Hjalmar Söderberg: Doctor Glas
“Life, I do not understand you”, writes Doctor Tyko Gabriel Glas in his diary as events draw to a close in Hjalmar Söderberg’s classic eponymous novel, Doctor Glas (1905), and…
Clarice Lispector: The Hour Of The Star
Following on from a recent post by dovegreyreader, I spotted a copy of Clarice Lispector’s The Hour Of The Star (1977) in Waterstones, knew I recognised the name from somewhere,…
Hitomi Kanehara: Snakes & Earrings
It’s a little early to be calling, as the cover boldly declares, Snakes & Earrings (2004) by Hitomi Kanehara a “cult classic”, but within its pages there’s enough to warrant…
Bi Feiyu: The Moon Opera
In a world where the arts would appear to be in terminal decline, or at least in a depression, it’s somewhat reassuring – though devastating – to discover that it’s…
Andrey Kurkov: A Matter Of Death And Life
There is nothing original in the idea of what a person would do if they learned the scope of their finite lives. Invariably they make lists of things they haven’t…
Andreï Makine: The Woman Who Waited
If the unnamed narrator of Andreï Makine’s The Woman Who Waited (2004) was of the same era as the titular woman he would have been packed up and sent off…
Gilbert Adair: The Dreamers
I‘ve been making it a rule of late that before I see a film I should have read the book, provided it’s available in English and that I know the…
Gabriel García Márquez: No One Writes To The Colonel
Gabriel García Márquez is one of those authors who I seem to acquire the titles of without actually reading them, partly because I found his most recent release, Memories Of My…
Jim Crace: Continent
Ever since Cormac McCarthy’s The Road came out, Jim Crace’s tenth novel, The Pesthouse, itself dealing with a future America, has had less attention. But, Picador have recently released his…
Michael Chabon: Gentlemen Of The Road
Looking at the cover of Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen Of The Road (2007) I was reminded of similar volumes consumed in my youth wherein lay the swashbuckling tales of Robin Hood…