Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramo
Although he wrote few works in his lifetime, namely a thin volume of short stories (The Burning Plain and Other Stories) and a single novel, the name of Juan Rulfo…
J.M.G. Le Clézio: Terra Amata
When Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio was named laureate for the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, I was like many others in wondering who? His standing in English speaking nations, save…
Florian Zeller: Artificial Snow
One of the pitfalls of reading literature in translation is that some authors see their work, if they see it all, come to the English language in a chronology all…
Evelio Rosero: The Armies
Colombia has, for some time now, been plagued by all manner of violence, starting with La Violencia in the late forties, through the rise of guerilla groups, and continuing to…
J.D. Salinger: The Catcher In The Rye
There are a number of novels out there that people are expected to have read at some point in their youth. Not to have done so is, in a word,…
Augusto Monterroso: The Black Sheep and Other Fables
To call him an unknown name is perhaps to do Augusto Monterroso a disservice, for while he may not be known in many English speaking circles, he’s a well known…
James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice
Following on from a recent review of Albert Camus’ L’Étranger at Mookse, I was struck by something read in the comment – that Camus took his inspiration from an American…
John Fante: 1933 Was A Bad Year
As the opening to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina makes clear, unhappy families are unhappy in their own way, and in dealing only with its own families it leaves a wealth of…
Michel Faber: The Fire Gospel
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I have a hit or miss relationship with the Canongate Myths series. The contributions of Jeanette Winterson and Margaret Atwood failed to excite…
Chinua Achebe: Home And Exile
In 1958 Chinua Achebe published Things Fall Apart, the novel that helped usher in a new wave of African literature. Until that point literature concerning African had been written by…