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Explore Africa! Click here to go to reviews of 20 great books written by African women.
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We interview Najat El-Hachmi, author of The Last Patriarch.
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Specters by Egyptian author Radwa Ashour, Chapter One
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Reviews
Click on 'Reviews' to see the full list of this issue's reviews...
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PENWOMAN
Elin Wagner
Translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death
A runaway bestseller when it was published in Sweden in 1910, and now a classic, Elin Wagner's Penwoman was "the book of the Swedish women's suffrage movement" according to translator Sarah Death. Now 100 years old, Penwoman remains a captivating story that convincingly transports the reader back to the beginning of the twentieth century, but also reaches ahead to the twenty-first and speaks to the gender inequality that still exists.
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Reviewed by Jana Herlander
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WIDOW: STORIES
Michelle Latiolais
Michelle Latiolais has a rapacious love of words. She plays with them, rolls them around in her mouth, ruminates on their meanings and their origins, reads them backwards even, and links them to other words, constantly coming to different insights and enjoyment of the language.
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Reviewed by Akeela Gaibie Dawood
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SUN DOG
Monica Roffey
Glorious colours riotously abound in Monique Roffey's first novel: 'deep purples, maroons, reds and oranges'. It is set in a delicatessen cum cafe in Shepherd's Bush, London where large, ungainly August Chalmin presides over culinary riches.
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Reviewed by Chris Mills
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THE HUT OF FALLEN PERSIMMONS
Adriana Lisboa
Translated from the Portuguese by Sarah Green
It is interesting to read a book that you are certain will be a love story—though you aren't sure whether happy or ill-fated, requited or unrequited—only to find yourself perpetually poised, waiting for that romance to start. Haruki, an illustrator of books, and Celina, an embroidery artist, meet by chance on a subway in Rio de Janeiro.
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Reviewed by Tad Deffler
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HOTEL BOSPHORUS
Esmahan Aykol
Translated from the Turkish by Ruth Whitehouse
Kati Hirschel is a young German bookseller who loves living in Istanbul and running a shop that specializes in mysteries and crime novels. She enjoys spending time with her Turkish friends, and her life …
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Reviewed by Maggie Oldendorf
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Ali Smith's
There But For the
An extended review by Rachael Beale
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If Written By a Woman
Visit our new Belletrista blog!
The Caine Prize for African Writing 2011 – shortlist announcedThe 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
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