May 19, 2020 Diary Of A Foreigner In Paris, by Curzio Malaparte Translated by Stephen Twilley Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies An adjective frequently applied to Curzio Malaparte is ‘colourful’. To the Cambridge dictionary it means ‘vivid,…
May 7, 2020 The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting Translated by Deborah Dawkin Review by Harriet Lars Mytting, a Norwegian author, has had great acclaim for his two previous books – the non-fiction…
April 16, 2020 A Long Way Off by Pascal Garnier Translated by Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel For the past eight years, Gallic Books have been translating and publishing the gloriously black-humored noir novellas…
April 14, 2020 The Birds They Sang: Birds and People in Life and Art by Stanisław Łubieński Translated from Polish by Bill Johnston Review by Peter Reason Stanisław Łubieński first began observing birds in childhood through Soviet binoculars. Later, he took…
March 12, 2020 Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin Translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins Review by David Hebblethwaite Winter in Sokcho is a first in several senses: the debut novel by French-Korean writer…
February 20, 2020 Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morandini Translated by J. Ockenden Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Who could resist the title of this Italian bestseller? A black comedy about a hermit in…
November 21, 2019 The Measure of a Man by Marco Malvaldi Review by Terence Jagger I was intrigued to see this novel on my doormat: Malvaldi is better known (to me at least) as a…
November 21, 2019 Lake Like a Mirror by Ho Sok Fong Translated by Natascha Bruce Review by David Hebblethwaite Ho Sok Fong is a Malaysian writer whose short stories have won a number of awards. Lake…
August 22, 2019 The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun by Sébastien Japrisot Translated by Helen Weaver Review by Annabel I had never heard of Sébastien Japrisot before reading this book, and afterwards, I wasn’t surprised to…
August 15, 2019 One Part Woman by Perumal Murugan Translated from the Tamil by Aniruddhan Vasudevan Review by Anna Hollingsworth An author hardly tops any lists of most hazardous jobs, but looking at…
July 30, 2019 A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Gill Davies It is 1975, somewhere in the south of Italy. A thirteen year old girl drags a…
July 9, 2019 Red Circle Authors: An unusual and innovative venture By Karen Langley Japanese literature has a long and rich heritage stretching from early works like The Pillow Book (990s) and The Tale of…
July 9, 2019 Tragedy, Farce and the Future: the Red Circle Minis Review by Karen Langley As I’ve explained in my Bookbuzz feature, the Red Circle Minis are three slim volumes of original writing published by…
July 2, 2019 Selfies by Sylvie Weil Translated by Ros Schwartz Review by Karen Langley The selfie might seem to be a very modern phenomenon; the sight of people constantly stretching…
July 2, 2019 The Quarter by Najib Mahfouz Translated by Roger Allen Review by Anna Hollingsworth On the rare occasions that someone uncovers unpublished work by a deceased writer, publishing takes an…
June 27, 2019 The Cracks in our Armour by Anna Gavalda Translated by Alison Anderson Reviewed by Harriet Way back in the early days of Shiny (issue 5 to be exact) I reviewed Anna Gavalda’s…
June 4, 2019 Cold For the Bastards of Pizzofalcone by Maurizio de Giovanni Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the third book in a series of police procedural novels by the successful Italian…
May 2, 2019 Crossing by Pajtim Statovci Translated by David Hackston Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Crossing is perhaps one of the vaguest book titles I have come across recently, especially given the…
May 2, 2019 The Office of Gardens and Ponds by Didier Decoin Translated by Euan Cameron Reviewed by Harriet In this magical novel, we are in Japan, many many years ago. The small, unremarkable village of…
April 25, 2019 The Artificial Silk Girl by Irmgard Keun Translated by Kathie von Ankum Reviewed by Harriet If a young woman from money marries an old man because of money and nothing else…
April 16, 2019 Adèle by Leïla Slimani Translated by Sam Taylor Review by Annabel Slimani’s first novel to be translated into English, Lullaby, took the English-speaking publishing world by storm. It…
April 9, 2019 Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen Translated by Sondra Silverston Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth If you asked me about the time I first discovered Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, I could tell you…
February 28, 2019 The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Weiringa Translated by Sam Garrett Review by Alice Farrant Two venturesome women on a journey through the land of their fathers and mothers. A wrong…
February 5, 2019 No Place to Lay One’s Head by Francoise Frenkel Translated by Stephanie Smee Reviewed by Harriet When I was first offered this book for review, I turned it down, for reasons that are…
December 11, 2018 Childhood by Gerard Reve Translated by Sam Garrett Reviewed by Harriet Gerard Reve (1923-2006) was a Dutch writer – according to Wikipedia, one of the ‘Great Three’ of…
