debut Novel from Norwegian Author Kjersti Skomsvold

The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am

Norwegian Kjersti Skomsvold’s novel – The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am – just might change the way you interact with people you’ve always ignored.

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Review: A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards

A Cupboard Full of Coats

Yvvette Edwards’s Booker longlisted novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats, is an elegantly structured story of guilt and redemption, and one of the best of year.

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Review of Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad (Norway)

Buzz Aldrin

A review of Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?, an impressive debut novel filled with exuberance that’s rare and a joy to experience.

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Book Review: Stone Upon Stone by Mysliwski Wieslaw (Poland)

This 500+ page novel will reward the patient reader with a remarkably detailed understanding of post -WWII life in rural Poland.

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Book Review: Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke (China)

By Gwendolyn Dawson In Yan Lianke’s novel, Dream of Ding Village, a remote, agricultural village in China suffers from an AIDS epidemic. Ten years ago,  … 

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Book Review: The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto (Japan)

By Gwendolyn Dawson The Lake, the latest novel by well-known Japanese novelist Banana Yoshimoto, is an enigmatic love story told from the first-person perspective of  … 

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Book Review: Beautiful & Pointless by David Orr (USA)

By Gwendolyn Dawson Despite its subtitle, Beautiful & Pointless is not really a “guide” to modern poetry. I would call it more of a meditation.  Orr,  … 

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