Belletrista

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


TRIO! Ceri Evans discusses three books by Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif.	"Seven Little Rooms" - original fiction by notable Hindi author Mridula Garg.	Who Has the Power? Reading Arab Women in English by M. Lynx Qualey

Welcome, readers, to our sixth issue! Besides our regular review section featuring an array of intriguing books, and the tantalizing previews of new books in our New & Notable section, we have provided you with a compelling mix of fascinating articles this issue. There is a thought-provoking piece on reading the work of Arab Women in translation, one of our "Trios" explores three books by Ahdaf Soueif, and we report back from the splashy Book Expo America. In this issue we are honored to introduce to our readers the eminent Indian author Mridula Garg with two pieces: the first is an original short story translated from the Hindi by the author herself, and a second piece by Sunita Jain on Ms. Garg's place in literature.

We hope you enjoy this wonderful issue and with it we complete our first year of celebrating literature written by women all over the world! Thank you for being a part of our reading community.

Reviews
Click on 'Reviews' to see the full list of this issue's reviews...

ZIG ZAG THROUGH THE BITTER ORANGE TREES

Ersi Sotiropoulos

Translated from the Greek by Peter Green

To pick up Zigzag is to be plunged into an initially unsettling world of changing narrators and fragmented narrative—yet I immediately wanted to know more about this world and its characters. Greek literature it may be, but this is post-modern Greek literature; no heroes here. . .
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Reviewed by Rachel Hayes

ANITYA: HALFWAY TO NOWHERE

Mridula Garg

Translated from the Hindi by Seema Segal

If you have ever had the the niggling feeling that there is something swimming under your feet in a lake, only to look underwater to see an enormous fish keeping its eye on you, you'll understand the feeling I kept having while reading Anitya, Halfway to Nowhere. I couldn't shake the sense that. . .
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Reviewed by Tui Menzies

NO PLACE FOR HEROES
/ DEMASIADOES HÉROES

Laura Restrepo

Mateo Iribarren addresses his mother, Lorenza, about what happened during the dark period; the period when his father kidnapped him, leaving his mother behind. And thus she begins:You were two and a half years old. It was a Thursday afternoon, and you, your Father and I, were in Independence Park in Bogotá.
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Reviewed by C. Lariviere

PALIMPSEST

Catherynne M. Valente

Think of a novel as an amalgam of its story, its ideas, its people, and its language. Does a particular story demand a particular sort of language? Palimpsest is a fantastical city, sprawling over a vast territory, functioning on magic, eclectic in architecture, infested with clockwork insects, populated by …
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Reviewed by Michael Matthew