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...

ALL THE LIVING

C. E. Morgan

This debut novel introduces a young author with an extraordinary command of the pen. C. E. Morgan's finely crafted prose draws one into present-day Kentucky with its sweltering, breezeless days, where twenty-year-old Aloma has come to live with her lover, Orren.
READ MORE

Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie-Dawood

NEWS FROM HOME: SHORT STORIES

Sefi Atta

The Nigerian author Sefi Atta will be familiar to close readers of Belletrista, as her first novel, Everything Good Will Come, the winner of the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, was reviewed in issue 3. Her second book, News From Home, is a collection of 10 short stories and a novella that was awarded the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
READ MORE

Reviewed by Darryl Morris

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 …
READ MORE

Reviewed by Michael Matthew

THE CONFESSIONS OF NOA WEBER

Gail Hareven

Translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu

If you expect fiction to have plot, then this award-winning novel by Israeli author Gail Hareven is probably not the book for you! However, if you wish to experience living in someone else's head, reading The Confessions of Noa Weber will offer you very rare insights into …
READ MORE

Reviewed by Dorothy Dudek Vinicombe