Scars is a beautifully-structured lesson in humility and perspective, accented with sparkling, if dark, humor.
About the Author
Sjón’s ‘From the Mouth of the Whale’ is a Fascinating, Unsettling Experience
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.
Ingrid Winterbach’s Novel Leaves You Aching for the Dramatic Denouement
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.
Sparkling Debut Novel from Norwegian Author Kjersti Skomsvold
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.
Review: A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards
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.
Review of Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad (Norway)
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.
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.
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, the inhabitants of Ding Village sold their blood to blood collectors to increase their wealth and improve their standard of living. While the blood sales allowed the villagers to replace their traditional mud and thatch huts …
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 Chihiro, a muralist and “going on thirty” daughter of unmarried parents. Chihiro’s unconventional childhood and the recent death of her mother contribute to her sense of isolation and unrest, and she spends hours staring out …
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, the poetry critic for the New York Times Book Review, doesn’t really explain the various poetic forms or the different methods for deconstructing and understanding a poem. He doesn’t give any helpful tips to the …