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...

THAT MAD ACHE

Françoise Sagan

Translated from the French by Douglas Hofstadter

That Mad Ache takes us to glamorous 1960s Paris, a world of money, parties and passions. Lucile, a restless young woman, lives with her older, rich lover Charles. They enjoy a tranquil relationship, he responding to her frequent whims as one might indulge a child. . .
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Reviewed by Charlotte Simpson

THURSDAY NIGHT WIDOWS

Claudia Piñeiro

Translated from the Portuguese by Miranda France

Claudia Piñeiro's Thursday Night Widows presents itself as a thriller. Yet even though in the opening we have three dead bodies in a pool and are promised an investigation of how they came to be there, this novel has more in common with Camus, or with DeLillo, than with a standard thriller. The bodies remain decaying…
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Reviewed by Andrew Stancek

THE CHINA GARDEN

Kristina Olsson

The China Garden's opening chapter marks the bookends of life—birth and death. A newborn baby is discovered, abandoned, and aging artist Angela dies. Also, Angela's daughter, Laura, finds that she has a brother who was adopted out, and so we wait…
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Reviewed by Amanda Meale

WHO FEARS DEATH

Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okarafor's fanciful and furious novel Who Fears Death is a truly strange hybrid, combining "ripped from the headlines" details of genocide, rape, and female genital mutilation with lyrical descriptions of African deserts and fantastical elements like dueling sorcerers and shape-shifting. It shouldn't work—but it does, and I was drawn in…
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Reviewed by F. P. Crawford