Belletrista Issue 4

This is an archived issue of Belletrista. If you are looking for the current issue, you can find it here

Belletrista - A site promoting translated women authored literature from around the world


Meet Italy's Award-winning author Lia Levi in this interview with Paola Sergi.	Fifteen years old and All Grown Up? Rachael Beale takes us on an Orange Prize retrospective journey.	In Praise of New Zealand's Patricia Grace

Welcome to our fourth issue, and a further excursion into the wonderful world of literature! This time we feature an interview with Italy's celebrated Lia Levi, and we also introduce the works of Patricia Grace from New Zealand, Assia Djebar from Algeria, and two new authors, Maaza Mengiste and Nadifa Mohamed, from East Africa. Our very own Rachael Beale talks to some of the women behind the British Orange Prize in a retrospective piece. And just in case you don't have enough to read, we present 22 reviews of books by authors representing 17 different countries. Finally, we've included more than 60 original and distinctive titles from around the globe in the New and Notable section, for your browsing pleasure. We have thoroughly enjoyed producing this issue for you, and hope that you'll relish it!

Reviews
Below is a small tantalizing selection of this month's reviews....

INNOCENT WORLD

Ami Sakurai

Translated from the Japanese by Steven Clark

Innocent World may be a novella, but it generates the amount of discussion typical of tome-like novels or series. Its edgy content and even edgier messages led it to be passed around my workplace like contraband...
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Reviewed by Caitin Fehir

THE VERA WRIGHT TRILOGY

Elizabeth Jolley

In the three semi-autobiographical novels which make up this trilogy, Elizabeth Jolley follows the coming-of-age of Vera Wright, an unconventional woman trying to find her place in the world in the tumultuous upheaval and devastation of England during WWII.
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Reviewed by Cate Lombardo

HEAVEN OF DRUMS

Ana Gloria Moya

Translated from the Spanish by W. Nick Hill

Heaven of Drums is an ambitious little book which uses an interracial love triangle to build a narrative history of the independence of the author's native Argentina.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes

ALL THIS BELONGS TO ME

Petra Hulová

Translated from the Czech by Alex Zucker

Tread the harsh, dusty Mongolian steppe with this nomadic family as they tend to the livestock and collect argal (firewood) to keep warm...
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood

RIEN NE VA PLUS

Margarita Karapanou

Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich

Is there any word more ambiguous than "love", asks the much-loved Greek author, Margarita Karapanou. Three characters declare their undying love for the object of their affection and proceed to play out their passion in the most bizarre and, sometimes, disturbing ways.
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood