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Chronicle of a Last Summer

August 5, 2016

chronicle

  Chronicle of a Last Summer is a small book about a big time in modern Egypt. The novel spans from 1984 to 2014, but only as small chapters in the life of a young woman living with her family in Cairo. In 1984 she is six and her father has recently left, but the reason is never made clear. Even when she is older there never seem to be answers. In this way author Yasmine ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, Middle East, Random House

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra

July 20, 2016

tsar of love

I could not pass up the opportunity to share the love again for a book that I adored. I'm not a big short story reader, but Marra connects the dots so well that The Tsar of Love and Techno reads like an abstract art of a novel. It comes out in paperback tomorrow so if you missed it the first time around, read it now!   For art to be the chisel that breaks the ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, Hogarth, literary, Russia, short stories

It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mini-Reviews

April 8, 2016

it's not you

It happens in personal relationships and it happens with reading: A book simply does not hold my interest, float my boat, whatever metaphor you want to use. But if the writing is good I’m reader enough to admit: It’s Not You, It’s Me. I’ve always been a fan of South Asian authors so approached these novels with high hopes. In both cases the writing was well done, but the ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, cultural, Hogarth, Picador

Guapa: A Novel

March 21, 2016

guapa

  At 27 Rasa lives with his grandmother in al-Sharqiyeh, a large city in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. He works as a translator for foreign journalists because he speaks fluent English after going to college in America. The novel Guapa by Saleem Haddad spans 24 hours in Rasa’s life that are an emotional flash point. He has participated in the Arab Spring protests, ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, debut, literary, Middle East, Other Press, social issues

An Untamed State

March 14, 2016

an untamed state

  When Mireille Jameson returns to Haiti with her husband and infant son to visit her wealthy family she knows of the tensions between the island’s poor and its rich. What she cannot anticipate is that on their way to an afternoon at the beach a gang of men will stop their car, beat her husband and kidnap her at gunpoint. For almost two weeks these young men will hold her ... Read More...

14 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary fiction, cultural, debut, Grove Press, Haiti, literary

The Tsar of Love and Techno

March 7, 2016

tsar of love

  For art to be the chisel that breaks the marble inside us, the artist must first become the hammer.    The Tsar of Love and Techno begins in 1937 Leningrad with a nameless censor. A man whose artistic skill is such that his sole purpose is to erase people deemed to be enemies of the state from any and all paintings and photographs in which they appear. His talent ... Read More...

13 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, historical fiction, Hogarth, Russia, short stories

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