Belletrista - A site promoting translated women authored literature from around the world
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Roma Tearne: Weaving the Political and the Personal. Joyce Nickel gives us an in-depth look at the Sri Lankan author and her work.

Julie Wakeman-Linn: Kathleen Ambrogi reviews her novel Chasing the Leopard Finding the Lion, and talks with the author.

Sefi Atta's bold new novel is about more than African identity. . . Read chapter one of A Bit of Difference.

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Reviews
Click on 'Reviews' to see the full list of this issue's reviews...
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FAREWELL: A MANSION IN OCCUPIED ISTANBUL
Ayse Kulin
Translated from the Turkish by Kenneth J. Dakan

Like the story of the blind men and an elephant, the answer to the question, "What type of book is this?" will depend greatly upon your perspective. Some might describe Farewell as an adventure set during the Turkish War of Independence. Kamal is a radical supporter of …
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Reviewed by Tad Deffler
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THE MURDER OF HALLAND
Pia Juul
Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken

With a glut of Scandinavian crime fiction entering English translation it would be easy to overlook Pia Juul's The Murder of Halland. However, Juul is one of Denmark's most celebrated literary writers, and her foray into 'Scandi Crime' is a surprising subversion of the genre, rather than an attempt to jump on a bandwagon.
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Reviewed by Andy Barnes
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IN THE SHADOW OF THE BANYAN
Vaddey Ratner

Imagine that you are a five-year-old princess of the Cambodian monarchy, living a life of luxury, surrounded by love and a large family. Then imagine that one day your family is violently jettisoned into the countryside with the rest of the urban population, and everything you know is destroyed.
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Reviewed by Lisa Sanders
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MASTER OF THE GRASS
Nina Gabrielyan
Translated from the Russian by Kathleen Cook et al

Master of the Grass is a well-translated collection of one eponymous novella and six short stories by Nina Gabrielyan, a Russian writer of Armenian descent. Motifs of mirrors and dreams run through these stories, and the narratives themselves are more or less dream-like, the boundary between the sleeping and the waking world kept close and permeable…
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Reviewed by Tim Jones
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BUILDING WAVES
Taeko Tomioka
Translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai

First published in Japan almost thirty years ago and now translated into English this year, Building Waves is a fictional and highly symbolic look at the social changes washing over Japan in the early 1980s. These changes include women moving out of their traditional roles…
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Reviewed by Joyce Nickel
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THE SOMETIMES LAKE
Sandy Bonny

The stories in The Sometimes Lake reflect Sandy Bonny's passion for science. Whether the character is a teacher working with disadvantaged indigenous children in Canada's far north…
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Reviewed by Joyce Nickel


Angélica Gorodischer Book Cover
The noted and versatile Argentinian author has a newly translated novel forthcoming in February. Read an excerpt of Trafalgar.
Uzma Aslam Khan Book Cover
A tribute to the nomadic peoples in the mountains of Pakistan and its border neighbors, Uzma's new novel Thinner Than Skin is also a love story. Read an excerpt.
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