Belletrista

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


US author Sigrid Nunez discusses her new novel with Joyce Nickel	TRIO: Three remarkable works by Kamila Shamsie by Caitlin Fehir	Belletrista turns one! A brief retrospective and a look ahead

With this issue, Belletrista completes its first year. We at Belletrista would like to thank those of you spread across this great blue planet who read our little 'zine and also use it as a resource for your personal reading, your bookclubs, or your classes. May we continue to endeavor to deserve your attention in the coming year! With this issue, we debut a new feature we are calling "Conversations" and also our Belletrista blog, "If Written by a Woman," an exciting venture we hope you will all be part of. There are more exciting things ahead!

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

SALVATION CITY

Sigrid Nunez

After a worldwide flu pandemic leaves him an orphan, young teen Cole Vining realizes that his life has taken him in an unexpected, and previously unimaginable, direction. In just a few months, he goes from living with urbanite parents to a new life with …
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Reviewed by Joyce Nickel

TO HELL WITH CRONJÉ

Ingrid Winterbach

Translated from the Afrikaans by Elsa Silke

To Hell With Cronjé is Ingrid Winterbach's literary examination of one of the turning points of South African history: the Second Boer War of 1899‒1902. The wars between Britain and the fledgling, and doomed, Boer nation have been largely ignored in English language literature …
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes

BEFORE YOU SUFFOCATE YOUR OWN FOOL SELF: STORIES

Danielle Evans

Danielle Evans is a young writer. I'm guessing 25, give or take. She's also African American. But I don't say this because I've met her or googled her. It's because her new short story collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, speaks so honestly and so knowledgeably from those perspectives.
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Reviewed by Kathleen Ambrogi

PURGE

Sofi Oksanen

Translated from the Finnish by Lola Rogers

Estonia 1992, right after the fall of the Soviet Union, is a turbulent place, even in a small village far off the centre of events. The old woman Aliide is waiting for the legal rights to her family's lands and forests, once claimed to collective farming, to be returned to her.
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Reviewed by Anders Duus

THE BLINDNESS OF THE HEART

Julia Franck

Translated from the German by Anthea Bell

A prologue opens the novel. It is some time during World War II and a woman, Alice, abandons her seven-year old son at a railway station. The story proper begins many years earlier in the town of Bautzen … where
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Reviewed by Amanda Meale

CONVERSATIONS:

A discussion of Xinran's Sky Burial between three Belletrista readers.

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

Looking for a great book? Check out these recent award-winners!

If Written By a Woman

Visit our new Belletrista blog!

The Caine Prize for African Writing 2011 – shortlist announced

The shortlist for this year’s Caine Prize has just been announced and three women are in the running for the prestigious award. This is always an exciting time of year – the Prize is a great way to discover short stories by excellent writers. Lucky for us, the Prize’s website links to a copy of …Read the Rest

Belletrista - Issue 7
Sept/Oct 2010

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Archived Issues
Missed an issue? No problem!
- Issue 6 July/Aug 2010
- Issue 5 May/June 2010
- Issue 4 Mar/Apr 2010
- Issue 3 Jan/Feb 2010
- Issue 2 Nov/Dec 2009
- Issue 1 Sept/Oct 2009

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